A Thankful Parent

     I must admit, staying in a log cabin in a sports camp was not exactly what I had envisioned when I imagined a trip to Greece.  Perhaps a white stucco hotel with a charming terrace overlooking a sparkling azure sea and white sandy beach with little Greek fishing boats colorfully scattered about.  Maybe dining under a grapevine arbor while listening to a soft Greek melody from a nearby village was more what I had in mind!  And dinner, ah dinner would be served by ladies carrying sumptuous platters accompanied by a mandolin strumming old gentleman…What a shock when my daughter and I arrived with the BIP volleyball teams to summer camp in Loutraki.   
     Yes, that’s right, summer camp complete with faux log siding and bunk-filled cabins.  The charming terrace materialized into a porch overlooking the one and only washing machine for the whole camp and the soft melody turned out to be the throngs of children pouring from vehicles coming for day camps and the daily cat fights among the various ragged felines.  Instead of a lovely restaurant, we and the other campers took our plates down a line in a steamy, un-airconditioned cafeteria.    We opened the windows but that allowed more flies to invade.  My roommates (yes, 3 of them!) and I spent some time figuring out how we were going to manage to keep the water in the box with a drain that served as our bathroom shower and use a toilet without a toilet seat.  We managed pretty well if I might say so.  We discovered another shower in our cabin with glass doors that we could have sold tickets to and made quite a killing!  It was a rare commodity…Around the cantina table at night the other parents and I would share our stories.  We each had our own issues and we were all trying to be troopers.  
     But towards the end of the week I began to realize this trip was not about some imaginary picture of Greece reserved only for tourists.  This trip was about experiencing life like an ordinary Greek person-and getting to know and understand our hosts.  This trip was about watching our daughters work together as a team in every way.  It was about seeing our children interact with Greek athletes, sitting in a circle and learning from them about their life.  It was about seeing the coaches not only teach them the game, but teaching them to take responsibility for themselves—working diligently trying to figure out how to wash their laundry by hand, getting by on one towel, bunking up six girls per room and loving it.  Seeing them enjoy the rocky instead of sandy beach and happily plunge into the freezing sea.  Seeing them talk to the other Greek campers and attempt to communicate in their language.   Seeing them eagerly try new foods in the cafeteria—foods they would never have ordered off a menu in a tourist restaurant.  Watching parents and coaches have the best game of tennis ever with 4 broken youth rackets on a dilapidated tennis court—sharing more laughter than I have ever shared at the finest of clubs. 
     I began to forget about the lack of air-conditioning and the flies and the nightly cat fights.  My bed no longer felt so hard and I actually looked forward to the trip to the cafeteria.  I noticed the same from the other parents.  I realized that our shared “hardships” were an opportunity to bond with our fellow Americans and truly be grateful and humbled by all we are blessed with in our country.  This trip was an opportunity to share something with our daughters we could never have experienced had we been in the lap of luxury.  Yes, my trip to Greece was not what I imagined it would be.  It was more…way more.

Signed,
A thankful parent,
Loutraki, Greece—Summer 2007