Apokoronas Our Home

Before I get on to the caves I went down to Georgioupolis where people are gradually getting used to the square being closed. There are temporary metal railings blocking the square. This was deliberate as the deputy mayor  - chairman of the "quality of life" committee, Mr Haritakis pointed out that whatever they used was bound to be destroyed in the first few days so there was no point in putting up nice planters etc in the beginning! There are some benches there now and some plants making the area look a bit nicer. Eventually it will be paved and flower beds put in etc. Yesterday evening I attended a seminar at the Environmental Education Centre about the Caves of Apokoronas. It was very interesting. There are about 5000 caves in the Hania region and roughly 280 in the Apokoronas area alone. One of the important caves is near Kokkino Horio. Known as the "Elephant Cave" as the bones of large elephants, along with two different types of deer were found inside. T

Sunday morning I went down to the Table top sale in Georgioupolis. The weather was dull and there were quite a lot of tourists wandering around. Everyone was gradually getting used to the square being closed. I had been invited to help some friends with their sheep shearing. BY the time I arrived there the work was over and every one was sitting down to join in a meal. At one point the meat ran low  the farmer vanished out the back and dispatched one of the lambs there and then. One young man - recently engaged did not want to join in with the wine drinking and the other young ones poured a two litre bottle of wine over his head!  A little later it was decided to send someone down to find the bride to be ( her father was in the company) and others rushed around to pick flowers and to put them on the table before the bride arrived. The party broke up at about 9pm - having been going on all day. One person fell out of his pickup truck on the way down the road and another person drove

Today I attended a very interesting Seminar at the Environmental Education Centre in Kefalas. The Seminar was entitled " Volunteering and the Environment" There was a good mix of attendees, teachers, professors, people who were simply interested and some "Northern Europeans" as the Greeks call us. Before the seminar began we had a look around at the facilities of the centre and saw some of the projects children had been doing                                  A solar powered raft built out of water bottles and a drink can. We had many interesting talks including one from Ivor Caswell ( which I had to translate into Greek) and one from Thanasis Karathanasis who deals with the environmental programs for the council. I believe we all learnt a lot                                                     Coffee break in the kitchen of the Centre Georgioupolis square was closed to traffic yesterday and although there is a good reaction from the tourist and foreign reside

We are on Thursday already!  Tuesday was a very interesting day , I had my "Surgery" in the town hall and saw several people. After that I ended up - more by luck than judgement- at a "Quality of Life" committee  meeting. As it happened one of the issues that I had been discussing at my surgery was on the agenda and as I had just handed the chairman of the committee two emails about it I was very interested to hear the discussion. I was even more surprised to be asked to speak to the committee to give the point of view expressed in the emails. There was another issue where I was asked to speak and what was even better was that the "opposition" councillors also asked me  - and to the degree that they asked the chairman to give me the floor! All in all a very productive morning. In the afternoon I made it to the beach for the first time in three years - must try more often!  Thursday I was at the house of a client dealing with the "day job" and e

Up at 6 and checking emails soon after! checked the weeks agenda and my checklist of things to be done. Took 3 people over to Almyrida and had an appointment over there - the "day job" After that on to see Ivor who is giving a talk about the Environment on Saturday. I will have to translate for the Greek people so I need to have a good idea what it is about.At Kokkino Chorio I bumped into Paul, aka"Fiona Motion" who is here on holiday and we discussed the fact that people are still dumping glass on the verge even though it is all cleaned up,. First stop tomorrow will be to speak to Katerina in the town hall and see if she can speak to the owners of the glass factory and persuade them to take in the battles every day. - It would be a five minute job if done regularly, as it is last time the council had to arrange to move nearly 20 tonnes of glass and take it away. It is also an eyesore and a very bad picture for tourists. One day last week there were 6 coaches parked

Years ago in Britain there was the custom of "churching" where a new mother was confined to home until she took her baby to church after 40 days. This pretty much died out in the 19th century. Here in Greece however the custom goes on and it was lovely in the midst of all the trouble and strife going on at the moment, to be invited to such a blessing this week. The priest came to the house and conducted the service and blessing of the Mother and baby, all the people there and the house. The service reached the part where the people present went to the priest for an individual blessing with holy water, administered with a bunch of Basil and the cross was held out to be kissed. Several Non Greeks who had been invited stood back at this point but the priest looked over and motioned them to come over to be blessed as well. This was followed by the usual "trapezi" of way too much to eat and drink. The baby slept soundly throughout! ( Thanks to Anastasia for the phot

I had an unusual day. After a meeting at the Environmental Education office I found myself rushing off to the town hall after a phone call requesting my attendance at a meeting concerning the "Olive Fly" the meeting was to discuss the spraying of the olive trees - for details click here Although it was a little strange it is encouraging that the non Greek community is being included in everything and that the local people want us to know and understand what is going on. This may seem trivial during this present crisis when the nation government are struggling to bring in measures to receive the next payment from the IMF, but life has to go on and the more we can do to help each other and work together the better. I spent the afternoon preparing information for the website and updating it and then revising for a university exam that I have to do on Saturday. I will be out all day tomorrow and evening too so not much time to do it I have just watched a recording of the pass

What has been very noticeable over the last week or so is that both my "surgeries" at the town hall, my emails and the working groups that have been set up are becoming more integrated. More Greek people are approaching me for help and information and they are also taking part in animal and environmental issues. In this current crisis we all have to live and work together for the good of our community. The idea of volunteering is not one that Greek people are used to. It is not in their tradition. Until now help has been family orientated with big extended families but as the young people travel to find work and the old folks stay home this is beginning to change, another factor is the number of immigrants without families to help out. In many areas there are no - or ver few, social welfare groups to help out and there is no big government social welfare scheme with unemployment and social services if you have not got the requisite number of "stamps on your card'. Pe

Yesterday the Athletes carrying the torch for the  Special Olympics  were in Apokoronas. They visited Georgioupolis, Vrysses and Kalyves. After the speeches there was a display of martial arts by the team from Kavros ( who appeared not long ago on "Greece has Got Talent ") and afterwards traditional cretan dancing from the young people of "Akritos". The live music continued afterwards till late! Sifi Stavroulakis, deputy mayor of Apokoronas was one of the speakers. Back to ApokoronasOurHome.com 

On Thursday 10th June there was a combined initiative of Municipality and Police to check the tourist area of Lake Kournas. Many illegal signs were removed, licences for pedallos, sunbeds and tavernas were checked and appropriate action taken when any contravention of the laws were found. Rates due to the Municipality (many thousands of euros) were also an issue and bills have been levied for outstanding payments. There were also issues as to cleanliness, disposal of rubbish and other waste and general care of the area. Cases were also found where unauthorised electrical and water connections had been made. The initiative was reported wth a full page spread in the Hania newspaper, Haniotika Nea. There are already results. A tourist guide who takes visitors to the lake on a regular basis told us "... so things are changing at the lake. My husband talked with some owners and they told him they are taking the problems seriously and they have started cleaning, it looks better alread

Where has another week gone? Well first there was helping the children clean the beaches for "World Environment Day" this took place at several beaches in the area - Georgioupolis, Kalyves and Almyrida. It was not only a question of cleaning it was analysing what was there and filling in forms to send to the university of Patras who are doing a survey. Here you can see some volunteers - of all ages "Christos" the Georgioupoli Pelican gave some light relief The rubbish at Kokkino Chorio outside the Glass factory has now been cleared - just needs a rake and sweep. Please spread the word not to dump rubbish there and any glass bottles must go INSIDE the factory gates. pics show the state of the place halfway through the work and now. Everyone needs to work together to keep these areas tidy! My weekly surgeries at the town hall are working out well and quite a lot s getting done. The Animal welfare group, Environmental Group and the Newsletter are all doin