The time is here to write my final weekly log for my Leadership-in-Action experience in Chios, Greece! I truly cannot believe that my time volunteering with Offene Arme this summer has concluded, but I feel so incredibly lucky because I was to be able to come to Chios and stay there for 6 weeks, and be so welcomed by the organization and the local people. I am writing this from my hotel in Athens, where I am staying for one night before heading home tomorrow. Currently, I feeling many different emotions (sadness, fatigue, gratitude, nostalgia, excitement), which I think that is normal given how much these past few weeks have meant to me.
For my final week volunteering at Offene Arme, we had a bit of an unusual situation, largely due to changes in recent EU migration and refugee policies. During this week, we had very few appointments at our free shop, despite many new arrivals on the island. As a result, we decided to hold a second "extra" summer distribution with a limited stock for women and children. I feel fortunate that I was able to support this on my last Friday, as we had our first round of appointments. Many families came and it was nice to see familiar faces. Additionally, given that our free shop was no longer the focus this week, we were able to finish some other tasks in the warehouse, such as finally completing the "summerization" of the clothes as well as a multitude of smaller managerial and organizational tasks. Although it was an unconventional week, I liked the creativity and novelty of it a lot.
This week was also very bittersweet because I had to say goodbye to some new and dear friends, with whom I shared many of these amazing experiences. Between our manager, the coordinators, and the other general volunteers, these goodbyes were hard but that's because we became so close and our bonds were full of care, trust, and shared experience. Working with Offene Arme can be, and is often, emotional, tiring, and demanding. But, in my opinion, that is something to be treasured and something you can expect when working with vulnerable populations. As I sat down for my departing interview with one of the lovely coordinators, and gave my feedback to our boss, I found myself repeatedly thinking about how lucky I am to have had this experience, far away from home, and with close friends who were once complete strangers. As noted below, some of my biggest takeaways (which I will explore more in my final paper), stem from the strength I witnessed in our customers to the values of collaboration, communication, and empathy we strived for as a team. Thank you Offene Arme, and thank you Chios (and Greece), for welcoming me and I look forward to hopefully visiting you again one day!!