CYPRUS, 2nd Winter III January 29 ~ April 17, 2014
Having said our goodbyes to our Italian friends at the Pafos airport in South Cyprus, we have stayed the night in Pissouri Bay with the quiet comfy sound of surf lulling us to sleep. It seems that our minds and bodies have slowed down. The sea is glassy. Mesmerizing. Hypnotizing.
In the morning a little tractor goes back and forth on the dirt road behind us. Each time he comes back his six plastic boxes are filled with greens for market. The skies are sunny again today with a lovely soft wind. Sturdy, round-shaped olive trees mark this spot. Leaves of grey green, a subtle color change on each leaf side, wiggle in the breeze, showing off their vibrant beauty. The olive tree, an amazing tree I find. So pleasant to look at...and such fruit to offer. Oranges dot the adjacent old orchard trees. Knarled old grape vines add their history and tenacity. Carob trees, green and red leaves, alive and dead. We leave this wonderful place at 12:30! At the crack of dawn!
On the road again we can see layers of the past ocean bottom in the cliffs at our side, where the hills have been cut through to allow the cars a safer more comfortable ride. Tunnels bore through some of the hills. We all race away to our destinations, unmindful of the details of roadmaking. We are on the fast road to North Cyprus. As we travel, I sometimes see a spot in the woods, a protruding rock, a sand hill, a path in the open...or I smell pine trees and my brain works to dig deep into my childhood...and for moments I am taken back to the nature of my past. Remarkable.
What? A range of snowy mountains ahead? It can't be. But it is sun shining on the bare white sandy sides. But, we are lost. No traffic signs for help, no signs to the border. Well, maybe there are, but everything is in Greek! We can see the north of the island beyond the border but can not get to it. Exasperating. We pass old war bunkers...or maybe they are new? Do they save them all just in case? We ask directions from many different people. It is a scream. Lots of hand signals and voice inflections all not within our understanding. And they are all trying hard to help us.
We do get home to Samandira. It is quiet and we have only ourselves to please. For a little bit we wander aimlessly. We watch the pigeons wander the skies in groups, gracefully dipping and rising. David calls them the 'Bellapais Rangers'. They are not the pigeons I know. Perhaps they are more dove than pigeon.
We will not have guests until March 1st. I have kept this month of February for painting. Each day I start at my drawing table and work most of the day. It is satisfying and productive.
March 1 a month later...
We pick up our Spokane friends, Lew and Marilynne Wilson, at their hotel in Larneka, South Cyprus. How strange it seems to be here on this far-away island with them. I draw a map as we travel to their hotel so we can make it back to North Cyprus in a more expeditious way this time. It does not work well. It is a start and stop event once again.
The next day is a lovely slow time together. Wake up late. Doddle over breakfast. Lew and Marilynne are on their way to visit with their son and family in Beirut. We are lucky to have them for a week before they hop the 60 miles to Lebanon. In the early evening we take them to our favorite restaurant in the mountain pass, Buffavento. (Buffavento means 'not yielding to winds”.)
We have tickets to see a Chamber Orchestra in Bellapais Abbey. (Remember Susan and I sang here...alone...in this room of fine acoustics!) Mozart, Grieg and Bach. A fine setting to attend a concert of fine music.
We like to hang out , the four of us. Don't hurry. Take our time. Maybe we will stay home today. Or maybe we will show them a few old and interesting historical sites. It does not matter, we do both, just as we feel. Marilynne and I have sung in a group together, quilted together, watched movies together at a monthly woman's gathering, met for coffee at our favorite places, cooked for each other....and our husbands became friends. It is an easy going friendship and our week together flies by. But they must go and our time here at Samandira is over.
The people in our lives here in North Cyprus have become so dear. Let me tell you about some of them:
> We have asked three brothers to lunch after church. They are from Nigeria and have all gone to, or are going to, university here. Tom is the big brother feeling his responsibility for his family. The others are AK and UD. Wonderful fellows, all with different personalities but all with fantastic senses of humor. Tom is very picky about the food he eats. I have only seen him eat bananas and maybe bread, so I ask AK, the cook in their family, what I should serve. What will he eat? Well he likes chicken in sauces so David makes Chicken Stroganoff. It is a hit! They heaped their plates with rice and stroganoff and came back for second helpings. And, they loved their first taste of corn bread. They had a term... “This is not 'eating dirty'!” (I leave you to figure that one out!)
Well, through this all we laughed so hard it was hard to eat. Yes, they are beautiful black men from Nigeria. In our conversation, when I was saying that my roots were Scottish, AK said, “That's funny, I thought you were East Indian”. (Big laughter!) A bit later in the evening when the time was right, I said, “But I thought you were all Norwegian!” (More and more laughter.) Too much fun.
These fellows came from a good family. Their parents lived in France for some time. Their father, now dead, wanted them all to have good educations, even the girls. This did not go down well with their relatives. It went against the traditions of their people. So their father was pushed aside along with the family. Once it was reported that an uncle put a Python in their father's house. This attempt at his life was not successful but a later attempt was successful and the consensus is that again, it was the uncle's doing. So the eldest takes on all responsibilities of the family and this is where we find Tom in his life. He has completed his studies and his goal is to move to Canada or Sweden and rise up successfully in the shipping business. UD is in communications and media and AK in business. AK will marry a girl in Croatia. None of them wish to stay on Cyprus and they will scatter. I hope I can keep in touch. They are just the best young men.
> At 10:30 on a Wednesday morning, six of our friends arrive for coffee. The day is lovely so we are able to enjoy the garden. Chris and Heather are an Irish couple from close to Dublin. They live on Heather's family's farm. Each year they spend time away at interesting places, Cyprus is one of them. This is the second year we see them... Ian and Dorothy are expats from England. Their work has taken them to many out of the way places, he with National Cash Register, incorporating computers into their products, and she in archeology, a teacher. However, later this spring they will move back to England for support on health issues. Dorothy is also a fabric artist, author and watercolor painter... Roy and Barb. Roy is a retired Baptist minister with a great smile and friendly jauntiness about him. A truly lovely person. Barb has such style! She knows what to put together to look interesting, really an artist in this way. I always admire what she is wearing. Quiet beauty. Quiet presense with surprising conversation. We all enjoy ourselves in the early warm sunshine. An easy talkative morning.
> One morning we stop by our favorite bakery for the brown German bread we have become more than fond of. This place is called the Food Lodge as they also have a small coffee/cafe, but their bakery is the draw. Latifa, Moroccan grown, is the baker, self-taught. She can make anything and it is always wonderful. She and her life partner, Sonya, chose Cyprus to start their business. They work hard and are much loved by this community. It is always a pleasure to visit with them a few minutes each time we are there. Latifa is the happy curly headed baker, Sonya, the serious German counterpart, rushing here and there to make sure everything happens right. One day, while we were chatting, we included another customer, Viola. She was trying out the corn bread that was sitting on the counter, besides buying her usual bread. After a while she said...”You must come to tea, right now!” She insisted that it be now! Okay, we follow her home.
Viola's husband Michael comes to greet us, a Cypriot from English parents in the Greek south. One of those low key, can do anything kind of guys. He has done much of the building on extensions to their home and other property buildings, designed and executed a fantastic garden centered around a small pool, used for his body therapy sessions. He is also a masseuse. And a sports guy...anything on the water or in the sky. Viola is a therapist and master of many treatments that complement her work, recently back from a seminar about working with autistic children. She is an animated, pretty woman, born in Iraq, grew up in Brazil. We all like each other immediately and form a good friendship. “Would you two stay in our house when we are gone for a couple of weeks in mid March?” Perfect timing. Of course we would love to. They cook us beautiful food. Healthy food. Fresh fish, vegetables. We tell each other about our personal lives.
> We meet Linda Smith, a slim blond woman full of enery. She attends St. Andrew's church. Her family all live on Cyprus on one crescent street, one of the few that has children and grandchildren close-by. She owns the Round Tower Art Gallery in Girne. It is a good setting to show off art...a round stone building from medieval times. Crafts and paintings and drawings by local artists. Linda is in charge of programs for the women's group of the church. She asks us if we would give a talk about our travels. It is a good exercise for us, organizing the talk and the visual presentations. We decide not to do a slide show but to tell more about how we came to be on this journey. Why did we decide to take a trip like this? What arrangements did we make to allow this to happen? Where did we ship our camper from and to? Some general comments about how this adventure has affected us. We put a large map of Europe up and quickly go through all the countries we have visited. My small book journals, much like little scrapbooks hastily put together, are put out on a table along with some of the paintings I have done while here. The paintings are all small, to be enlarged when I get back to a more serious studio. David does the talking...sometimes I chime in. The twenty women are very interested. They want to buy the study paintings. I do not want to sell the particular ones they want! Linda invites me to put some of my little paintings into her gallery. Why not?! I photo copy about 15 of them so I don't lose the images and give the originals to her and tell her to give any proceeds, after she has taken what she needs, to the church woman's group. All this, a good experience.
> And then there are the dearest of friends, Mike and Josanne Stanhope. Josanne recently retired from teaching small children and loving it. She and Mike have four grown children and two brand new grandchildren. Josanne does everything well. Competent and capable, with a flair. Mike was a Wing Commander in the British Air Force. He is still a 'take charge guy' but a totally lovely one. Both are very loving and giving and fun! These two friends are such a good match for one another. Josanne loves American pancakes. Well, David is very good at making pancakes but at home he uses his sour dough starter and a recipe he has perfected...we will have to make pancakes from an internet recipe this time. We invite some of our favorites to join the four of us for breakfast, Roley and Roger. Roley is Roland. He is roly-poly in such a lovable way. Lovely to hug and tease. Great with conversation. A buddy. And Roger, another buddy. His partner is from Canada, actually Vancouver, but sadly we never meet her because she has a job in England at this time. Roger is easy going and fine company (He used to be a policeman in Scotland Yard's Secret Service!). We stack up the pancakes and put out butter, sliced fresh strawberries, honey, syrup, walnuts and whipping cream. Added to that; ham, a baked egg dish and potatoes. Another sunny day. We enjoy our food and company around the garden table.
> Sunday lunches. We get into this pleasant habit. John and Gillian are our leaders. This couple live here in Cyprus year round. English folks. We love the English! They also are friends from St. Andrew's and make it their business to invite new folks to coffee at George's after church. What a great mission! That is how we started making friends and going to Sunday lunches. John and Gillian would choose the venue and we would be happy to follow. Such a variety in their repetoire, from Cypriot goat to Thai food. Our usual pals at these events were John, Gillian, Mike, Josanne, Mavis, Roley, David and I...and always a few added or taken away! I have not mentioned Mavis before. She is a beauty, over 80. Such charm and a loving way. She has lived on this island for years, maybe over 30. Her husband has died but her daughters and their husbands visit often. Her home and garden are gorgeous and peaceful, as we are invited for coffee several times. Yes, I miss Mavis.
> I find another tailor in town. He does not own a fancy store. His daughter works with him. I do not have clothes made but altered, so I can keep wearing them. I dislike shopping. I like old familiar things. I visit quite often with a new load so I get to know the tailor well. They are Turkish Cypriots and I am shown a picture of their fine home up in the hills. Each time we are there the daughter makes us the best cup of Turkish coffee there can ever be. We cannot communicate in our given languages so we gesture and laugh. I try on each piece...he takes some pins and does his tailoring and then sits down at the sewing machines. I try them on...always perfect...and they are ready for me to take home. It is a lovely experience which I will never find in at home. They invite us to their home, but unfortunately we have no time before we leave the island.
> An art group begins. Colin and Ingrid come home to Samandira. We are house sitting Michael and Viola's. I invite Ingrid (another of my dearest friends here) and Josanne to bring their paints for a session outdoors. We have a grand time! Happy and content to be our artist selves. This begins a weekly session at Ingrid's. Our friend Margaret joins us. It is such a highlight in my week! We have no rules. We can do what we want, use any medium. We can talk about each other's work. Sometimes we put up a still life but try to extend ourselves from a realistic approach. Margaret is a good folk artist. She continues this practice. Paintings about the Cypriot people, their animals, their culture. I am bringing some of her work home with me. Ingrid does very good drawings, it is her forte, but she does not stop there. She has a wonderful sense of color. And the surprise is Josanne. She moves with the flow. Learns and tries new things. At home she paints and draws. She gains on her techniques. She does good work. And me. I am trying things I have never done before. We look at artists books and techniques. Let's try this! A freeing little happy community.
> Rosalie and Charmaine. They are sisters. We visit them a few times for tea, in their home perched high up the hill. Rosalie is the fabulous cook and baker, Charmaine is the very capable gardener....and don't get them mixed up (though I think each would really like help from the other!) They are both lovely characters of a completely different nature. They make us laugh. Charmaine loves to dig and poke at her sister because it always causes a reaction...just what she is looking for. Rosalie is soft and gentle and hates to be interrupted and corrected by Charmaine. Both of them are smart. A nephew has given them I-books (?)...a flat big screen that you can both email and take and send photographs on. They are both having a blast with them...showing us their favorite science information in amazing pictures...sending us pictures of the garden. It is quite wonderful. We have enjoyed these two and will certainly miss them. I always leave with a jar of Rosalie's ginger marmalade which we covet.
> Ingrid and Colin. Artists and Christians. I must mention that, as being a Christian is the basis of life for them. I am a disappointment in that category I think. It is not my favorite debate subject. My beliefs lie working quietly inside. It is Colin's favorite subject and sometimes we get into a friendly discussion...which leaves him pondering I am sure. He is a ponderer! We adore them. As I said before, Ingrid is an interior designer and a fine artist and...she puts clothing on her body like she is building a beautiful collage. Colin is a retired Anglican minister, but he is also a painter and a gardener. It is their home we stay in for three months. Generous! But we are so happy to have them home to play with us...even if we have to move out! Before we go to our next assignment we spend an evening together watching Philomena.
So now we move to Viola and Michael's home in Cattakoy. We go to sleep in the guest room as they keep packing and readying themselves for a 2:30 a.m. departure for the airport in our camper van. Their home is a specialty! Custom made for them by Michael, an expert at wood working. First, they both work from here and have sections of the home or out buildings for their paractices. Michael keeps adding to the original home which belonged to his mother. He is almost finished with his massage and body work studio. It is connected to Viola's work space...and centered around a lovely small round pool and wide sitting/walking space. And beyond that a garden. Made to be low maintainance it has lots of pebble ground cover and a huge variety of trees. Some of which we have never seen before. The garden is also decorated with pieces of interest. Two partial water urns/amphoras from shipwrecked boats that Michael has rescued from the bottom of the sea in his diving gear. And all this is on a gentle cliffside overlooking land and sea and mountains. And inside...What a commodias place for us to spend some time: good books and DVD's, original art, much of it done by Michael's brother, lots of shiny golden wood and Turkish carpets. We spend a good and meaningful time here. And we have bonded with some special people, Viola and Michael.
During this time we attended a Lenten series based on the movie Chocolat.
It was fun and mind-opening. Some things for me to think about:
> Let go of the word “temptation”, it only makes you want more!
> When you yield to those desires that are not good for you, you are not listening to your own wisdom, or the God within. And when you don't listen to yourself you are more prone to listen to others' promptings.
> First, you must be aware that you are being tempted!
> Yielding to temptation does not mean denying yourself, but watching for accessiveness (going overboard).
> Stop and think before you move forward , fully concious of your weakness, and then make a choice. Ask, then listen to the answer.
> Stand up for your own belief but do not condemn others. Stand along side of someone in need...not above. Practice tolerance.
As you can see I have trouble most with the red arrow suggestion...food consumption!
THOUGHTS and OBSERVATIONS:
> David and I are beginning to have hearing problems. One day he said, “It is the same temperature inside as it is outside.” I said, “...same chair?” Another...this morning... “How do you spell Lithuania?” My answer... “m-i-s-c-e-l-l-a-n-e-o-u-s” !!!!!
> For those of you who have delved into Siddha Yoga, Michael and Viola had chants on CD's which we very much enjoyed. Om Namah Shivaya. Over and over. “I bow to the Lord.” “I honor God.” Om meaning, in the Indian scriptures, the primordial sound from which the whole universe evolved.
> I have lost a pair of glasses and must buy new for reading. And I might as well have the other squished pair straightened out. If I am to function properly I must have two pairs of reading glasses. I go to CANADA OPTIC of course. Uzman grew up in British Columbia but started some offices on Cyprus where his family is originally from. He was fun to talk to.
> Another TV series we loved, Foyle's War.
> A dinner blessing from Colin and Ingrid...”We are so grateful
To be given a plateful”.
> Sometimes Latifa and Sonya have pancake day. We met the Stanhopes for pancakes, 5 tl each. Your choice of American, Crepe or British. And with the toppings you prefer at 2 tl each.....wild berry, butter lemon, sugar and cinnamon, chocolate sauce, butterscotch caramel, vanilla ice cream and maple syrup.
> If we want to send or receive packages here we use DHL which somehow manages to find a way to function on this non-country part of the island. DHL works from Turkey through a little cafe. Lots of things function differently here because it is not recognised as a country.
> There is a pretty good art store here. I pick up gesso, heavy board to paint on, water color paper, pencil and brush cases, fixitive spray (however I was told to use hairspray, cheaper and works the same). If they don't have something they will get it for you.
> A fantastic copy store, equipped for everything. We go there often. MAGIC TOUCH.
> A fellow who we met at a coffee cafe told us he owns the DVD stores in the area. You cannot rent, you must buy, but they are all illegal, downloaded and packaged up. Everyone knows this, everyone buys. They are very cheap. He told us that... “The best place to start a business is where everthing in the upper government is crooked. When North Cyprus becomes a country we will be moving on to other places we have targeted.”
> A joke from Charmaine...“Life is like a sewer, what you get out of it depends on what you put into it”. Tom Lehrer
> An original joke from Dorothy Bett's... “My dad used to say that there were only 2 types of Scottish men; one group on their knees coming out of church and the other on their knees coming out of the pub”.
We ask our friend Roger if we can stay in his apartment while he is gone. He has offered it many times. So we move on to Rogers condominium apartment in another small section of Girne. It is a walk up to the fourth floor, spacious and comfortable. Roger has taken care of us...bed made, towels out, food we should eat. There are two balconies, a small one off the main bedroom and a large one with many potted plants. It is here we sit with our coffee every morning and watch the building practices of another apartment building going up. Quite interesting. Sending buckets of cement from the ground to the 8th floor on a rope. They yell back and forth to say they are ready to send or receive. A guy crawls precariously out a window to wash it on the outside. Yikes. Can hardly look. When the sunshine goes from one balcony we can move to the other and from here look out over a massive olive grove. It is here that we also dry our clothes. A pleasant stay at Rogers. The only thing is, he was not here.
Next we move on to the Hermitage field where the pastor of St. Andrew's lives. It is lovely here, like the country in the city, surrounded by trees and flowers and not in anyone's way. We remain here until it is time to leave the island, but we take a few days to camp on beaches by the sea up northward. We follow Michael's directions to some favorite places of his. He is a diver and knows this coast. The rock formations here are exciting, many have paths leading down to beaches. We walk deserted roads with ruins of stone dwellings. David spots a hummingbird moth, the size of a large bee, his wings going “a mile a minute”. This coast is beautiful but we want to put the camper right next to a beach so we continue on to a paradise that we already know.
On the opposite coast is a favorite place of ours. We are alone. Except for donkeys who sneak by in the early morning (they pick up their legs and prance like horses in competition when they are frightened)...and a black and white goat foraging on the opposite reef morning and night...a big spider crab...butterflies favoring pink ground flowers...a big long-bodied bee zips by, minding his own business and says to the butterflies, “You guys go ahead with your program, I'm sticking with mine”...and more goats in the field. The tinkling of bells alerted us. It is the black and white goat with his group.
We take a fabulous walk on Saturday. From our little bay, we walk the natural sandstone sea-roads for quite a ways until we come to their end but notice a goat trail over the barrier and are soon on more sea-roads. Then we walk a sandy beach until we come to a dirt road heading inland.
It passes a field of oats at the end of which we follow a long thicket leading toward the road to our camp. We are walking in wildflowers. Small white stars, lavender colored morning glory, white and yellow daisies that grow short to the ground and a fluted magenta flower on a tall stock. And we sight the goats, still in the same field but this time having a 'pow wow' with the donkeys. The time here is our farewell to Cyprus. We soak it up to remember it forever. We love this island, especially the north.
We have one night left and we have persuaded Colin and Ingrid to spend time at dinner with us, and suggest a favorite of ours, Bollywood. It turns out to be QUIZ NIGHT, and it is packed, but we find seats, order, and fill out the quiz sheets! Ingrid loves it...she is good at it...we are not. But we have fun with her enthusiasm.
We are on the ferry to Turkey the next day.
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