It always is amazing to me – to leave loved ones, climb willingly into basically a tin can and hurl across the planet to another land.  Uneventfully arrived in Athens – 18 hours after having been dropped off at airport.  

Rita (CTF carrythefuture.org Greece Coodinator) happened to be at the airport meeting her brother and his wife who were arriving on my flight!  Also at the airport was 1 of my 4 team mates for the week- Rachel from CO!  Rachel and I got into our rental van and drove to the hotel to meet the rest of our team.  

We are Team 19 for CTF- our main task is to distribute baby boxes and supplies to newborns and their mothers-
Team 19!  Dinner was with Rita and her brother and his wife- the team had been taking on Facebook for the past few weeks so it was nice to finally be able to meet face to face!

Aline and me got up earlier then the rest of the group so we headed over to a local Jumbo for what would be 2 trips today.  We loaded up 2 carts with items for a new baby due in a camp Rita works in and the Warehouse in Athens was out of baby wipes!  

We had our 2nd rental van delivered and headed out to the warehouse to load up for our 5 hour drive to Northern Greece- The vans were PACKED with warm weather clothing to take to 2 of the camps up North The drive was nice- sky was overcast with intermittent rain- we stopped at a camp about 1/2, one that Zach, Rita and I had visited in May- the camp is located in such a beautiful setting- the boys came running up as soon as we arrived, we were looking for a count of the number of baby boxes we could return with- we also promised the boys “foot balls” and one of them asked in almost perfect English- “maybe a volleyball for the men to play with?”  Children, kids…. living far from their homes in a foreign land.  But so very quick to smile, to joke around.  It is impossible to imagine what they have seen in their short lives- and yet they never stopped smiling .We made our 2nd stop of the day at a Jumbo to load up with soccer balls,soap and shampoo a camp had asked for- our hotel is at tje sea side, we can hear the crashing waves below our hotel room.  So thankful to have this time to spend these days here in Greece.