First Week back in Greece
We arrived back in Thessaloniki last Thursday and went straight to work. We met the people at the community center in Sindos, where we will be teaching English two times a week. We already taught our first lessons on Monday and got to know some of the regulars at the community center.
Fortunately we were lent a van by Swiss Cross, an organisation that is now operating on the island of Lesvos. We started our first tour to gather people for our excursions on Tuesday. At a housing complex for refugees close to the community center, we spread the word about our idea. We were pleasantly surprised that every family we asked to come to the beach with us in the following weeks was eager to fix a day and a time for their trip and we saw many happy reactions to our suggestions.
The following day we already went on our first excursion, with three families from Sindos. We picked them up at the housing complex and drove with them to Katerini beach. We had a beautiful time, both small children and elderly women had smiles on their faces and enjoyed the fresh sea air. Quickly the kids built new friendships.
Mariam and Murat taming a wild Greek crocodile typical for the region.
We have a good feeling about the upcoming weeks of work and we are hoping to take as many people as possibles on these short but sweet trips that take peoples minds off of their unfortunate situation.
This family from Baghdad enjoyed the view and a small picnic.
As people are becoming aware of our work, we have been contacted from many different coordinators of refugee housing projects all around Thessaloniki. There seems to be a big demand for projects like ours, which have the sole purpose of bringing a little bit of fun and distraction to these long hot summer days in Northern Greece.
We are trying our best to give as many people a break from their monotonous daily routine, but we already know that we will not be able to take everyone, which is a hard fact to accept. Nevertheless, we are looking forward to the time lying ahead of us.
Love,
Robins