Dancing Queens.

Yes, the title of this post is a shameless reference to Mama Mia and I would be lying if I told you I hadn't listened to the soundtrack more then ten times over the past several weeks while scooping up poop, just because I'm in Greece. 

It has been another busy week here in Skyros and time is flying by! Meredith, another volunteer from America, is our new roomie in the castle which has been great. Believe it or not Amy and I get a little short with each other when you are literally 10 feet from each other at all times.

 for 2 months straight. 

with no one else to talk to. 

So needless to say Meredith arrived at a perfect time and it has been great having another person to do things with.

Amy and I went to a "concert" on Sunday in the village and we were able to eat a lot of Greek food, listen to great music and see/attempt some dancing.

The set up at the beginning of the day..

Here we have some fried goat liver,  Fava ( The yellow stuff), fish eggs(the orange dish that looks like hummus), fish, a greek salad, meatballs, and of course, bread and feta!

They kept serving food throughout the night.. this is like course number 6, and some dessert ( my favorite course of all)

This is the band, there were four of them in all and they played for about ten hours straight..

There was no shortage of dancing..

Since the festival of Aprokrias is still going on for two more weeks the traditional dancers were out in the streets all night as well, and made an appearance at the event. They danced in the bar, and "sang" back and forth with the crowd.

This is the aftermath of about 14 hours  

(no, that is not a typo) of food, wine, music and good times!

Lets just say that mucking out the next morning was not my most favorite thing about this week.

Every time Amy and I are out at night in the village, we get pulled onto the dance floor and proceed to completely embarrass ourselves and step on everyone because we have NO idea how to do the traditional dances. They don't seem to mind, but after several nights of this, Amanda decided to hook us up with a little dancing lesson.

Dimitrius, our wonderfully patient dance teacher. (he also gives us rides out to the farm from the village on the mornings that we go back to work)

There was quite a bit of stumbling, tripping and complete and utter confusion on my part, but Amy and Meredith picked it up pretty quick.

Lots of fun was had that day..It's pretty hard to be frustrated about having two left feet when you look up and realize you are having greek dance lessons in the middle of beautiful scenery on a gorgeous spring day on an island in Greece, so I quickly got over it. We have had one more lesson since then and I think we have all gotten it down, the true test will be when we go into the village so we will see! 

Amy fulfilled her lifelong (ok maybe thats a stretch)..6-month long dream of becoming a lightweight pony rider this week. I wish I could say she was extremely graceful and really became one with the pony, but hey we are all about honesty here! It took her a bit to find her pony riding groove, but she did  Ok in the end and didn't fall off!

We also welcomed a new little one onto the farm. She is several months old and was by herself at a nearby farm so she was moved into a field with our foals for a little "pony playtime" and socialization. Her name is Amorfoula, or "pretty one" in Greek.

Life at the farm is business as usual....

The ponies have sleepovers in the middle of the day..

 they watch us muck out the fields and try to catch their pony friends who sometimes escape..

and wait patiently for their dinner :)

We are often invited to go over to Jorgos' (Pam's) house for cafe, or lunch.  He is just a short walk from the farm and friends with Amanda and Stathis. Sometimes Julietta comes to try and translate for us, but most of the time it is just a couple words of Greek or English (and lots of Greeklish) here and there. We don't really ever have a good idea of the conversation but it is always good company! 

Julietta continues to be a great greek teacher, and a bit of a daredevil. Amy rescued her from the tip tops of a tree this week (much to the chagrin of her pretty pink tights and the huge hole they now have in the leg) and loves to run on this wall. "Be careful please Julietta!!" is a phrase both Amy and I quickly learned and use frequently when she is around.

The weather has been beautiful this week as spring is coming, so we had a delicious pasta dinner outside.

It was still pretty windy one of the days and we could see the waves from the farm, so we walked out to the beach to check it out. It was a little chilly but totally worth it, the beach looked completely different from the calm sunny days.

Skyros and the people who live here continue to capture our hearts. It is amazing how when you uproot yourself from everything you know and are familiar with, how quickly and strongly new "roots" can form. It may have been a little scary, or uncomfortable at times,but I feel as though the relationships we have built and experiences we have had have added a depth to my life that would be hard to get unless I stepped outside of my comfort zone. It makes my head spin to think that I spent so many years in the same area doing the same things, when there is so much of this world and God's creation to see and be a part of. God has created a world full of culture and diversity and people so that we can enjoy and love on each other just as equally and deeply as he loves us. 

Missing everyone at home; sending our love (and bunny ears) from me, Julietta and our lightweight pony rider.

 * Stathis was our guest photographer this week and took some of the pictures of the ponies and dancing lessons so credit goes to him and his photography skills :)