Living in Greece

A Week in Greece #3: A Greek Play and Exploring on My Own

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Although my mind is still consumed by Greek lessons, I had a bit more of a life this week (for better and for worse).

Last week I felt overwhelmed by all the verbs and vocabulary and grammar that I had to juggle every day in my Greek class.  I also felt overwhelmed by making new friends.  So last weekend, I stayed in my room as much as possible and worked my butt off mastering the Greek we had worked on.  I’m talking 8 hours of Greek on Saturday and another 6 hours on Sunday.  The payoff was worth it – when I returned to class on Monday, I felt like I was swimming through the lessons instead of drowning.  Classes continued, my friendships with Nir and Elvira continued, and I started to really like our teacher Rosa, which is unfortunate because next week we have a new teacher.

I already wrote about the excitement of how we have a location for HD.  The continuation of that is that Anthi took me to see the outside of the building on Thursday night, and it’s nicely secluded with a lot of trees, and there are balconies and…you know, outside of a building stuff.  Eventually I will see the inside and have a stronger opinion.  I’ve also been helping Dina write fundraising updates and letters.  She came to my room Thursday morning and said, “We need $200,000 to fully renovate the house.  God will give us the money!”  Later I told Anthi that I’m just going to kind of borrow Dina’s faith body-of-Christ-style, because I definitely don’t have it.  But, well.  Maybe I do.  Because God came through with providing us the house, so why not the money too?

On Thursday night, I went to Anthi’s house after class.  We had dinner, she took me to see the house, and then we went to Ambelokipi (meaning “grape garden” because there were vineyards in the area before there was city) to meet up with Dina, Francisca, and Natasha to see a play!  It was a three-hour production of Crime and Punishment in Greek.  When the music started and a man slowly walked on stage, lighting a lantern and pouring a glass of water, Anthi leaned over and whispered, “Do you understand what has happened so far?”  She filled me in every ten minutes or so, and I could mostly keep up.  I wondered how much of the exaggerated emotion (there’s nothing quite so strange as listening to gibberish spoken normally SUDDENLY JUMPING TO SHOUTED GIBBERISH) was due to the plot and how much was due to the Greek actors.  When it was over I found out that several of the cast were famous Greek TV actors, and Natasha made Anthi take multiple pictures of her standing with one of the men.   Continue reading →

BIG NEWS: We Have a House!

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We have had some disappointments during our search for a HD location, and there has been talk of us delaying our opening until July.  While driving me to church on Sunday, Dina saw through my fake “everything’s fine” facade and assured me, “Don’t worry about the people who paid for you to be here. God is in control. He knows what he is doing, and when we will open.  He is doing something – we have a bank account even though banks are not opening new accounts, and you are here now.  We will find out what he is doing when he has made us ready.” I was still lying a little bit when I agreed with her, but she said she spent all day Saturday praying, so I decided to trust her wisdom.

We parked the car and got on the metro.  A girl from school happened to be on the red line with us.  Veta, her mother, was visiting the city, and she and Dina happily reunited while we walked to the church.  After the service, a tiny older lady asked me how HD was doing.  “Oh, it’s slow,” I said.  “We can’t find a house, and the budget keeps shrinking.”  Belatedly, I wondered if I should be telling these things to a stranger, but she had already walked away.

I visited with some other people before circling back to Dina.  Her face lit up when she saw me.  “We found a house!” she cried.  “Um, what?” I asked.  Two hours ago we were complaining and doubting (well, I was), and immediately our problems were solved?

“Veta and her husband are old friends of ours, and they have been praying for HD for years.  They have a house that they have wanted to be used by a ministry, but they didn’t think that we needed one.  Now they are going to let us use it for very cheap, thanks to you!”

“Thanks to me?” I asked.  I hadn’t talked to Veta on the metro or at the church.

“You told Mrs. Hill that we didn’t have a house, and she knew Veta was trying to rent one.  She told her to talk to me!  I told you this morning that God brought you here for a reason.”

Filled with Greek exuberance, I threw my hands in the air, delighted to find that my big mouth had accomplished something wonderful.

Over lunch with Dina and Argyris, we discussed all the benefits of the house.  It’s in a good area, it’s private, it’s owned by people they know and trust, and it’s half the price of our already slashed budget.

On Monday, Dina and the other HD women went to the house in the afternoon while I was in Greek school.  They loved it.  They went over the budget, they talked with important people, and it was decided:

We’re renting the house, and we’re ready to get started ASAP!

I cannot actually comprehend how ridiculous this is.  Dina and I talked about trusting God in the morning, and in the afternoon he answered our prayers, and the next day everything is good to go?  It’s crazy and exciting and with such perfect timing that I have to see God’s hand at work.

I don’t think this is the end of our obstacles.  But this week has strengthened my weak faith – God can, and will, side-step every obstacle with ease.  After all, as I keep hearing, this is not our project.  God is interested in freeing women from a lifetime of emotional and physical slavery, and he will get the job done, in his uniquely absurd and delightful way.

A Week in Greece #2: First Week in a Daily Greek Class

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Υεια σασ!  Τι κανετε;

Δεν ζερω ελλινικα ακομα, αλλα καταλαβαινω λιγα.

This week has been all about GREEK.  I’ve gone to class for three hours a day (we’re supposed to get a half hour break, but some days we get only fifteen or twenty – one day we went over by half an hour).  It’s crazy intense.

Every day I leave feeling like my brain is about to explode.  This is compounded by the fact that my classmates have lived in Greece for several months.  When we practice speaking in class, they’ll throw in phrases they’ve heard or learned, and it’s all I can manage not to throw a fit and scream, “You can’t say things we haven’t learned in here!!”  I feel very dumb, especially since the girl who struggled the most dropped out.  I’m now definitely in the bottom three.

It’s easy to focus on that, because, well, perfectionism.  But on Wednesday I skyped with my mom and later with my grandparents, and I read them a paragraph from my textbook.  I mean, I read it in Greek.  “Do you know what you read!?” my mom asked.  “Yeah,” I said dully, because I’d mispronounced “δυο.”  “WOW,” she enthused.  “Three days ago you didn’t know any Greek.”   Continue reading →

Waiting on God’s Timing

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Yesterday morning, before my first Greek class, I met the other HoD women at an undisclosed location to meet Eleni (named changed, just in case), who works for an organization that reaches out to trafficked women.  We are hoping to partner with her, so that she will send us women who are ready and able to leave their situation.  In turn, when women graduate from our program, we will send some of them back to Eleni to work with her.  That’s cool enough, but hearing Eleni’s story blew my mind and strengthened my heart.   Continue reading →

First Day at Greek School

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I have started my month-long intensive Greek lessons!  It’s in downtown Athens, which means it takes about 1.5 hours to get there.  There’s a bus very near the school where I’m staying, which takes about 40 minutes to get to the metro station.  I get on the blue line, and ride that for another 30 minutes or so to Syntagma Square.  I exit aboveground at the place where, eight years ago, I rang handbells for a crowd in front of the Parliament building.  From there, I walked through the National Gardens, exit near the Olympic Stadium, and walk up a sweat-producing hill (altogether about 25 minutes) to the Athens Centre.

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The blue line is my walk from Syntagma to the Centre.  The red blobs are tourist destinations.

I arrived at the Centre with enough time to fill out a registration form and grab a cup of free coffee.  I wasn’t really nervous about the class, but I was…on edge? Ready to be nervous? But I think I’m finally experienced enough that I can walk into an unknown situation with new people and not immediately hyperventilate. Of course, it helped that the Centre is small, beautiful, and comfortable.  There’s a fun view of the Acropolis from the roof.   Continue reading →

Culture Shock

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GEM, my sending organization, sent a great email about culture shock the other day.  I’d learned about the process while living it in Senegal six years ago, and knowing that what I was feeling was normal helped SO MUCH in not feeling awful or insane.  Before I moved to Greece, I told people that I anticipated the same sort of cycle to occur:

In January, I will be motivated, excited, and overwhelmed.  In February, I will become sullen and withdrawn as reality hits and I process the fact that this is not a vacation and I am not going “home” anytime soon.  In March, someone will visit me, and I will get to show off my new home to them while simultaneously rejoicing in my new role as Not the Dumbest One Around.  In April and May, I will settle into my new life and start to take ownership of my routine, friends, and living situation.  After that…I don’t know, because I left Senegal after five months.   Continue reading →

A Week in Greece #1: Everything is New

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It’s been a week!  Well, it’s been a week since I left the United States, though tomorrow will be my official in-country anniversary.  But soon it will have been so long that those differentiations will be meaningless, which is one of the weirdest things I’m going through right now: constantly re-configuring my brain so that I remember this is not a week-long trip.  I live here.  One week down, fifty-ish more to go.

That doesn’t make me scared or anything, it’s just weird.  After all, I’ve never really been one to get homesick (although I have stared sullenly into the darkness at night, wishing Rory’s tiny paws would push my arm around for optimal snuggling).  I feel okay about this being more than a vacation, it’s just….weird!   Continue reading →

Welcome to My Greek Home

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Months ago, I was told that I would get a room to myself when I moved into the school in Pikermi.  A week before I left, I was told: actually, maybe not.  I tried to prepare myself for 24/7 socialization.  I’ve gone 27 years with my own room, and maybe it was time I learned to share my space?  I’m an introvert, but surely it would, like, be helpful to have a roommate in a new country?  A guaranteed friend?  That is, if she and I would even be compatible.  The whole flight over to Athens, I reassured myself that rooming with someone would not be the end of the world.

PSYCH, it turns out I DO have a room to myself!  Hallelujah, I can be honest:  no way could I stand to have someone always around.  No way could I come back from a draining day of language learning or counseling or teaching and say Hello and make Small Talk, ugh.  When I’m stressed, I need, at minimum, five hours to myself.  Hahaha, I wish I were joking, but on Tuesday I spent eight hours alone in my room recovering from five hours of desperately trying to listen to Greek conversation.

So I’m rooming alone, but in a dorm building, so my new friends Olga and Natasha are just a few dozen feet away.  Lunch is communal, so I’m always meeting new people there.  I’m socializing – I just have an escape route.  And a cute little cozy one, too!  Here, let me give you a tour.  Continue reading →

Grocery Shopping in Pikermi

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Part of the excitement of traveling is that daily tasks become opportunities for bravery.  I slept through the school’s breakfast, so I walked to Cafe Veneti for coffee.  Just saying, “espresso americano,” staring blankly at the cashier when she asked me something, then assuring her I had euros when she changed the bill to dollars, took a lot out of me.  But I did it!  I get to feel proud of myself for ordering coffee – what a world.  Next door was a medium sized grocery store (apparently they get bigger the further you walk from the school).

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View courtesy of Google Maps

Although a grocery store is a grocery store is a grocery store, there were some differences between shopping in Pikermi and running to Kroger in the United States.   Continue reading →

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

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In the United States, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and I cannot help but find it auspicious that this is my first full day in Greece, beginning a year with HD.

Greece is a transit, destination, and a very limited source country for women and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor, and men subjected to forced labor. (US Department of State)

Officially, Greece was designated a Tier 2 country, one where a government is not fully compliant with the minimum protection of victims and in which the number of victims of severe abuse is significantly increasing. (Greek Reporter)

Although few Greeks are trafficked (however, the number of Greek women who resorted to prostitution grew significantly when the economy collapsed), but women (sex trafficking) and men (human trafficking) frequently find themselves sold into slavery here.  They are from Eastern Europe and Africa, and their traffickers use a variety of threats to coerce them into work.   Continue reading →