*magyar hanganyag a post végén!

Hello,

welcome to the weekly magazine of a Hungarian woman, who moved to a Greek island in 2018 and writing a book there through an intensive research and interviews with locals. The purpose is giving you an insight about the daily life of this island as a foreigner all around the year, and also about the book-writing process. And you can participate in this process too! Every week there is a main thought/question at the end of the post, that you can comment your own thoughts, feelings, ideas about. Different approaches, different way of thinkers are always create movement. And this is what we need!

 

Week 4th / 21st January – 27th January

The Apocalypse is here

The weather last week on Rhodes was very similar to a catastrophe movie. We had 3 earthquakes in one week. No injuries or damages happened, but it is a very scary feeling. I felt only the one on Thursday 22nd January, which was the smallest (4.6), but all the furnitures were shaking in the room and I was doing yoga practice on the floor, so it kinda scared me to death. Because you don’t know what is gonna happen. When does it stop? Nobody knows. A higher power is working, never ask our opinion about that…

“Greece is in one of the world’s most seismically active zones, with dozens of mostly small quakes registered every day.” /www.seattletimes.com/

24 Jan 16:30 – magnitude: 5.3 

22 Jan 22:12 – magnitude: 4.6 

20 Jan 17:50 – magnitude: 4.9 

Also we had different kind of storms, rainfalls, heavy wind, really heavy wind! Rhodes did not really saw the Sun last week, although it is the island of the Sun God, Helios and the most sunny island in Greece. The weather did not allow people to go out, and the planes to take off on our airport. Passengers stucked in Athens, because of bad weather conditions the flights couldn’t land.

And when we thought we had all the strange phenomenons around us, the gusty south wind (95 km/h) came from North Africa and brought the dust from Sahara desert into Friday. It even falled down with the rain and covered everything with this red sand. I felt my body very heavy on Friday and on Saturday too and I was incredibly tired. Although we did a yoga class with the girls, so big respect for us. 😛  The Sahara dust left the island on Sunday, but I decided to stay home even that day. I was reading a bit about that phenomenon and scientists say that it can trigger asthma and allergy attacks. It can damage the sensitive lung tissues causing cardio- and respiratory problems. This sand contains chemicals and heavy metals (lead, zinc, chromium, vanadium). They recommend children and people over 65 to avoid outdoor activities. This storm happens mainly in the springtime and always with the South wind.

Pics here

Bad weather made people staying at home, but whoever came out, the topic was mainly the bad weather. Too much complainings… I think we should stop this dependency from weather, and other powers that work “above” us. It is also creativity: finding something to do even indoor, even during bad weather. These were perfect days for me to cook a lovely meal, to pamper myself with yoga, books, and writing my own book.

My book & research

The interviews are going very very slowly… I don’t feel the big life-changing power inside and outside of me neither, I am still in winter mode and this means I cannot push anything. I respect that. If something happens, happens, if not, I am working on something else. But I am working everyday. I am waiting for many people’s responses about a possible interview date, but almost nothing moves. Only the South wind and Mother Earth.

Although I had a very powerful and emotional interview last week with a friend of mine from Archangelos village. She is a wonderful host, invited me to her apartment to make the interview there. She was treating me in a traditional way, just how all the old women of Archangelos do: offering coffee, sweets, chocolate (OMG, many many chocolate), and of course putting flower on the table. She baked Fanuropita (a sweet cake), which is a lovely custom here on Rhodes. People bake this cake to Agios Fanourios, when they find something that they lost, or something good happens to them. My friend had very good news, she was chosen for a very nice job, so she made the cake as a thank you and gave to her friends to eat it together. Offering and gratitude. Maybe this is something that makes us humble and human. 

The interview was another deep, emotional one. This is one of my target: to introduce personal stories, personal point of views, experiences. Because every person counts. Every life is precious on this Earth and very important the way how we live it. Everyone of us has his/her own feelings, responses to the environment which is unique and unimpeachable. This interview gave me the insight into a small traditional village society from a young woman’s point of view who grew up there in the crossroads of thick traditions and the modern life which is influenced by the heavy mass tourism. What does it feel like living as a child in this environment? What captures your playful little soul in this environment? Absolutely heart melting and heartbreaking memories came up to the surface. And how can you deal with growing up, finding yourself, finding a job, finding your own identity in an island which is tourism-based today and dealing with different crisises.

This interview showed me again how much important is the supportive family and community environment for a child. Actually only this counts. And it proved me also, that our responsibility is incredibly powerful about our lives. What we do, how we think, it resonates around us and creates our World. We need to be more brave and rooted and healthy. It is work. It is a big work, but the only possible way out of the darkness and pain. But only if we want it.

I was working on a preparation of another interview last week which is about the wisdom and symbolism of Greek traditional dances. This will be a second interview with a father and his son, both dancers, fantastic, open minded, courageous people. Our first interview happened in the summer and it was really a shift for me. It helped me to understand not only this culture where I live in now, but helped me to locate myself on the map, and to understand a lot of dynamism in life. Can’t wait for the next round, which will be more about the healthy society and healthy individual. I was working on this topic so much last week. I feel that I could go very deep and understood a lot of nexus. This requires a lot of lonely hours at home reading, thinking, writing, re-thinking, re-writing, re-reading, and so on…

My first radio interview in Radio Lihnari

Oh yes. This day has came also. Such an honor and such a surprise to talk about my upcoming book in a local Rhodian radio station, maybe the most popular and liked one on the island. Maria Bakari (Team, Family & Individual Counselor ~ Life & Work Coach and Mentor), the host of STORIES OF THE NEW EARTH radio show on Lihnari and founder of SynErgy (a space for collaboration for people who dare to dream and act in service of humanity, social change and innovation, collective intelligence, creativity, empathy and support) had the sensitivity, care and attention to recognize and understand all the messages behind my activities (including book writing, blogging, social activities) and found it valuable enough to invite me to her weekly radio show for a conversation.

People who know how much sacrifice, work, pain, lessons I went through the last 14 months since I moved to Rhodes (and even before), they understand the meaning of this milestone and positive response about my work and activities that I am doing for many years now about Rhodes island. Dear Friends and Supporters, I would love to thank you from the bottom of my heart to your lovely feedbacks on the interview, and your time for the listening. It means sooo much to me. Really. You cannot even imagine. ❤

The interview represents more an approach and way of thinking that giving too much information. It delivers a message that hopefully will reach the open ones. 😉

And here you are the interview:

 

What is your idea about that? 

The main question of my last week what is repeating inside of me like a mantra and brings me faraway thoughts, is the following one:

What makes us human?

Please comment, if you have ideas, thoughts, feelings about that. That would help me so much to continue thinking forward…

Thank you very much and see you next week! Mariann

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