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It was announced that the father of one of the Brothers (Br. Hillaire) had suddenly died in Madagascar, and we had a moment of silent prayer. I saw him later in the day and expressed my sympathies. He was in the process of packing, having secured a flight tomorrow to Europe and from there back to Madagascar. It's difficult when something like that happens, especially if it is unexpected. That makes about 4 deaths now that we have heard about during the course of this Chapter. It sort of puts things into perspective.
I spent most of the day taking care of other matters, since most of the work d
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I snuck away for a bit as I tried to track down some good photo paper for the printer. I have a very nice shot of Br. Alvara, the Superior General, with Pope Benedict and I'd like to give it to him (to Alvaro, that is - Benedict has lots of pictures already, I'm sure). I did track down some paper, but it ended up not working. However, Br. Jose Antonio Warletta was able to find some paper among his things and worked for a good while to come up with a good print, and I found a nice-looking frame at Upim across the street. Now I just have to find the right occasion to give it to him.
This evening, those of us from the San Francisco District went out to dinner in the Trastevere area of town. We met at the gate around 6:45 PM and took a bus to just beyond the Vatican where we got off and pretty much arrived at the restaurant. It was a fine time with good food. We solved all the problems of the Institute, the District, and the world, of course, as the
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Yesterday I had received an email from Janis Hoffart, one of the administrative secretaries at Christian Brothers, that Patti Gallagher and Tom English and 30-some CB kids were in town. Although I couldn't join them for dinner, I did manage to get hold of them through their tour guide, whose cell phone number was provided, in order to arrange a rendezvous after dinner at the fountain.
I took the 46 bus further than I'd gone before, trying to keep tabs of where we were via a map of Rome, while holding onto the strap and holding my shoulder bag in front and holding my camera in my pocket and eyeing the people around me for the pickpocket candidate of the day. By the time we got to the Victor Emmanuel monument, everyone got off the bus so I figured that this must be the end of the line. Then I spent some time trying to orient myself. It was dark but the street lights were bright. Cars were going all over the place, but I just stepped out into the crosswalk like a native and moved through the traffic without so much as blinking an eye. I made my way down the Via Corso and came to a busy side thoroughfare. The Trevi fountain must lay in that direction, with the vendors and the people congregating in the small street. A little while later I arrived at the fountain. Another phone call confirmed that they were on the other side of the fountain and soon enough Tom English saw me and greeted me, leading me to where the others were congregating.
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After m
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But never mind, it was worth it just to see Tom, Patti, and the CB kids. It made my day.
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More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/gvangrie/ItalyMay31