Pia is Paolo's wife. She's about 43, short salt and pepper hair and glasses. She never smiles. And she doesn't do ANYTHING! They have a two year old, Guiseppe and a six year old Theresa. Guiseppe is a hand and a half full. He likes to hit and bite. And when Paolo gets in his face and says NO, Guiseppe says NO right back and spits. It's very uncomfortable being around when Guiseppe acts this way which is every day.
So maybe he is one reason Pia acts depressed. But aside from Guiseppe being difficult, Paolo doesn't work. If he's home, he's either on the computer or running out somewhere and Pia says she doesn't know when he'll be home. Usually it's a quick trip though and then back on the computer.
Pia is a terrible housekeeper and an even worse cook. The food she makes is almost intolerable at best. She says she wants me to cook but has NO ingredients. There's 3 boxes of whole wheat pasta (YUK!). Each box has like 12 bags. So there's a lot of pasta that I don't want to make. And then I found a few bags of white rice. So I think today I'll make Chinese fried rice. But I'll have to go next door to the little grocery store to get a couple of things. Paolo became vegetarian 6 months ago so it has to be meatless meals. But he does eat fish so that's a help.
Yesterday Pia had me take everything off of 2 shelves in one pantry, clean the shelves and put some of the food stuff back and she will go through the other stuff to see what she wants to keep. That box of stuff she needs to go through will probably remain on the floor next to the pantry for days. Since it's mostly empty glass containers and today is glass pick-up day, I think I'll volunteer to just get rid of most of it. Maybe she needs someone forceful to take over and clean up this place. It's got quite a lot of clutter and all I want to do is throw a lot of it away.
I'm supposed to be here to help with the garden but only spent 1 day picking avocados. Today is day 8 so I need to change my mindset and move in a different direction here so I don't go stir crazy. I do not want to get involved with doing her laundry. Since no one in Italy has a clothes dryer, the wet clothes has to be hung out to dry. Anytime I look at the washer, it's full of just washed clothes ready to be hung out. But the one clothes rack is inside and totally full of clothes from maybe 3 days ago.
Tuesday evening I was told I had to make a cake because Wednesday (yesterday) was Paolo's birthday. Not much notice to decide what kind, find a recipe and tell Pia what she needed to buy at the store for it. I also needed to make banana muffins for a kid party here today. But she doesn't have a muffin pan. So here I stay. Needing to cook and bake with no supplies or ingredients.
This place is challenging! But I know I can plan a day trip or 2 or 3 on the bus and they won't care. I will have to do some planning so I can see more of beautiful Sicily.
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