Dear family and friends--- Feb 5-7, 2009
We had a really great weekend! Our Stake asked us to sponsor some athletes for the World Special Olympics, which are being held here and in McCall and Sun Valley. We thought that would be kind of fun, so offered to have 3-4 people stay here. I spent a couple of days cleaning, putting away Christmas (finally), making sure I had food. We were kind of nervous, excited for it. We found out about 2 weeks before they got here that our group was hosting the Italian delegation. That made it especially exciting, since Don speaks Italian. Kalie even learned "Vuoi una mela?"--would you like an apple? She never actually got to say it, though.
I helped plan a pot-luck dinner for Friday night so all the Italians could be together. We had about 16 Host families in our group. Thursday night Don and I went to the airport around 11 to welcome them, then went out to the Outlet Mall where they had some rooms set up to receive the athletes and coaches, feed them, and have the host families pick them up. They were all pretty tired, but excited. Our guys were Matteo, the cross-country skiing coach, Marco, an athlete, and Giacomo, and athlete. They stayed in Garrett, Elisa and Jared's rooms, and used the downstairs bathroom. Part of the requirement was that they needed their own bed, and a separate bathroom from the rest of the family. We all got to bed around 1:30. Don's Italian was very helpful, since these guys didn't speak any English other than a couple of words.Friday morning we got up and got Elisa to Seminary, and Kalie and Garrett off to school. Don did most of the running around. He rested from 8:00 till 9:00 while i made breakfast. We did crepes, bagels, fruit, juice. We were a little concerned about them wanting coffee, but they were fine without it. Some of the other families went to Moxie Java or something with them, but i think most just went without. I didn't really know what they would like, but they really like the crepes. Giacomo said his mom always makes them with "chocolate", or nutella, so we actually got some Friday night and had them again Saturday since they seemed to like it. We offered cold cereal, but they didn't go for that. Giacomo was hilarious. I think he would eat anything-except butter, he never would try that. Giacomo is 21, Marco 45, and Matteo 28. Marco was a little sad Friday. He was homesick. I felt bad for him. All of the athletes are "intellectually disabled". I think Marco has Down's, not sure about Giacomo. Giacomo had a hard time speaking, but was very animated. Matteo is a neat guy. He works for a power company in a town close to the Alps. It is just beautiful. Puts the beartooth mountains to shame--sorry Mike. Marco is from a town by Lake Como, another beautiful area. Giacomo is from Vincenzo. These places are in northern Italy. Looking at the pictures they showed us, i felt sorry for them having to come to our desert! After breakfast we visited a while. They got a big kick out of the squirrels. The chickens didn't interest them. We drove around in the morning, went to the train station, walked around Kathryn Albertson park. We asked what they wanted for lunch and Marco said Hot Dog. I couldn't even think where you could get one, other than the gas station. WE ended up going to Sonic, and they got hamburgers. Of course, Giacomo had a burger with everything, loved the fries and the mozzarella sticks. We asked what they wanted to drink, Giacomo said "berra" (beer). Matteo just laughed at him. I was surprised that he wanted sprite as the second choice. The other guys just did coke. I kept hoping they weren't going to get sick from all the weird food. They seemed to be okay. After lunch we met up with the whole group at the BSU stadium. They just finished a huge new sky box last fall, and we got to go up.
All of the host families were excited to death for that part, but I think the Italians just liked the view. We got pictures out the window, then all went down on the field and had pictures taken. That turf is weird, it's long, and kind of rolls your foot. Anyway, that was our big excitement for the day. Then we took them to the Idaho History Museum, and back home for a while. I had to go help set up the dinnner. I made rootbeer, which didn't work very well for some reason. I think i had too much dry ice for the winter or something. It was all slushy and weird. The Italians didn't drink it anyway. They just had the juice we provided. The pot luck dinner turned out great. All the families brought different stuff. The Italians all ate lots, and even enjoyed the chocolate cake for dessert. They don't really eat much sugar. A couple of families served pancakes for breakfast. Some of the kids liked it, others wouldn't touch the syrup. Our guys didn't put syrup on their crepes, but i don't either. My fruit is sweetened, so I don't use syrup anyway. They loved the cream, though. And, Giacomo ate about half of the bottle of Nutella Saturday morning. At the dinner we had a bluegrass band play for about 1/2 an hour. One of the host families is in it, and they do pioneer music and such. It was like the wildest ward party you've ever seen. These people don't sit and watch. They all jumped up and started dancing, even did some Virginia Reel type stuff, tried to polka. It was hilarious. Garrett and I even did a spin around the room. I couldn't believe they had that much energy after all their traveling. Afterward they still didn't want to go home, so we got out a couple of basketballs and they took turns shooting while we cleaned up. Garrett tried to teach them to play bump, but they didn't get it. They would get mad if someone took more than 2 tries and didn't get back in line. Anyway, they finally left around 8:30. When we got home Marco and Giacomo went to bed. Matteo stayed up with Don for a while downloading pictures and showing each other travel pictures, Matteo of the Alps, and Don of the Beartooths. He was impressed with how big and long they are. The Alps are pretty steep and narrow. I'm thinking we would love to take our family there on a back pack trip. Matteo said he would take us. We were really sad to have to take them back to the Welcome Center Saturday morning. It would have been nice to have more time. Some of the athletes had 4 days before the games started. It was so cool to see people from all over the world-Jamaica, Morocco, Isle of Man, Canada, China, etc. It was amazing to be right in the middle of it. After dropping them off Saturday morning we went home for a while, then went out to Nampa for the Opening Ceremonies. That was an experience. Not quite THE Olympics, but still pretty good. Lots of famous people, the march of athletes, lots of entertainment, neat lighting ceremony, Special Olympics flag presentation. The line outside to get in was slow, since they were doing the airport type screening. They didn't tell us they were doing that, so Elisa had brought water bottles, which they made her empty. But then they let Don take in his small pocketknife. We had fun joking about that all evening. Elisa was going to drown someone with her water, but a knife was fine. They also had army guys on the roof of the building, and air force jets circling the area. Sometimes security is a little ridiculous. It was a really good show, and so fun to be part of. I learned alot about the program that i didn't realize before. It is very impressive. Arnold Schwartzeneger was supposed to be there, but did a video tape. His wife and family were there. In case you didn't know--His wife, Maria Shriver, is the daughter of the Kennedy daughter Eunice Shriver who started the whole thing. The Kennedy's had an intellectually challenged daughter, and Eunice couldn't stand everything she didn't get, so started working with these kids 40 years ago. It's a pretty amazing program. So, I can't even tell you all that we got to see and be part of. It was a pretty amazing experience, and has had a pretty big impact on me. I've really enjoyed the double culture experience of being with people from other nations, plus learning more about the disabled. They can do some pretty amazing things if given a chance. Maybe this will give me a little more patience as I work with Special Ed kids in the schools. It does spark interest in us to go back to Italy, maybe even learn to speak Italian. We seem to keep having experiences with Italians. I was glad the girls came to the opening ceremonies with us, too. They were in school for most of the other activities, and didn't get to see much of our guests. We also got a letter from Ryan Friday. His first from the field. He is driving. Sounds like there are only 3 Laotian companionships. I will send out his letter, if you want to get it and aren't already on the list, let me know. Hope you all have a great week. Live life to the fullest.
Love,
Shauna/MOM
Shauna/MOM
