More White Stuff

Last month, whilst our friend Susannah was visiting (she who took the new ‘profile’ pic and all but the above photo in this post), we had a lot of snow. Since the snow (for the last three weeks) it has been nothing but blue skies and brilliant sunshine all the way. So, we enjoyed the snow whilst it lasted (two days of snowfall and about three of melting – the snow out of the sun took a surprisingly long time to melt)!

Joel and Jonathan built Micah on our downstairs balcony. Hannah named him. Her ‘namings’ are limited to a handful of significant influences (apologies if you’re not one of them): most of her dolls and toys are called Lucie (only female cousin), Elena (biggest female friend at church), Zoë, Micah (Pratt kids – they live in ‘our house’ in Beeston) or Chloë (friends’ baby who we spent time with over the summer) or after some film character. The dogs are mostly called Monty (Chloë’s family’s dog) or Molly (after the Barlows from Beeston’s lovely dog…). ANYWAY, Hannah has ‘immortalised’ these significant influences in her ‘namings’. This is an indication both of her desire to remember friends in the UK but also her lack of real attachment to many friends here in Athens, yet. So, please pray with us that our kids will feel more and more settled and attached to friendships here. Obviously, we want them to feel MOST attached to heavenly things so we pray that their ‘alien-ness’ will remain in the right way.

Joel and Jonathan with Micah the Snowman

Micah the Snowman the morning after

Micah the Snowman two days later still

Hannah and I built Stevo (named after the real-life Micah’s Dad) in the Plateia (square) up the hill from our house (opposite our local Starbucks, if you’ve been here). There were a lot of people out and about enjoying the snow, especially as most had nowhere to go – all schools and universities and many businesses were closed.

Hannah and I with Stevo the Snowdaddy

Here are some other photos of us in the snow...

Since we've no place to go ... let it snow ...

Outside of the gates of Hannah's School.
Not sure Hannah was prepared for that particular snowfall!

Esther and I, NOT at a Ski Resort - honestly!

STOP PRESS! I've just worked out how to get our youtube videos onto the sidebar. So, click away on the snowman to see more snow footage. You could also go to the youtube site: http://www.youtube.com/clarkenfeld
and see the videos played BIGGER!

You’ll be pleased to know that we’re now back to eating outside in Plateias and enjoying the sunshine!

Balkans Staff Consultation

I went to Belgrade in mid-Feb for the Balkans Staff Consultation. Jonathan had been to the Consultation the previous two years, so it was good for me to go and meet folk. The conference was at a Bible School on the outskirts of Belgrade for the third time in a row.

There were General Secretaries, Staff and Volunteers representing almost every movement in South-East Europe (we missed Albania and Cyprus). It was great to meet people with the same vision even if their backgrounds and situations are quite different. Historically the Balkans region was united under the rule of the Ottoman Empire from the mid-15th Century until the 1830s. All but Greece, Cyprus and Turkey were behind the Iron Curtain until about 20 years ago and many of the national movements were part of Yugoslavia back in the day. Almost all of the countries are dominated by Orthodoxy (excepting Croatia – Catholic and Bosnia, Turkey, and to a greater extent Albania – Muslim). I was struck by the resulting similarities and differences. Some of these were really obvious: the former Yugoslavian states (along with Bulgaria) have sufficient common language to be able to communicate with each other (to the exclusion – not intentional – of Romania, Turkey and Greece). The legacy of communism and the impact of the wars of the last 20 years in many of these states has put these countries in such sharp contrast to places like the UK, and even Greece, where democracy was restored more than 30 years ago.

Ministry in these nations is tough-going and the lovely people I met have been through a lot personally and in their nations. This made me realise that I’m not only a Southern Softie (I'm from the South of England) but also a Western one (a Western Weakling?!)… As I said in the prayer letter, many of these nations are keen to find both foreign and national staff. There are pioneering opportunities as well as established situations. Please pray with us. And, if you’re interested in a post or know someone who is/should be interested, just let me know!

A bit of white stuff

Well, we're still not really getting into regular updates but we have a few things to write about and here's something for starters.

Between Christmas and New year we spent a few days in the mountains of the Peloponnesos in a lovely apartment complex. Turned out that it was owned by a good friend of some of our friends from church in Athens, so it was good to make some links there. We liked the apartment and the location so much that we'll be back.

It was in a lovely gorge, not far from the main ski resort in southern Greece and part of the plan was to see some snow, which we did by driving quite high up to the ski slopes. For much of the winter the snow hangs around much lower down but there'd been a few warm days so it was really only the ski runs themselves which had snow.

Anyway, we got a toboggan for a few euros for one of the days. Joel and I headed into the mist for a bit of zooming down the hill (Hannah lasted a few minutes before getting too cold) while Dawn had to stay in the (hired) car with a sleeping Esther. We hadn't agreed where to meet up when our fun was over so Dawn texted me let me know the girls were awake and ready to head back to Kalavrita town for lunch. The only problem was I'd left my specs in the car, not wanted to crush them in any toboggan/cliff disasters that Joel and I might have had. You may know that I really need them for reading, being longsighted, and I couldn't make a single thing out on the text.

I've never been particularly bothered about the ageing process but this tickled me. My wee five year old had to read the text aloud to me. A healthy reminder of mortality.



As Joel and I were alone on the slope it was a bit tricky to get decent footage of his intrepid sledding. I considered just letting him go and filming 'til he disappeared from sight, but opted instead to get him to hold the brake until I was a bit downslope then hope he could steer straight into me. Have a look at the short clip. For a few seconds just before this was taken the fog vanished, revealed a stunning, sparkling mountainside. We'll be back, making sure we get some clear days. (The photo on our last prayer letter was of this mountain from afar).

There's other stuff to blog about that short trip which hopefully we'll get round to in the next couple of days, including a little-known but moving WW2 episode from the town of Kalabrita itself.

Christmas Celebrations Part 2

So, below is the Sunday School Christmas Celebration. We'd had real trouble trying to get there (We'd decided to hail a taxi rather than get the bus/metro because it would be 'easier' but then found that there were no taxis free. We caught a bus and tried to get a taxi from the centre, which also took AGES!) and arrived 10 minutes before the start, and therefore 20 minutes late! As a result we bustled the kids into the back room where the others were and they were not interested in putting on angel robes and performing. They'd been quite reluctant in rehearsal, so we probably should have anticipated the outcome. It was a bit frustrating though. We decided to stay and watch proceedings. So, here are a few clips edited together to give you a flavour of the Sunday School production and Joel and Hannah's contemporaries' role in it.

Christmas Celebrations Part 1

Kαλή Χρονιά! Happy New Year! I can’t believe it’s been nearly two months since we last blogged – so much to say, so little time…
So, first of all, an update of Christmas. Term finished for all of us on 21 December and we had a few Christmas celebrations to attend around that time. Hannah’s school had a little Christmas party just for the kids, whilst Joel’s school had a presentation. He had been given a poem to recite and was to play a baker in the little Christmas skit (no lines, just a bit of movement to music with all the other kids), I say ‘was’. He wasn’t up for doing any of it, as it turned out. He had learnt the poem and we were all looking forward to the little performance, but as we entered the school he didn’t want to go in, didn’t want to get into his ‘costume’, didn’t want to take part at all. He’s quite a literalist, our Joel: he won’t ‘role-play’ for long and generally insists on being ‘just Joel’ (not a dog, or a lion, or a shopkeeper, or Super-Joel!). I’ve edited together some of the high- and low- lights of the afternoon… I think it speaks for itself.







I’m also putting together a similar video of the Sunday School Christmas celebration at church (which saw both Hannah and Joel opt out of being angels on the night of the performance!), so that will be on soon too, with a bit of background writing by me! Jonathan is going to put something on here about our Christmas Day celebrations (all good) and our time away in Καλάβριτα (Kalavrita) (which was also good!)… Needless to say there are issues with Joel in terms of his confidence at school (and also his behaviour – more about that another time), and we’d value your prayers for us, for wisdom and love in knowing how to help him, and especially for him, thanks.

Joel and Hannah at School

Having written an update on our progress in language class it seems only right to update you on the kids’ progress at school. I’ve uploaded some videos to our facebook group: Greece Is The Word – Clarks in Athens (see link on the left!). So, here’s a little taster of Hannah and Joel’s school experiences – purple for Hannah and dark blue for Joel.

Joel’s school starts at 8.15. He’s there for 4 hours and the day usually begins with drawing. He never really liked drawing and he still opts out of that activity sometimes. He likes drawing his family and Spongebob Squarepants!

The school is a Νηπιαγωγείον (Nipiagogeion), a compulsory pre-school for 5-6 year olds and optional for 4-5 year olds which is run by the state. Greek school intakes run on calendar years but the academic year is the same as the UK. SO, children start ‘proper’ school the September of the year they turn six. In Joel’s case, then, he’ll start September 2008, just over a month before he turns six. Instead of being one of the oldest in his year (like in the UK), he’ll be one of the youngest as his class will be full of kids born from Jan – Dec 2002.

The school is only 400 (Clarkie) paces from our front door and is at the bottom of an apartment building. There is a yard out the back where the children are able to run around. The two classrooms are small but big enough for the 15 or so kids in each class. It is very close to the primary school, where he will go next year, so we expect that most of his class will go up with him.

He is friends with Emilio, Dimitri, Panagiotis, Maikis and Yezan. His teachers are Kyria Litsa, Kyria Sonia and Kyria Maria (they job-share). Kyria Litsa, who we’ve had most contact with, says that Joel is very clever but he needs to learn to listen more and talk less. (Honestly, even in a Greek context his school reports are the same as his mother’s were back in the late 70s!)

He’s enjoying it and looks forward to going. Jonathan usually drops both kids off on the way to uni and both at the beginning and the end of every school ‘day’ there are plenty of “Γειά σου”s (“Ya sou”s: Hi and bye!) being exchanged! Joel is known as Τζοέλ, Jo-el, at school – sadly, it seems the Bible Greek version of Joel, Ιωήλ, isn’t well-known or used.

He is making some progress in Greek but we’re aware that his lack of language is impeding full involvement in the class. He has learnt to read in English over the past few months (started with Kate, some with me but mostly self-taught) and has been teaching himself (mostly) to read Greek since late September. Slowly, slowly he’ll pick it up, hopefully before he starts ‘proper’ school next September.

Hannah is also enjoying school. She’s definitely found the whole culture-shift very tiring. When we first moved here, 10 months ago, she had dropped her mid-afternoon nap months before. Since we’ve been here she probably naps 4 out of 7 days a week and she’s definitely been more tired since she started school.

Hannah’s school is a Παιδικός Σταθμός (Paidikos Stathmos), literally a Child’s Station. It operates both as a private nursery and as a Νηπιαγωγείον and is run by the Borough Council. If we weren’t students, we would have to pay. It’s up the hill towards the university and is set in its own grounds with two well-equipped playgrounds. It’s open from about 7 til 3ish, so Hannah could go for all that time and take a packed heatable lunch, but she goes from 830ish til 12ish daily.

Hannah also has three teachers: Vaso, Stella and Kyria Stavroula. We THINK that Vaso and Stella are the helpers and KS is the qualified one! Anyway, Vaso is Hannah’s favourite. She also has some friends: Benny (maybe Penny?) and Fay are the girls and a boy called Aphrodite (which is NOT a boy’s name – his REAL name is Evripides: Euripides, but that’s a bit tricky for H). There are about 15 kids in her class too aged 3 and 4.

We’re not really sure how she gets on from her perspective. Kyria Stavroula told Jonathan the other day that Hannah was doing fine and that she’s beginning to learn and will learn quickly. She was very enthusiastic and warm about her.

We know that Hannah is much shyer and more reticent outside of the house, and even more so away from us. We're not quite sure what to do about that, if anything. We pray that she'll be growing in confidence about who she is and be able to find her voice outside of the house!

Language Learning is tough...

It's over a month since we re-started our language study at the university. We thought we'd take a moment to describe our classes and how we're getting on. I'll be writing in navy blue and Jonathan will write in maroon.

In some ways I've pretty much picked up where I left off last year. My lessons are still between 3pm and 6pm but are now every day. This is the least popular time of the day for the language course, so there are only 4 classes: 2 beginners, 1 intermediate and 1 advanced. I'm VERY glad that I was 2 points off being in the advanced class as I've found the intermediate class enough of a struggle.

There are about 17 of us in our class and almost all have lived in Greece for at least 2 years, most more like 10. Consequently most people can speak quickly and understand most of what is said at whatever speed it is spoken. Most are in the class in order to improve their job prospects as, although they can speak quite well, they know very little Greek grammar and struggle to spell. (Did you know there are at least 5 ways to write the sound 'ee' in Greek? We have endless questions about this as people begin to see and spell words they have been hearing and using for years.)

I felt like I was, once again, drowning in language at the beginning: not understanding most of what was discussed but understanding all of what was taught. As a result of this and my previous experiences of Greek language learning I enjoyed the grammar parts of the lesson and the exercises (when I understood the words!) but completely shied away from speaking and didn't ask questions when I didn't understand. I spent ages in the evening with the dictionary looking up words I'd written down in class. This meant that, in retrospect, I understood the lesson but was not really equipped to take part.

My lowest point was when a very friendly and nice stand-in teacher, Vangelis, asked me to introduce myself and went on to ask me a lot of questions I wasn't quite prepared to answer. My name is top of the register, sadly, so I often get 'picked on' first. I cried. It was SO embarrassing and I couldn't stop. I didn't leave because I knew it would be even harder to go back if I had, so I just sat there. And every time I thought about it I cried again. Wrong. It was wrong. Still, it totally shot down any pride I might have had and helped me to realise how stressed I was by the whole process and how much I just needed to relax and trust the Lord. He knew and knows how this language learning business is going to be for me and we need the language. I got through the rest of the lesson and was ok about going back the next day. I still find the anticipation of the lesson a little stressful but once I'm there it's fine.

That was a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm a bit more confident about speaking, much less bothered about making mistakes and I have quite good relationships with at least some of my classmates. I think that, as we bond a bit more every week, we will help each other to improve. Most of my class struggle with the things I find really easy - correct conjugations and spelling are my speciality (I'm such a loser!) - so we help each other!

As we warm up to each other, the mood of my class is relaxing and improving. My class teachers have changed a little too, which helps (the most austere teacher has gone on paternity leave!). I have Giorgos Mondays and Wednesdays, Aliki (when she's there, family problems have kept her away for a fortnight) Tuesdays and Thursdays and Maria - who is the most gentle teacher! - on Fridays. We both get opportunities to talk about what we're doing here and so pray for us to take them wisely and use them well.

I've taken up watching the odd soap opera on tv (recommended!). I don't understand much of the language but get the gist and it's good for my general listening skills. I'm also reading through 1 Corinthians (VERY slowly) in my Quiet Times with Modern Greek NT in one hand and NIV in the other. I'm also reading Harry Potter 1 in Greek - again VERY slowly, painfully so, but the language isn't TOO difficult and it's good to see how sentences are constructed and translated.

I'm still amazed how, every week at church, I understand more and more of what is said: it might be that I recognise a word or tense that I've learnt in something that Giorgos says in his sermon or something that we sing. I'm encouraged by that and have not lost heart, although I think I was faltering a bit for a while.

I'm extremely glad that I like my classes. If class was onerous or I felt intimidated by it there would be a significant cloud over each day. As it is, I like my three teachers (Vangelis Monday/Friday, Giorgia Tuesday, Menelaus Wednesday/Thursday) and am beginning to get to know my class mates. Each teacher focuses on different things to an extent - vocabulary, verbs, grammar - so we're getting a good variety of input and homework. My spoken Greek is probably only better than one other person in my class - same as with Dawn's group, most have been here for a long time and/or are married to Greeks. They are beginning to be good fun too, and I'm spending more break times chatting with them. The Englishman's disadvantage is that they all speak English so it's way too easy to revert to English when the Greek runs out. I need real discipline to stick with Greek. They are patient with that, so I have no excuse really.

I've found that I have been a little less confident to speak and make mistakes compared to pre-summer. Regarding language study, my main prayer need is to be bold to open my mouth to chat about anything, and be convinced that making mistakes is fine and also a good way to learn. The great thing about Greeks is that they genuinely appreciate foreigners speaking their language, and if asked they will correct us when we speak.

I am on the 9-12 shift so I head up to the university ('up' being the operative word: it's a steep hill from our house to our department) after taking first Joel then Hannah to pre-school. As long as breakfast goes smoothly and I have my bag packed (with my three large books, bible, notepad, coffee flask and water bottle...) and we're all ready in time this is a pleasant journey. The kids are happy on the way and we chat about the things going on around us. Our journey always takes Hannah and I past the DVD shop with a Gollum model crouching by the pavement. She never fails to notice that he's grumpy because he lost his ring.

Like Dawn, I can't keep up with the others in the class in what I say but I struggle far less than some with what's being taught, and don't make the spelling or grammatical mistakes as much. It means that although I am and feel way behind, my language is being built on a good foundation of correct Greek. I really need to find a way to pick up a wide range of vocabulary AND USE IT. I need to watch the news (I can't quite bring myself to watch soaps) and more than anything I need to be in the company of (sympathetic) people speaking Greek around me and to me. I also need to be extremely disciplined in doing homework and looking up the words I don't understand in the evenings so that each day I expand the useful vocabulary. An obvious point struck me today - I need to proactively learn the words and phrases that I want to use, both in conversations with random people I come across, and with believing students that we begin to meet and plan with.

Another thing on my mind about my class is that by May when the course ends we will have spent many hours together and will have had opportunities to talk about many things. I am sure none of the others are Christians and yesterday I had my first mini-opportunity to talk about the gospel - well, the implications of it at any rate - with a French girl of Catholic background. It would be great to build real friendships with these folks and be a light each morning.