Catechism Day Camp

From the 31st through the 3rd, James and I had a day camp with the catechism group. We would meet the rest of the group at Consolazione at roughly 8:45. We wouldn't be back till seven and we'd be TIRED.

Monday the 31st:

We left on a bus (omnibus that is- it had nothing to do with computers) at 8:00. We went to Assisi to do the basics (you know, saint Francis's basilica and the like). We also saw Saints Francis's and Claire's death places. We got back at seven.

Tuesday the 1st:

Today we left at 8:45 to walk to Spagliagrano which is about a 2 km walk from Consolazione. It's a medium sized two-story building with a chapel, a general purpose meeting room, and a dining hall on the lower story and (I think) living quarters above. We listened to a long talk before lunch, followed by another one after lunch. After each talk, we split up into groups to talk about what had hit us during the talk for about 15 minutes. After the afternoon talk we played some games with water balloons:

1) Like steal the bacon except each team has their own "bacon" that they had to pop with their teeth with their hands behind their back. The "bacon" in this case was a water balloon dangling from a counselors hand. The first person to pop their balloon won their team a point. Sometimes the counselor would throw the unpopped balloon at the loser walking away. It was surprisingly hard even BEFORE two other counselors got out water guns (super soakers for those of you who were around then) and started shooting us with them.

2) Same as the above except two numbers were called. The lighter person rode piggy back on the heavier person and popped the balloon. At this point, Don Riccardo got out a hose and sprayed us with it off and on. In addition, the counselors with the water balloons occasionally threw said balloons at us just for fun.

3) Similar premise, the counselor would throw one balloon high in the air and the victims had to try to catch it in their shirt WITHOUT popping it. If you succeeded, you were allowed to use it as you wished (e.g. throw it at a member of the other team at point-blank range). The first person to catch a balloon (Veronica Antonelli) decided to throw it at her own teammates.

4) This time everyone was free to run around as they wished. The counselors then threw ALL the remaining water balloons in the air. Whichever team caught the most won. Out of twenty or so balloons, each team got a grand total of...one. The two people who caught the balloons had a duel (based on traditional gun duels) at four paces. The other team's balloon burst as it was thrown, and our team's representative missed. The official report was that both teams won, but I think that, since neither succeeded in hitting the other, neither team won.

5) This was probably the most clever of all the games. We were given two minutes for everyone to scramble around putting balloon scraps into their team's bucket. At the end of the two minutes whichever team had the most scraps (as judged by sight) won. Clever, huh?

After this, we had some free time in which to play with the ball or whatever, then the parents arrived, we said the evening prayers, and went home.

Wednesday the 2nd: Today we went to the local catacombs and a church that dates back to the second century. The latter was originally built in the post-Constantine Roman style and therefore was wider than it was long. Then in the (I think) 1600's an earthquake destroyed the entire building so they rebuilt it in the "modern" style- you know, the design with three main aisles. Apparently some people from an American college recently came to excavate some more of the Via Flaminia (because, as one of the priests says, we don't have much man-made stuff (other than Native American arrowheads) to dig up, make plans, charts, and pictures of, and photograph). Most of it is gone, the blocks having been dug up and used for buildings, but they DID find a fair-sized church! We didn't get to see it though, because they re-buried it to preserve it.

Thursday the 3rd: On Thursday, we walked back to Spagliagrano, had a talk, then returned (on foot this time!) to Consolazione for confessions.

That's it for now!