After completing Day 3, Britt and I feel like we are really settling in well here at Fondazione and in Gavinana. We went to the village center, which was about a 10 minute walk straight uphill, and bought more minutes for our international phones and then hung out at the local bar. We bought some cappuccinos and pastries and people-watched.
During our third day of work, we got to work more closely with patients, learning more Italian words specific to PT. It has been very challenging trying to communicate with patients and explain exercises to them, but we are learning so much every day! Our patients are great; they have all been so sweet. They stroke our faces and kiss us on the cheek. And as we walk through their common room at night they all wave at us.
At dinner tonight, we made some new friends. We found another woman who speaks English and I believe she is American, but I'm not sure of her history. She lives at the facility now. Aurora was her name. So now we have made three friends in our dining group. The woman from the first night, Marcela who speaks English, the man who caught our attention for her (he waved at us from across the room tonight) and now Aurora. Our goal is to befriend all of the elderly with whom we eat with every day in these next two months. We are also doing we to make friends with the staff. We are trying to learn names, (Come si chiama? "what is your name?"). Mi chiamo Kate! Kate seems to be easier than Katy or Katerina.
I plan on writing about my adventure getting to Italy and Cinque Terre, but that will have to be another post, hopefully tomorrow!
Oh and the explanation for my post title from yesterday, Batti Cinque: Cinque (pronounced cheen-qwe) is 5 and batti means "high" so this is the Italian equivalent to "high five"! Britt and I learned this while in Vernazza in the Cinque Terre. We said "high cinque!" and a guy heard us who was from South America. He spoke English and helped us out with the word "high" in Italian. Batti cinque!
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