a stone and a seed. Or, the ups and downs of the daily life here...

I'm sorry I don't have a photo related to today's post, so here is a nice picture of some goats eating out of a tree in Nazareth in Israel last year, since I have heard that "some people" do not read posts with no pictures.

Well, where to begin? Chronological order is a popular method. On Wednesday, after I went to the gym, Voula called to cancel my Greek lesson. They had come home from vacation at 1am the night before to find their house totally ransacked. It had been broken into, a number of things stolen, and every single item taken out of cupboards, drawers, closets, boxes, etc. and dumped on the floor. It was so awful. I mentioned in my post here that violent crime is really rare here in Greece. Unfortunately, crimes like this are commonplace. The police officers that came said they respond to 7 or 8 of these scenes every day - I think that was just in this area. Break-ins and thefts are so common that almost every Greek person I know here has either been robbed or has a family member or friend who has. :(

I helped clean up the apartment Wednesday night, and went to the police station with Voula to make her report. It's unlikely that they will get anything back - especially that feeling of being safe in their own house! It happened to Pepie two years ago - same exact scenario. She has since moved to this new neighborhood but it's still in the back of her mind. Especially now since Voula lives four blocks away. Yuck. And sad, and awful.

How to transition from that topic?? Here is a photo of Janell in Santa Barbara as a mermaid.

So, last night I went to a New Year's event for ENOW, the European Network of Women, who operates a number of services here including a shelter for human trafficking victims. I sat with some of the shelter volunteers and the woman who coordinates most of the shelter happenings. They are really concerned about finances - this is the shelter I mentioned a few weeks ago that is in danger of closing - but I talked with Ana Maria about volunteering with them. There are a few specific ways I can help right now, so it was good to talk.

We talked briefly about my trip to Thailand, and she asked me to bring her back a stone and a seed. "A stone and a seed? Do you collect those?" I asked. "No," she said, "but I have a very special connection with stones, and a very special connection with seeds. Especially trees."

Okaaay.

And today, I met with people from Nea Zoi, the group that does outreach here in Athens into the brothels and on the streets. I hope to start going on outreaches with them in the next few weeks. Yay. :) They have been established here for ten years, doing outreach and other programs for people in prostitution, so I'm excited to be able to be a part of what they're doing.

Voula came over tonight for a quick Greek lesson, since we hadn't met in over a week. Guess what, this language is hard. No matter how quickly I get it on paper, understanding when spoken to is a completely different matter! :( I have never heard Greek spoken regularly before (ok, Biblical Greek does not count. I am convinced that someone made that whole "pronunciation" up.), so I can't really recognize it yet. I can read and translate paragraphs. But when Voula says the same thing to me out loud I stare at her blankly. Obviously, knowing grammar rules is not going to do me any good if I can't talk to anyone. So I've received the sentence of more conversation in our upcoming lessons. I'm going to need more aspirin.

And there you have my spectacular updates on the last three-ish days. And here is me, back in my stoner days:

Just kidding. That's from Kristin's and my housewarming party a couple years ago. Raise your hand if you've been reading this blog that long, yay!