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Greece service learning tripGreece service learning trip
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  • TravelerGreece service learning trip
    Day 1

    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

  • TravelerGreece service learning trip
    Day 4

    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

  • TravelerGreece service learning trip
    Day 4

    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

  • TravelerGreece service learning trip
    Day 4

    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

  • TravelerGreece service learning trip
    Day 4

    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

  • TravelerGreece service learning trip
    Day 4

    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

  • TravelerGreece service learning trip
    Day 5

    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

  • TravelerGreece service learning trip
    Day 5

    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

  • TravelerGreece service learning trip
    Day 6

    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

  • TravelerGreece service learning trip
    Day 6

    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

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