Aug
12
Day
2
John and I were both up (I may have been the
first to rise and pee) by 6:45 before our 7:00 alarm. John may have been
in the military as evidenced by his bed making skills. We walked down the
sleepy streets, where the myriad cats rule the morning.
We made our way to the bakery of the
three sisters – literally 3 late middle-aged sisters who open the bakery at
4:00 AM and close it at 11:00 PM – which doesn’t sound like enough sleep to
me. There is another group of 7 volunteers staying at Elena’s from
Southern California. We quickly picked up the habit of calling the
sisters The 3 LOUD Sisters. They announce to you, rather vociferously,
what they have in the displace cases every morning. The selection doesn’t
change but just in case you forget they remind you. The pastry shells are very
flaky and good. I defaulted to the Apple Strudel most mornings.
We were warned not to get the coffee
from the sisters. So, we went around the corner to Skiniko Coffee Shop
and got Americano coffee. I have not plucked up the courage to try the
Greek coffee. Evidently it is a little like expresso with the grounds
poured into your cup. You have to let it sit for about four minutes for
the grounds to settle and then sip the coffee to avoid getting a mouth full of
grounds when you near the bottom. Sounds fun doesn’t it?
This little guy has started his caffeine habit at a very tender age.
With coffee and pastry in hand, we sat
out by the Aegean Sea with these guys.
John and I took the morning coffee time to solve
the world’s problems – a white paper will be published soon with our
solutions. While sitting, sipping and solving, a lady walked down the
street with a blue plastic bag.
As she approached the contents of the
bag became evident. The cat in the bag’s fate was not known. I
can’t imagine that anyone who wants a cat could not find one by opening the door
and saying “here, kitty, kitty!”
Our conversation continued as we made
our way down the cobblestone street to our hotel. We were so absorbed in
our problem solving that we walked past the flags (one Greek and one European
Union) and the large sign in front of Elena’s and as the street began to come
to an end we noted our mistake and decided to turn around.
We sat in the courtyard to have our
devotion. This is just above the courtyard on the balcony of Richard and Christine. This is where we made lunches every day.
A man came to the gate and wanted to talk to Elena’s husband
and Elena called his name around the hotel, spoiling the sleep late plans of
any of the other guests. Having seen Evangelio leave on his motor
scooter, Christine conveyed this information by doing her superb imitation of a
motor scooter, complete with hand gestures and noises—both Elena and man understood
that he had left on his scooter. Who needs google translate when you have
Christine’s charades. You should have seen her communicate to Elena the
need for toilet paper a couple of days later.
John gave the morning
devotion on the good Samaritan and suggest the application for us is that we
are to serve the people God puts in our way. In Luke 10 the lawyer asked
what to do to have eternal life and then Jesus asked him what his reading of
the law said. “27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength
and with all your mind’[a]; and,
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
The lawyer then asked “Who is my
neighbor?” Jesus answered with the parable that we know as the good
Samaritan. And then Jesus changed the question and asked the lawyer: 36 “Which
of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands
of robbers?”
God’s response to the question “Who is
my neighbor?” is That’s the wrong question. It is not who is my neighbor
but rather am I being a neighbor?
As Christians we are far more likely to
remember Jesus telling the woman caught in adultery to “go and sin no more”
than to recall the Jesus told the lawyer and us to have mercy on everyone we
encounter because it is the neighborly thing to do.
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one
who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go
and do likewise.”
We had our first full day in Greece as
a “day off”. The rest of day was spent sightseeing and shopping.
One of our first stops was Skala
Sykamias, a tiny little village which happens to be the closest point of
European Union land to Turkey by way of the sea, about 4 miles. So, it is
here that beginning in 2015 or so thousands of immigrants have made their way
across the sea to this tiny village. It is here that the Greek people
opened their hearts and lands to these neighbors in trouble. It was here
in this town that the three grannies of Lesvos comforted a crying infant of a
Syrian Refugee.
This is our attempt at recreating the image.
This gesture of the Greek heart is
telling. The Greek people when asked why they welcome the refugees to
their shores reply that “Greece is a Christian nation, what else can we
do?” Many Christians in the USA more often than not will respond to the
question of what to do about refugees on our southern border with the response
that we should build a wall to keep them out.
We then stopped at the island
landfill. Why you may ask? Since 2015 there have been thousands of
migrants coming through Lesvos. All of them pay a smuggler to give them a
boat and lifejacket to cross the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Lesvos,
Greece. When they arrive, they do not need the lifejackets anymore nor
the boat. The lifejackets are discarded and taken to the dump as well as
the boats – usually rubber boats with a small old motor. All of it
becomes trash and is taken to the landfill where it is just mountains of lifejackets
and old boats.
Near the landfill there is a small
facility for housing refugees before they are taken to the other end of the
island to Moria the large refugee camp where we will be working. Many of
the refuges come ashore and then walk the 40 miles or so to Moria. If the
number of people is small enough, the people are housed and fed in the small
northern facility until they can be taken by bus to Moria camp where they are
processed.
We then traveled around the northern
end of Lesvos. The road at times became a dirt track. We were
traveling in two cars and the car John, Richard, Christine and I were in had to
drop back a bit to prevent being overwhelmed with dust. We made our way
to the city with two names to do some shopping and to eat. Mithymna or
Molyvos is a lovely town on the northern shore of Lesvos. Molyvos
was the name of the town in the middle ages and it still appears as both names
on many maps. Some of our group shopped till they dropped. I
dropped early and sat with Kim and chatted. I found that his son is a
professional woodworker/carver. Fun fact.
We ate at a lovely restaurant
overlooking the sea in one direction and the castle of the medieval town in the
other direction. The food was great. I had a lamb potpie without
the pot. Lamb stew baked inside a phyllo pastry shell, delicious.
Other things we encountered in Mithymna: It was not clear whether the donkey was the transportation or the menu. If the donkey was to be both that would just be disgustingly unfair.
With shopping and eating done we drove
back to our hotel to sleep. The rental car automatically connected to my iPhone
and started playing the playlist that I had last used. For a few minutes
we thought it was a radio station and were perplexed about why they would be
playing golden oldies. Then we figured it out. I was quite pleased
that the folks in my car on the drive back to the hotel appreciated my taste in
music. Christine sang along every time she woke up. We were very
tired.
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