Now that I am here in Kefallonia, life is moving at a much slower pace. It was an obvious change that started so far away as the port in Italy when a man working for the boat looked at my name on the ticket. He read it and said "You from Kefallonia?" I responded back to him that my family is. He then gave me a hug and said, "I am Digeminis. We are like family." See, the names have a lot of significance in showing where someone is from. On Kefallonia, it is very common to have a last name ending in -atos or -inis. Hence, Kokkinis.
Since being here, I have settled down a lot in the security. No more worrying about where I will sleep next, when the next train leaves, or if I am going to have to explain my entire life story to strangers for the 30th time this trip (not that I don't enjoy doing so). There is not too many eventful things that happen here each day. Yesterday, my aunt was trying to figure out how to wrap a box to ship to Athens. It took about 30 minutes and became a big ordeal. We even needed help from the rest of the family. It was a family matter. After that ended up successful, we just kind of relaxed a bit more. Each day at 5 am and 5 pm, my uncle goes to fetch a pale of water from the ancient Roman well to give to the sheep. It is another big event.
Yesterday, I visited the Kokkinis Church. It is a church in the town that is for members of our family along with the other family in the village of Agia Thekli. At the church, they have the graves from nearly all of the members of my family. It was a very emotional visit. I paid respect to an uncle of mine that I am named after. He is actually a first cousin of my father. His name is Andreas Kokkinis. In Greece, you do not typically go by your first name. Instead, you go by your middle name. My family often refers to me as "Andreas" which I have gotten used to now. It is like staring at a headstone with my name engraved from a generation past.
I am still trying to figure out what I will do the rest of the trip. It is a bit of an emergency still because things are still not as planned. I do not wish to be traveling through Albania and Serbia alone, but I may just go for it anyways. I just have to figure out which way the wind takes me. Things get damaged. Things get broken.
Since being here, I have settled down a lot in the security. No more worrying about where I will sleep next, when the next train leaves, or if I am going to have to explain my entire life story to strangers for the 30th time this trip (not that I don't enjoy doing so). There is not too many eventful things that happen here each day. Yesterday, my aunt was trying to figure out how to wrap a box to ship to Athens. It took about 30 minutes and became a big ordeal. We even needed help from the rest of the family. It was a family matter. After that ended up successful, we just kind of relaxed a bit more. Each day at 5 am and 5 pm, my uncle goes to fetch a pale of water from the ancient Roman well to give to the sheep. It is another big event.
Yesterday, I visited the Kokkinis Church. It is a church in the town that is for members of our family along with the other family in the village of Agia Thekli. At the church, they have the graves from nearly all of the members of my family. It was a very emotional visit. I paid respect to an uncle of mine that I am named after. He is actually a first cousin of my father. His name is Andreas Kokkinis. In Greece, you do not typically go by your first name. Instead, you go by your middle name. My family often refers to me as "Andreas" which I have gotten used to now. It is like staring at a headstone with my name engraved from a generation past.
I am still trying to figure out what I will do the rest of the trip. It is a bit of an emergency still because things are still not as planned. I do not wish to be traveling through Albania and Serbia alone, but I may just go for it anyways. I just have to figure out which way the wind takes me. Things get damaged. Things get broken.
No comments:
Post a Comment