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Greece service learning trip
  • Trey Topham

Greece service learning trip

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  • Trip start
    May 9, 2023
    Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Relaxing with Marteen and Dial-tone

    May 9, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Using the massage chairs with Martin and Dalton before we leave to London from Nashville! Accidentally bought a half hour of massages (this was a first for me [the massage, not accidentally overpaying for something], also the back massagers where great, but could barely feel the leg ones). This made us kinda rushed on the time when they were over when we went to go have BBQ at one of the airport restaurants. They called the whole team over the intercom and butchered just about everyone’s name and made us a little concerned. Lizzy was able to fix her ticket problem (name typo) and not have a problem with the rest of the flights. Definitely had a few scares when I left my bags with Martin and Dalton when I headed to BBQ before them and saw that they had left them, luckily they had Cierra watching all of ours.Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Where’s my phone?

    May 12, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    I have always been a massive fan of the ancient Greeks (though not the mythology oddly enough), but this day was finally the day that I would be able to go to the acropolis, the location of so many amazing stories… and I forgot my phone. The one place I was most excited for and I forgot my phone. Luckily Faith helped me out and took photos of me and for me to help me out for the day. There definitely was a nice benefit of not having to be distracted by my phone all day, but man, I would have taken so many more photos while I was here. Oh and it was super slick! Not sick, almost everywhere the ground was marble and had been worn down till it was as slick as ice! Being able to spend a few hours was definitely a major highlight of my trip!Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    I slept anywhere and everywhere

    May 12, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    So some friends thought it’d be funny to catch me sleeping, turns out they’re not bad at it. When we were on our way out of Athens to hope on the ferry to Aegina, we rode the metro and I was out cold. This was probably one of the most dangerous places as it has lots of pickpocketing rumors around it but luckily I had my friends watching me closely. The second photo happened on the way to the DFW airport and Cierra thought it would be funny to take a .5x photo of me while I slept, but ended up with this pretty creepy photo as I just happened to wake up at the exact same time.Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Difference in Service

    May 12, 2023 in Greece

    3) What about the service experience is different than the service we do on the team at home?

    There’s a lot that’s different from what we do back home. When working at the art gallery, the guts and I helped a good deal with the construction upstairs, and I’m quite certain that back home we probably wouldn’t be allowed to use the saws and power tools without signing a waiver of some sort. We happens lay the floor put up molding and trim, as well as sanding and painting. A few of those I would expect to do in freshman workday, but the saws probably not something allowed. All of us guys were very headstrong in working in construction, we wanted to get as much done as possible but the once Syrian refugee, now volunteer who was leading the construction held a very slow and relaxed pace that none of us guys were used to.

    Another big difference that shocked me was on our third day of service work we ended up having a picnic, and I thought to myself that there’s no way that a picnic that had already been prepared for us could possible be work, but I was wrong. We were there to help socialize with the refugees, we helped watch their kids and help them have a good time. I didn’t expect to gain anything from it but I ended up spending most of my time helping a refugee girl give out flowers to everyone and it sure made my day, if not the day of others.    Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    My Greek Leader

    May 12, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    4) Regarding the Greek leader that you researched, what did you learn while we were in the Greece that helped you understand him or her in more depth?

    Not once on this trip did I see any statue of my leader or anything named after him, but I did get to see some of the places and things that Pisistratus started in Greece. The first thing that we came across that was related to my elusive tyrant is the Panathenic stadium. While this stadium is not the original, and was excavated rebuilt in the 1860’s, it was originally made by Pisistratus for the Panathenic Games. These Panathenic Games were like the Olympics, but in Athens, yes I know such a big difference. They began in 566 BC and played every four years and continued till the third century AD.

    The other place that is closely tied to Pisistratus is the acropolis. When Pisistratus became tyrant of Greece, it was through him attacking and taking control of the acropolis (he did this two separate times). When we visited the acropolis
    we saw Parthenon, but back in 566 BC it would not have been there, so he was there before the ruins that we saw where even built!

    I was not able to learn anything more about Pisistratus while on this trip. I did find that there were a few roads named after him but we never visited the areas that were near there.    Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Meeting a leader in Greece

    May 12, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    5) Write about one Greek leader you have met on this trip: introduce him or her, describe the parts of the leadership system in relation to him or her, you might want to use the leadership system diagram to help you explain (this is not someone on our team travel group)

    While in Greece we met Kayra, who is the director for Love Without Boarders, a nonprofit that focuses on helping refugees in Greece. They provide housing for the refugees, an art gallery for the refugees to sell artwork, and a place to help the refugee children learn language skills and more. Kayra works as a flight attendant and travels the world, hosting pop-up art showcases where people can buy the art and have the proceeds go directly to the refugees.

    Her Leadership system would have her as the leader, the followers would be us and the French students that also volunteered to help her, the positive outcomes would be all the help that the refugees receive, whether that be housing, money, or skills. The contextual factors are number of refugees, the location of the art gallery, the number of volunteers helping, the lack of responsibility taken by the government, and people buying the art.

    I was able to learn from Kayra that anyone can make servant leadership work in their life, she is always traveling for work and uses that to her advantage with the art shows she sets up around the world, she practically works as a case worker for so many refugees, and teaches life skills to many of them. She shows that leadership needs to be flexible, it’s complicated but with enough hard work and devotion you can make it work.    Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    The context of greek leadership

    May 13, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    7) Talk about one contextual factor in the Greece leadership system and what you learned while we were in Greece that helped you understand that factor in more depth?

    One thing that I often heard and saw was about the Greek government system, it was being talked about by locals, by Kyra, by anyone. I heard from locals that the election were coming up in less than a week, going through the streets of Athens, I saw town halls where there were candidates talking about whatever they were supporting. At a hotel on Aegina when stoping to go to the bathroom I learned that those running for parliament only had to get 3% of the vote to become elected. Everything the locals were doing seemed to be connected to the government elections.

    While there was so much going on with the government, I learned from Kyra how little the government did for refugees. I learned of the camps at the boarder that the government did nothing about, that it was volunteers that took
    them food. That these refugees never saw any help from the government that promised to take care of them. I saw that the Greek government system lacked any sort of proactive measures, and only acted on immediate problems for the country as a whole.

    The system that Greek government uses lacks many of the main leadership practices that we use.    Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Learning about myself

    May 13, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    10) What kind of influence did this trip have on you as a leader?

    During our third day of service work, we changed it up and instead of working at the art gallery we went to a park in Athens and had a picnic. Our picnic was prepared by the French students that had been helping the director of the gallery, Kyra (I think this is how you spell it). This picnic wasn’t just for fun but we were there to help take care of the refugees’ children that we had be helping at the gallery. At the art gallery I had spent my time helping with construction, and had avoided the refugees simply because I was scared and lack confidence working with kids (especially since we don’t speak each other’s language). But at the picnic I didn’t have the construction as an escape. There were more of us than there were refugees so I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to interact with them, but Cierra introduced me to this little girl that was probably only 7-8, and she stuck to me, would t leave my side all afternoon. We played tag at first and had some fun but then she wanted me to pick her up so I did. I let her guide me where she wanted to go and she took me to the nearby flowers. She was wanting to pick them so I helped her. She would then lead me around to the nearby ladies and we gave them the flowers. We went back and picked more and handed them out. We did this over and over and it felt like a hundred trips by the time we had to leave. She was kind to everyone and she trusted me. She was not scared to give to these strangers she had never known. This whole time I had been scared to work with these kids, but helping her share kindness to everyone at the picnic was by far the best part of my time in Greece. She helped me grow, she showed me that kindness takes confidence, that language doesn’t stop how we treat each other, that leaders need not be afraid of the unknown.Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Going to the Library

    May 14, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Went to Hadrians Library with Dalton and Cierra during our free time at Plaka. This was just a few feet away from all the busy tourists shops, and only €3 (probably the cheapest thing there)! We enjoyed walking through and being so close to all the ancient ruins (there were even large shards of ancient pottery just sitting there that anyone could have picked up and take)! We saw a turtle and a cat wandering around, and some heart patterned mosaic floors. Dalton and I definitely attempted to read many of the Ancient Greek on the marble slabs that looked like they would have been used for construction.Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Another contextual factor! Punctuality

    May 14, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    8) AGAIN-In regard to the contextual factors, talk about one (which of course is not the one you just talked about) and what you learned while we were in Greece that helped you understand that factor in more depth?

    Greece is laid back, way much more so than I would have ever thought, there was only one time on this whole trip that I saw a Greek in a rush. Being able to understand that punctuality is not important at all in Greece helps realize that over in America it’s not a bad idea to slow down and take a break every now and then. The Greeks treat the morning with a long and slow coffee at a local bakery that usually last an hour and a half, and that around 2-4 pm they just seemed to disappear, I guess you could call this their “siesta” but they do t have a name for it! Often when doing service work or having plans to go some where it felt as if leaving 15 minutes after you were supposed to arrive was normal for everyone over their and that if something came up, your plans could change on a dime. This happened to us on what should have been our last day of service work but Kayra and the other volunteers for Love Without Boarders decided to not do any work on Sundays. Plans changed and we were late to many things but that doesn’t matter over their when no one cares about punctuality. (oh and the one time the Greeks were rushed was when the commercial ferry that was to take us back to Athens was late and stopped by drop people of and left for another island within a minute).    Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Hike to the church on the hill

    May 14, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    On our first night in Aegina, Nathan, Coye, Devon, and I decided to hike up the hill behind our villa and have a little photoshoot at the top. There was this tiny beautiful church at the top that was clear used that morning, and we felt like kings of the world on this hill. I was a bit unlucky and leaned a bit too far and had my sunglasses fall down the cliff side. Everone thought they were gone, but I was determined to get them back so I rock climbed-ish down the side and spent way to long looking, but after about 20 minutes I found them!Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Cards cards cards

    May 14, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Nearly every night at the villa in Aegina I was playing cards. During these times was where Lizzie and I’s friendship really grew. We played many games, including Gin, the game of Mau, war, Egyptian rat slap, and more. Sometimes others would joins us, sometimes Mal, Faith, Dalton, and a few more I don’t recall. Definitely stayed up too late on these night and sometimes a bit to loud for everyone else.Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Morning walk to the church on the hill

    May 15, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Left around 7:20 am to go look for some aloe plants, and met a few friends on the way. First passed by some roosters crowing at the morning sun and the dogs that chased my away from a Yaya they were protecting. Finished the climb up and took a few photos of the sea and the church, then tried to pick the plant that I thought was aloe, turns out, it was not aloe so the sunburns will burn just a little bit longer. Headed back down and found a tiny lizard and a black cat, passed by the Yaya’s house and the dogs came up and greeted me kindly so i pet them and game them a good scratch. Picked a flower while up there and let one of the dogs pose with it.Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Holy Church of Saint Nectarios

    May 16, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    6) Describe one act of a servant leader that you have witnessed in Greece (not exclusive to our team travel group but could be someone in our team travel group) Rode her with Martin on a Scooter, he offered to take me without me asking. He spent his time helping me to get here. If Martin hadn’t helped I’d be fifty euros poorer. He went out of his way to help me. Martin’s kindness enabled me to go and experience a unique and beautiful area of Aegina that is full of Byzantinian beauty.

    We got to the church and walked around absorbing the beauty of the Greek Orthodox faith. Martin had to leave me and I was left to explore the rest on my own. I walked up the long and winding ramp just to find that I could not enter because I was wearing shorts and the day are not allowed. I turned around and met this nice man who was selling incense, icons, and jewelry, we had a short conversation due to the language barrier but he helped me find clothes so that I would be able to enter into the monastery. On my way up the ramp for the second time I met a Father and he helped me put on the garment. His name was Father Lupos, he was lighthearted and happy, not at all what I was expecting (considering the very reverent feel of the monastery). There is too much to describe the monastery and it keep it short it was full of beautiful flowers and Icons everywhere you look with the aroma of incense and candles.    Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Flowers

    May 16, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Flowers. I saw lots and lots of flowers while in Greece, I saw them at the church of Saint Nektaros, at our villa, on our picnic. Flowers were everywhere in Greece. I knew I wasn’t able to get my mom flowers for Mother’s Day, so I sent her just about every flower I saw on this trip.Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Temple of Aphia

    May 17, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    This was one of the last places we went on our tour of Aegina. It was amazing how on this trip we were able to get so close to these ancient ruins, it really was so much different than anything I’ve seen in the US. If there where any ruins like this in the US they’d all be roped off and sign’s every saying do not touch we were able to be there and touch and feel the ancient marble that would was apart of the temple. I was really looking forward to see this temple, but at this point in the trip I think I had seen enough ruins that they felt normal at this point.Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Churches and churches

    May 17, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    9) Kouzes and Posner suggest exemplary leaders should "treat every job as an adventure." What have you learned about how to do this on this trip?

    This little adventure lead us around the island of aegina, we had a tour guide that was a local who had lived there for around 30 years (so she knew the island well). We went to this inland hill where the inhabitants of the island used to live before the modern Greek government was set up and pirates roams the coasts. At this hill there were a rumored 365 churches but only 33 still standing. Our tour guide showed us that while exploring this hill we were able to collect the Byzantine pottery shards that we found and we were able to become “archaeologists”. While we were only touring that day, we were able to see that our tour guide wasn’t just working but showing us that we could have an adventure and help preserve pieces of history of Aegina. I don’t think there’s a single place in America that would encourage tourists to become “archeologists”, but here on this island across the world we were able have an adventure. While we might not have been working, our tour guide was able to show us that encouraging others to have fun and be productive whenever they can helps.Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Trying new drinks

    May 18, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    2) What about being in Greece area is a new experience for you?

    While in Greece I tried plenty of new drinks, of first was a cappuccino that Cheryl Martin bought for everyone one of the mornings. Surprisingly, it was the very first time a had a cup of coffee (I have tried coffee before but have never had an actual cup of it). Throughout the trip I also tried espresso shots, I had about one ever morning at the Villa Archangelos. I am not normally a person to drink caffeine at all so I had a plan to go with out it while at the 10 hr layover in London so I would be able to fall asleep and sleep hard but that doesn’t seem to be working as it is currently 12am in London and I’m writing this footprint. Also another drink that I never had before that I got to try was a Heineken, which is a interesting story of how I got it. We were leaving Plaka after spending the morning there and there were these ladies that were just handing them out for free (they had Heineken shirts so I think they were promoting it) but they tried to hand it to me and I originally refused but then they said free and the Mennonite in me came out and I couldn’t refuse anything that’s free (Martin would get that joke).Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    How Do I Want To Grow

    May 25, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    1) What are you hoping to learn about yourself as a leader on this trip?

    Before this trip, I was uncertain about how it would impact me, I had never been outside of the country, I had never had to deal with language barriers. I didn’t know what to expect, sure we I had gone through the Greece class and learned about the culture, but I knew experiencing it would be completely different. I want to learn how to overcome these differences as a leader. Going in relatively blind to an experience like this, I knew I didn’t have the skills for this. So being able to learn about interacting and working with others that do not speak like me or think like me is an important skill that I need to learn on this trip to be able to use when I’m in similar situations later in life.Read more

  • Trey TophamGreece service learning tripTraveler

    Scooter oopsie

    May 26, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Well there was a bit of an accident, some serious injuries were had but no one went to the hospital (maybe they should have). So this accident happened when Martin was helping me out by taking me back from my day alone at the monastery at Aegina. I had stared walking back after Martin texted me that he was on his way, and I made it about a mile before we met. He drove me down to the fishing town where we meet up with some of the other travelers and explored a bit. We left and went to this beachside restaurant for lunch and got some appetizers and had an amazing conversation that lasted well over an hour. We left and my helmet was stuck in the seat and I didn’t have my helmet and it started raining. We ended up deciding to stop and fill up on gas and I was able to get my helmet out there. We headed off after the top off and when going around a curve on a road only one car wide we were unable to see the car coming out way and we had to move off the road before being hit, and that’s when we wiped out. I was able to get up and walk away with only a small scrape on me knee but Martin had his leg and arm torn up a bit and the bike fell on his ankle. Almost no damage happened to the bike besides the right mirror breaking off. Later we found out that Martin had broken a bone in two spots. We were lucky that nothing more serious happened.Read more

    Trip end
    May 18, 2023
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