February 6 2017

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. I had some computer issues for a few days, but it's all cleared up now. It's been a relatively chill week but I'll catch us up.

 The other day when I came home from school, Giogio called out to me that she was cleaning the upstairs balcony. We really only use the upstairs for parties, so it's easy to forget about it, and the view surprises me every time! This is to the left of the balcony.

The center view.

To the right.

My host dad has been off in a foreign city (It's hard to keep track and remember where he is), for a while. When it's just me and Giogio, we eat much healthier and lighter. This is one of my favorite meals; salad and fresh mozzarella. 

Fresh fish from Marina. I'm still usually not trusted to clean my own fish, and they are probably right.

After rugby practice Friday we went to eat at the rugby club! It was such a different experience to actually have a space for the team to hang out. My team back in Minneapolis barely has a field to practice on much less a cool club house.

The team with homemade pizza!

This week has been beautiful and sunny, and on the walk home everyones laundry was out to dry.

Saturday night was Mati's diciotessimo!

Sunday, I woke up bright and early to go with the rugby team to Caltanissetta (about two and a half hours away by bus) for a rugby tournament. The views out the window were amazing.

I wasn't able to play because they have to send my paperwork to Rome. 

Orsola, one of the heads of rotary in Sicily lives in Caltanissetta and came to see me at the game. 

I've been having a lot of interesting conversations with Giogio and other people in Ragusa about the immigration to Sicily. Everyday boat loads of people arrive, escaping from war. Italy has been doing a lot to help; rescuing people and setting them up in hotels and providing money for them to live. The problem is that at the same time Italy has been dealing with earthquakes, the job market is terrible (Most young people, especially in Sicily, have to leave Italy to find work) and there is a lot of negative feelings.

The overall view is that rescuing the immigrants is the right thing to do, but there is a lot of fear. People fear that there isn't a good way to monitor who is arriving, and that it's not only victims of war but also criminals trying to escape punishment arriving. It's also thought that the immigrants will be given black market jobs or will be payed under-table instead of Italians.

One the first things I was confused about when I arrived in Ragusa was the intense amount of diversity in the streets but the stark lack of diversity in the schools. Because there are no jobs, most of the immigrants survive off of the food and money given to them by the government, but of course many Italians see this as lazy. For reasons I have yet to understand it doesn't seem that the young people go to school, so as a result they spend most of their time walking around the streets. The assumption and stereotypes (which as always are based off of some truth) is that because the people have nothing to do they get high and drunk, pester for money, steal, and are overall dangerous.

I clearly don't have all the information or alternate solutions, so I am simply saying what I see. Italy is doing so much more than the U.S for the immigrants, and the as a country we should really pick up the slack. However on a very simple, day to day level, for a culture that constantly brags about its welcoming and warm embrace, there is very little integration and a lot of prejudice.