I visited two seperate worlds yesterday. In the morning, we toured a refugee center, operated by the Catholic Church and a staff of volunteers. One hundred men, women, and children, all refugees are treated to one hot meal a day, food baskets, clothing, and English classes. They eat in shifts; the spotless dining room seats only fifty. The clothing and food pantries are neat and organized, much like a tiny Goodwill store. They are badly in need of shoes for men and I told BF if he could fit any extra shoes in his bag to bring them. A sweet, obviously over-worked social worker showed us the classrooms where we plan to teach an English class next Tuesday morning. They are terribly understaffed and welcome help. Should be an experience. I’m excited about it.

In the evening, I attended a reception hosted by the Hungarian ambassador to Greece. It was a showing of a private collection of paintings by an Hungarian artist in a swanky, ultra- modern furniture gallery. Beautiful people, dressed in their coolest show-off clothes stood in clusters amongst the fantastic paintings, sipping wine and chatting. At one point, the Hungarian ambassador called the group to order and two government officials made short speaches in Hungarian, which were repeated by a translater in Greek. I could not understand a word in either language, but it was cool.

The Hungarian ambassador and his wife are a charming couple. Their daughter is attending the Indianapolis campus this fall and the mom was relieved and thrilled when I promised to give her daughter my contact info and help her in any way that I could during her stay.

Interesting note: When I was on my field trip last week, I had taken a photo of a marble plaque at the canal that divides the Ionian and Agean Seas and Mrs. Ambasssador was telling me her husband was the one responsibe for that marker as a gift to Greece from Hungary. I told her I had seen it and photographed it. She beamed. I watched her as he addressed the crowd and she was obviously smitten. I liked her and they are a beautiful couple.

Last night as I fell asleep, I thought of the contrast. The two areas of town, the facilities, the people. Two different worlds and I had the opportunity to visit both. What a gift.