Written by OEs, Rachael & Adam
Yasus Terra friends, family, & fans! OE’s Adam and Rachael here writing with an update. We can’t believe it has almost been a week since the group united for the first time in NYC. We went straight into a loooooong journey from JFK to Amsterdam to Athens to Crete to a two hour drive to our destination. We arrived in stormy rain and cold wind around 3 in the morning to our destination, the mudhouses!
Our host Xeno was waiting up for us, he had pre-warmed the houses and we all gratefully made our way to bed. We woke in the morning to a cold, sunny day and a view from the mountain of the Mediterranean. We cooked a brunch for the group of eggs, toast, greek yogurt, fruit, granola, coffee & tea. We enjoyed our first morning together grounded in daylight and good food rather than the wasteland of international airports and various time zones.
We are staying in sweet little huts in the village of Agios Ioanis. It is an old village that was abandoned in the 70’s and has been slowly and seasonally reclaimed by artists and expats making for a sparse and quirky community. There are lemon trees growing around, steep stone staircases, many many cats wandering around, and abandoned buildings exist beside working ones. It is a very small area full of winding pathways and steep routes, easy to get turned around!
We jumped straight into orientation activities, setting the stage for the months to come. What do we want to be like as a community? What are we going to be doing? What does it mean to be a responsible traveler? Setting goals and expectations, having deep discussions, playing games, and getting to know each other.
We also hiked the mountains around us to a small, sweet church where we could see the Mediterranean from both sides and snowy peaks in the distance. We lit candles and chatted with Xeno about all things Greek. We visited a local beach and our brave students completed their swim test in ice cold water. We spent a blissful afternoon walking on the beach and exploring an abandoned hotel. We also took some time for movement, intention setting, and intentional alone time with art and soft music.
Mid way through the week we are transitioning from orientation activities to Greek culture and language studies, archeology, pottery, learning about olive agriculture, and local sustainability practices shared with us by local farmers, artists, and archeologists. What a community we have jumped into! We look forward this week to baking bread, making pottery, getting our hands dirty with archeology and farm work, and picking our contacts brains!
Throughout this busy week we have been nourished by Christina at the local taverna with traditional Greek home cooking mostly from local farms and gardens with feta and yogurt made from milk from the herd of the local shepherd, sugared phyllo pastries for dessert, and many fresh and delicious veggie and meat dishes!
Now that we have had a few days to get to know these smart, funny students we are so excited to guide them through this adventure. The next voices you will hear on this blog will be from the students themselves! We hope these descriptions have eased your aching hearts of missing your adventurous children knowing they are exhausted, engaged, and nourished physically, mentally, and spiritually!
(More photos coming soon! But a few to give you a sense of where we are….)
