May 17. 2016

Lesvos Island, Greece. I am here! Five flights and two lengthy layovers later, I am propped up in bed, chatting with you!
First the travel part – London was a fairly short layover – time for fish and chips, of course, and a glass, of wine. Then boarded the flight to Athens about 8pm. Best flight of the trip – I had an entire row of seats! The luxury of laying down, with feet up, cannot be overrated! I slept.
We arrived in Athens about 3:30 in the morning and I wasn’t leaving until 4 that afternoon. I had thought of just hanging out in the airport or going into Athens proper, but sanity prevailed. There is a very nice hotel right across the arrival roads so a quick walk took me there, got me a room, and put me to bed! Oh I am such a creature of my comforts! One night without a bed and I feel put upon. But it was a great decision. I slept until 10 – got up for breakfast, went back to sleep for another hour, then showered and headed back to the airport. Such luxury!
I met Rachel at the gate. She is a lovely young nurse, who attends Imago Dei, and is also volunteering. We did the very short hop out to the island and arrived to sunshine, blue skies and sea, and great relief that we were here. You will be hearing about her a great deal as we are on the same team and will working together.
We were met by Kim, the Greater European Mission (GEM in future posts) man in charge of the volunteer programs here on the island. We took off for about an 80 minute to drive to the other side of the island where most of the work is done. He filled us in on local history and the ongoing work – constantly in flux. The island is an old volcano and the road went up and down, twisting and turning, through black pine forests and then down to sea level and olive groves.
We are staying in an ancient town on the northern coast, Molivos. The hotel is up on a rise overlooking the town, the sea , and off to Turkey in the distance. We are only 4 miles from Turkey.
The hotel is lovely and quaint. Very comfortable but not too fancy to make staying here an unbearable burden when returning from the camps. Yes, there is a swimming pool and on days off, you will find me by or in the pool. The water and fresh food is safe to eat so no worries there. Not a hardship post – only in what we will be doing. We settled into our rooms and then met for supper in an open room. We will be outside a lot – so glad.
We joined another team which has been here about a week. 4 Canadians, a Dutch couple who live in Germany, and a Floridian who lives in Sweden! I so love the great melting pot of people one meets and gets to know on outings like this. Because our focus is on the same things, the conversation is compatible and so very interesting. However, one of the men mentioned the “Politician” Who Shall Not Be Named, and Rachel and I apologized all over the place for our country!
It was also the birthday of one of the men. The hotel staff had made a lovely cake so we all sang and ate cake. Not a bad way to start the stay!
Tomorrow Kim will pick us up and take us to orientation and then we will have our first shift overnight tomorrow night. We are not allowed to name the camp – Greek rules – but I can refer to it as the gate where one speaks the word “Friend” and enters.
Also I will be driving! Kim is renting us a car, stick shift, so I get to tool around the island in that! It saves them having to run us all over to the camp or other places of work. Pray for me!
And it’s time to say good night. A full night’s sleep! Thank you.