United Nations

A German man and a Russian pass each other on Greek street and a moment later are captured in a snap taken by a British woman. No, not the beginning of some kind of racist/tasteless/ laughless joke but an image which illustrates 2 of my favourite things about Symi.

The first is the fact that even in winter when the population of the island dwindles to a little over 2000, the scene described above is possible. This is because of the diverse, international make-up of those residing in Symi all year round. I'm not going to try and list the countries people hail from as I'm bound to forget a couple and possibly offend someone. Most of my life I lived in various parts of England where I was occasionally the only non-white face at school and for several years was the only non-white member of my local operatic society. As for having anyone who had foreign parents and was born in another country, that was virtually unheard of and those that did were seen as an oddity. I therefore find it refreshing to live in an international community, where it is rare to be victimized or considered odd because of your nationality, skin colour or ethnicity.

The second thing this shot illustrates (in a tangenty kind of way - is tangenty a word?) is the sense of community. I can't say that I'm friends with either of these men but I know both of them well enough to know their names, nationalities and to say 'Kali Mera' (good day/morning) as I pass them on the street. In England I had no idea what my next door neighbours names were, let alone any other random passers-by and what's more I didn't want to know. Had I ever been in trouble and unable to reach members of my family or friends, would anyone have cared? I doubt it. Here, they probably would - I like that, makes me feel safe(ish).



Incidentally the next person I passed on my way down to the harbour was the Albanian girl featured in this Blip and had I been further up when I'd taken the shot the scene might have included 1 or 2 Afghans (men not hounds!). And before you throw your hands in the air and cry 'are there no Greeks living on Symi?' Of course there are but none were conveniently hanging around the Kali Strata when I was on my to work this morning. Maybe another day...