Our Church Meetinghouse

I absolutely LOVE Caserta! (Caserta is the name of the city where our church meetinghouse is.) It is a quiet city. I feel safe and at home here. The people are very friendly and there is almost always someone out on the street.

The picture above is a view of the street Corso Trieste looking north. Our meetinghouse's address is 180 Corso Trieste. I've listed the address in case you would like to look it up on Google Earth. Our door is the green one. Up the street about 6 blocks is la Reggia di Caserta (the Caserta Palace). It was an alternate home to the Naples royalty which ruled this area about 400 years ago.

The upper  left picture is Corso Trieste looking south. There are a lot of  "bars" where people stop to eat or drink a coffee.

Bars are the Italians version of our McDonalds or Taco Bell. They stop here and sit for breakfast, lunch and late at night. You will see people there at all time of the day. They are in no hurry. They will sit and read the paper (mostly in the morning) or visit with others (mostly at night).

We are quite amazed because their pattern of use of the bars are not deterred by the weather. Whether a nice sunny day or in the sweltering heat of summer or cold of winter, you will find people sitting outside at the Bar. Generally there is no sitting inside a bar. If people are stopping by for a quick cup of coffee, they may stand at the counter while they drink it and then off they go.

This is what we affectionately call "the hole". This area is under the building where our meetinghouse is. Our meeting house is actually a floor of this building that has been remodeled to accommodate our needs.

This area, as you can see, is the parking area. When we first started parking here the lights were controlled by light switches. However, we knew nothing about the lights or the switches. Our first experience was at night. How funny that was! You should have seen us.

Getting our of "the hole" was easy. We just headed for the entrance, which we could see because it was lighter outside, anything would have been lighter than the darkness of "the hole". Upon leaving I did make note of the ground to see if it was level and if there were any holes or ridged that we might trip upon our return to our car. (I may not be the smartest cookie around but I am not all nuts either.)

Anyway, our return trip to our car was quite the adventure. It was pitch black! Not one speck of light. Luckily for us we were giving a ride home to the missionaries. One of them was smart enough to think of using the backlight on his phone to give us a little light.

Well, obviously we make it safely.

How funny it was when one of the members told us there were light switches! We just chalked it up to one of our many missionary experiences.

Notice this grate. Above the grate is the sidewalk outside the building. Elder Warner loves to get a new missionary, at night of course, who just happens to be standing above close to the grate and Elder Warner starts makes errie sounds while down in the parking area. It is really funny, especially if his companion is playing along; because after all, Elder Warner has previously done it to him.

How many children do I have? 6 or 7? He always keeps me laughing.

You will notice the exit at the far end of the picture. The first time I had to driver the car out of "the hole" I felt like I was on my 4-wheeler and climbing one of our hills. It was very scary for me. Hopefully you will see what I mean if I can get the video to link up OK.

I know my brother Bill will be laughing his head off at the thought of me "Climbing this BIG hill!".


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cXycagG9bk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmz_mN5ag6o