Special Olympics at Agios Spiros

Monday March 28 2011

Special Olympics at Agios Spiros and other fun tasks

Our team assembled after breakfast early Monday morning and climbed into our bus for our trip up into the mountains to Agios or St. Spiros (agios is Greek for saint). Our bus driver, Nikos, skillfully maneuvered the lumbering coach up the winding, switchbacked road and squeezed it though the village of Krousounas, which is the closest town to the center. This would be our route for the next two weeks and I never tired of the mosaic of vineyards, orchards and lush farm fields with the rocky mountain peaks in the distance. The colors changed gradually from browns and greys to brilliant greens and yellows as spring took hold during our time there.

St. Spiros and view behind the center

The center is above the site of a former Monastery, now a convent, and was built 30 years ago by a Greek Orthodox priest to provide a place for mentally disabled people to get away from the noise and congestion of the city. His daughter is the current director and she greeted us at the door and gave us some background on their program. Our job would be to help the participants in making religious icons to sell in their gift shop and to get them to exercise through somewhat organized games. A graduate student (who was the heartthrob of many of the woman there as he could have been out of central casting for the role of “greek Adonis”) has been working with St. Spiros on his thesis project and comes up several times a week to direct the physical activity of the students and then monitor their progress.


Dapper George and Katerina... let the games begin

Nikos and his icon boards

George, Aphrodite and Yannis "working out"

We divided up into two groups and met our new friends while we worked with them on their projects. Here are just of few of the characters at St. Spiros: Dapper George, who likes to wear suits and read the paper; Katerina, who loves to sing and has a really good sense of rhythm; Aphrodite, who is a superb artist and unfailingly polite and generous; Yannis, a sweet young man who spent time in Canada and can carry on a limited conversation in English; Savros who loves to play basketball; and Nikos, who is very intent on his work (sanding the blocks of wood for the icons) and who doesn’t like anyone disturbing his production line. Having a brother with Down’s syndrome, I had no problem relating to our friends; it was like a whole bunch of “Ken’s” …only they all spoke Greek, which is not unlike Ken’s usual banter.

The graduate student "gym teacher"

Each volunteer selected a day during the two weeks to write for the team journals. I am including my journal and Peter’s, as they are both about our time at St. Spiros:

Global Volunteers Journal Entries

Monday April 4, 2011

by Laura Merriam

Service -- Fun -- Growth --Immersion

That was our discussion after dinner last night. After the first day of the second week at St. Spiros and we all agreed that we are scoring on all four team goals.

We arrived this morning to see all the smiling faces waiting for us. Peter got a bear hug from Mickael who then did a jump shot with anticipation of playing ball later. We set to work at our task of producing authentic antiquated religious icons while our Greek chorus watched and cheered us on. Having finished our quota for the day, we then could go and play, which our friends at St Spiros know how to do quite well.

A quick a game of pick up basketball ensued and Savros, who has really has perked up since last week, led the charge. Katerina and George joined in and Mickael recruited others while Peter managed turns at the basket. I ventured into the other icon craft room and Yannis looked at me with his soulful brown eyes and said in his Canadian English: "oh yes... I love to play ball". He jumped up and joined the crowd, which had increased to several groups playing various forms of ball with hoops and gym equipment in surprisingly organized fashion.

Besides getting our charges to move, many of our volunteers have been busy on various art projects which has resulted in a beautiful collage of drawings and paintings on what had been a drab blank wall. Peter has been taking portraits of each of the participants and we hope to have something put together before we leave. -- something we can give these beautiful people who have given us so much.

The serene drive through the valley and up into the mountains each morning to spend a few precious hours each day with our friends is just the icing on the cake (and we get way too much of that!). It has all been so enriching that I can't believe that anyone would consider this work.

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

by Peter Armstrong

“It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”

Hubert H. Humphrey

Traditionally, Global Volunteers has served the citizens of Crete in the dawn of their lives; helping to build an educational foundation that allows the children of Gazi a chance to become prosperous, involved and engaged members of a world wide society.

We can’t deny that Global volunteers draws from those of us who have “lost a step” or have more salt than pepper in our hair, a significant number of participants. We offer to share our life experiences in exchange for the benefit of unconditionally helping and contributing. Try as we might, we always come home having received more than we’ve given.

The Greek government seems to be in the background , while the Greek society and culture takes care of those in the twilight. Charlotte has been kind enough to lend us all an insight into the health care system, showing us a level of compassion and care for those of in need that many of us have sadly come to no longer expect from our own medical facilities in the United States.

During this fortnight we have been most privileged to see first hand at St. Spiro’s, how families, a church, dedicated teachers and a community take care of those of their own who are often kept in the shadows.

We’ve done our best, and although it seems small in the scope of the whole, but we hope it’s significant. Each day we lend a hand and hold a hand. We pitch in with our hearts and hands, our legs and our backs, and sometimes our brains. Our labors are to supplement and support-- we’re never tempted to take over an operation or activity, as one of the more experienced participants at St. Spiro’s is always ready to show the proper way to get a thing done. We’ve learned to manipulate paper, leather,wood, fire, water and pigment to make art. We have re-learned how important it is to have a useful contribution to a project be recognized, respected and valued. We know what we’ve always known, that we all have the need to be seen, to be listened to, to be loved. And that we all have the capacity to to value and try to understand and to love one another.

Tuesday was like the other days, Nikos ferried us in his coach up the mountain road, shoe-horned his immense bus in and out or Krousonas--twice. We exchanged smiles and kali-meras. We worked at our tables, toiling at our appointed tasks and instigating art. We played, we laughed. We shared a good and a real life. And then it was time for lunch.

Meeting our global volunteers team in Crete

Pat, Charlotte,Rose, Annee, Jackie and me

Nicki and Annee


Charlotte

Country Manager, Sam, and Willie

(Peter took all these picture so that's why he is missing!)

Meeting our Global Volunteers Team

I had wanted to do another Global Volunteers program since I went to Lima Peru for the organization in 2008. Global Volunteers is a non-profit volunteer organization, based in Minnesota, that has been offering volunteer vacation opportunities around the world for over 25 years: http://www.globalvolunteers.org/.

I believe it to be a well-run organization and I was quite happy with my Peruvian experience. I told Peter and our children that my college graduation present to each of them would be a Global Volunteers trip to wherever they choose. Peter got his diploma last May (after 37 years) so he is the first take me up on the offer. We chose Greece because it fit into my plans to go to Italy and we wanted to go somewhere warmer and greener than Minnesota in March. …and Crete looked fascinating and beautiful.

The team gathered on Sunday at the Hotel Handakas and made introductions: Sam Pinakoulaki is our County Manager and leader. Sam is a Brit who came to Crete 20 years ago while in a touring dance troupe. She stayed in Crete, married, learned Greek and produced five children, which has endeared her to her mother-in-law. She has fully adapted to the Greek way of life and is very well connected in the community. Our fellow volunteers hailed from all corners of the U.S., overwhelmingly female and over 60, with the exception of Nicki and Willy, a 40-something couple from Portland Oregon. So Peter wasn’t the only guy, at least for the first week and, while he and I were in between age-wise, our older fellow volunteers were definitely young-at-heart. Pat, a retired accountant from Memphis, is into month two of a fourth month sojourn that started in India and will conclude in South Africa via Egypt. Charlotte is a spry octogenarian from Ohio who has done countless volunteer projects all over the world, including working with Orangutans in Borneo. Rose, from Colorado, was the team’s water nymph, swimming almost daily in the still frigid Aegean Sea. Annee and Jackie were from New England (Maine and Boston) and were travelling together for the first time even though they had been friends for years.
Sam explained that our project for the next two weeks would be to work with mentally handicapped adults, ages 18-50 plus, at St. Spiros, a school up in the mountains about a half hour’s drive from our hotel. This had been rather hastily put together as a result of the ongoing teacher’s strikes, which made teaching English in the primary schools impossible. A University of Minnesota group had been at St. Spiros the week before us so Sam already had a good idea of the program and what would be expected of us. I would say Greece is about 50 years behind the U.S. (or at least Minnesota) when it comes to cultural acceptance of and support for those with disabilities. The physically and mentally disabled are not seen in public and are expected to be cared for by their families –out of sight, out of mind. There is no streamlining of the disabled into the schools or specialized job training, even though several of the people we worked with could have been fully employed with some support. The group at St. Spiros takes a rickety bus up to mountains every morning and works on craft projects that they then sell to keep the center going. Support for the center comes from a patchwork of sources, mainly private… very little from the government. Our task would be to help the overworked staff and participants with their crafts and with physical activity as the participants are all too sedentary.

Our list of team objectives in place, we are ready to meet our charges on Monday morning.

Our Global Volunteers Project in Crete

We flew to Crete from Athens on Saturday afternoon, March 26th, and found our way by bus to the Hotel Handakas in Amadoura, a beach town west of the main city of Iraklio and our home away from home for the next 2 weeks. The first thing you notice flying to Crete are the spectacular snow-capped mountains that rise up out of the ocean. The biggest Greek Island, Crete’s economy is fueled by agriculture (wine and olives), with tourism playing second fiddle. Its people are very welcoming but also fiercely independent and proud of their heritage, which they keep alive through music, poetry, dance and close-knit family traditions. Irakio, or Heraklion, (the spellings vary because it’s neither of these in Greek …more on that later) is Greece’s third largest city and, like Athens, it is noisy, dirty and congested with the same compliment of graffiti and feral animals. The beach town of Amadoura, about 3 miles to the west of Iraklio, is an non-descript strip of tourist shops, bars and hotels with a ratty looking beach that doesn’t seem inviting for swimming –the huge power plant at the far end a contributing factor.

Our first reaction to the boarded up store fronts, half finished buildings and deserted, litter-strewn streets was that the place had been hard hit by the down economy but then we discovered that the shop owners and innkeepers simply paper over their windows and lock the doors at the end of the beach season in October. Over our two weeks there, we saw a gradual transformation as the owners came back to ready their businesses for the onslaught of (mainly northern European) tourists starting in late May.

The other major reason for the lack of activity on the island during our stay was Lent. There is no live music during Lent so the tavernas and bars that were open were relatively subdued. The Greek Orthodox Church wields a mighty hammer and its influence is pervasive as witnessed by chapels and memorials at every corner. (more on that later too) April is nice time to visit Crete if you don’t like crowds and hot weather but it would have been fun to see a little more life. That said, the flowers and vines were just beginning to bud and it was wonderful to see the transformation from browns and greys to brilliant green over two weeks. It was really pretty cool most of the time we were there and the concrete slab buildings do not provide good insulation or soundproofing. I got really tired of my two fleece jackets by the end of our stay and Peter became quite proficient at laundering jeans and socks in the tiny washbasin in our room.

The family who owns the Hotel Handakas were welcoming and friendly and we really did feel like it was our home for the two weeks. The off season is very slow so they were quite grateful to have the global volunteers business and they worked hard to meet our needs even with limited English. Next post: our fearless leader Samantha and our global volunteers team.