September 21, 2006 Thursday
September 21, 2006 Thursday
Today was another Tea House day. I went up early to the ARC, just before 9AM, so that she could check her email and I could update our blog. On Tuesday, we prepared and served food for the refugees. Today, we only served tea and bags of uncooked rice.
We all helped carry in bags of rice from Nikos’ car (a Citroen, pretty cool car if you have not seen them). I was quickly assigned to rice sorting duty. Skip, Kerry, David, and I teamed up, removing the pre-bagged rice from the rice sacks, putting two bags into a plastic bag, and putting them into bins. We had a nice assembly line going and finished them all in no time.
The rest of the team prepared the rest of the room, worked in the kitchen, brought in suitcases for the clothing ministry, etc. Before we opened the doors, we all met together and prayed. It is a great thing that we take the time to just heave a big sigh, know that we are doing the Lord’s work today, and just to ask for his hand over everything we do and say before jumping in. I am glad that it is a part of their policy. It can be easy to just leave God out of it because we ARE already doing His work. Stopping to pray reminds us all that it is about Him, not us, not the refugees, but it is about Jesus.
I worked on rice duty all day, handing out bags. It was an interesting experience, because I probably had about 30 conversations with people who didn’t speak English, and I have no idea what they said. So, lots of head nodding and positive facial expressions from me.
One woman asked me in Greek (of course, I had no idea what she was saying), “Can I have a bag of rice?”, and I replied, “I’m sorry? I don’t understand?”, and she said, “Oh! You speak English! May I please have a bag of rice?” I just started laughing. Here we both are, assuming neither can speak English simply because we are accustomed to being around people who do not.
I spoke with another man today, he sat down next to me at the RCADU (Rice Containment and Distribution Unit) I made that up. He sat down next to me and wanted to know where I was from in America. I told him I was from South Carolina. Then, he wanted to know if we use petrol (diesel) or gasoline in our cars. I told him it was a mix, but most people drove cars that used gasoline. And that was all he wanted to know. He asked for a bag of rice and then walked away. Pretty peculiar but at least I was able to help, I guess…
By 1:00, I still had two full bins of rice to distribute. Not a popular thing these days I guess. Nikos relieved me of my assignment, and said that anyone could just freely pick up and take the rest. So, with some free time, David taught me to play chess. That is a game that I would really like to learn to play well. Many people just naturally assume I know how to play, I guess since I seem like a person who would be good. I don’t know. This was my first time ever playing. I hope to get better at it.
We played for a few minutes, and then I left to help out “the Jeans” (Jean Andersen and Jean Young) in the clothing ministry room, sorting out clothes and putting heavy bags on the shelf. After we were done, I stayed to check all of my email and messages and to make sure the blog was up to date and working.
When we were done, David and I went back to the guest house.We all hung out in the living area for a while and then decided to go to dinner. We went to the same place that David, Erika, and I went to on Tuesday night. I got the same thing. The chicken gyro “portion”. I really like how Greek restaurants are run here. They don’t rush on anything. They don’t rush to bring you the menu, they don’t rush to get out so they can fill the table again. Once you are there, it’s practically your table for the rest of the night. They leave you alone, don’t constantly bother you, etc. Now, that in itself can be a bit of an annoyance, if you need something, but you can just go find someone to help you and they are more than happy to help.
Anyway, on the way back home from dinner, we stopped for ice cream again (I think Karen is addicted to ice cream). We decided to eat our ice cream on the way back to the guest house. It started raining, and we got lost on the streets, so we just ended up getting totally soaked again.
When we got home, everyone just relaxed (and posed for a team photo with us all dripping wet and just totally soaked) and talked about the days’ activities a bit. David and I wrote a song about Yahtzee. It was deemed and noted that I have the best male opera style-vibrato voice, AND the best female opera style-vibrato voice. Go figure. I can sing really high and really low.
After finishing our impromptu song about Yahtzee, we actually played some Yahtzee. I lost. Really bad. But that’s ok. Sometimes, it’s not about winning or losing, but about how you sing while playing.
Tomorrow, Skip, Kerry, David, and I will go on a men’s retreat with some of the Helping Hands male staff and a lot of refugees. It will definitely be interesting. Pray that productive conversations take place.
I will update when we get back! I probably won’t be taking my laptop but I seem to have the “gift” of remembering perfect detail… so we will see how that goes.
Joe
Today was another Tea House day. I went up early to the ARC, just before 9AM, so that she could check her email and I could update our blog. On Tuesday, we prepared and served food for the refugees. Today, we only served tea and bags of uncooked rice.
We all helped carry in bags of rice from Nikos’ car (a Citroen, pretty cool car if you have not seen them). I was quickly assigned to rice sorting duty. Skip, Kerry, David, and I teamed up, removing the pre-bagged rice from the rice sacks, putting two bags into a plastic bag, and putting them into bins. We had a nice assembly line going and finished them all in no time.
The rest of the team prepared the rest of the room, worked in the kitchen, brought in suitcases for the clothing ministry, etc. Before we opened the doors, we all met together and prayed. It is a great thing that we take the time to just heave a big sigh, know that we are doing the Lord’s work today, and just to ask for his hand over everything we do and say before jumping in. I am glad that it is a part of their policy. It can be easy to just leave God out of it because we ARE already doing His work. Stopping to pray reminds us all that it is about Him, not us, not the refugees, but it is about Jesus.
I worked on rice duty all day, handing out bags. It was an interesting experience, because I probably had about 30 conversations with people who didn’t speak English, and I have no idea what they said. So, lots of head nodding and positive facial expressions from me.
One woman asked me in Greek (of course, I had no idea what she was saying), “Can I have a bag of rice?”, and I replied, “I’m sorry? I don’t understand?”, and she said, “Oh! You speak English! May I please have a bag of rice?” I just started laughing. Here we both are, assuming neither can speak English simply because we are accustomed to being around people who do not.
I spoke with another man today, he sat down next to me at the RCADU (Rice Containment and Distribution Unit) I made that up. He sat down next to me and wanted to know where I was from in America. I told him I was from South Carolina. Then, he wanted to know if we use petrol (diesel) or gasoline in our cars. I told him it was a mix, but most people drove cars that used gasoline. And that was all he wanted to know. He asked for a bag of rice and then walked away. Pretty peculiar but at least I was able to help, I guess…
By 1:00, I still had two full bins of rice to distribute. Not a popular thing these days I guess. Nikos relieved me of my assignment, and said that anyone could just freely pick up and take the rest. So, with some free time, David taught me to play chess. That is a game that I would really like to learn to play well. Many people just naturally assume I know how to play, I guess since I seem like a person who would be good. I don’t know. This was my first time ever playing. I hope to get better at it.
We played for a few minutes, and then I left to help out “the Jeans” (Jean Andersen and Jean Young) in the clothing ministry room, sorting out clothes and putting heavy bags on the shelf. After we were done, I stayed to check all of my email and messages and to make sure the blog was up to date and working.
When we were done, David and I went back to the guest house.We all hung out in the living area for a while and then decided to go to dinner. We went to the same place that David, Erika, and I went to on Tuesday night. I got the same thing. The chicken gyro “portion”. I really like how Greek restaurants are run here. They don’t rush on anything. They don’t rush to bring you the menu, they don’t rush to get out so they can fill the table again. Once you are there, it’s practically your table for the rest of the night. They leave you alone, don’t constantly bother you, etc. Now, that in itself can be a bit of an annoyance, if you need something, but you can just go find someone to help you and they are more than happy to help.
Anyway, on the way back home from dinner, we stopped for ice cream again (I think Karen is addicted to ice cream). We decided to eat our ice cream on the way back to the guest house. It started raining, and we got lost on the streets, so we just ended up getting totally soaked again.
When we got home, everyone just relaxed (and posed for a team photo with us all dripping wet and just totally soaked) and talked about the days’ activities a bit. David and I wrote a song about Yahtzee. It was deemed and noted that I have the best male opera style-vibrato voice, AND the best female opera style-vibrato voice. Go figure. I can sing really high and really low.
After finishing our impromptu song about Yahtzee, we actually played some Yahtzee. I lost. Really bad. But that’s ok. Sometimes, it’s not about winning or losing, but about how you sing while playing.
Tomorrow, Skip, Kerry, David, and I will go on a men’s retreat with some of the Helping Hands male staff and a lot of refugees. It will definitely be interesting. Pray that productive conversations take place.
I will update when we get back! I probably won’t be taking my laptop but I seem to have the “gift” of remembering perfect detail… so we will see how that goes.
Joe
posted by Joe at 11:48 PM
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