Day 3 :)

Voula's family: Ilias (originally from Syria), Naia (who asked me to teach her Spanish today), Elli, and Voula.

I braved the metro (subway) system this morning and found my way to an international church in Athens. I met the pastor and his family, Americans, but that's about it. It might be good to find something closer, in Piraeus or at least not way on the other side of Athens. My family upstairs came home from church this afternoon and gave me the phone number of an American girl who has only been here for a month. I will call her this week. I will also probably go to church with George & Lydia next week; apparently some other foreigners go there as well.

I was proud of myself for venturing out on my own. I asked George last night if he thought it would be ok to head into the center of town, which was closed yesterday because of more demonstrations, but he thought Sunday would be fine. So I planned my metro route and got myself to Omonia & Syntagma Squares just for the fun of it, and found the church. It's really sad to see destroyed and burned out shops. These small shops are these people's livelihoods, and for it to happen during a holiday season when they would have made good profits... There were a lot of people out replacing glass, working on fixing their storefronts. There is still some broken glass here and there, shattered telephone booths & subway elevator entrances, etc. and lots of Syntagma Square is blocked off (they burned the big Christmas tree that was up). There were more violent protests in Syntagma last night, but today was ok. Unfortunately people are not stopping; many are thinking that this teenager's death was like a "last straw" for many people.

Anyway, it was good to be out, and I feel more confident about getting myself around now. Next I will try buses! :)

Tonight Pepie and I went to Voula's family's house for their little house church style meeting that they do. It was all Greeks, and me. Afterward we shared spanikopita just out of the oven, then everyone walked back over to Pepie's house for some cake and English custard that Stuart had made. I am just getting home. I love living so close; I am two blocks from Pepie and four from Voula. Voula is a social worker involved with Lydia Today; she has also translated most of our "Hands that Heal" curriculum for training people to work with trafficking victims into Greek. We talked tonight about the possibility of her teaching me Greek. We are going to meet tomorrow and talk about it.

In Greek culture, you have your circle of friends that you do everything with - meals, holidays, vacations, etc. I was told that it is very difficult to get "invited" into one of these groups. This group is very close, and I feel like I have been part of it for years! They have welcomed me right in like family. I know it is due to Sandie's previous relationship with them all these years past, and I'm grateful! It's funny that I already have a little circle of Greek friends, one English friend, and no American friends. Hopefully that will change this week, but this has been just what I needed this first week.