noi apartamento
So this is what we call home, at least for now. We, the four guys on the team, live in a three bedroom, one bath apartment on the third floor of a building about five or six blocks from Termini station. Currently one of the bedrooms is believed to have bed bugs, so we let them have that room to themselves. Our kitchen is not too bad, but we haven’t had a chance to venture into the grocery so the cupboards and fridge remain pretty empty. Our bathroom is interesting, with a tub that has two levels. All of us have decided that it is best to stand on the top level because all of the water backs up in the lower level. So in order to take a shower, we have to stand with our head about a foot from the ceiling and holding the shower wand while trying our best not to cover the entire room in water because there is no shower curtain. We also have a bidet, but that will forever remain unused. The room in which i sleep is ok. Right now I sleep on a smelly matress on the floor, but at least it doesn’t have bed bugs. I have a desk and a window, so I can’t complain too much, except for the market that sets up every morning. It is nice to be able to walk outside our door and buy fresh fruits and vegtables and shoes and socks and clothes and jewelry ect., but it is not so nice that they begin setting up around 4 AM! I say all of this not to complain, but light heartedly because we are looking at a couple of much nicer apartments in which we could live. Please pray that by the end of September we would be able to find a decent apartment at an afordable rate. The two apartments we looked at today are in a quieter neighborhood and are quite a bit nicer but they are also more expensive, so we are going to try and talk them down a bit.
here are pictures of 1) kitchen 2) my bedroom 3) living room/bedroom and 4) bathroom with bidet and bilevel bathtub.














Yikes. Praying you guys are smooth talkers to your hopefully soon-to-be lessors. Use your Joel Hardman charm - no one can resist the charm. Bed bugs aren’t so great - it probably best that you are allowing the bugs to have the room to themselves. Can you make sure the girls don’t have bedbugs before the plane ticket is purchased?:) How are the Christmas plans coming along?
colloquio a voi domani
ti amo
Mama
In looking at your pictures, it made a bit jealous. For living in a hard place FOR Jesus makes you depend hard ON Jesus. One day you may miss the busy market, the smelly mattress, the interesting bathroom, even the little apt. friends…because it’s uncomfortable. And it makes you remember to hold tight to One who called you there. My prayer for you…that this doesn’t make you a “hard man, :)” but develops you even more into a Hardman with a soft heart that is humble and teachable.
Joel,
How amazing it is that you’re in Rome. I love that you are able to place pictures on here to show everyone your experiences. And an experience it seems you are having. How do you sit in the little tiny bathtub, ha ha….
-david-