Olympia, Greece

In November we went on an 11 day cruise along the Mediterranean. I posted pics on facebook but for my mother's sake I need to put some pictures on here! I am so far behind that I am only posting a few pictures from each place and will try to document the most memorable parts. It may not be the kind of vacation details you would expect me to blog about so bare with me.

First stop, Olympia Greece

We raced at the first Olympic Stadium...Kaiyah beat me. In my defense, I had bad shoes!

As we drove to Olympia a very poor little girl and her mother came to my car window begging for money. No shoes, no teeth, cuts all over their face and hands. I am so ashamed I didn't pull over and get my back pack from the trunk and give them money. We continued as the light turned green and drove past what was likely their "home" where a few other families were. Cardboard huts. Dirt. Deserted. I said, "Girls look. That is where the little girl lives." Laney said, "Mom, we should give her food." "Yes Laney if we had any we should." As I returned to the boat that evening and stuffed my face of endless amounts of buffet food, I was disappointed in myself. Living in Berkeley I would pass homeless people everyday without giving them money. Occasionally, if I had food on me we would give them some. But we WERE poor and we didn't have much to give financially. Now is different. I find myself thinking sometimes, I don't want to give a homeless man money, he's likely to go buy beer. (I've thought this ever since I was a little girl visiting Key West when we offered a homeless man begging for money some food from Burger King instead. He laughed at us and said "No, I want a beer!" He was angry at us. That left an impact on me for a LONG time. I have learned it doesn't matter WHAT they spend that money on. I am not accountable for that. But I am accountable for passing by the poor and not giving freely. Olympia taught me that. A starving child of God, old or young, will not pass me by again.