When in Greece, Bake Bread

A couple of days ago, a few huggers held a secret meeting in order to organize a beach bonfire to break away from the monotony of the nightly movie routine. The next night that plan was successfully put into action. Although people were skeptical of the plan, the group bundled up against the cold and hiked down to the beach. After a little difficulty, Nathan got a good fire going despite the chilly sea winds. We all huddled together and took turns telling stories. Eventually Steven began shuttling people back to Artemis. When the group had dwindled to about 10 remainders Josh suggested singing, so we gathered closely around the diminishing fire to sing songs to the Lord. My favorite, as always, was “Do not fear.” It gave me chills as our voices echoed across the vast Aegean. As we were singing our last song, two men, a teenager and middle-aged man, walked up and asked us where we were from. It turned out they were from a church in Florida and doing a mission trip in Porto Rafti. 

A few days later I woke up to a pitch black room at 5:00 a.m. After meeting Kelcey we walked down the dark rainy street to the … bakery. Kelsey introduced me to Zoe, the beautiful young counterworker. We then headed to the back of the shop where Thanassis, a large Greek man with a sweet face and warm smile, let us watch him bake the bread. Him and his 23 year old assistant, Leonitas, used a bathtub-sized mixer to mix the different types of dough. They then, almost mechanically, proceeded to knead, slice, and shape the dough into all different forms of delicious breads. Zoe was the only one of the crew who spoke English, but Theo and Leonitas joked around with us in Greek. Even though Kelsey and I did not have a clue what they were saying, we had a good time laughing and watching them fill the enormous wicker baskets with warm bread. Theo insisted that Zoe made coffee for us, and then welcomed us to our choice of baked goodies (we choose cinnamon cookies for breakfast, like good healthy Americans). Zoe even taught us a few Greek names for the food. For instance, the little spinach filled pastries are called “spanakopita”. At 7:00 we finally said our farewells to the warm crew and made our way back to the Artemis to set up breakfast for the rest of the group.