After a quick breakfast, we walk to the bus stop. It takes 20 minutes for the bus to come and we ride it 22 stops down the hill and exit near the Ethniki Amyna metro station. Next we take the train about another 6 stops and exit near the plaka. From there we walk for about 15 minutes downtown to the the Athens Refugee Center. The morning temperature is around 80 degrees with a cool breeze blowing. It doesn't get any nicer than this. Once inside we drop our stuff in the office and head to the kitchen. This morning we had 750 kilos of feta cheese donated that needs to be carried up the stairs, so we are a little late getting started. We need to prepare about 700 lunches. Someone has already cut and bagged enough cheese for the day. We place olives and pepperchinis in a baggie and tie it shut. We add the cheese, some arabic bread, a napkin and tie the lunch bag shut. Later someone will hand out a tomato with the lunch and a cup of hot, very sweet tea. Today, I am tying shut the olive bags. Kenn is moving cheese upstairs.
Next the chairs come off the tables where they were placed so that the floor could be mopped by the last person to use the room, which today was probably Persian Christian Fellowship on Sunday night. The games (mostly backgammon and chess) are placed on the tables and inspected to make sure the game pieces are there. The toys come out in the baby room and the craft supplies in the children's room. We take a break to pray for the day before the caos begins. After prayer we volunteer for roles for the day. Some will greet, some will hand out tomatoes. Others will pour tea or work with the babies or the children. I volunteer for the craft room with the older children, Kenn is in the kitchen pouring tea.
My day in the craft room lasts about 10 minutes until S is asking for me. She is my friend from Somalia. She wasn't there on Saturday, I thought perhaps she had found someone to watch the baby while she worked. There is plenty of help today in the craft room, so I leave for the women's area. The tea is served in an open room, but the Muslim men and women never eat together in public. The women have claimed a side near the baby room as their own and there I find S. She lets me hold the baby, who is wide awake. I had my camera on Saturday when she was gone, but don't have it today. She tells me she has found someone to watch the baby for a week...a friend from Somolia who is pregnant and due this week to deliver. Once her friends baby comes, she will not be able to take care of 2 babies, but hopefully by then she will have money to pay someone else. We talk about many things. Her mother is living in Kenya now. She is the 7th of 12 children ranging from age 9 to age 35. She wishes her mother would come to watch the baby, she has never seen the baby. We finally talk about the way she dresses. She is pentecostal and not Muslim (this explains so many things). I tell her I will pray for her. The baby is sick. She leaves early to take her to the doctor.
The craft room is doing fine, but the baby room is crazy busy. The picture of Saturday above shows a few children playing quietly and smiling for my picture. Today we had 5 nursing mothers with babies, 3 older children playing house under the table, 5 toddler boys throwing toys (happily, not with a mean heart), 1 crawling little girl, and 3 other girls coloring and an older boy with a broken arm trying to make the crawling little girl stop crying... all in a room that is 10 x 15 feet. It was absolutely crazy. I was trying to keep the little boys from letting their toys hit other people, but they were giggling and it is so rare to hear a refugee child really laugh that I just could not bring myself to make them stop. There is no common language between the boys, but it makes no difference they can still play and laugh together.
About 1:45 we cleared out the room for English class. We picked up the toys and I headed to the kitchen to check on Kenn. I helped him wash dishes. Later after everyone was gone, I swept the floor. By the time I was done sweeping the mops were all taken, so I didn't mop today, although some days I do. Sweet tea can make quite the mess on the floor by the end of a day.
By 4:15 we are have walked to the metro, taken the metro, taken the bus and walked up to our apartment. We are tired. We put dinner back in the freezer and order pizza. Pizza comes from Pizza hut on a bike, but they do deliver. It has been a good day.
