Efcaristo Nelle Irene Fields Skinner

Would you ever drop everything - your time, your friends, and your family - to serve other people? To be completely honest, I never thought I would. But somehow I found myself on the beach in Samos, Greece. I unlaced my high tops and placed them on the decaying wall that extended into the Icarian Sea. I was ready to immerse my bare legs into the piercing clear water.

Tangles of weeds were intertwining on the shore, as I scanned the beach I found a young man filling trash bags with the brush that had plagued the shore. I was curious, why was this man cleaning up the beach when it has no immediate benefit to him? So I approached him and asked where all of the debris came from. He explained that the muck was free floating weeds that had gathered up from the tide crashing in. He then went on to tell me he lived in the tiny first floor apartment that sat on the beachfront. I asked, “How did you find yourself living in Samos?” He told me he came across Samos while he was on break from his job in the UK. Turns out he was a teacher and advocate for people in refugee camps, fleeing from strife in their home countries. I was stunned that on his break from hard work, this man was burning his bare knees on the sweltering, sun soaked sand....