Pippineddu vieni Ka

I do have a lot of work at the moment. Yesterday I had two jobs, 3 hours teaching in Rosolini, a small agricultural town where if you get lost in the one way system NOBODY can give you directions in italian. My sicilian stretches to 'Pippineddu vieni ka' (little Giuseppe, come here).

After my first day there I had already made firm friends with the barlady Pippinedda -little Giusippina- (Guisseppe and Guiseppina are Joseph and Josephina respectively).

Teaching in Sicily envolves spending a lot of time in the bar nearest the school or college one is working. Last time I went there with one of the many Salvotores in my class, who immediately embraced the barlady. 'Oh so you know each other?' I said. ' Ofcourse, we're first cousins' he said. Later, I went there with another teacher. She embraced the man at the bar. 'This is Emanuele, the previous bar owner. He is my husband's cousin.' I love my classes in Rosolini. We do try and work, but usually end up in the bar with cousins, or singing karaoke on the IT suite.

After Rosolini I did my 2hr adult evening class. After a hair raising journey driving alone across the craggy steppes and high planes of the sicilian countryside, I arrived half an hour late, covered in dust, with yesterday's ice cream dribbles down the front of my jeans to find all my students in suits and made up coiffures (that was just the men- women were practically in evening gowns). The tutor had advised them that we were going to have a mid-course test, 5 minutes 'interrogation' in English each. 'Interrogation' in the South of Italy has to be done looking your best.