The following post is from CBF field personnel Bob and Janice Newell who serve in Greece.

Students of modern Greek quickly learn the convenient conjunction, lipon (λοιπόν), which can be translated so or therefore. This word is used to tie together two thoughts, often when one causes or  sequentially follows the other.

As I write, we are soon to leave Greece for four months; in the US, we’ll have checkups, see friends and speak often about PORTA – the Albania House in Athens. In eight years, this is the longest we have been away from our Albanian friends. Our biggest concern is that, frankly, we don’t know what is next for the country of Greece and for
Albanians.

Anyone with an ear to the ground or an eye on the news knows that Europe is in deep trouble. Governments struggle to cover each other’s debts; most notably, bailouts have afloat recently, but the patience of countries like Germany and France is as thin as their GDP increases. Austerity measures have been introduced; the cost of living  and the cost of doing business are increasing. While life for immigrants has always been difficult, it has recently gotten harder.

Greece must change its inefficient, overly-bureaucratic, deficit-ridden and typically corrupt way of operating. You can just imagine how likely that scenario is to play out. Greek citizens are protesting; unions in this too-prone-tostrike country are striking even more, further disrupting life and predictability. A 23% tax on typical goods and services has been imposed, thus cutting take-home even more. Pensions above a 1200 Euro per month ($1600) threshold will be cut by 20%. By the end of the year, at least some of Greece’s government workers will lose their jobs.

While these developments affect all Greeks, the impact on Albanian immigrants is even more drastic. An Albanian domestic who is dependent on public transit to get to her less-than-minimum wage job can’t work when the Metro strikes; thus, she  receives no wages. Many of our Albanian friends have no work; those who do are often
not paid for 6 months. Last week, an Albanian friend was promised 8 hours of work per week, but when his boss found another Albanian who was willing to work for only 2 Euro per hour, he withdrew the first work offer.

In our study of the Greek grammar, we have also learned that the future tense is literally built on the past. One cannot construct the future  without knowing the past and using the past formulation as the root on which to express the future construction. If Greeks follow this pattern and try to solve their present problems by reverting to past practices, it simply will not work; the old system of cheating on income taxes, paying and taking bribes and living beyond their means will no longer be tolerated.

So (Λοιπόν), as we depart, we don’t know what will happen here! So (Λοιπόν), when we return, we wonder what will have happened to our large group of Albanian friends and the much smaller group of Albanian believers. On an archaeological dig, when workers find stones and are unsure exactly where in the ancient construction these pieces would have fit, they place them in what they refer to as the “GOK” pile, so named because “God Only Knows” where they went. So (Λοιπόν) “God Only Knows” what is ahead for Greece and for our Albanian immigrant friends!