Our family has become very Greek. We stay up late, sleep late, eat late and aren't in a particular hurry about anything. We also eat Greek food and swim in the afternoons. Sennen and I typically start the day between 9 and 10 am while Ailyn can linger as late as 11, although I'm trying to get her up a little earlier. But on an island where young children are playing in the park until as late as 1 am and eating dinner with their families at 9 or 10 pm, it's hard to be early to bed.
Ironically, Saturdays we get up early so Immanoula can come and clean. She seems to be the anti-Greek, arriving at 8:30 am and cleaning our house top to bottom in an hour like a whirling dervish. Mohammad engaged her to clean after the renovation work, and I was fortunate to be able to retain her ongoing. Immanoula's pricing is extraordinarily reasonable – which is probably why she's so booked up that 8:30 on a Saturday morning is the only slot available. We're lucky to get it too – last summer I couldn't get anyone to clean all summer long, which left me cleaning – not so well.
I've learned the best way to respect a cleaner is to get out of their way. So this morning I was up at eight, woke the kids at 8:15 and had us all ready and leaving at 8:30, right after Immanoula arrived (two minutes early! So not Greek!). I gave the kids the choice between jumpstarting our day and getting to the beach early or going to breakfast while Immanoula cleaned. Not surprisingly, they had designs on waffles from Stelios.
Appropos of Patmos, there was no one on the street when we walked outside except Alessandro at Nektar, cleaning and setting up the shop for the day. Eight thirty here is like 5:30 am in America.
One might assume with an early start, a hearty breakfast and walking around town on a vibrant summer morning, the kids would be ready to change clothes and head to the beach. But no. They wanted some time to laze around and compensate for the sleep stolen from them. After 20 minutes stretched out on the sofa watching cooking videos on YouTube Kids, Sennen said he wasn't sure he really wanted a beach day today. From their bedroom, Ailyn seconded the sentiment.
Sure, yesterday at Petra they not only swam a lot in deeper water, but spent more time than usual sunning themselves (coated in 60 SPF sunscreen regularly). We just had three beach days in a row – which is also usually about when they saturate. That said, it's the weekend and I thought for sure they'd want to be out and about – though, as I think about it, what's a weekend to Sennen and Ailyn?
So we decided to make it a domestic day and if later anyone feels like a swim, we'll just go to one of the "disorganized" beaches where we can show up with our beach chairs anytime – or the beach in the front of town where we can hang out at a cafe on the sand.
A domestic Saturday is not such a bad thing. In fact, it's similar to a weekend at home – relaxing and a good opportunity to get a few things done. Unlike last summer, I've taken to using the washer and dryer instead of regularly patronizing Michaelis' laundry. As sad as it is not to have the regular visits with Michaelis, Theologia and crew, I realized the warning Maria gave me about a higher electric bill due to dryer use probably was skewed by the fact that she, like most Greeks, line dry everything. The electricity costs for a new, energy efficient dryer versus the cost of the local laundry probably come out in favor of home laundering. And why have the dryer if I don't use it…. so I've taken to doing my own fluff and fold. Appliances here are smaller than home, so like grocery shopping, laundry gets done in smaller, more frequent bursts and today is a good day to get caught up.
There's also the matter of the loose kitchen table top. Somehow – likely from mishandling by the contractors – the table top on my round kitchen table came loose in two spots. So off to Prokopis' hardware store I went.
As I've mentioned, Prokopis is an Australian-born Patmian whose grandparents left Greece when its economics hit bottom, only for his family to return when he was young and things were better. As a result, Prokopis is linguistically and culturally bilingual.
Naturally affable, intelligent and operating the closest thing to Home Depot on the island, every resident of Patmos knows Prokopis and vice versa. His shop is something akin to Cheers – because there are always people chatting around the counter and everyone knows your name.
"Everyone loves him. Everyone comes back. He tells them off and they just come back more," his also Australian-Greek wife told me today.
"He must be telling them the right thing," I proffered.
"Of course he is!" she replied.
In my always enjoyable visits to Prokopis' shop, I've learned that when Prokopis isn't helping someone find the right product or strategize their project, he enjoys discussing the political and economic issues of the day. If I had to label Prokopis' views, I would say they are almost populist. He's not so much conservative or liberal - but questioning of the value and integrity of many foundational institutions.
First up on Prokopis' list is the Euro.
"The day before they launched the Euro, a nice coffee like this (pointing to his cappuccino from a local Starbucks-esque coffee delivery shop) was 200 drachmas. That's 60 cents. the next day it was 2 Euros which was 700 drachmas. People saw these coins (pointing to a 2 Euro coin) and they threw them around like they were nothing. But they were worth a lot compared to the old money. They just didn't think about it," Prokopis said.
Trying to empathize, I agreed the poorer countries of Europe really paid the price for the switch to the Euro like Greece, Portugal and Spain.
"Sure, at first," Prokopis quickly responded. "But eventually it hurt everyone. Even Germany and the Netherlands and those 'regular' northern countries. I see it in my German friends. It used to be 1,000 Deutsch Marks would get you 150,000 drachmas. You could go on holiday to Greece and live like a KING for 150,000 drachmas. Now, what would 1,000 Euros buy you? Not more than a place to sleep. My family has been involved in tourism for decades – my parents and I have been part of restaurants, hotels, cafeterias. Germans now have crabs in their pockets. They reach in and snap! They can't get any money out! They still come, they just spend less and we all feel that."
I've heard other Greeks bemoan the Euro and the power it has given the wealthy countries – principally Germany – over the weaker economies of Europe. And they aren't wrong that the Euro meant tighter fiscal standards that negatively impacted consumer buying power in many countries.
Prokopis goes several steps further. He doesn't just dislike the Euro-zone, but the EU as an institution – feeling no need for a politically united Europe. And don't get him started about the Greek government.
"All they want is money so they find new ways to get easy money. The VAT for food just went up to 13 percent and for everything else, they just raised it to 24 percent. They want money and they take it – and it's not fair to people," his soliloquy went on.
"Now the Greek government is giving money to the mainstream media saying the government needs to prop up the major networks so we maintain freedom of the press. 20 million Euros to this company and 20 million to that one. Bullshit."
I believe my being a Californian sparks one of his issues in particular: smoking. Not only does Prokopis believe in the right to smoke over the right to breathe, but he hates "sin taxes" – particularly taxing tobacco products. As far as Prokopis is concerned, there should be no public policy against smoking, nor wringing additional revenue out of people who deserve to have their smoke break in peace (as I found him doing this afternoon when I came to the shop for my third visit of the day).
Prokopis' Greco-Libertarianism seems to have a general theme of keeping government out of his business and pockets – and the pockets of others. Of course, he also doesn't like the recent helmet laws or any restrictions on where anyone can smoke or drink. Basically, let a poor Greek live in peace.
While Prokopis' viewpoints clearly don't dominate the Greek electorate in general, I think they may be more typical to Patmos. While I haven't heard many opinions on smoking and "sin taxes," I have to imagine based on how many people smoke, Prokopis can't be alone. I've heard many more complain about the helmet laws and while younger people have grown up accepting the Euro, Prokopis is not the only business owner I've seen who calculates prices against the drachma as some kind of ongoing proof that they've been ripped off.
Perhaps they have.
Much as in the United States, immigration has become a sore point in European politics, particularly because the EU is a zone of free trade and free movement. While each country sets its own immigration policies, residents and citizens of EU countries have freedom to move freely throughout the EU. While in theory countries can issue visas allowing employment only within the issuing country, in practice one country's immigration policy is everyone's. If Germany takes in one million refugees, there's no stopping them from going where they want to within the EU.
Only not everyone wants them equally. This led to France's recent conservative swing within EU parliamentary elections and subsequent weakening of the centrist government within France itself. Not everyone can afford to be so generous, nor do they necessarily want to be – especially where challenges with cultural acceptance and integration factor in. In fact, immigration was a key driver for Brexit.
Prokopis is not alone in his views and concerns.
One of the great things about Patmos is being able to learn about people's views including on international economics and politics for the cost of wood glue and screws.
Happily, I'm not the only member of the household to deal with perspective today. Ailyn decided to produce the next painting in her Patmos series – this time about cats. She spent much time mixing paints to capture the colors of our feline community on the porch and needed to stare intently and repeatedly at photos of several of our key cats. Then she had her vision and has been working intently on it since – stopping only for yogurt, apricots, grapes and some sliced turkey.
She may not paint a portrait of Greece's political and social dilemmas as our friend at the hardware shop can, but Ailyn aims to capture the essence of the island from another angle. Whether or not they realize it Gingos, Ketchup and Caramel have been seen and valued – and will continue to enjoy the benefits of Sennen and Ailyn's front porch socialism.
