It’s that time of year; schools are out in the northern hemisphere, and it seems like everyone is flying all over the world, despite the economic pinch and stratospheric fuel costs. Just to keep track of everyone is quite a task!
ICBIE President Pietro Gallina, after his brief stay in Salvador in the wake of his long European tour, is flying to New York today, for a two week stay. Right off the bat, he will certainly go to the Museum of Modern Art to see the D’Artagnan painting hanging on its walls; he will also be seeing Kerry at KS Art in Tribeca, to collect some hefty sums from the sale of the maestro’s works; and he will be able to reconnect with Toby and Mary, our faithful supporters in the Big Apple.
Marlene returned to Salvador last night, after her well-deserved month long vacation in Rome, Paris and Barcelona. She will immediately take up the reins while Pietro is away, and all her Italian students will undoubtedly be happy to get back to their lessons.
A wonderful new ICBIE volunteer, Louise Audette, arrived last week, and today she will begin her English courses. Louise is a teacher at the American Overseas School of Rome, which has already provided us with three other teachers, Rosa de Bellis, Michelle Falcinelli and Daniele Dattilo, as part of its Bridge to Bahia project. Louise’s enthusiasm and charming smiles will certainly inspire our students and help them to build useful language skills, and we thank her in advance for her expertise.
ICBIE artist Julio Costa is still in Spain, staying with Celeste and Veronique. They all spent the weekend on the Costa Brava, enjoying the hospitality of our volunteer Lorena, who allowed them to use her family’s beach house. After months of rain and cool temperatures, warm sunshine allowed him to fully enjoy the pleasures of Catalunya. Julio has another couple weeks to enjoy his European adventures, before flying back to Ribeira.
Our faithful Bogus (who can rightly claim to be our finest Italian student) is also preparing to embark on his second trip to Italy. With the precious help of Sandro, a retired Alitalia pilot, he was able to get a big discount on his plane ticket, which will take him to Rome on July 17th. He will stay with Sandro and his wife Yvonne, and will try to enroll in a technical school, to keep him busy during an extended stay. Although we will miss his smiles and his many services around the ICBIE, we wish him a lot of luck for his new adventures.
