What happened on November? First I have to say that the first day of the month Maria, my Greek German teacher friend, took me to swim before the class in Perea and it was nice. However, I don’t think this is something you can do everyday (like one of the Afgan boys was doing) since it’s easy to get a cold.
An important matter is that we didn’t go so much to the sports in Thessaloniki due to the fact that most of the boys were tired of the hours in bus from the shelter and we were feeling unmotivated after one of the days we went there the coach was sick and even if I went to Arsis center while the guys were waiting they didn’t want to open the school. We started doing our own thing not only in orden to not suffer from it or weather inconveniences again but also because three Greek girls joined the volleyball that we prepared among us in Perea beach so we stayed in our area. If we had more resources or more attention from Arsis we also could have taken our guys to the International Film Festival but at least I went to see an Italian movie with Alice and Greek friends of my Spanish friend Isa.
Then, on one Sunday I tried to organize something special for Alex birthday. It was kind of an adventure to her favorite nearby beach called Agia Triada, and I’m happy because even tho we were late and most of the guys left for football it was worthy to go with the ones that waited. We also shared music and dances the following week thanks to Gerasimos that invited us to the day of the children in an Arsis center and we (I mean Perea guys) were kind of the spirit of the party 🙂
A really emotional part is approaching now… As I’ve written in previous reports, we have to say goodbye a lot and we go on since the dynamics have to change but we should be happy this isn’t the end, just their lives continues in other places. All the people are important but I have to point that it’s even more difficult when we have a special connexion like the one with a guy of the shelter from Bangladesh (that’s also why voleyball has never been the same without our Perea captain), a family from Afganistan or my italian flatmate. From the beginning we knew someday was going to happen but when it actually did it made a big impact specially on Alex and me since at the end of the month we had to experience going to the shelter everyday without our joyful friend Alice. Before she left back to Italy we went with Maria to a lake full of swans; with Maggi, Stavrula (our Greek teacher) and Isa (who also left back to Spain because of the university inefficiency) to our favorite cafeteria in Ano Poli called Little big house; she took me to an Italian restaurant to prove that what I call “Carbonara” has nothing to do with the real pasta and I prepared with Alex and the boys a treasure hunt in the city where we gave her our card full of love in our photos and comments. I still feel her in my heart and it will remain like this for a long time since she was one of the most important people that I’ve met in Greece, we shared a lot (I even made my third tattoo here so now the three of us have the same star on us) and I will always remember and appreciate her presence, friendship and support.
