A Day At The Beach

This is old news, but still some nice pictures: two Sundays ago Brendan, Alex, and I headed out on a day trip to the Ostia Beach. We packed a picnic lunch, brought a towel or two, and headed out. Here we’re waiting for the wonderful 982 bus that takes us into the city from the VOICA house.


While we were waiting for the next bus that would take us to the train to Ostia we saw a papal motorcade. The local police rode alongside the cars headed to the Vatican. They probably love it – the traffic is insane in Rome (as you’ve read from Brendan’s blog) and it would be a nice break from the craziness.

So we caught the bus after a long wait, and made it to the train station at Piramide. We got on the train and thought that are troubles were over – Francesca’s directions said that all we had to do was ride the train for a long time, get off, walk for 5 minutes, and we’d be at the Ostia beach!

Near the end of the line there was a stop called Ostia Antica (old Ostia). The name should have given us a little clue, but nooo. We dutifully set off and walked five minutes in what seemed like a good direction. We saw many tourists headed in this direction so we figured we couldn’t go wrong.

What we discovered was not a beach, but loads of ancient ruins and a walking path through them. We looked at a sign and it had a beachlike symbol so we followed the path. The ruins were beautiful and it was a nice day out so it wasn’t too bad. Finally thinking that maybe the beach was not in this direction, we asked at the gift shop and the lady almost laughed at us. She said we needed to get back on the train and go farther, to the very last stop.

Here are people in an old ampitheater in the middle of the ruins. Look at the trees too – these trees are the same as in Rome. They are all very tall with leaves only on the highest branches. The park across the street from the convent is filled with these trees and they make for a gorgeous landscape, it’s just too bad their not very good for climbing.

Waiting at the Ostia Antica train station Brendan took this artistic picture. We got on the train and made it to the last stop: Cristoforo Colombo. You can see why we thought that the Ostia beach would be at the only station with Ostia in the name.

We had finally made it to the beach and we were only a few hundred feet away – we could see it and smell it…but we couldn’t get to it! The whole beach was lined with private beach areas that you had to be a member of to pass through to get to the few feet of public beach. We walked half a mile before we could find a place to sneak through. And there we were at the Italian beach in all its glory!

This isn’t the best picture of me and Alex, but it gives you a pretty clear view of the twenty feet of dark sand, massive black pipeline of who-knows-what, and the ocean!

Here we are enjoying our small plot of sand : ) It was actually very fun and very relaxing after our adventure getting there. We sat in the sand, waded, talked, and people-watched!

See how dark the sand was at this beach! But it was so soft and fine. Walking barefoot into the surf was great!

Brendan spied this sign as we left the beach. NO PET ELEPHANTS ALLOWED AT THE BEACH! Oh yeah, and no dogs either ; )

Alex and I on the train ride home. We made it home just in time to grab dinner and talk to my family on Skype before they headed out to the Davis Family reunion!

In more recent news:

Brendan and I booked tickets to Ireland during the five day break from training that we have in early November. We were invited to visit Tom and Tina Cummings and we are so excited to join them for a few days and get to see a little bit of the gorgeous 'home' country!

We got two of the free tickets Ryan Air is giving away which was awesome - we just have to pay for our connecting flight and a few dollars for required English transport fees. But we’ll let you know how it goes when that time comes. Ireland here we come!

Much love,

Rachel and Brendan

Disturb Us, O Lord

Hey everyone! There's so much to write, but we're busy here and we know that you're very busy back at home. So this time we'll go for quality over quantity and since this will be short you'll have a few more days to read through Brendan's blog about our four-city trip this past weekend. But before I forget, here’s a prayer we went over recently that is very thought provoking. I hope it challenges you as it has me.

Disturb Us, O Lord

Disturb us, O Lord,
When we are too well pleased with ourselves;
When our dreams have come true
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, O Lord,
When with the abundance of things we possess,
We have lost our thirst for the water of Life;
When, having falling in love with the present time,
We have ceased to dream of Eternity;
And in our efforts to build a new earth;
We have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim.

Disturb us, O Lord,
To dare more boldly,
To venture more seas,
Where storms shall show your mastery,
Where losing sight of land we find more stars.

In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes and
Invited the brave to follow Him. Amen.

- Anonymous

Four City's, One Video, And A Whole Lot of Pictures!

The beginning of our journey. Sr. Pat invited all of us long-term (1-2 years) volunteers to attend a conference with the short-term (1 month) Italian volunteers. The conference was to be held in Brescia, which is within an hour or two of Venice.

Rachel and I taking our first car nap of the trip. The first leg up north took about 6 hours of driving, but we got to stop in Assisi and explore!

Here is Assisi from afar, quite a beautiful sight after spending a month in congested Rome. I can see why St. Francis loved it.

In fact, we got to meet the famous man himself. Here is Rach taking a walk just outside the church of San Damiano, where God spoke to St. Francis through a crucifix telling him to rebuild His church.

Here is the actual Crucifix which spoke to Francis. It is now in the Basilica of St. Clare, which is just up the hill. This cross is really special to both Rachel and I. For our wedding we had a copy of this crucifix blessed as the symbol of our marriage, to remind us that Christ is the center of us. We went to Divine Treasures (the Catholic Christian bookstore) in Des Moines and this was the biggest crucifix they had. We didn’t know the story behind it or that we would ever be in Assisi, but we bought it. As always, God knew where we were headed before we did.

Here is the finished product of St. Francis’s handiwork. The Lord then used St. Francis to start a revival of faith in Italy and eventually his Franciscan brothers spread throughout the world, bringing light to places as far away as the Bronx of New York City and California (San Francisco).

Assisi was really a great time, things got really special when my brothers in arms nominated me to become a knight. I politely declined, but they would not let me leave. Sooooo…..

Here I am preparing for the official ceremony.

Here I am after receiving my knighthood, with my fellow knights of the round table as we prepare for battle. (I’m the tall, good looking one on the left)

After Assisi, we were off to Verona, where the founder of the Canossian Sisters lived. St. Magdalene of Canossa was born into a noble family in 1774, impelled by the charismatic spirit of Christ she began her own “volunteer projects”. She began to set up schools for those on the streets, to visit the sick and involve as many people as she could in her work. Her story was one going from riches to rags. She founded the Canossian sisters, who founded VOICA, which is the program that we are in right now.

Her bones are inside of this alter, the face and hands are made of wax. She was moved here in 1988, after Pope John Paul II declared her a saint.

Rachel – “These are the coolest shoes I’ve ever seen!!!! :) ”

The town of Brescia. One of the best little italian city’s around.

The five of us posing on top of the castle. This was our last day with Alex, as she is leaving us for one month to teach in a school by Milan.

After the conference up north, we headed back to Rome. But.....Sr. Pat graciously gave us a chance to see Florence on the way. As we were getting closer and closer to the city there were a bunch of signs for Firenze, but none for Florence. This was confusing, until I learned that Firenze is the Italian name for Florence.

Here is the huge Cathedral of Florence, it was so big I couldn’t get a good picture of it.

A street artist at work, there were many of these around and they are incredible at what they do. It’s a shame that this will disappear when the next batch of rain comes along.

Some pig that the natives trick the tourists into touching for good luck.

Here's a street band that was amazing to listen to, they played great music and attracted a large crowd of onlookers. Rach and I talked things over and we have no idea what kind of instrument that is in the front. If anyone knows, feed our curiousity and tell us!

Our dinner! Pizza, which we found in a romantic, hole in the wall type place. Quite an excellent find by my gorgeous wife.

Our last look at Florence by night, as we headed back to Roma.
It was a journey of mearly 4 days, but will last a lifetime in our memories.
God Bless,
The Egans

Birthday Bash!

Ok, Brendan and I don’t actually get to attend their birthday party, but Mary and Sarah Downey are turning 14 years old on October 11th! Everyone knows that they’re practically world famous for their various accomplishments in band, choir, mock trial, cross country, and writing, but for this momentous occasion we knew we had to put a tribute to them up on our blog.

Here they are, looking gorgeous as bridesmaids just a few months ago. Sarah is on the left, then Laura, Mom, me, and Mary on the right.

If you are friends with these girls, count yourself lucky! They are kind and gentle, but strong and spunky. Already in their young lives they have become known for being successful at all the things that really matter – they have shared Jesus’ love and warm food with the hungry at Café Connection in downtown Des Moines, they give the best hugs you’ll ever get, they have taught younger children at Vacation Bible School, they have befriended middle school classmates who were excluded, they have written deep and beautiful things about faith and life, and are growing up into godly young women. So I’ll say it again – if you are friends with these girls, count yourself lucky, and if you aren’t friends yet don’t walk, run, and meet them while you can!

So twins, even though Brendan and I are in Rome, we are thinking and praying for you and know that you will do great things this year and for the rest of your lives. Keep up the good work! We love you!

Love always,

Rachel and Brendan

General Info and Playing Catch Up

Exciting news is that we’ve gotten our schedule for the rest of our training. We do sessions on spiritual topics once or twice a day with the Sisters and the rest the time we do our work, studying, and a little bit of relaxing.

Lately instead of sweeping as our morning work, we’ve been repacking donations from medicine companies to be shipped on a container load to Togo, Africa. To be put to use for the Sister’s there. We heard that at a recent wedding the bride and groom asked people not to bring them presents, but to bring items that could be used by the Sisters in Africa. So that’s how we ended up with a ton of glasses and lenses, clothes and lots of other stuff. So cool! But anyway, this week (including this morning) we’ve been preparing the medicine for shipping and our Saturday will be spent loading the boxes into the giant container for its journey. Pray that the medicines get there safely and are able to be used efficiently.

But back to the good news about the schedule:

- We have lots of cool things planned to talk about and experience during our formation sessions

- We’ll be keeping up with the twice weekly Tetum lessons (and lots of homework and memorizing vocabulary)

- We each have to give two 30-45 minute presentations on a topic of our choosing to the group to practice teaching (all of us will be needed to teach at least some in the schools the Sisters run in East Timor). Those will be interesting, but it’s not like school. It’s just talking to people about anything you’re passionate about or know a lot about. So we’ll get to learn a lot about each other and interesting topics through those.

- Friday evening’s we will serve in the soup kitchen, Caritas

- The Sisters’ have planned a four day trip with us to Verona, Italy, to meet up with some other volunteers and have a bit of a retreat! There is also time in the schedule for us to travel a little bit if we want – four days in November. Brendan and I are hoping to visit some relatives in Ireland if it works out!

- And finally we’ll get to continue exploring Rome on Sundays, our wonderful free day!

Exploring Rome will be fun for the rest of the time because we have a native Roman who has joined our volunteer group. Her name is Francesca and the past few days she’s volunteered to cook us authentic Italian food for lunch and it has been delicious! Currently she works as a journalist for a non profit organization, but she wants to go on another mission so she’s doing formation with us during the mornings and works during the afternoons.

She’s said she would like to show us around to make sure we see the famous stuff and get the local flavor as well. This Sunday we’re hoping to go to the beach(southwest of Rome) and she’s going to help us find a public beach so we don’t have to pay to swim (if it’s warm enough).

We’ll keep you updated on the exploring. We’ve been working very hard lately so there hasn’t been much time, but hopefully with Francesca’s help we’ll find things that are interesting, cheap, and close to our part of Rome so we can visit more places more often.

And for a quick review, last week we fit in a lot of formation and we did a lot of cool things. We…

…Saw Pope Benedict XVI again. Yay!

People behind us cheering wildly at the weekly papal audience.

Brendan and I went on a gelato date to celebrate being married for four months! We walked through St. Peter’s Square at night to get to the best gelato spot in Rome (secret location courtesy of past volunteers). It was gorgeous, as you can see!

We also spend a good amount of our free time playing soccer and ping pong in front of the volunteer house. It’s always a great time and the volunteers who didn’t play soccer before have picked it up quickly : )

Here Brendan is kicking the ball in mid air. He’s been learning some new soccer moves and then using them on us during the games. He’s pretty much unstoppable, but it makes for a good challenge.

The other day we played boys vs. girls – 2 vs. 3. And we won (thanks to the boys letting us have a goal about 20 feet long compared to their 4 foot goal. But the boys have challenged us to a rematch because “they went easy on us” so we’ll let you know how that goes.

Oh yes, and I’ve gotten a hair cut!

Here Alex and Sali pose with the scissors before cutting off half of my hair – it’s now about seven inches shorter!

Alex did all the cutting. She was practically a professional with lots of experience from living in a girls’ boarding school in England for many years and giving a lot of hair cuts. I felt perfectly relaxed with my hair in her hands : )

After the final cut, we were very content with the result.

So everything is going well! We miss you all and wish you all God’s best, especially during this time of financial trouble in the U.S. We’ve been praying that people will to look to Jesus in these hard times.

Much love,
Rachel and Brendan

P.S. Super interesting Bible fact I just learned today… Did you know that the Bible didn’t originally have chapter and verse divisions?

Around the year 1226, Cardinal Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, developed the chapter divisions. Two men in the 16^th century made the verse divisions: Fr. Santes Pagnino, a Dominican priest, and Robert Stephanus, a printer.

I had honestly never thought about it before. But it’s great to know that the Holy Spirit helped guide the choices as the books that would be part of the Bible were determined and divisions were made (probably so it would be easier to find or refer to specific parts of each book). Anyway, it was really interesting so I had to share.

Roman Traffic Time

Dear Family and Friends,

As many of you may know, from either firsthand experience or by talking to those who have visited the eternal city of Roma; the driving here is something else to behold. To the average American, entering the city during one of the 4 daily rush hours is similar to walking into swarm of birds. You just hang on tight, pray to God, and hope that the birds see you.

Below is a picture of a street to give you an example of what I mean.

As mentioned above, the average Roman has 4 rush hours.
1. Going to work.
2. Coming home for lunch/naptime.
3. Going back to work.
4. Coming home for the day.

In a city the size of Rome with its millions of people and not much space, its easy to see how this situation quickly becomes a problem.

Seeing all these cars and motorcycles on the road made me wonder, how much does their gas cost? When I found the answer to this, I was in amazement and left wondering how there are any cars on the road at all!

A LITER of gas costs 1.50 Euros. This may not mean anything to some people, but let me roughly translate it into American. 1 GALLON of gas in Rome costs about $12.00 US Dollars. People here drive a lot. So before we complain at the pump, take some time to be thankful for a 4.00 gallon of gas.

Here is a gas station in Rome, very odd indeed, but it does save space. And yes, they are all like this.

I have learned that one way the residents of Rome cope with these outrageous gas prices is to have much smaller vehicles. An assortment of small cars, scooters, and motorcycles can be found buzzing around the city. Many of you have seen my little green Honda civic hatchback, which is pretty much the smallest car on the road in Iowa. This car would easily be a mid-sized car in Rome. Here are a few tiny cars I have run across in the last week.

This model is my personal favorite. It’s probably half the size of an old Volkswagen Beetle, but twice as cool.

Rachel by another one of these monster machines.

This is officially the smallest real car I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I didn’t stand by it to give perspective on the size, but to give you an idea, the car parked in front of it is a Honda civic.

With the lack of space in Rome, innovative parking has become an art form. The cars around here would give a Des Moines traffic cop a heart attack.

Here is your average, everyday double park (I have yet to see a triple park, but I’m sure it will come).

One car parked on the median? No problem.

A fleet of cars parked on the median? No worries!

Park in the middle of the street? Perfectly fine.

I must give this guy credit. What a great parking job, can get in and out as easy as pie.

This next picture is just shocking though……

Driving on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, in a personalized Mercedes/Humvee concoction?

Oh wait a second, that’s the Pope……..well I suppose he can do that.

On a more serious note, here is a video that Sister Lisa, one of our formators, showed the other day. Click here for like to Youtube Video "Canossian Guys"

It was made by three Canossian volunteers who are working in Timor at the moment. The woman that took the pictures started a program called "Canossian Guys". The purpose of this program is to reach out and give members of street gangs another avenue to take in life. She does this by teaching them about music. Up to this point it has been quite successful. If you could keep them in your prayers it would be greatly appreciated.

In Christ,
The Egan’s