Hannah in the Homeland

Day 1: My first day in Athens volunteering with Threads of Hope Hellas began differently than I expected. For starters, the night before I was so tired that I fell asleep at 8:30 pm. Although that’s considered fairly early in the States, Greeks eat dinner around 9:00 pm, so this was extra early. I ended up skipping dinner, falling asleep with my light on, and then waking up at 4:30 am! While I have been to Athens a couple times before, I have never stayed in this part of the city, nor have I come here completely on my own. Not only that, but I know Greeks are not early risers so, I was hesitant to go out early to walk around. I finally decided to go out and explore the city and find some coffee and breakfast around 7:00 am. As I walked out the door, this question rang so loudly in my head: What am I doing here? Like seriously, what the hell am I doing? I don’t speak Greek. I am not here with a team. I didn’t have this huge, obvious announcement from a mountaintop from the Lord leading me here. Am I seriously just floating? Is my presence here completely worthless?

I walked around timidly, yet pretending like I totally knew where I was and where I was going, and I found a coffee shop!  I approached it with zero confidence, whispered the few Greek greetings I know, and then proceeded to order in English. I felt so dumb.  Everyone knows I am American the second they look at me (duh) and for some reason that just exasperates how dumb I feel. I clearly don’t belong here.  –Oh! I lied, some people do look like me, and those people are loud tourists that are taking selfies instead of paying any attention to the people around them.  Maybe that’s why I feel that way.

After my breakfast, I struggled to find my way back to my place, but that was okay because I have nothing but time here! I eventually made it to the Threads of Hope Hellas office where I was honored to meet the wonderful volunteer staff, employed workers and trainees (victims of sex traficking), and the workers’ children.  I was greeted with so much affection and then it was straight to work! All of Greece takes a “holiday” for the month of August, so now that they are back, the production is behind the sales… which is a good problem to have. We worked the afternoon away and I helped where I was needed. 

Day 2: I felt wayyy more confident and much more adventurous.  I took the lead on a project at Threads and they seem to be very excited to have me and use me.  I guess there is a point to me being here after all. After work, I went on an adventure by myself. I worked on the project out by the shops near the Acropolis and then I went to a rooftop restaurant where I made friends with two ladies as we watched the sun go down and the Acropolis light up!

Day 3: It’s technically still day three, but work is over and it was amazing so I’m going to tell you about it anyway! Today, I had plans to up my efficiency and get the team all caught up, but I didn’t accomplish as much as I set out to do. Instead, I got to know one of the employees a little better and I played with her daughter and another one of the little girls. Oh my goodness, these little girls. Both of them are of Nigerian heritage, but born in Greece, and they are way too cute for words. This morning, I asked the older girl if she had any friends at school and she shouted “NO!” Then, I asked her if I could be her friend and she shouted “YES!” Since then, I have been greeted with a running hug about every 15 minutes!!

As the day went on, I learned the older girl likes to be picked up and thrown around. Unbeknownst to me, this made the younger little girl jealous. Everyone around me: the two mothers/employees and the older girl knew the younger girl was getting jealous — Except for me! I had no idea why she was screaming and crying. The mothers/employees were laughing and speaking to each other in their broken English/Nigerian language. I was so confused as to what I was missing and why they were laughing at the upset baby girl. They finally told me: “She’s jealous!! She wants you to cuddle her!” You don’t have to ask me twice! I love cuddles! I was just being cautious of picking up the little one because I wasn’t sure if there was a cultural barrier I was unaware of… Suddenly, my day just got better!! Now I have two little Nigerian/Greek babies I get to love on and squeeze and cuddle!!! They are each so sweet and innocent and FUNNY!

Thanks for reading about my last few days. I cannot begin to express what it means that I have so many friends and family taking the time to read my posts. I also saw that a good chunk of you started following @threadsofhopeathens on Instagram!! Thank you so much!

Until next time…

Xoxo,
Hannah