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"To the world you might be one person, but to one person you might be the world." - Bill Wilson
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I decided to join the Salesians group who go to Sicily each summer for 5 weeks to join the Little Sisters of the Poor of Madre Theresa. There, they organise a summer school for the poor children for 5 weeks.
As this activity takes a lot of preparations, the group started meeting early to organise, plan and get to know each other. My first meeting with the rest of the Palermo group was on the feast of St.Paul - 10th February of this year. We had to meet at St. Patrick's, Sliema. As the others started getting in, we were urged to sit in a circle, facing others. The leaders, introduced themselves and encouraged us to do the same. Once settled they gave us a brief outline of what we were going to expect in Palermo and then they organised some games so that we could get to know the others better.
One of these games was fatal. They gave each of us a slip of paper and on it we had a sound like "beeeq". They explained that we had to stand up and go around saying our sound and pairing with another saying the same. It sounds ridiculous but true and very embarrassing as well. Imagine all of us going around uttering animal sounds! I had the sound 'tzik tzik". So I got up and started tziking around and hoped to find the other as soon as possible without further embarrassment. My hopes were dashed when I realized that NO ONE was uttering the same sound! All others were pairing off and there I was sounding like robin.
After some more desperate seconds I ignored all rules and instead started snatching papers to see who had the same sound as mine. Of course there was this guy uttering an incomprehensible sound which should have sounded like mine but didn't!
First thing I said was "So it was you! But it shouldn't sound like that". And I gave him a full lecture (teacher that I was) of how it should have sounded. On the other hand he started arguing that I wasn't right and the others had to tell us to sit down, otherwise we would have continued. We sat opposite each other and were still smiling at what happened. It was there that I first got to know Etienne.
Of course, a lot of time and meetings passed before we really got to know each other well. Etienne asked me out exactly the day before he left for Palermo with the others. I stayed behind because school for me finished 4 days later. In Palermo we got to know each other in a very different environment from here and our bond grew stronger through the amazing experience that we lived there.
This is how we met and when we remember we always smile and ... continue arguing of how that sound should have been uttered! We are planning to wed on the 14th August 2004.
Thank you for all these opportunities you are giving us. Valeria Mizzi
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