It's hotter here than the time the air conditioner broke in the Fareway breakroom.

Hello from a very very warm Athens!

I woke this morning (at 6:30 am!) and my thermometer said 84 degrees. The weather changed from bearable to stifling over the past two days. For everyone's sake I hope it doesn't get too much warmer. It's difficult to walk from the metro to the ARC. Downtown is packed full of cars and the exhaust, pollution and heat waves make me wonder if we shouldn't all be walking around with oxygen masks.

Even though it was roasting we heated up the showers for about 25 women and children on Thursday. The women appreciated a chance to take off their head scarves and even drink hot tea (apparently it makes the air feel cooler). One Afghan woman, a regular at tea house and showers, with two young children came in looking quite under the weather. She was quick to explain that she had gotten no sleep the night before. She took our hands and told us to feel the large bump on her head while explaining that her husband had spent the whole evening beating her. By the time showers were about to end the heat, her lack of sleep and her likely concussion got the best of her and she passed out. We quickly moved her to an air conditioned room, gave her a cold wash cloth, a glass of sugar water and prayed. It took a while, but she soon recovered and was quick to ask for family pictures (a now tradition at showers). The perseverance of these women in even the most awful of situations will continue to surprise me.

This is Rudolfa. He is such an intelligent boy and loves to do puzzles (only asking for my help sometimes). We have the most fun playing memory with animals and then imitating their sounds (it's fascinating how animals sound differently from one side of the world to the other). He was very concerned about how messy his hair was in the picture, for he hadn't gelled it after his shower. I thought he looked pretty cute!

Like I said, I was up very early this morning to catch the metro to Lidl (a German grocery store) to pick up the last of the supplies we'd need for the grocery distribution today. We arrived at the ARC at 10:30, greeted by families already in line (we didn't open until noon)! The team created an assembly line, putting olive oil, beans, tomato paste, macaroni, shampoo, hand wash detergent, toothbrushes, beans, rice, toothpaste, sugar, salt and sanitary napkins into a large blue bag. A couple members of the team then went down the stairs to keep order while the rest of us prepared to distribute.

The look on the faces of the people receiving this bag of groceries (most which will feed an entire family for weeks) was full of genuine rejoicing. It made me think a lot about my work at Fareway and how we take so much for granted with our heaping cart of groceries bagged and taken out to the car for us... The gratitude these people showed was beautiful.

The past couple of nights I've been able to get to know more people on the team over dinner. Brett and Kristin (and their 6 month old daughter Sophia) invited me over for spaghetti Thursday evening and we went over for pizza and a movie at Carolyn and Susie's today. (Pizza Hut pizza is way better here, FYI.) Tomorrow is another tea house day and then I'll be spending the night with Ms. Fran and Abagail (a girl my age from TN) for her birthday. I'll get my first glimpse of a beach on Sunday!

All in all, I think culture shock has worn off pretty well and I'm settling in quite nicely. Please pray for the health of everyone while it heats up here thinking especially of the refugees who don't have a cool house or even water to revive them. (One boy, Ahmed, had to go to the hospital today and be put on oxygen...most likely from city living, etc. etc.) Pray for their perseverance.