Day 3- Chess, chess... scaccio mato!

Today was really simple. Francesco and I played chess the entire time I was there. At one point, little Aleccio and I were on the same team playing chess against Francesco, but for the most part it was only this.

While playing chess of course I was learning new and practical words in Italian that applied to chess. The kids are great teachers. They are really good at going, “in italy we say…” and then I repeat and they say “good.” I really love learning italian this way. I wish that they could be my teachers forever. 

At one point we switched to checkers and I forgot how to play it so Francesco was teaching me and this was a great way to earn his trust as well. He felt competent and saw that I was trying to understand him and it improved my relationship with the children.

I am honestly shocked that the kids allow me to speak broken Italian to them and they understand and they don’t get frustrated faster. They are gentle and kind and they are teaching me how to be too.