Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Visit to Eliaohori May 2008
N.B. To see latest pictures (taken June 18th) follow this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/sue.saraswati/HouseJune2008The House.
Nothing could have really prepared me for the shock of how I found the house when I arrived! For two years it had been unchanged and then suddenly.... well you can see in this photo. Notice the new stonework though on top of the kamara (the arched entrance). That continues from the new room that has been built on the side of the house and forms some of the veranda. The second photo (below) was taken from under the lemon tree that you can see behind the guy bending over in the first photo.
Here you can see the beautiful stonework on the new room. The flat roof of this room carries the veranda around the side of the house and enables lovely views over the gorge below the house and the surrounding mountains. The guys were working incredibly fast. When I arrived they were finishing off the walls of this room. When I left the roof was on and I could walk around on it. Here is a photo (below) taken from the veranda/roof of the extension.
The Neighbours
I have to confess that, as much as I love them, I was not looking forward to encountering the neighbours at the beginning of my visit. This was simply because I knew that my first sight of the house would be a shock and I did not relish the prospect of having to deal with anything else at the same time. Eleni and Grigory are delightful people but they speak no English and I knew they would want me to sit with them and talk for a while. As it happened the gods of house renovation smiled upon me. The most unlikely thing happened, Eleni and Grigory were intially nowhere to be seen. Only on my third visit to the site did Eleni appear. By now I had flipped over from hoping to avoid them and was beginning to worry about where they might be and if one of them was ill. Happily all was well and soon I was sitting on her terrace with some of her home-made pastries struggling along in my rudimentary Greek. But where was Grigory? Apparently he was out the back killing a goat. OK .... This was actually a big event and Eleni's daughter Sophia and husband Yanni soon arrived from Kalamata in great excitement. Not something that happens very often here in Kingston Upon Thames.
Later in the week I went for a walk and bumped into Grigory on his way to tend to the goats (the living ones that is). I took this photo of him. He insisted I follow him to an amazing viewpoint looking down the valley and over the distant mountains.
Where I Stayed
Before I left for Greece I emailed the Mani-Sonnenlink centre which is on the next mountain to our village. I was lucky enough to link up with the lady who runs the centre, Burgi Blauel. She offered me one of the studio appartments, as no seminars or retreats were organised for that time. This turned out to be truly wonderful. Burgi and I met only briefly, as she was off to Austria during my stay, but we got along famously and I could see that the centre would be very good as a residential centre for groups. Remarkably I also learned that Burgi's husband Fritz ran a regular meditation-type group on Thursday evenings and I was invited to attend during my stay. I duly went along and was astonished and delighted to discover that it was just like being with my own group here in Kingston! Really amazing parallels.
The Party
Some friends in the village of Pyrgos, close to our village, were having a house warming party and I was invited to attend. Their house has been renovated and designed by the same team that are working for us. Because of this I knew quite a few of the folks at the party.
The hi-light of the afternoon was the arrival of the local preist to perform a ceremony of blessing. This is a beautiful Greek tradition for a new house. A special table had been laid out for the occasion and the priest arrived with an entourage of helpers. He began to read from a prayer book, speaking very quickly and occasionally breaking off in order to turn through 360 degrees.
This went on for quite some considerable time. Suddenly the preist stopped and began to stagger and sway, he did not look well. A chair was called for and he sat. He complained of a stomach upset possibly to do with some eggs he ate for breakfast. Gamely he was soon up on his feet again and carrying on. Speaking even quicker, now with a certain edge of desperation. The assembled company were now transfixed. Was he about to have a heart attack? What kind of a portent would this be for the new house? He stopped and leaned forward on the table. I was sure he was about to vomit. He sat down again and we all fussed around him. Once again he gamely got to his feet and carried on. Finally, mercifully, he got to the end of the ceremony. When I told this story to Grigory the next day (while I was giving him a lift in my hire car) he thought it hilarious and suggested we use a different preist for our house-blessing!
At the end of the ceremony (Phew!)
N.B. To see latest pictures of our house (taken June 18th) follow this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/sue.saraswati/HouseJune2008
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