We both slept in a bit- me until 8 and Zach 10:30. Had to wake him before the buffet closed at 11. We were on the road back to the warehouse. It is about a 20 min ride without traffic- with traffic, sometimes as much as an hour. There is a train station directly across from facility- but so nice to have the space.
The Stone Warehouse at E1 1/2 had requested another load of goods. First we did our daily stop at D/Jumbo to get some soccer balls and games for the project we had worked at yesterday down at the port.
Supposedly there were to be 30 volunteers working- when we arrived there were at least
that many. A group of college students were working helping to sort the Spanish aid-another container (2 of 60) had been unloaded and needed to be sorted and put away). Our list was simple- summer clothes and shoes. We took all of our needs from the pallets of Spanish aid, no need to resort. Soon the van was loaded to the top and we drove back down to the port.
One of the things that has changed in the month since i’ve been here is that the port is SOOOOO much more busier. Were there was a view across the port area now is parked a HUGE ferry. So the children play among the chaos of loading cars and semi’s, the foot traffic of the holiday makers and the cars whizzing past to get either out of the port or in line to leave the port on a ferry.
We were mobbed at the Stone house- women wanting clothes for themselves and kids. L
We then ran over to the School Box Project pod and delivered the bag of goodies. The girl that runs the project was just retuning from lunch-we found her in the parking lot with some of the kids we had played with yesterday. Once again many hugs and kisses- we drove to the pod while she walked. To walk with a bag of toys here would end disastrously – there would be kids fighting and in tears.
She was so tired- she said she could not remember the day of the week or what month is was. She was going to take the afternoon off and have some of the other volunteers work. I said “maybe a weekend?”. She said “No, the children would be confused”. The work is endless here- time suspends. Days turn into weeks, weeks months.
Returned to the Warehouse to load up for our road trip tomorrow-we will head north to the boarders and visit 4 camps. We were LOADED. We stayed until late to help sort items with the others. Rita is coming with us so we will be crammed into the front seat until we unload at the first stop-
P.S. this is not my damage to the van- this van has been driven like a rental like no rental i’ve ever had! Whole body looks like this.
wanted to do some work with children- there is a very well know project called :
boxes of “hygiene”. This of course upset the usual rhythm of the warehouse where every sorted box must be sorted again- I smiled, said “no problem”. Soon we were told to stop for a break…….we had eaten our energy bars and fruit on the drive over, but when Fadi says break you break. There were about 15 workers working today- the most i’d ever seen.
amazing- shocking actually! She was in contact with someone at the port who worked in the stone house warehouse and they were in need of summer clothing so we loaded up the van with mostly her aid – not yet “sorted” but clearly labeled. 28 boxes in all- we drove around a bit at the port but eventually found the person we were charged with finding to show us where to unload-inside a big stone building without electricity was a room with clothing- mostly Winter clothes-as it is getting hotter every day in Athens they needed it switched out. People out walking stopped by to see what was happening- at the door next to where 
we were unloading was the supplemental food prep area i’d heard about. The meals provided to the refugees by the Army have been decreasing in size so many of the camps/squats have begun to make extra food-3X a day. For this location that meant an additional 4500 meals had to be prepared daily. An amazing production in a room without electricity – about 15 volunteers cooking in great big vats, cutting up fruit, laddering food into containers. It smelled amazing!!! We were asked to return with anther van load of aid tomorrow and they were going to pack up the winter clothes to return to the warehouse until it is needed.
spread the word that workers are needed at the warehouse. We went home for much needed quick shower and headed into the center of Athens to meet with a friend who works with Carry the Future- she does the baby bags and helped with the baby shower we put on last visit.
charge as last visit, although she looks about 10 years older. We went into one of the tents to talk, a young girl kept popping her head in. Supposedly she was 18 – I said “no, she looks more like 13 or 14”, Mae’s age. Well “her” story is that she is 18. She is 4 months pregnant but has not gained any weight. They are worried for her.
me (our 20 year old who just finished his freshman year at Northern Arizona University), ok, to be honest not only great for him but great for me to have someone strong helping me load the van! So here I sit on the first leg of our flight from Phoenix to LA looking forward to a week+ in Greece.
but have kept our schedule open to see what it feels like once we get to Athens. Have rented the same old big ass van, so will have plenty of room to load items into. Will miss my CTF Team 8 girls……but will carry them near my heart as I know they will be with me is spirit until we can gather again! It really was such an honor to work with this amazing group that gathered to make a little bit of a difference last month- and whose mission is not finished!
Acropolis in the morning then we all met up for lunch. Walking home from lunch Amanda spotted one of those escape game places and we spent an hour escaping from the “insane asylum”room. We made it out with in the hour, thanks to Amands’s math skills! 
We all also had to pack up- although that was the easy part since we all just had carry ons we have been living out of.
wanted it-it took some talking but I eventually got it out of the leaders room. I knocked on the door there were 8 men in the room, the stroller was out of sight and I just walked in the room like I was looking for something else and asked about it. Oddly I got all emotional – I choked up with frustration. Frustrated that they were fighting me for a stroller, frustrated that these people were even in this situation. I then asked them what else they needed – there is a person that works loosely with CTF who has been working mostly at the port area- with that closing soon she is looking now to get regular deliveries to the camps instead of these SOS’s that go out and whom ever can runs aid out to them.
camp. They were having a great time- the girls picked it up in no time. I sat on a mattress on the floor with the mothers. One woman who looked to be my age was in fact only 32- we find that people look decades older. One of our interpreters (he was 28 but looked 40) told of walking out of Afghanistan across Iraq. He left because he had been a coach and “bad men” told him he had to tell his students that “the government is bad”. So he and 20 other people he knew started walking. He said at one point they traveled at night and had to cross a river with water that rushed up to his neck. He said they put women and children on the men’s back to cross.
University. I told him he should study for 1 hour a day. He said “how?”. I said “on your phone”. He said “it got lost on the way to Greece”. Also on it pictures that will never be recovered, contacts lost forever.
hill with views of the sea and surrounding islands. We had a snack then lounged along the cliffs, sunning our legs and talking. The temple looming near to us. We could see for miles-eventually we all loaded back into the car and made our way to a sea side restaurant just below the Temple grounds. This would be our last night together as a group – tomorrow night we will be joined at the hotel restaurant by all the people who have been helping us Chloe with the baby bags/boxes, Rita from CTF, Fadi from the Warehouse and a couple more. Time has flown.
up to the foothills of the mountain-at one point we spotted a camp- tents set up. We did a quick U-turn and asked if this was Petra- they said no- further up the road.
the middle of nowhere with industrial buildings being the closest businesses. There is an abandoned building that is huge- I guess they use it for football/soccer in the evenings.
next thing you know you are negotiating contracts for meals for over 2,000 people!
play with the kids some, hold some babies and hand out a few bags. One of the pregnant women had already returned to Athens- it will be hard to find a new life in the middle of a forest, surrounded by farms miles away from the closest mini-mart. People are bored, children run wild, we met a pregnant woman who was an Arabic teacher back in Syria- I asked her how long ago she had come to Greece she said “we crossed in the death boat 2 weeks ago-you know the death boat?”. She was one of the lucky ones who did not leave a son, daughter, husband…….to the depths of the Mediterranean.
ate fantastic Greek food and laughed. Laughed a lot. After lunch we stopped for about 10 minutes at a spring fed lake- it is used for restorative purposes- it was packed. It looked like 80% of Athens was out and about today. Either driving or stopping by the sea.
momontheverge 