Storm Update: Helping

As further storm hit Greece (as you’ve probably seen on the news – terrible) and there is talk of more to come, Symi continues to say, ‘Well, that was that now let’s deal with this. We didn’t lose anyone, and our neighbours and families need us. So, let’s get on with it.’

The emergency services, town hall, local community… Everyone is doing a great job clearing up the mess, that’s mainly in the harbour. There was also damage up in Horio, with at least one house suffering severe damage. The town hall keeps us up to date with what roads are open/closed and other news through the announcement system, Facebook fills us in with photos, and the general message services between individuals keep friends informed about where help is needed and what the rest of us can do. If you are not on Symi, you can still contribute.

Here are three ways you can help from a distance.

Solidarity Symi

Collecting money through the registered charity. Money and other donations will be passed out, by them, to where it is needed most. Check their website for how you can donate.

http://solidaritysymi.org/

 Next Stop Symi

A charity that works with Solidarity Symi to bring aid to refugees and others in need in the Dodecanes, including Symi. Next Stop Symi sent me a message:

“Next Stop Symi has agreed to accept donations on behalf of Solidarity Symi. For UK people it means we can get an extra 25% from the UK government.”

Their site is here: http://www.nextstopsymi.org/

But if you want to donate via the UK use this link: https://www.mydonate.bt.com/charities/nextstopsymi

Anna Panton has started a fundraising campaign specifically for the Symi schools. The nursery school in Yialos was particularly badly hit, and everything inside was ruined. Money from this campaign will assist all schools on the island.

Here is the website with more information: https://www.gofundme.com/storm-repair-for-symi-schools

I’ll share more news as I hear it.

On a personal level, I am donating a percentage of my Symi book sales to the village high school. The new ‘Symi, Stuff and Nonsense’ is now available on Kindle here. The print version should be available in the next couple of days. Donations will also be made from any sales of ‘Symi 85600’, ‘Carry On up the Kali Strata’ and ‘Village View’ which you can find linked from my author page here.

Symi Dream Facebook page for photos: https://www.facebook.com/SymiDream/

 

 

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Storm update: Books

Yesterday morning: Just a couple of quick notes today as I am off to help clear up one of the schools, or go wherever I am needed. Neil has already gone down to join in the clean-up operation, and I’m joining him and many others as soon as I can. It’ll be the first time I have been able to get down there, but I won’t be taking the camera. Not only do I not want to risk ruining it, but there are plenty of photos on Facebook and elsewhere, and I don’t want to feel like I am rubbernecking.

Yesterday afternoon: As it turned out, the emergency services and army are doing such a great job in Yialos that the council didn’t need us – though I am sure individual businesses need help (and please contact us if you do) – but the high school in Horio was also flooded and suffered damage. The children can’t return to school just yet. The science lab, for example, was a wreck, and we did what we could. Whatever the headmistress and teachers commanded – it was like being back at school, except we wanted to be there. We ended up sweeping out water, mopping floors, cleaning the gutters, and, apart from other things, having to throw away damaged books. It occurred to me, as I helped dump the sodden and ruined textbooks that I am just about to release my next Symi book. Ah ha! I thought. The answer is obvious.

I have long wanted to do what I can to help the schools, but what can I do? I was hoping to donate the piano to the music school at some point, but there’s no point doing that now as it’s an ex-piano. One of our godsons attends the high school with the children of many of our friends, and our younger godson and his posse will be there in a couple of years too.
Today I had to throw away their much-needed textbooks…
In the next day or so I will be releasing a frivolous book of my own…
Some of that income should go where it is locally needed…

And it will. Below is the cover of my new book about living on Symi, travel tales, blog posts and… well, nonsense. Now then, this was, as you know, planned for release this weekend – maybe sooner – and I am still going to go ahead with that. But, I’m going to donate a certain percent of book sales towards the high school, particularly for books the government don’t supply. From now until Christmas, a percentage of ‘Symi, Stuff & Nonsense’, ‘Symi 85600’, ‘Carry On up the Kali Strata’ and ‘Village View’ will be donated, by me, to the school.

All you have to do is buy a copy which I was hoping my loyal Symi Dreamers would do anyway, it is, after all, dedicated to you, as you will see. If you do, you’ll also be helping Symi’s high school students.

If that doesn’t appeal, but you still want to help the island and donate towards repairing other community buildings and taking care of those who have lost possessions, head over to Solidarity Symi who are raising funds for whichever part of the island needs it first.

 

 

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Symi Flood Victims

Solidairy Symi website

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Symi Disaster Area

I’m posting this on Tuesday, now that the power is back on, so it is here today, and I will leave it for Wednesday too. (Photos below the text.)

There was a storm on Monday afternoon/night which has caused a lot of damage to the island, particularly Yialos and the businesses there, but also, at least one house in Horio and several walls and ruins have been badly damaged. Below is what I have put on our Facebook page, but I’ll repeat it here for anyone who doesn’t use Facebook:

Thank you everyone for your messages. As far as I know, there have been no fatalities, but there is a lot of damage to be cleared up. We’ve not been to Yialos, but we did go up to the Stavros area of Horio earlier. As you can see, some of the paths have been washed away, others are deep with mud and silt, trash from the ravine was washed down, including washing machines, and the side of one house was taken off. Luckily the 80-year-old lady who lives there was taken to another property before she lost her sterna and bedroom.

I have also heard that: cars are piled in a heap in Yialos (there’s an image in the press), some were washed into the sea along with some motorbikes, there’s a car in the pizzeria and a train in the bakery, one café’s fridges are in a café 50 yards away, many businesses have suffered hideous damage, mud in the downstairs, knee deep in water in other places, the town square outer road is a pile of rocks from the mountain (it’s at the foot of another ravine), some of the main water-feed pipes are severed in Horio, trees down in Pedi and the Power Station was under water.

The power (and internet) was out from 17:30 yesterday until, in our part of Horio, around 10.00 this morning. It’s amazing they got it fixed at all – can’t sing their praises enough. Ditto the coastguards, police, authorities, army, the council and whoever is dealing with getting the island back up and running within such a short space of time.

It was a pretty big storm, to understate completely, that lasted from early Monday afternoon through until the evening, and then came back overnight. It was gone by 5.30 Tuesday.

Keep an eye on the local (Greek) news and the blogs, Symi Dream and Adriana’s, to see how the clean-up goes.

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Tacit and a Symi Wedding

Sunday turned out to be a day of both good and bad. I sat down to warm up my arpeggios in the morning, about an hour before we were due to move the piano down to Yialos for the private concert… And the piano failed to work. It hissed and cracked and made very unhappy noises, so I turned it off. And on again. And off again. And on… It was turned on and off more times than a shore-leave sailor in a dubious brothel, but nothing would coax it into life. It eventually settled into what musicians call ‘Tacit.’ “A musical term to indicate that an instrument or voice does not sound. In vocal polyphony and in orchestral scores, it usually indicates a long period of time, typically an entire movement.” Well, my piano’s tacit is on a looped repeat, possibly to never sound again.

Steve came to collect it and spend half an hour trying to fix it but in the end, the concert was not to be. And neither is the piano. I’ll have to save for a new one. I’ve only been without a piano for about two years out of the last 50 so it will be a bit of a wrench to throw the old carcass away. (It’s old and would cost more to send for repair than it would to buy a new or second hand one.) Never mind, we still had a wedding to go to…

There will be more photos of the event once Neil has worked on them as he took most of the images. I’ve stolen a couple before he gets to them so you can get a flavour of Sunday afternoon’s happy times. We were guests of the groom whose family house (astute readers will know) is next door. We arrived, were welcomed and given a drink – whisky for the men, Lord knows what in tiny glasses for the ladies – and waited in the courtyard with some other guests. The cast list included Yiannis Rainbow in a suit and Manolis and Alexis in their finest. Everyone was in their finest actually, and my Crombie had an outing too. (It only gets one or two per year; it’s too hot for summer and not warm enough for winter, but yesterday was just right.)

The couple met in the square, and we joined the procession to the church. Previously at weddings, we’ve been working, taking the video and photos, so it was wonderful to be part of the party, walking with neighbours, complimenting them on their children’s outfits and discussing the weather and wedding. We processed through the lanes to the church of St George overlooking the Castro and parts of Yialos, and about 200 people gathered in the courtyard and church.

Afterwards, we sat in the square at Lefteris’ kafenion where passing guests invited us to the follow-on. We’d not been invited there by the father of the groom, only to the house and church, so we politely declined even though we would have been made very welcome. Instead, we hung out with a couple of friends until the need to feed drew us home. As I say, more images to come in the next couple of days.

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