From Here to There in 16 hours

We have traveled a long way. Here is a recap of how our journey began.

We assembled on Friday morning at 10:15AM. By 10:30AM, we had all of the luggage loaded up onto the small bus, and a good size of friends and church staff had assembled to see us off. Charlie Boyd led us in prayer for safety in our travels before we left. Group photos were taken, final goodbyes said, and we were on our way to Atlanta!

The drive from Greenville to Atlanta was not as bad as I thought it would be. True, we were all crammed into a bus that had more luggage than people, but we were determined. After driving out of South Carolina and hitting Georgia, we stopped at the QT truck stop for a quick break, stretch of legs, 8 cell phone calls, 5 purchases of drinks and snacks, and we were back on the road.

So now we still had a dilemma, how do you pass the time on a 2 hour drive to Atlanta when you are stuck in traffic and you don’t know what to do? You sing songs! First we started off with Kerry singing on his own. I chimed in with my “old man gospel voice”, and before we knew it, we were all singing praise and worship songs. We tried to represent the church well and sing some of Matt Rexford’s songs but we just couldn’t remember all of the words. I should probably know them all by now since I have had to type them up about 100 times but hey, sometimes it is what you do remember instead of what you do not remember. And I don’t really have a good excuse other than that.

So, we made it to the Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta right on time, around 2:00pm. As soon as we arrived, we found the departure gate, and started unloading the massive amount of luggage that we had assigned for this venture. One of the SkyCo employees brought out a cart to us and loaded everything up. While this was going on, we brought our “carry-on” bags in to the airport and set them all in a corner, where Karen and Jean Young dutifully watched them while we brought the rest of the luggage inside. The SkyCo guy brought our luggage straight up to the front desk so that we wouldn’t have to “lug” the luggage around. I guess that’s why they call it luggage, because that is exactly what we would have been doing. He unloaded everything, we tipped him, and he even sincerely told us, “God bless you and your trip.” We hadn’t even told him that we were specifically going on a mission trip, but it became aware that even at this trivial stage, God could use our attitudes and our “stuff” as a way to remind others of His plans.

So, we got in line, to check in. As we started to get called up to the front desk to receive our boarding passes, the clerk realized we were all in the same party, and was able to immediately check us all in at the same time. What a timesaver! All of the bags (minus the carry-ons) were checked in, with no problems, and we were on our way.

So, by this time, it was about 2:45pm. I would say it was 2:49pm EST. One thing I will go ahead and clarify for you, certain parts of this blog will span different time periods. We passed over several time zones on our flights. For simplicity, I will only use EST (GMT-5) and Greece T ime (GMT+2).

So, it’s 2:00pm. We had time to go get some lunch, so we headed off to the gates. Our flight to Amsterdam was scheduled at Gate E, but everyone knows Gate A has all the good stuff. Or at least you should know now that I have told you.

In order to get to the Gates, you have to go through airport security first. I always get very nervous going through airport security. I’ve never really had any bad incidences (that I want to talk about), but just something about the fact that no one really talks, they just nonverbally communicate to you where to go, etc., just makes me really nervous.

So, we start getting in line. The Atlanta airport is very efficient so it’s just a few quick minutes and we’re ready to go through the scanner. Having flown before (and having been admonished before), I knew to take my laptop out of its’ bag before sending it through the x-ray machine. I also had to take off my belt, empty my pockets, and everything else under the sun imaginable. Strangely, I kept my NewEgg hat on and they didn’t seem to mind. Nothing beeped, and I went straight through, put my stuff back into its’ bags, and continued on. Everyone else in the team had similar results, a few things checked, nothing major. Some antiseptic fluid had found its’ way into Skip’s bag, so the attendants were very frustrated (as was Skip, I imagine) upon finding it, but it was eventually cleared up (pun perhaps? It is antiseptic fluid…), they confiscated it, and we were on our way to the gates.

We all ate from different vendors at the food court from Gate A. I personally chose Manchu Wok oriental food. I purchased Dave’s food from there also, as he was the designated bag-watcher while we were in lines. Our flight to Amsterdam left at 5:00pm, so we started boarding around 4:30pm. Even though we were all booked on the same reservation ticket, our seats were all over the plane. I was all the way in the back, on the aisle, surrounded by no one in our group. A few other team members ended up next to each other, but overall, we were pretty spread out across the plane.

This was a very very long flight. It was about 8 hours long. The plus side of this flight was that they served dinner and breakfast. That’s how long it was. The food was pretty good, but that’s just my opinion. It looked and tasted like hospital cafeteria food, which just happens to be one of my favorite food genres. Don’t judge me. I enjoyed a tray of steamed chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread, salad, and a brownie.

After they served dinner, they put on a movie. X-Men III. I saw it in the theaters back when it first came out. I am a sucker for comic book movies… but that’s enough about me. It was neat to see it again but honestly I thought they could have picked something more generalized that the entire plane might have wanted to watch. I didn’t see a whole lot of other people watching.

After that movie was over, I tried to make a very hard effort to get some sleep. Art Ringger told me, “If there’s one thing you remember, remember this: Sleep on the flight on the way over.” So, I remembered it. Applying it, however, was an entirely different story. Sitting in an aisle seat right next to one of the lavatories on the plane does not set you up for success. I was constantly getting bumped by people walking back and forth every few minutes. So, sleep did not happen.

So, we arrived in Amsterdam at 7:10AM local time. They served breakfast just before arrival. When we got off the plane, we headed on down to Gate C, where our flight to Greece was scheduled. In order to get through that gate, we had to go through security again. This included a check through customs. They stamped my passport, looked me over, and let me through. Everyone came through without any problems. At one point, one of the officers stopped me and asked where I was from. I politely told her “the United States”, she nodded, and went on her way. I wonder if that means I don’t look American… ;)

So, after going through security, we headed to our gate. Random pictures, waiting in line, talking with each other, and before you knew it, we were on another plane heading to Athens, Greece! This flight was not as long (only 3 hours). I was originally assigned another random seat, but Erika switched seats with me so that I could sit next to David. And then, Jean Young was assigned to the seat on the other side of David, so she switched with Erika. So, the three of us ended up in the same aisle.

I tried to sleep on the trip, as did many others. I was unable to sleep on this flight due to the turbulence and my inability to ignore and zone out the motion sickness. So, we landed in Athens, Greece at 1:30pm local time (and here on out, will be considered current time).

On the entire flight over from Amsterdam to Greece, I had been praying for a swift and easy run through customs. This was the one stop in customs where we would definitely get questions of “Why are you here?” (“Visiting friends…”) and “Why do you have 500 boxes of crayons in your bag?” (“I am addicted to those Barney and Kids coloring books…”). Here’s what actually happened.

Getting all of the luggage proved to be a bigger feat than going through customs. We waited and waited, and finally got every bag off of the belt and loaded them up onto carts. Then, we split up into “teams” to go through customs in a certain order. As we approached, there was only one officer working there. She asked where we were from (obviously realizing we were in a big group). Skip told her where we were from, and, without even a second look, she waved us ALL through and outside! We didn’t have to answer any questions or have anything inspected. I heaved a big sigh of relief knowing I wouldn’t have to answer any barrage of questions.

As we came through the door, we met Scott McCracken, the International Teams/Helping Hands coordinator, and Emma Wilson, another worker at the ARC. We loaded up all of the luggage (minus a few carry-ons that just wouldn’t fit) into his van, and then he and David took off for the guest house that we are staying at.

The rest of us (with Emma as our guide) took off to find an express bus to get a ride to the guest house. While on the bus, several of our team members talked with a local Greek woman about the city, our church, what we were there to do, etc. After we rode on a bus for a while, we skipped over to the metro, and then walked the rest of the way, touring a bit of the city as we went along.

Upon arriving at the guest house, we trudged up the stairs. By this point, everyone was beginning to feel the fatigue and lack of sleep. We were introduced to Susan, our short-team coordinator while we were here. We took some bags upstairs, and then everyone came downstairs for dinner.

To be honest, I don’t really know what we ate. It tasted like chicken. It was really good. I was just so hungry and tired that I didn’t even really care to find out what it was. (Dave says they were “Gyros”, but I’m not sure if I should believe him.) Everyone else had similar feelings and we all enjoyed a group meal together. After dinner, Susan gave everyone a tour of the guest house, and then we left to go out to the grocery store to get breakfast supplies for the morning.

Being submerged in a culture with different primary language other than English is very fascinating. All of the ads, all of the boxes, signs, labels, all were in Greek. Ok, I guess the numbers weren’t. ;) So, we shopped for some supplies. Before going in to the store, Karen had stopped at the ATM to get some local currency (euros) so that we could actually buy stuff and not look like dorks for having American dollars. The downside was that the ATM’s only give out in 50 euro bills and we needed smaller bills for other purchases later. So, after shopping, we split up our purchase into several orders and in several different lines. Both armed with 50-euro-dollar-bills (making that up, I don’t know what they’re called), David and I jumped into a line to pay for what we had been assigned to pay for.

Now here’s the tricky part. I don’t speak a word of Greek. I had no idea if they spoke any English at all. Yet somehow I managed to make a successful purchase. The cashier asked me, from what I could gather, if I had change so I wouldn’t have to break another dollar. I just kind of looked at her, fumbled my pockets, said no, and she continued to just make change from what I had given her. My first successful counter-culture contact!

After we were all done at the store, Susan took us around some other parts of town, and then we headed back to the guest house. On the way back, we stopped in at the ARC to look for some items that had been dropped off there by mistake. I took the opportunity to check some emails and post that first blog post that I am sure you have read over and over many times by now. I also wrote some emails to other team members’ families per their request to give them the blog address to use to keep themselves up to date on our trip.

After that, we headed back to the guest house. Susan gave a full orientation of what we were to be doing in the next couple of weeks, complete with “do’s” and “don’t’s” (or more accurately, “do nots” as contractions can be hard for a Greek person to understand when trying to learn English), and a schedule of activities.

We finished up with that around 8:30pm. As I am writing this blog, it is 10:13pm local time. 3:13pm your time (EST). We are all excited to see how God will use each of us on this trip.

It is bedtime now. We are all tired and I think I am the last one still up. Staying up for two days at a time is not a totally foreign concept to me, but regardless, I am turning in now too.

Hopefully future blogs will have as much detail but maybe not ramble as long as I just did. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them. Look forward to future posts as we have time to write them (perhaps from other team members too!)

Joe