Getting to know Crotone

Today was P DAY.

We had several plans----- Get internet service 1^st! We were sure we had but right now no. We have 3 Elders in our Branch with the people going home and transfers so they wanted an extra computer, my laptop. WE thought we could come home and make it all work, not working??

As a good bye gift to the 2 missionaries leaving the area, a member told of a place they needed to see before they left. It is the ruins of the Temple built for the Goddess Hera, wife of Zoos. One Pillar still remains, there were 36. It is about 5 to 8 miles around the coast from Crotone. Crotone comes out to a point. It is astounding that there still remains the foundation and a large massive site for digging. There was a protest going on when we went today because the city is putting cement over part of the ruins to make a parking lot. There are ruins from the Greece and the Romans everywhere. The tower we did take pictures of was only from medieval times and so not that interesting , or it seemed. The ruins are 8 century B.C., as I said earlier but we walked up and over walls made nearly 3 thousand years ago!!  There was some old pottery laying on the sidewalk, thought of as no value, just a couple of hundred years old.

This is a map of what was once the grand city.

 This is the only pillar remaining of the Temple of Hera that tiny stick in the skyline. The other building is  lighthouse.

  

 This is some of the foundation of the temple.

The chapel has a solid metal door the tower is medieval.

 The cement you see in front of the chapel is the cement being protested. The Roman ruins are to the left of the chapel and in front. This just a small area uncovered with the arches visible.

 This is Sorella Ogla and she is doing better today!

The Giovoni who showed us the area said they have  seen pottery from ruins. They  were uncovered when he was a boy, he is maybe 25? He was unsure how old but was sure they were roman. He said they had a piece of land in front of their apartment, where a building was planned to go up, they uncovered a new sight of ruins. He said they woke up one day and the whole place was being dumped on with sand. It is still a vacant lot with cement over it. The whole area covered some 15 to 20 miles of forts and 100.000 soldiers in it’s Greece hay day. The Romans saw the value and took over and improved upon what the Greece had left. One of the protesters took us though some of the fences and gave us amazing back ground history of all that had happened. He was very intelligent, and kind to guide us as far as we could go outside the locked gates. < Dad will be sad, I knew I should give him a card with the church information on it. I needed to dig around in my purse, he went down to talk to the other Missionaries and when I found the card he had left. I was sure we would catch him at the gate again, but no he had left for home. It was almost dark. No fear though, The Giovoni ran into 2 friends from school they visited for some time. They asked about who the Elders were, the missionaries gave them a lesson.( I have put the cards in my coat pocket so I’ll be ready next time.) 

January 20^th ….

WE have Heat!!!

January 21, 2015

Tuesday and Thursday evenings are English classes open to the public.  They have a good number showing up.. Last night they had 15, up from last week by 5. The Sisters work with beginners and the Elders advanced. One guy has been coming for almost 5 years. He works with prisoners and teaches them. Our first meeting with him he said Carl was Italian and I was for sure Americana. 

We were told that was told that English is the language of the restoration. That is why it is important to teach it.

My language is coming, (SLOWLY SLOWLY) they do speak differently here, not just an accent, as Elder B puts it “they clip off the end of the words”. There are very few who speak English in Crotone, outside the missionaries, so it will help the learning process.

We have a great landlord , Guiseppe and he has been helping us to navigate the area with supplies and where best to go. He has two stores, all run by his family so you know where he would like us to go. 

Guiseppe gets thing done. He knows everyone and requires their best, but is also there to help each step of the way. Example, when the gas man came to the apartment to put the meter in and the box was wrong, we called  Guiseppe ( Joseph), he talked to the Gas man, and in 10 minutes he was there with the right box. That afternoon was another step to install heat and this time he was here before the workmen were. Connections were not right and they said the box was wrong, Guiseppe talked them through what the other gasman said and the three of them came to an agreement. Guiseppe got the supplies they wanted and helped to do the installation. We got heat. That is unusual for Italy. Now you can see some of the reasons why the Temple is behind, each set of workmen seem to have their own idea of how to do the job, We sure appreciate Guiseppe. We call he comes! And yes we went to his stores today and bought some supplies and food. (Not sure what we bought, some meat that looked like pork. The price was about $30 a pound. We got 3 oz. We will have a taste tomorrow and find out what gold tastes like.) The slices are paper thin.