We had just arrived in Thessaloniki when
we got a call from Antonios. We had been
introduced to him by Niko, the Greek professor we had met in Scotland and who
is now our friend. Antonios, his wife
Erica and two children gave up a conventional life in Thessaloniki to start a
new life near the village of Zagkliveri (about 50 minutes from Thessaloniki) at
a place they have named Faraggi Scalas.
Together with another couple (Nikiforos & Anna) they are turning to
a more sustainable living arrangement as a solution to the economic,
environmental and social issues facing Greece today. They have organised a weekend of sharing and
learning at their community and are keen for us to spend the day with
them. We decide to take up the
invitation so early the next morning we catch a bus to Zagkliveri.
Anna picks us up at the bus station and
drives us to the community of Faraggi Scalas.
We arrive just as many of the guests are trickling back after a walk in
the surrounding bush land. They are
mostly Greeks but there are also a handful of English expats amongst them. Everyone here has one thing in common – they
are all searching for answers to a more sustainable life and are passionate
about reducing their ecological footprint.
After the hectic pace of Thessaloniki it
is good to be in the hills. There are a
couple of small houses on the premises with solar panels. Water for this community is fetched from a
little stream that flows close by. A
common composting toilet, vegie patches, and a children’s playground give
further clues that this is an eco-village in the making.
Over lunch we get to know Antonios as
well as many of the others who are here.
We meet Irene
whose sister lives at ZEGG, the community in Germany we volunteered at. We chat to an Englishman who tells us he has left his life in England and is trying to set up a community on the Greek island of Naxos. It is exciting to be surrounded by people who all dreaming of similar ideas…
Even as we visit various communities
around Europe we see how connections are made between them and the invisible
thread that seems to link them together. You make one connection and it leads you to
ten others.
Today, Antonios has visitors from the
eco-village of Tamera, which is based in Portugal and is a sister community of
ZEGG. They have come here to share a video about the
water retention landscapes that have been constructed in Tamera. Interestingly for me, the entire discussions today
are centered on the theme of ‘Water’ and the part it plays in a community. It is exciting to hear that water is the
most important part of the puzzle when setting up an ecovillage.
We learn about Sepp Holzer, a
revolutionary permaculture expert from Austria who has transformed the
desertified landscapes of Portugal. We
are amazed at the dramatic effects water retention can have in a place and how
a landscape that was once a desert can be transformed to be a natural solution
to the global problem of water shortages, landscape erosion and pollution. The actions of man have altered our environment
and caused problems such as desertification through logging of old growth
forests. Many people are not aware that
this devastation can also be reversed through the construction of water
retention structures.
The idea is to build a little structure
that will hold water back and hence slow the runoff process over land. When water is retained, it infiltrates very
slowly into the ground water and at Tamera this has given rise to an underground
stream downstream of the structure. The
water creates a cooler microclimate around the area, which allows the plants in
the area to thrive. Before long the community
has a thriving edible landscape. The
plants in turn help generate more rainfall and eventually the water cycle is
restored!
It is an inspiring video and excites us
immensely as we consider the possibilities for the Australian landscape. If you wish to learn more about this, watch
this YouTube video:
After the video and a short tea break,
we gather around a campfire that has now been lit away from the houses. Irene has brought a jug of water and the folk
gathered here are invited to share their stories of water and to give a blessing
for the new community that is starting up.
We talk for quite some time reminiscing on our experiences with water and
blessing the new project. We are really
glad we came to this gathering. We have
formed new friends in Greece and obtained another insight into the work that is
slowly changing the way we choose to live all over the world. Projects such as this give us hope for the
future and inspire us to keep travelling the road less travelled in search of
our own solutions…
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