Raccolta de Olive AND the bishop?? Say What??!!

This past Sunday was one to put in the books. Every Sunday that I've been here I've been attending morning mass at San Giovenale (I'll write about my church experiences at some point before I go home) and three weeks ago a group of us joined the choir there at the invitation of the choir director, so since then we've been singing (yes, in Italian) during the mass. We sit in the front pew because there aren't enough chairs for the five of us plus all the Italians (maybe 15-20) in the area for the choir, so we sit right next to them instead.

Well, this Sunday our program director planned for our whole group to go out to our Italian teacher's in-laws' house and harvest olives with them. It promised to be a day filled with hard work but still fun, reminiscent of the vendemia (grape harvest). However, the group of us singers didn't really want to miss mass and singing (considering it was only our 3 Sunday doing so), so we hoped that somehow we would be able to do both. And then a wonderful thing occurred: the bishop planned to make his visit to Orvieto last week and this week. How does the bishop being here connect with us being able to stay and sing? Well, let me tell you...for starters, two Sundays ago at the end of the mass, the regular priest (a wonderful older gentleman) turned to thank the choir for singing and then he turned to us and thanked the “giovani americani” who were there making the choir younger and more beautiful, especially for the next week when the bishop was actually going to be presiding over mass at San Giovenale. How could we skip services after that? We knew we couldn't but then Eduardo, the choir director, turned to us with a slightly panicked face saying that we would all be singing for the bishop next week, so to make sure that we got there early next week (although, according to him we don't need the practice – the Italians do). Then we knew we really couldn't miss.

Having the bishop come is a REALLY big deal here (possibly elsewhere in the world as well, but I have no real knowledge of Catholicism anywhere else). Every week we get to church half an hour early and there are typically about 4 other people there; this week there were at least 25 if not more. By the time the service started, every pew was filled, they put more chairs in the front, and there were still people standing. So, we sang with the Italians (the only awkward part in the service is during offertory when the entire church sits except for the choir and the row of Americans in the front row) and all was going well until we looked at the song board and saw a song titled “Ave Maria.” Well, we had already learned a new song that morning, one that the priest wanted us all to sing, but Eduardo hadn't taught us this one, so we figured we just wouldn't be singing it. Approximately two minutes before the end of the service, Eduardo slipped us papers with the song's words and said “This one is for the bishop – it's his song.” Right. That's not intimidating at all.

At the end of the service after the bishop blessed the church (and gave an amazing homily that reminded me so much of a Protestant sermon!), the regular priest got up and said a few words. Then he thanked the choir again, and again thanked the “giovani americani” at which point everyone in the entire church turned to look at us, but I guess it was helpful because he gave us some validity for being there (just picture 4 obviously American young people standing in the front of the church and then not taking communion...it can feel strange). As soon as we could we made our way out of the church through the maze of people and walked as fast as we could back to the monastery to change and get ready for part two of our day.

Raccolta de olive. Olive harvest. This was such a good experience! We arrived just in time to eat lunch with everyone – 21 students, our program director, his family of 4, two professors, Italian hosts, Italian teacher, his family of 3, Italian friends and their daughter – seated around a large, long table where we ate pasta, bread, salad, wild boar, sausage, and potatoes. Then we got to work. The way this family (and many others) harvest there olives is fairly simple: place a very large net on the group around a tree and then pull the olives off the tree and throw them on the net, using a ladder to reach the olives up higher. By the time we got there, many of the trees had already been done, but we were able to help with a few and then half the group went back and the other half went on a walk, waiting for the cars to come back and pick us up. We walked up a hill in the countryside up to a church where we could see a great deal of the valley and even Orvieto way in the distance. Then we walked back down to the house and sat by the fireside until the professors came back to get us. We returned to Orvieto slightly tired and cold, but filled with good food and experiences.