I Need a Yiayia

Trip Start Sep 07, 2008
1
12
148
Trip End Dec 09, 2008


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
shadow

Flag of Greece  ,
Wednesday, September 10, 2008

I got lost on the walk between my apartment and the classroom building this morning. It's an obligatory second-day-in-a-new-place thing. I eventually got there, though, and spent most of the day talking one by one with each of the women who run the program. They exclaimed at the exquisite beauty of the pictures of Crater Lake and Southern Oregon University in the little flip book I had prepared. One woman asked me if the picture of Crater Lake was photoshopped because she couldn't believe its depths of greens and blues. They put on the bracelets I had made for them. Beautiful Basil was particularly skillful at matching the names of the students to the pictures I had printed from their Facebook profiles, a feat which took me more than a week.

Lovely Lithe was especially fun to talk with today, as she told me stories from her sixteen years with the program. Like the one where a student came to visit his yiayia (grandmother) in Greece wearing fashionably ripped and holey jeans, and the next day he awoke to find that she had industriously sewn and patched everything closed.

And the one where Zorba the Cat got a tummy ache, and was escorted to the vet by a complete entourage of six devoted students.

And the one where a student with ADD ran out of Ritalin, but had such difficulty trying to get any from a Greek pharmacist or through the mail that finally his mother made the 10-hour plane ride to deliver the medication in person.

The first three students arrived today. They should all be here by tomorrow evening.
Slideshow Print this entry Athens hotels

Comments

lange
lange on Sep 11, 2008 at 11:21AM

Lovely
So nice to be reminded of the Greek hospitality and willingness to connect....not to mention your generosity of spirit. I am suppressing my envy and allowing my happiness for you to be my main experience! I will look for more entries hoping your adventure continues with such grace.

Add Comment