Despite all the wonderful things I’ve seen and done and eaten, a big highlight of my time so far was my long awaited first day in the Threads of Hope office on Monday. The morning started off with a beautiful sunrise, a light breakfast and being a (slightly amused) spectator to my host family’s daily routine of getting their three children off to school.
Shortly after breakfast, I took my first Greek metro with my host family’s mom, who works in the Nea Zoi office down the hall from the Threads of Hope workroom. Our first stop was for coffee at Coffee Island, the Greek equivalent to Starbucks in the States – except with shockingly better prices (my giant cup of coffee was about 2 euros as opposed to a $4+ Starbucks Venti!) I’ve never been much of a coffee drinker, but it’s a big staple in Greek culture, and with these prices, I may just end up converting 
Since I was a little early to work, I got a chance to take a tour of the Nea Zoi office before heading into the workroom. While Threads of Hope is its own entity, it is closely connected with Nea Zoi through their shared purpose and a few board members both organizations have in common. One of the biggest connection between the two organizations is the women who work at Threads of Hope, some of whom have been rescued from exploitation through the help of Nea Zoi and in many cases, still receive counseling support from the organization’s staff members. As of right now, there are five girls employed at Threads of Hope, due to their budget and the size constraints of their current building. The hope is that they will be able to acquire a larger space and the funding to allow them to hire more women within the next few months.
Once Cecilia, the director of Threads of Hope arrived, I headed down the hall and spent some mentally prepping for the workday with her and Ellen, a fine arts graduate from Canada who is just starting her second stint in Greece working with Threads of Hope. After sitting in on a devotional segment with the workers at 9 led by Cecilia, I jumped right in and helped Ellen with patterning the Weekender bag, a new style being added to the current collection! The short 9-2 workday is a bit of a blur, but my time mostly consisted of working on bag patterns, troubleshooting unthreaded machines, and observing workroom activities. As the workday came to a close, I got the chance to pick out a fabrics for production of the Weekender, which was equal parts exciting and terrifying! (I’ll hopefully be able to get pictures up soon, and opinions are welcome!)
After work, my host family’s mother and I headed out to the coast for lunch at The House Project – probably the most artsy and unique restaurant and cafe I’ve ever seen. Complementing the traditional seating areas are multiple fun spaces inside are set up to look like rooms in a house – for example, a library, playroom, etc.
If the indoor spaces don’t suit your fancy, you can also opt for outdoor seating which just so happens to be right on the beach with an amazing view of the islands and mountain ranges nearby.
My favorite indoor room was probably the library, complete with Greek books, open shelving, and computers.
For lunch, I went with fries with pork fillets in ouzo and plum sauce that was really to die for. Between the views, the environment, and the food, I know I’ll be back more than once this summer and get the feeling it might end up being my go-to hangout spot!
The rest of the day was pretty low key and I capped off the evening with a game of card Monopoly (not the torturous board game) with the kids and another couple episodes of our favorite Greek reality show with their parents over a platter of cheese and nuts with before heading to bed!
Twenty-One Travels 