*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 her 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, 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 6th / 28th January – 3rd February

The 4 weeks long rain is over…?

Well… at least last Thursday was the last day of this chain of apocalyptic weather. We had a kind of mini tornado over the sea (υδροστρόβιλος) close to Elli beach, Rhodes town both on Wednesday and Thursday. The photos are amazing, you can check them by clicking on the dates:

30th January

31st January

They were accompanied by thunderstorm, rainfall, the same intense like during the last weeks. There were only a few producers on the small Thursday’s market, and the rain washed them (and also me) away around midday. But I succeeded, I bought my favourite ereika honey there, so I was really happy. 🙂 It is full of minerals and has a perfect taste in my Greek coffee. Because I started to drink Greek coffee in my home and I enjoy, that I am part of this culture also with my small daily routines. 

Since Friday, it is sunny, warm, lovely, quiet sea. 😉 So on Saturday the big, big market close to Agios Dimitrios cemetery was full of people. It was a very lovely day, you could feel that people were waiting for this time: to be able to get out of the house and gather fresh stuff from our beloved ‘laiki agora’. What a vibe…! And I needed a lot of herbs and spices, so I went to my favourite supplier and bought my hibiscus, lemon verbena, calendula and cinnamon for immune boosting teas. My body is bagging for vitamins right now.

And here I bought also some bay-leaves, freshly grounded pepper for a big pot of lentil soup (φακές). I bought lentil from Salakos village, and although some people warned me that the local lentil is not a really good quality, my soup became one of the best. I bought a big amount of feta from the Cretan guys. It is such a fresh, light, soft feta, that brings you to heaven. No lentil soup without feta. And here, Dimitris always offers me some rakomelo (ρακομελο), the Cretan spirit with honey and cinnamon. We always celebrate. 😉

My new addiction on the Saturday market is the village bread from Afandou village baked in a traditional outside oven. Oh my holy God… For 2 euro, you go to heaven. It has such a taste! Beautiful, flat, round and smells like tradition.

I tried a new product, the home-made citrus marmalade, half kilo for 4 eur which contains all the goodies from this winter’s harvest. Yepp, it is magic.

This is my weekend treat, the market. I go from my house with bicycle along the marina close to the sea. And on the way home I cross the medieval town of Rhodes, which is kind of empty in the winter, so it is like riding a bicycle in an open-air museum. Very often I take photos or just enjoy this fact that I live here, the fact that we don’t have traffic jams here, our air is fresh and we have amazing buildings, sceneries all around us.

Daily life struggles

When hackers steel your money from your bank account

Yes. Exactly this happened to me. My Greek bank called me to confirm some fraud transactions and I had to go to the bank on Monday to ask for a new card and online account. I was prepared for everything, I went with a book of 400 pages to the bank, but fortunately I couldn’t read a single page and I had the fastest service ever. My card is younger than a year, so I didn’t have to show them a tons of certifications (from the telco company, tax papers…?, house rental papers, etc.) and also the new card was free of charge. I finished in 15 minutes and I was the happiest person ever.

My bank is 3 minutes walk from my house close to the sea in a square full of huge palm trees. But in general, everything is very close to everything in Rhodes town, so even I should have gone for the extra documents, I could do it in a short time even by walk. This is one of the stress releasing conditions of Rhodes.

So it’s done, but now we have to pray together to withdraw my money back. Best case in 2 months time…

But in general last week was a difficult week for me. A sensitive period, with lots of emotions and fears coming up to the surface. It was an introvert week, lots of hours alone, inner conversations, understanding some issues that came up again from the depth. These are the days when I work on existing materials about my book, and try to see them on a deeper level, to brew them and filter the essence, the pure message. These days I am making many notes, I go everywhere with pen and paper, because thoughts are coming up in unexpected situations. It was a fertile week again, full of inner movements and conclusions. I never ever felt the need for being alone so strongly in my life before. I am incredibly thankful for this situation, that I can spend a lot of time alone, listening to my inner world, my body, my feelings, my fears, my joy. I started to get to know myself finally after many years. And this is the only way to create right now. I still do not feel the big dynamism to push interviews, to push the research for my book. Sometimes things are working under the surface unconsciously and they don’t let you to rush further. I respect that, and I let things be ready, I let them move by themselves. I respect my rhythm, I respect me.

My book & research

I had again only one interview last week. But it was again a very important one. Of course each and every interview and meeting is the same relevant in terms of research, but there are some topics and stories that are more close to me personally. This time I had an interview with a beekeeper, so at the same time I had the chance to meet personally the producer of the honey that I am buying at the local market of Rhodes. There are more than a hundred beekeepers on this island, so I could have many chances to find one in 2 minutes, but somehow again, I was waiting for the right time and an intuition to go for it. And it makes so much difference, when you start to get to know the person who offers the products for you. It generates a trust, because food matters, you become what you eat, and it is not only about the visible things. If I feel the love and care from the person, it is a guarantee that his/her product will be offered with love and care. And this is what we all need (a thought coming from a Hungarian wine producer, István Szepsy). My intuitions about waiting for the right time were right. I met Kostas, the young beekeeper behind the honey that I am eating everyday. It was a meeting full of surprises. I haven’t met so many people here before him, who have chosen nature to work with so closely. He shifted from the “modern” city life to nature and working with the bees at a very young age. I think that his example will move people, and will give them hope about a more relaxed, more natural, more balanced life connected to the earth, the herbs, the plants, the seasons, to the island from its core.

This interview was another proof for me that people working with nature are much more calm, respectful, sensitive and open ones. I am really glad for meeting people like him. This gives me back the hope in humanity and in a healthy possible future on this planet. I wish that everyone of us had the same intentions and directions. Pure look, transparent presence, honesty, no second guessing, respect. These are the people who can give to the others and build a better world. Not a more modern material reality, but a higher level of moral values thinking about the further future, not only about the now, and not only about their individual needs, but everyone on this planet including plants and animals and oceans and earth.

Last week’s topic – your answers

What makes us human? This was my question last week and you gave me a lot of brainfood with your answers. 😉

Look at your answers:

• being able to experience and suppress a wide range of emotions, even denying them
• being able to use and develop our senses
• the ability to love, to hate
• the ability to develop in many different ways and levels
• accepting ourselves and others could help us to avoid suffering as humans and could help us to enjoy our life
• the ability to support each other 
• with awareness we can make this life better
• true, faithful self-expression
• true, faithful interest
• discipline, attention, respect, humility, devotion
• the ability to say thank you and the ability to ask for things
• the most courageous act as a human: to accept and express our true self
• the relationships and interconnections between each other
• the care about each other, altruism
• sincerity
• the ability for humor and to laugh even in difficult situations
• taking from the Nature only what we really need, protecting Nature as we protect our own life, acting with others like we act with ourselves, not waiting more from others, than we are able to give from ourselves. 
• the respect and love of the other person and the nature, self respect, self discipline
• the selfishness, collecting material possessions, the desire of controlling each other’s life became dominant nowadays and this questions the human quality of people.
• empathy, helpfulness, care and honesty
• the ability to judge and thinking in a complex way with our complex mind
• we are the guardians of this planet
• we are complex spiritual creatures

Thank you for all of your answers!!! And are you ready for this week’s topic? 😉

What is your idea about that? 

The main question of my last week is the following one:

“What is human dignity? How can we loose it? In which situations? How can we protect it? In which situations?”

 

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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Magyar verzió hanganyag

 

A heti kérdés: MI AZ EMBERI MÉLTÓSÁG? HOGYAN VESZÍTHETJÜK EL? MILYEN HELYZETEKBEN? HOGYAN ŐRIZHETJÜK MEG? MILYEN HELYZETEKBEN? 

–> jöhetnek a kommentek!!! 😉 

Köszönöm! 🙂