Thank you, Sydney, for not letting me get killed.

Very helpful crosswalks here! :)

***
Well, I wish I had more to tell you ... I went to an interesting social justice conference here this weekend, attending workshops on the sexualization of culture and how that affects young girls, and one about counseling with sexually diverse clients (working with gay/lesbian/bisexual clients). Both of those were so interesting they had me thinking and talking about them for a long time after.

I don't know what's happening here as far as work with ITeams...need to think and pray more, meet more people, and keep talking about it. There is a lot happening here as far as anti-trafficking (a lot more than Greece, anyway), and IT is looking at where the community needs are and where they might fit in. It will be a several month process, involving other organizations and exploration with them too. I guess what I need to know is if I'm going to embark on that process with them.

We've got a couple more days in Sydney and then back to Adelaide for another week. Then back to Greece, potentially to pack up my life and leave a month later. It would seem providentially and circumstantially that life is leading me to work in Australia, however the details have yet to be filled in...

Cinque Terre: Vernazza

There are five little villages along the Italian Riviera called the Cinque Terre (there are more, but these five are famous for some reason). :) After consulting with our friend Rick Steves we elected to stay in Vernazza, the fourth village. We were not disappointed; this and Riomaggiore (#1) were my favorite. During the day the tourists pour into these villages, especially in August, so upon our arrival we found many, many people in our "quiet" little town: There was a bit of rain one morning, which kept all the people away!After about 5pm it quieted down every day, and we really enjoyed our little village. We hiked to a cemetery above it one evening for some great views.Really, it's just a beautiful setting and such a charming town! It was fun to see the locals and say hello and watch the old people sitting at their windows watching everything going on below.These guys own a pastry shop & restaurant at the top of Vernazza. They're quite well known, thanks to Rick, and because of their fun service and great pastries and food! The one on the right is a pastry chef. I think we ate here at least once per day:

One of my new favorite places! Another post coming with our hikes to and photos from the other four villages...

Sydney

We arrived in Sydney on Monday morning. I hadn't really felt like I was in Australia at all yet until we walked down to the harbor and saw the harbor bridge and the opera house. :) There it was, and ok, I'm really in another country. (I think it helped that I touched my first Aussie money yesterday, too. Haha. Foreign currency generally equals presence in a foreign country.) Yesterday we saw the Opera House & Harbor Bridge again with blue sky (Monday was overcast and the opera house blended right into the sky) and took a ferry to Manly (below). We're having a great time seeing the city and I am being well taken care of. :)
Tomorrow I meet with Janice, the IT Australia president, for lunch, and more meetings with others. This whole week feels a bit weird...it's a big city and I can't even imagine myself here. Not because I don't like it, but just because I have no idea where I would live or what life would even look like. Hopefully tomorrow will give me a better idea. Things are very expensive, and rent will cost me about half my current monthly salary (and that's in a far out suburb). Anyway, meetings tomorrow (and conference Fri/Sat), prayers appreciated, updates will come at some point.

In the meantime, I'll upload some more Italy pics to post tomorrow. :)

I'm here...down "undah"

And I'm even eating a Tim Tam. How very Australian.

So...I arrived, here in the country/continent of my possible future residence. Freak me out. It's winter, and I'm freezing all the time. When you leave 100 degree temps you pack the coats and sweaters but forget about little things like scarves, gloves, etc. So we've spent a couple days getting me all set up with the misc. items I didn't bring, meeting people, and wandering around Adelaide.

It's funny to look at people and realize they are all speaking English. Just a bit differently. But I can understand them! I am still getting used to throwing my toilet paper in the toilet, and I continue to try to enter the car on the wrong side (and look the wrong way before crossing the street). I feel a bit backwards and upside down, but in many ways it feels like home (in the USA sense of the word).

We leave for Sydney on Monday. I'll spend a day with Janice, the IT Australia president, and together we'll have several meetings with prospective coworkers and others who have expressed interest in working with the anti-trafficking ministry. The two following days I'll go to a social justice conference with her, put on by the Salvation Army (the "Salvos" - Australian abbreviations for everything, coming in another post!!). That will be good for meeting a lot of people and networking. Andrew is working five days in Sydney so I'll have some time to explore and be with Janice and others. It will be interesting being there, as that is the city that I would be living in and the people I'd be working with...so hopefully next week I'll be able to get a good feel for it and a sense as to whether it could feel like home.

Knowing my world could be (literally) upside down as soon as October still feels like a foreign concept. It's a lot of change to process all at once, so I think my brain is just avoiding it at the moment! .....

Hi from Abu Dhabi

Oh, a bit confused, are we? Sorry ... while I am not actually typing this post from Abu Dhabi, I am in fact IN Abu Dhabi as it is being posted. You see, a nice boy bought me a ticket to Australia a few months back, and so yesterday I got home, unpacked, laundered, repacked, and headed out once again to a completely new region of the world. Abu Dhabi is my layover en route to Oz. I actually wish I had more time here; this would be a great city to explore!

I thought I'd get you started with a few Italy photos during my 25 hour journey!! (I already posted many on Facebook so if you're my friend you can look there.)Our first stop was Venice. We flew in and took a long boat ride into the city. As I mentioned previously, there were SO MANY tourists there. Our hotel guy said that 50 years ago there were 250,000 Venetians living here; now there are 55,000, and there are 17 million tourists each year. That's almost 50,000 a day, and of course this is August, the busiest month of the year... yeesh.St. Mark's square (or San Marco Piazza, if you want to get Italian on me), is a bustling place to hang out, swarming with pigeons, vendors, and gelato lickers. There are cafes all around the perimeters, and many of them have full orchestras that play back and forth. It's fun to sit and enjoy a drink or dessert and listen to the battle of the bands!We went to the Doge's Palace. (I don't know how to say it either. We just called it the Doggy Palace; we're classy that way.) Got in a bit of trouble...Then of course there are the canals. We spent most of our time (a day and a half) wandering the alleys and crossing bridges and taking pictures.And eating. I have essentially eaten my way through the country. How do people eat like this? Pizza, pasta, not a vegetable to be seen! At the train station in Venice I bought a bag of fruit - grapes, peach, apple, 4 apricots, and some kind of plummy thing, and ate it all on the way to our next destination. I needed the effects of all that fruit to counteract the effects of all those carbs!!! (TMI?)Venice is really beautiful, and Holly and I were glad we got to see it. Along with 50,000 of our closest friends. If we were to go back though, we'd go a different time of year. Food was great, views were great, theme park environment was tolerable. I may have even seen one or two authentic Italians. :)

Signing off from the United Arab Emirates ... ! حتى في المرة القادمة

Venice

...is like a theme park. I've never seen so many tourists in one place in my entire life. Italian Disneyland!

And here are the rides:

Dear Supporters,

It has been a really busy year! It's now national vacation time, and as you know, Italy is very close geographically to Greece. Look at your map, they are practically right next to each other. Like an hour flight. So, it follows that it's a pretty cheap flight. Also, if you book really early, you can get all the good Rick Steves' recommendations for the cheapest accommodations in places like Venice and the Cinque Terre.

My point is, THANK YOU for your support, and while you may think that I am taking your money and running off to exotic locations, really I am just taking a (much needed) summer break in Italy for five really cheap days. I know I am a missionary and supposed to live a hard, rustic life, taking days off by going to the local park and bringing my own sandwich, but, I never claimed to be a very good missionary.

Thanks for understanding, and not feeling weird when I post photos later. I've never been to Italy, and thought it might be a good opportunity while I live so close! I have hardly even been to the beach at all this summer, anyway.

:) xo

What I'd miss* about Athens... the Periptero!!!

*Potentially, possibly, if, when, etc. etc. etc. Don't freak out.

It's really hot. I bought all these cute fall clothes while I was in the States, none of which I have worn, as it's 9 million degrees. Today I was sitting in the post office waiting my turn and felt the sweat trickling down my back. My face is a continual shining beacon, lighting the way for lost travelers.

Anyway, I am thinking of all these great things that I'll miss about this place if I end up leaving. There are many, so I'll dive right in.

#1- the corner periptero, or kiosk.

These little structures are on any and every street corner. I pass three on my three minute walk to my neighborhood metro station. Here you can buy newspapers and magazines ... water, soda, juice, beer, milk & yogurt (if you're lucky) ... bus & metro tickets ... cigarettes, pain killers, gum ... candy, chips, cookies ... phone cards, postcards ... ice cream ... batteries ...Some really decked out ones have sunglasses (where do you think my fabulous shades below came from?!), T-shirts, watches, backpacks, magnets, suitcases.....

So many times I have run out to the kiosk to pick something up or stopped on the way to a destination to arrive with a snack or drink in hand. Oh so convenient, oh so quick. A Moldovan friend who lives in Greece was in the States once and they needed some ibuprofen and she said, "Can we just go out to the kiosk?" Of course, they looked at her strangely. This is one thing that Greece has on the US! It's brilliant, really.

the other side of Athens

This is an all-too-common sight for us in the area we work in, which is full of drug addicts (and dealers), women in prostitution, refugees, and general riff-raff (my new favorite word). I have seen more people shooting up here than ever in my lifetime combined, in all areas of the body.

The drug of choice in Athens is heroin, leaving many people to suffer the effects of this illegal drug, like this girl on a bench just outside our office. The heroin is usually mixed with something cheap like ground up concrete, to make it go farther and sell cheaper. So many people are so far gone that they are just a shell, lying in a doorway, or leaning over precariously as they have lost their equilibrium, staring out of unseeing eyes.

This sight is so common that I barely notice anymore, let alone stop to look. This was taken by Kelly, one of our summer interns.

Boo

Um, what? You know you wish you had bug eye glasses. :)

new shades

I lost my sunglasses last week, and just haven't had the time to go out and get some new ones yet. A couple days ago the sun (and resulting squinting) was getting to me so much that I stopped at a corner kiosk, grabbed a pair of 5 euro shades and put them on. Relief! I carried on with my day, feeling much better.

When I got home I tried them on in the mirror. Gales of laughter ensued as I not only saw what I looked like, but realized I had spent my day walking around Athens like this:
(Thanks Janell for taking the photo on Skype, haha. Peekaboo!)

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 :)