Italian Shoemakers

The past few weeks there were two older men from Italy here to volunteer and teach the boys how to make their own shoes. The older of the two is Sante Mazzarolo, age 80. The other man, we forget his name (it may be Costante)but he was younger by 15 years or so. The two men were very fun to be around only because they would speak to you in Italian even though you didn't understand. Luckily Sante spoke a little Spanish so Katie and he would have small conversations together. They would work all day teaching some of the older boys the craft they learned as children. From what we did understand of the two, they had to both stop schooling around class 5 to work. Their craft was shoe making and they're darn good at it. Fr. Seba told us that Sante has his own shoe company in Italy (we don't know the name though).

Sante has around 3 children (we think) and they live all over the world. He told us his son lived in Los Angeles. We thought that was amazing to have some sort of connection. A few days later Sante came up to Pat and started saying, "Redondo Beach, Redondo Beach, my son". So turns out this 80 year old man from Italy who we met in Kenya has a son who lives in Redondo Beach. Sante has said he's been there many times to visit him as well. He told us his son either drives or makes motor cycles for a company called Alpine Star. Sante even went to his suit case to give Katie a brand new Alpine Star hat. They were very dedicated to their craft, impatient at times because no one could understand them, but wonderful people to have met.


"Costante" on the left and Sante on the right


There was a celebration for the two Italians before they left. At the end of the ceremony, "Costante" and Fr. Seba, passed out the shoes the boys made to them. The extra shoes the boys made will be prizes for the students who have the best educational testing scores this week.