They came! (And we made it!!)

Wow - girls actually came to the party last night! (I mean, of course they came, it was a totally rockin' party.) We had six girls show up, which is more than have set foot in the office in over a year. There used to be parties often, with ten or twelve girls, but the faces have changed and the overall attitude on the street has changed since then. We wanted to try again - and it was a positive first shot!

The interns shopped, decorated, and cooked some traditional Nigerian dishes (supplemented with Kentucky Fried Chicken - the only food proven to be liked by Nigerians and westerners to date!)
Waiting...So, the girls did show, but we don't post photos of them (their faces), so I won't post the pictures from when they were actually there. :) Just believe me.Chris and Stefanos offer their interpretation of some girls on the street... All in all, I'm so pleased with how these three weeks went! I felt all warm and fuzzy saying goodbye today. Here's a shot of the group from Wednesday:We had a big lunch today as a final hurrah, a last chance to enjoy each other's company before parting ways. Most head out tomorrow and Sunday. I said my goodbyes and felt a little fondness in my heart for each one. :)
Ah, the kids.

Ummmm..... vacation? Hello!!!!!

last night

Nigerian girls visiting our outreach table ...
and our friendly neighborhood security guard taking a load off in one of our chairs!

Tonight is the last of our late night street outreaches with this intern team. Before we start, we're putting on a party in the office for the Nigerian girls. The interns have spent the last week planning, talking with the girls on the street, inviting them, passing out invites and maps, and praying that a few will show up! If none come, we'll take the party (and the food!) out on the street to meet them when they come to work. So it will be a party kind of night, regardless.

I've been really blessed the past few days by this team! Yesterday they did presentations of the projects they've been working on. I'll write more about them on my ministry blog, but I was so excited to hear of all the work they've been doing! We learned about trafficking and sport (like the Olympics & the World Cup), dance therapy for trafficking victims, more on Romania as a source country, and had a few photo journals.

Today, at our last official "class" time, I wanted to spend some time in prayer for each person as they leave here and take this all home. It turned into two hours of prayer, with each one getting specific attention. They even prayed for each of us staff members. I was so encouraged!

After tonight's outreach, we'll have a debrief tomorrow and a final team lunch, and our first official anti-trafficking summer internship program will come to an end! I am really looking forward to a month of rest (& travel), but it has been a great great time with these guys here. I'm encouraged, and I've learned a lot from them and how we can improve things for next time.

Off to the party!

This is Andrew.

He found my blog the other day, which caused me (us) to go alllllllllllllllllll the way back to 2006 (!) and look at some of the earlier postings I made, way back then, in my youth. I had an obsession a totally healthy fervor for working out and counting calories. I wrote about a lot more spiritual things. I was SO BUSY. This makes me look at my couple of hours of teaching a day these past few weeks and my resulting exhaustion with a small amount of feeling pathetic. (Except, way back then, it wasn't 100 degrees all the time and I didn't have several looming major life changes and I wasn't working until 4am three nights a week and there weren't a bunch of interns needing help navigating through a country I don't even know that well myself! Ok, I'm off the hook.)Andrew got to come in May, and we did it all - an island, Corinth, lots of ancient Greek stuff and plenty of yummy food. He brought me a kangaroo and a boomerang. And in a couple weeks I shall again be in his presence in his natural habitat ... Australia. I'm still trying to think of something very Greek to bring along. Ouzo? The acropolis?This trip will include several days in Sydney visiting with the president of ITeams Australia, to discuss the possibility (which seems to be a probability at this point, unless I totally hate it there, a distinct possibility since it will be the dead of winter [ha, just KIDDING]) of moving down there to help them set up their anti-trafficking ministry. They are in the networking, awareness and training phase, quite similar to the job I had with Salvation Army in Los Angeles, with partnerships being formed around the country and into Thailand and Cambodia.

Who knew joining ITeams would prove to be such an intercontinental adventure? Um, I didn't. I guess it really is about following WHEREVER God leads, however unexpected the circumstances may be. Might have been simpler for him to just move me straight to Australia, but I would have missed out on so much here in Greece. Plus, I never would have gone to Australia back then... ;)

xronia polla!

We had a "summer birthdays" party yesterday with the bible study girls. It was so hot we were zapped of energy but still managed to eat a lot and chat it up. We haven't all been together in several months, so it was good to catch up!Best quote of the day:
"We should pray for each other."
"I thought this was a birthday party?!"
I feel blessed with good friends here. You need those, when you're trying to survive in the "missionary graveyard" that is Europe ... We reflected on that and other things last night, as we caught up on joys and difficulties and life developments and how things are changing with each one of us. Not sure how much longer we'll all be able to be a regular part of each other's lives, but we're thankful for the time we've been able to be so!

creative cooking at 2am

I've been craving frozen yogurt. While we have innumerable gelato and ice cream choices here in Athens, the frozen yogurt options just don't exist. I knew someone who made their own ice cream last year; I ate it out of a plastic tupperware directly from the freezer. How hard can it be to make my own frozen yogurt? It's hot, I have fresh peaches, give me yogurt!

For the record, I didn't actually start this endeavor at 2am, but that is the time at which we currently find ourselves, and here are two reasons:
1. I work in the sex industry. We keep odd hours.
2. I skimmed the "freeze 3-4 hours" part of the recipe in the middle and it didn't really sink in as I was starting my project at 10pm. I could have waited until tomorrow, but, see point #1.

Here is a simple recipe for peach frozen yogurt that I followed, plus my, err, "modifications," shall we call them:

• 2 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened sliced peaches, thawed [fresh peaches abound here right now, and they are so good!]
• 1 (.25 ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin [hmm. As I mentioned, project was started at 10pm, after store closing hours. With no gelatin on hand, I opted for the next best thing: a packet of instant sugar free, fat free vanilla pudding mix. This amounted to 1.5 teaspoons, with the remainder of the package still sitting on my counter.]
• 1/4 cup cold water [we have water in Greece (though may I add I had to put it in the freezer because it's so hot here right now that my cold water tap runs pretty warm)]
• 1/4 cup sugar [hmm, again. I don't seem to have any sugar in the cupboard, which is odd... usually I have baking staples on hand. Never fear! Trusty friend Janell brought me a 25-year supply of Splenda last year and I still have 8 large ziploc bags full of packets. Commence tearing open tiny paper packets...]
• 16 ounces fat-free reduced-sugar vanilla yogurt [Yes, we don't do vanilla yogurt here. I just used Greek yogurt and mixed a bit of sugar Splenda and vanilla in. It was so good I almost ate the whole thing before I could even add it in.]

Directions:

1. Place the peaches in a blender or food processor; cover and process until pureed. Set aside. In a small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over cold water; let stand for 1 minute. Stir in sugar. Cook and stir over low heat until gelatin and sugar are dissolved.

[It was at this point that I discovered that the previously mentioned vanilla pudding was actually butterscotch. I don't need to tell you what an interesting ... twist this added to my PEACH yogurt.]

2. In a bowl, combine the yogurt, peach puree and gelatin mixture until blended. Pour into an ungreased 9-in. square dish. Cover and freeze for 3-4 hours or until partially set. Cut into pieces and place in a mixing bowl; beat on medium speed until smooth. Transfer to a freezer container. Cover and freeze until firm, about 2 hours.
So here I am in between the two freezing stages. It will now stay in my freezer until morning, but can I just say, IT IS SO GOOD!! And for the record, you can't taste the butterscotch at all. :) It could even have less sugar (maybe would have put less sugar in the yogurt, or maybe if the gelatin had actually been just plain gelatin...) and still be really tasty because the peaches were so good.

I just made my own ICE CREAM, people. Yum!

[somewhat disjointed] thoughts on leaving

I didn't go running tonight, like I was (noncommittally) thinking about doing. I sat on my couch reading blogs, in the dark, and ate. Chocolate. A whole freaking bar of chocolate. And a small plate of nachos. That little salad with carrots and beets and a little grilled chicken and balsamic vinegar? Never saw the light of day.

I feel like I haven't blogged in a long time. Like, really blogged. Wrote about feelings and thoughts and stuff. Which is fine; most of those things don't necessarily need to be for public consumption. I guess I wrote a post a few below about indifference vs. passion and things like that, in which I included an obligatory "but I'm a missionary" happy, moral ending. Good for me.

So, anyway, I might leave Athens. Not sure on the if/when, but it's something I'm beginning to process and understand more the more I feel I'm settling back in here. Like yesterday I had to call the phone company and ask why my phone/internet weren't working. The girl didn't speak English so I got the whole thing done in Greek. Ok, so I didn't understand half the words she said, but I got the drift, and we figured it out, and today it's all back and functional. And I'm having a good time with my friends here. It feels like home more than anywhere else does at the moment, I'm learning to get around (though that's not without its frustrations, still), and I have good relationships. Also, have you seen Greek beaches??

But those aren't the reason I'm here ... it's the work. And it's the work part that might be moving me on. Exciting, new opportunities, ones that might possibly reignite my passion somehow and be a better fit for my skills, etc., but ones that aren't here. Of course, there are a lot of pieces to this puzzle, and that will all come out over the next couple months, but for now I'm still sitting on my couch in Greece surrounded by my own crap (stuff! books, mail, bags, nail polish, half empty glasses, papers, that chocolate wrapper, a stuffed kangaroo ... what crap were you thinking about?) pondering how quickly life can change and what it could mean to start life over ... again ... in a third country...

I have melted chocolate on my arm. Awesome. And I thought it was all gone.

They're fun, these kids

I stole this picture off facebook. That's what FB is for, isn't it?

These are some of the interns. I like the interns. And Annette, our new Aussie at Nea Zoi, here for two years (on the left). I like Aussies.

(I will stop calling them kids now; they certainly are not.) And I will wish that I were fun enough to be in a jumping picture at Corinth. ha ha :)

here they are...

Here are my nine children.
(Of course they are not all children, but I feel somewhat responsible in that way!)

I think we pretty much ran them into the ground this week, poor kids. Monday and Tuesday were full of class sessions, Wednesday we took them all day to Aegina for some fun team building time, yesterday more class and then we completely did them in with outreach last night. Many didn't get to sleep until 4 or 5am, after which we met at noon today and had a dinner tonight, and tomorrow morning they depart for Corinth at 8:00.

I'll be revising the schedule a bit for next week. :) They are all great, getting to know each other and bonding, interactive, excited, and generally pretty positive about being here despite the 100+ degree temps (with no AC where they're staying). I found one of the girl's blogs tonight and have read the whole thing, appreciating her fresh perspective and enjoying seeing what she's learning. She is also hilarious (read this).

I am happy it's Friday, I need a weekend!!!

interns, outreach, indifference, expectation

The summer interns have arrived! (I will put a photo in when I get one ... brought my camera with me today but left the memory card in my computer. A lot of good it does me there!) Nine people of all ages from all over the States, here to learn about trafficking and participate in a special outreach program to the Nigerian women on the streets.

I've been doing the programming/training side of things, while some of the other girls have been in charge of the social and cultural aspects of the program. I do like teamwork.

The special outreaches start officially on Thursday night, but one of the guys joined Nea Zoi for a regular outreach last night. He came back with the report for the rest of the group today, and shared with excitement the great connections they made with some of the women in the brothels (he didn't go in; the men stay outside while the girls go in and chat). One girl taking down the phone number and promising to call today. Another girl encouraging the team to keep doing what they're doing and they'll save many girls on this street.

His report was glowing and his excitement was clear. I found myself listening unaffected, unfazed. While the others in the group had tears in their eyes and gave joyful and amazed exclamations, I sat thinking, "we've heard that before."

When does this happen?! When do you become so jaded that you aren't affected by good contacts or conversations - instead seeing them as empty promises, words to fill a silence, a line to go in the database? When do you begin to lose hope that you're making any kind of difference to the innumerable girls in this world, let alone this city? When do you start noting others' excitement as that of a "newbie" and one that will surely fade to a more realistic perspective in time?

Gosh, was I ever like that??

I was, and I still have my moments. I still have the glimpses, the good conversations, the connections with the ones who have gotten out. I still pray the occasional passionate prayer. I still believe I'm making a difference for the one girl. But I also see how hard it is to keep up that fresh hope and passion, how difficult it is to keep yourself going day in and day out, when after awhile it all looks the same, sounds the same, turns out the same.

This is why I'm thankful for "fresh blood," for "newbies," for those who remind us of the significance and importance of what we do. Their passion and expectation is contagious, their eyes fresh and able to see the miraculous in our everyday occurrences.

Welcome to the interns. :)

it's my birthday!

I went to Agistri for the weekend. Love that place, just a cheap 45 minute ferry from Athens. My friend Andrea turned 40 on Friday, so we made a weekend of it - just one night for me, but it was a good day of biking and beaching and bumming around. :) Today I am back in Athens, getting ready for the onslaught of interns! Nine folks have arrived over the weekend, and our summer internship program begins tomorrow.

strike!

Well, I am definitely back in Greece. It's taken me a bit longer to regain my footing here this time, what with weird jet lag, weird heavy & hot weather here that makes you sluggish and tired, and the sheer foreign-ness of everything (to me). Maybe the fact that I might be leaving makes it feel like a strange place. But today, I know I am back - we are having a strike. Home sweet home!

Everyone is stuck today ... no public transportation: no metro, trains, buses, ferries/boats; the ports are closed, and the airports are closed for several hours today. No hospital workers, lawyers, media, banks, customs officials, municipality workers ... at least the garbage seems to be being picked up still, which is always good when it's 90+ degrees.

So everything is canceled, it's hot, I have two fans blowing on me ... yes, I'm back.

family

My sister and mom................miss them. It was fun in California. I am back in Athens now......

You can't plan your own surprise party.

It's true; I tried.

I went to LA for the weekend. I love California. I couldn't make a trip to the US without stopping by. :) And since my birthday is near (well, kinda), I thought it would be fun to have a little birthday party. A surprise party! Really, a surprise-I'm-in-town! party. Yes, I planned my own surprise party.

Except, Janell got the better of me. She offered to do the invites and organize some of the party for Sunday night. I gave her a list of some people to invite and set about organizing the food I wanted. She sent out an email and started getting responses...I asked her regularly and she said many people were planning to come and surprise me. Haha.Saturday night I had dinner with a couple friends. My mom and sister flew down from Seattle for the weekend to see me; that was great! A few of us had a fun dinner at Cheesecake Factory, then headed back to the house for some jacuzzi time.

Little did I know that Janell had sent me a fake email for a Sunday night party. She told everyone else to come on Saturday night (and to smile and nod whenever I mentioned a Sunday night party!). So I walked into the house after dinner on Saturday night, and was indeed surprised by many friends for a great birthday party - a REAL surprise party!I hate surprises - when I know they are coming. I had no clue about this one, good job Janell and Dana (and everyone else)!

Another first...

In the bowels of the Woodfield Mall

Got to hang out with Suzie again last night. We went to a nearby mall (hallelujah for American shopping malls!!), one of the biggest in the state of Illinois. Coming out of a department store, we noticed all the shops were closed. It was only 6pm, so I asked a shop owner what was going on.

"There's a tornado," she said.

Fabulous! What do you do in a huge mall when there's a tornado coming? Why, evacuate, of course. So that's what we did. All the stores were required to close, and everyone was herded down below, in the thick cement bowels of the mall under all the stores. Suzie and I and 500 of our closest friends.I think that last picture is hilarious. Please excuse the mod makeup; we were accosted at the Dior counter in Nordstrom, had free makeovers "forced" upon us, and my guy went a little overboard with the eye makeup. It was pretty hot though. ;)

fun peeps

These are some fun people that I am spending the weeks with here. On our many recent field trips it's been nice to have their company and insights. I am more or less brain dead these days, and a touch sick, and pretty exhausted, so that's about it for now. I can't even imagine arriving back in Greece next week and gearing up for our intense summer program... I would really rather be in Australia. ;)

Nope.

Earlier this week I was thinking, I like Chicago! I'm a city girl...I could probably live here (in the city, not out where I'm staying!) and love it. Seems like a cool city. Today, I made my decision. Nope.

Woke up to cloudy weather. By the time we got on the road at 8am it was beautiful and sunny. Got hotter and hotter and by noon it was scorching (although not by Athens standards). It stayed really hot and I nearly passed out in a non-air conditioned room full of 30 people around 3pm. :) Around 3:30 we headed outside and noticed dark clouds in the distance. We ducked into a grocery store downtown and while inside, the skies opened up. Downpour. Sideways rain. Thunder and lightning.

It was still hot, and the humidity increased like 600% in 20 minutes. Outside, the clouds were dark and angry, with strange formations and an eerie green hue. Tornado clouds, someone said. I have never seen a sky like that before!

We looked down the street and actually saw the wind coming. We were being pelted with torrential rain and saw this wall of stuff, stuff from trees and dirt and whatever, coming our direction. We were not outside for very long! Even after ducking immediately in a door, we were picking things out of our hair and wiping ourselves down.

We waited it out in the ministry building we had been visiting during the day, and finally had to venture home. On the way there were trees down everywhere, traffic lights out, and we passed through a spot that looked like had a "microburst" - a new word for me that I don't mind if I never encounter again! They told us on the first day at the ITeams center where to go in case of a storm, down at the bottom of the stairwells underground...I'm hoping we don't have to do that anytime soon!

By the time we got back to Elgin, the sky was clear and the sun was setting.

The weather here is madness. Unpredictable. Different every day. Different several times a day. Live in the midwest?

Nope.

All glory to God who is able

Current favorite worship song:

"All Glory" - Nikki Fletcher

I found a new trail to run on last night, it goes through some woods and by this house where a man built a castle in his backyard. It nearly caused me to stop running and stare. Well, why not? What's wrong with building a big tall castle in your backyard?

living for the weekend...

I'm not gonna lie, it's kind of tough being out here in the middle of nowhere with no car for three weeks. And I'm only 10 days into it. I'm used to living in the city center with the metro stop just out my door...having to bum rides to the grocery store and Target - not my favorite!!! It's a great facility here, with the offices and meeting rooms and apartments all in the same building...except that means the only time I leave the building on some days is when I go for a run! Strange to admit it, but apart from having pretty places to run, I prefer the city to all these trees! Sad! :)

So, it was GREAT to have some friends come and rescue me this weekend!! (I had about seven exclamation points there but thought that was a little excessive.) Saturday, Janice, a friend from college (SPU) and supporter drove all the way out to Elgin to pick me up and take me into Chicago for the day. It was great! We got rained on (what is with this midwest weather?!) but not before we got to check out the bean, do a little shopping, and have some really yummy deep dish pizza.(Ok, I may have been a little obsessed with the bean.)


It was fun to catch up with Janice; we knew each other in college but have reconnected over the past couple of years. I'm glad I could make it into her general area to be able to connect! Thanks for the great day! :)

Sunday, I got to see my friend Suzie from California and meet her new husband Juan. Suzie and I taught together at Whittier Hills while she was home going to Talbot for a couple years. She's lived in Costa Rica for nine years (missionary with ITeams) and just got married and moved to the Chicago area. Great to catch up with her and hear their story!Suzie is doing a cool thing and taking a photo every day for the first year of their marriage. They're only two weeks in, so they've been successful so far. ;)

So...back to the grind today... A full week of classes again, although this week we'll be able to participate in some inner city ministries and get off the ITeams base a bit. I have a new roommate this week, and still enjoying getting to know the others here.

aren't I cute

They took our photos today, pointing at where we're going on the big ITeams globe. Cheese.

never thought that would happen to me...

I've heard rumors of this happening to poor sheltered returning missionaries ;) but never thought it could happen to me. Last night I caught a ride with someone to a nearby grocery store to stock up for the coming week. Excited about the prospect of American food and products, I rushed into this giant, warehouse like store and immediately stopped dead in my tracks. Who needs four aisles of bread!? Which one do I choose?? What is all this other stuff, and how do I find my staples!?!?!? Aaaahhhhh!

It was so overwhelming. My little corner market is about 1/50 the size of this place, and even my "big beautiful" Alpha Vita grocery store in Athens doesn't hold a candle to the enormity and excessiveness of this store! I felt a bit paralyzed. And laughed at myself, glad I didn't attempt Costco last time I was in the States, because I had no idea (and even scoffed at the idea) that I would fall victim to this phenomenon. :)