Another unusual Thursday night

Another Nea Zoi outreach started at 11pm last night with a meeting of the volunteers and staff in the office, gathering for prayer and preparation before heading out to different areas of the city. One team headed towards the hotels where the Nigerian women gather, equipped with health surveys and brightly-colored nail polishes to reward the women for their time. Lindsay and I picked out the colors earlier in the day ... the sparkly or super-bright ones were the most popular. Along with the usual Greek volunteers, several American women showed up to help who are teaching English in a Greek city south of Athens. The two teachers, Carrie and Diana, ended up on my team with Martha - a kind-faced Greek mama - and Yiannis, Emma's husband. The five of us went out to the streets of west Athens in Martha's car ... and wow, she could DRIVE, weaving in and out through a mess of taxis and mopeds. As we wound through dark avenues and side streets of Kavalas, she and Yiannis knew exactly where to look for our hopeful contacts for the night, the tranvestites of Athens.

The experience was vastly different from last Thursday's interactions with the Nigerian women on the streets or the Wednesday morning Eastern Bloc women of the legal brothels. The tranvestites tend to park their cars along major roads (usually near car dealerships, for whatever reason) with emergency blinkers on and the constant glow of a lit cigarette, dressed immaculately in wigs and make-up. Each contact was isolated, sitting alone in their car, and more demure in interactions with us than the clusters of Nigerian women with their shouts and hugs. At the same time, I was surprised to see how warmly the men responded, particularly to me, the "little girl doctor from America". Yannis and Martha translated for me as necessary, but my verbal interaction stayed fairly limited. Several of the men talked my head off - in Greek, of course - telling stories or asking about medical problems, others gave hugs, and even pats on the head. I haven't been patted on the head in years, and it was such a tender gesture that I wasn't sure how to respond in Greek except to say "nay" (yes) over and over.

We weren't able to complete any medical surveys with the transvestites, simply because it didn't seem appropriate in the context of the relationships Nea Zoi had with the particular men we saw last night. One big challenge we've noticed with the survey is knowing when and whom to ask, to get the information we need without damaging the trust these people have in Nea Zoi. For some of the men and women, sensitive medical information is difficult to share, and yet others are willing to openly answer any and every question. Our goal of 20-30% sampling of the populations of women seems very possible, but the tranvestites will likely be under-represented. Lindsay and I started researching the different spread of risks and medical needs shared by most transvestites, discussing how to integrate their needs into our data. Many of the women seem to be experiencing fairly expected medical issues - depression, pain in various areas of the body, extreme stress responses, anxiety - but the men's specific needs remain somewhat of a mystery.

One moment from last night stuck in my mind as I finally fell asleep back in the apartment at 4am. At one of our stops, Bella, a tall, lanky tranvestite with a black maroon-streaked wig of curly hair, accepted a hot cup of coffee from me tenatively, almost shyly. As we talked with the two other men with him on the corner, I noticed several timid looks my way. Went I met his glances with a smile in return, he seemed stunned and uncertain how to respond for a few seconds. But as I kept smiling, a small smile played on his lips and got bigger and bigger until his eyes crinkled in a huge grin. We passed Greek and English back and forth with no comprehension on either end, but the smiles said a lot on their own. I'm quickly learning the language of smiles and eyebrow raises and hand motions, connecting as best as I can to the men and women, and I feel immensely grateful for any attempts made in return.