Children in Greece
Now that I am in US, I regret not taking more photos of children. There is the fact that I would need permission to really post photos of kids, so with that I won’t feel quite as badly. I do want to write a bit about these photos.
We arrived on Patmos on Sunday. On Monday we got our rental car. The owner of the rental car business is Katerina. Her business is called Katerina’s cars. When I went to her storefront, her daughter was with her. You are looking at Katerina and her little girl. Most of the Greek names are 4 syllables or longer. Her mother told me the daughter’s name a few times and I should have written it down. This little girl was very friendly and we visited a bit. It was a week day, but a holiday, (May 1), so children did not have school.
The man who owned the house we rented on Patmos had a wife and one child, a ten year old daughter. Then, we got to know Yanni who I wrote about earlier. He is 37 and recently married with one child, a 4 month old girl. Panos who managed the apartment complex where we rented our little studios was also married with a 3 year old daughter. We got to meet his daughter also.
I am only able to give anecdotal stories, so cannot make any large assumptions. Panos lived in a larger city and left his engineering job and city to move to the island of Samos where his wife is from. He was happy to live in a smaller place to have a family. When on Lesvos, I stayed some nights at Hotel Sappho. This hotel had few guests since the tourist season had not really started yet. The hotel workers (front desk, cook, housekeeper) did not always have work to do and it seemed quite normal to bring children to work, so I got to meet three children at the hotel. Family would come by to visit and hold a baby. Extended family seemed to be common as I saw grandmothers and aunties along with the little children.
It sounds odd, I know, but at times, I felt shy to ask simple questions. I did not always ask even an open ended question such as, “Tell me about the church. How often to do you attend? Do you bring your children? Do your children already know how to cross themselves and kiss icons?”
I did not do this and now, well, I could still email Panos since he gave me his email. I will see. What I do know is that every time Robert attended worship on a Sunday, he always saw some children. Holy Spirit Sunday was a big holiday so we saw a fair amount of families attending. I did not get to ask deeper questions either too often. So, perhaps, I will be thankful for what I did observe. Families seemed to value the tradition of worship, and brought their whole family to attend. It did not seem to matter if you were late or if you left early. I did like that, ha.
The man who owned the house we rented on Patmos had a wife and one child, a ten year old daughter. Then, we got to know Yanni who I wrote about earlier. He is 37 and recently married with one child, a 4 month old girl. Panos who managed the apartment complex where we rented our little studios was also married with a 3 year old daughter. We got to meet his daughter also.
I am only able to give anecdotal stories, so cannot make any large assumptions. Panos lived in a larger city and left his engineering job and city to move to the island of Samos where his wife is from. He was happy to live in a smaller place to have a family. When on Lesvos, I stayed some nights at Hotel Sappho. This hotel had few guests since the tourist season had not really started yet. The hotel workers (front desk, cook, housekeeper) did not always have work to do and it seemed quite normal to bring children to work, so I got to meet three children at the hotel. Family would come by to visit and hold a baby. Extended family seemed to be common as I saw grandmothers and aunties along with the little children.
It sounds odd, I know, but at times, I felt shy to ask simple questions. I did not always ask even an open ended question such as, “Tell me about the church. How often to do you attend? Do you bring your children? Do your children already know how to cross themselves and kiss icons?”
I did not do this and now, well, I could still email Panos since he gave me his email. I will see. What I do know is that every time Robert attended worship on a Sunday, he always saw some children. Holy Spirit Sunday was a big holiday so we saw a fair amount of families attending. I did not get to ask deeper questions either too often. So, perhaps, I will be thankful for what I did observe. Families seemed to value the tradition of worship, and brought their whole family to attend. It did not seem to matter if you were late or if you left early. I did like that, ha.