conversations in Italian

Probably one of my favorite moments from my 11 day adventure through Italy was my night train conversation with Antonella and Sebastian. 

When I left Acireale, I had the compartment to myself. I thought I might be lucky and have the entire thing to myself for the ride to Bologna (where I would catch a train to Verona... and because my train was late, I had like 5 minutes to do so! But I got it! haha....)  So when this lady with three pieces of luggage comes in, I was a little put off. But God knew what He was doing. I explained that I did not speak Italian very well (Non parlo molto bene italiano). She was ok with that yet proceeded to ask me questions in Italian.

Di dove sei? (Where are you from?)

Quanti anni hai? (How old are you?)

Like any good mother (and ITALIAN at that), she tried to get me interested in her very single 39-year-old son who lives in Milano. 

In our conversation, she said some things I did not understand, so I would search frantically in my Italian-English dictionary. She would laugh at me as I did so, but I DON'T CARE! I'm sick of not being able to communicate with people.

Not very far into our conversation I asked if she spoke English (parla inglese?). No. So I went into the hallway and half-jokingly asked "Does anyone speak English here?" No. No. No. Then one girl a few doors down said she did. Her name was Franca and she works at a hotel in Zurich. She was young... I would think at the most 20. So she did a little translating for us. She was very sweet and offered food to me in case I didn't have any. She was traveling from Sicily, where her dad has family, to Switzerland where they live now. 24 hours in a train. Ugh... no wonder they got first class.

(I've never really been in first class ANYTHING, so I was surprised at how nice these people were. Most of them were older, as they can AFFORD first class. I had to get first class because they told me that was all they had left...)

There were also some guys standing around and Sebastian was one of them.

He was interested in helping me communicate with Antonella. Whereas she was not very patient with me, Sebastian would speak slowly, use hand gestures, and look things up in my dictionary. 

I talked with Antontella and Sebastian for a long time... HOURS. At one point in our conversation, they asked what I did in America. This is always interesting here in Italy, where I've gotten looks of amazement/confusion from people when I tell them I work with kids in churches: teacher of the Bible (lavoro con bambini in chiesa: insegnante della Bibbia). They thought I was a religion teacher. Not sure that I was fully able to explain the difference, but I think they got the idea that I teach the Bible to kids. I told them I was not Catholic but Protestant. They wanted to know the differences. 

 Prega a Dio? (Do you pray to God?) Yes.

Un Dio? (One God?) Yes.

I explained we believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit (Padre, Gesu Cristo, e Spirito Santo). We pray to Him, not Him, Mary and the Saints.

They tried to explain to me that they pray to God. They also pray to Mary. They pray to the Saints (and listed off a BUNCH of them). 

They asked me about Mary. I explained Mary, madre di Gesu Cristo (Mary, mother of Jesus Christ).

It's hard enough to explain in English some of the differences between Catholics and Protestants, but then add in the fact that I don't know Italian well. 

We had some great conversations.

May God be with Antonella and Sebastian the rest of their lives. I hope they come to know and love Jesus.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. ~1 Peter 3.15b