Neighbours

Neighbours or neighbors?

You can be a good neighbour only when you have good neighbours

Be nice to your neighbours, offer them raki, lend them a cigarette.  You never know when you'll need to borrow a couple of lemons or a handful of olives.

Vaso's olive team were picking just over the fence today.  They started work at 8am and at 11 we thought they needed a boost.  K took out the bottle of raki and a few glasses.

Vaso in her work clothes, out in the fields with her son and daughter.  At weekends team-Vaso is reinforced by a son and daughter-in-law, a koumbaros (best man/woman, godparents) or two and various other relatives.

They started picking on 15th November and hope to finish by the end of this month

Vaso downed three of these in quick succession and was quite happy for me to take her photo.

  She started working at 8am and at 5pm they were just starting to down harvesting picks and stagger up the field to the house.  Tough old bird

All the family has lost weight after two months of hard work but their cholesterol levels have plunged well into the healthy range and their blood sugar levels are well under the norm.

They seem to live on hard, double baked bread (moistened with water or wine), olives, salted mackeral, cabbage and rice (lahanorizo), lentils and a few litres of their own wine.  Their diet is the diet of the ancients.

At the weekends the daughter-in-law brings a tray of bifteki or a pot of macaroni.  During the week after so many hours raking olives off the branches, climbing up and down ladders, hauling nets from tree to tree they have no strength or desire to stand and cook.  They eat, drink and go to rest.  The next day of picking will soon be dawning