Hey everyone! My family is looking to move to Italy as missionaries in the summer of 2011. We aren't sure where we will be moving as of yet, I have heard that we may possibly start out in Rome, or somewhere in the south, but we aren't sure. I don't know yet what kind of work we will be doing yet, but I was just wondering if anyone could tell me what the situation is with orphans in Italy now. I have just felt lately that our work might involve some kind of service involving kids, I just don't know what yet. Thanks for any info on this that you might have.

What sort of missionary work are you thinking of doing? I would have thought that in a Catholic country like Italy it would not be worthwhile. What have you in mind? Cheers.

Ciao twadams. Your request about orphans in Italy perked my interest since io ero/I was a volunteer
in an Italian orphange moltissimi anni fa/many years ago. Infatti/As a matter of fact I was only
19 years old at the time. This particular orphange was in northern Italy located somewhere around
45 minutes or so from the city of Vicenza in the Veneto region.(Vicenza is just 45 minutes east of
Venezia/Venice. The orphange was run my nuns who were extremely nice to me and the kids. It
was an all girl orphange and had kids that ranged in ages from little babies up until about 16 years of age.
The orphange was a huge mansion type two story building surronded by a wall. Something like out of a movie.
Working or playing with those kids was the most rewarding experience of my entire life. They didn't have
parents or family so they were starved for love an attention. You have to experience what I'm talking about
to understand how moving this need for love orphans have. It's ironic that I was some what of an orphan myself
living in Italy without a family either so it was a mutal give and take love relationship with those
kids. They loved me "come pazzo"/like crazy and I felt the same way about them. I would have
as many as 10 kids hanging on me at a time. You just don't know what it's like to have kids that
don't have anybody that care about them. Think about how even little animals need a mother/father.
It's just is the greatest experience anybody can have working as a volunteer in an orphange. The
kids only spoke Italian and I learned to speak Italian with them. They would sing the most beautiful
songs in Italian. The day I left Italy I spent the night with them.(Had an Italian girlfriend anche/also
that only spoke Italian.) It was really sad leaving them. We all cried moltissimo.
We wrote each other for years. There is an always will be a special place in my heart for Italy
for those kids at the orphange.

Sadly or maybe not so sadly supposedly there are no orphanges in Italy left. Apparently Italy
adesso/now has a foster care type program as in the U.S. Molto tempo fa/a long time ago we
talked about this on this very forum. If only somebody could find that thread.

Wow,

stories like this make me realize that I am lucky. Sounds like a great experience Villa!

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