Monday evening:  After relaxing on the deck and enjoying a quick dip in the sea we enjoyed another delicious dinner served by the ship’s crew.  Then the the group met in the main room to prepare for tomorrow. At the moment, the ship is sailing back to Civitavecchia and we hope to arrive early tomorrow morning.   Tomorrow is a special day.  Twelve children who are victims of the L’Aquila earthquake are coming on to the boat, along with some social workers and the press for some newspapers.  These children are from some of the families who lost their homes from the earthquake and are currently living in the tent city temporarily erected to house them until long-term housing can be secured.  We started the evening with an interview with Stefano, one of our group who himself is from L’Aquila and experienced some damage to his family’s home.  He shared his story with our group so that we all could better understand the difficult circumstances in which these children live.  We then worked with the teens to place them in a leadership position for tomorrow, allowing them to use some of the games and lessons from the past week on board with these children.  The crew of the Nave Italia will also join in and if there is wind we hope to put up the sails immediately.  It will be a big day, but this groups of teenagers is excited to share this experience with our guests from L’Aquila and to connect with new friends aboard the Nave Italia. 

Luigi interviewing Stefano about the L'Aquila earthquake.