Athens in Transition

My time in Athens is flowing fast, productive, and surprising. The encounters are serendipitous and most are likely to be sustainable. There are two separate spaces that I reached out for volunteer work and recruiting some women for life story recordings: the squats, and the legal and well-kept women-only spaces such as Melissa and Victoria Square Project. The discrepancy between the two habitats is immense and demonstrates the gendered, financial and legal consequences of utilizing urban spaces during the time of so called 'crisis.'

Based on hearing the first-hand refugee experiences, and what I observe on the streets, I am glad to witness and hear about the acceptance in the Greek people’s attitude toward the refugees. They remain in a gray cultural zone where the feelings of compassion, confusion, and reception of the destitute take irregular dance steps. Greeks know what it is like to suffer from crisis, be it political or financial. One thing is clear: We all live in Mediterranean setting here, children’s screaming or repeated transgression of many rules (smoking and fugitive public transportation use)  are okay and practiced by both the local Greeks and the newcomers. The climate is mild and thus the mixture of people in city squares reflect the diverse and changing population in Athens.

I've got two women stories in the making: a 28 year-old lawyer from Damascus and a 26 year-old pharmacist from Latakia, both single, currently living and working in Athens by themselves. Another woman whose path crossed mine thanks to a misunderstanding is from Iraq. I recorded some sections from her life story in Turkish (!) due to my personal interest, possible future essays and stories. The women I met in Melissa during the workshops that I offered are dominantly from Afghanistan and speak Persian. I work with two wonderful interpreters of Farsi and Arabic. It has been an amazing experience for me as lover of both languages since my ears pick random recognized words like bees from flowers, and I thus get my weekly fix of linguistic joy. I wonder how many hundreds of words Turkish, Farsi and Arabic share. As big fans of Turkish TV series, the participants do know better than I, at least for now.

In terms of the writing practices, the sample stories and paragraphs that came to existence during the sessions in Melissa deserve another blog entry so I conclude for now and get ready for my Arabic class at Café des Poets in Victoria Square.

One step at a time, one story at a time, revitalizing Greek/Syrian/Turkish coffee in small copper coffee pots, sweet Greek language at the background while I and my correspondent exchange words of English by the café tables. This is a dream life and I do not want to wake up yet!