Ikaria in times of Corona

Corona is also rampant in Greece. Absolute curfew. The fear that Corona will reach Ikaria is great. No medical care. The slogan these days: Μένουμε σπίτι! (Ménume spíti) We stay at home!

On March 15th, I returned from a short trip to Switzerland with my two children and, knowing that we absolutely wanted to protect our 96-year-old grandmother in Ikaria, we went straight into voluntary quarantine with the whole family.

But what really surprised me was that there was already a partial curfew in Athens at that time, so license plates were handed out in front of the supermarkets and people waited patiently at a distance of two meters, wearing a mask and gloves, until they were let in one by one. While the day before in Switzerland, we wanted to buy some chocolate as gifts, hundreds of people in the large supermarkets were fighting over flour, canned goods and toilet paper. Sorry, I can’t find any other way to express it, the shelves were bare and the customers were very upset, not to say aggressive. We were shocked! As if war had broken out! The trains were full, and so were the shops.

While in Greece schools, universities, shops, restaurants and bars had been closed since March 10th, public life was largely forced to a standstill and Athens, the city of 6 million that never sleeps, had long since been eerily empty.

Caution

Like that? Greece is very cautious, the government has to give credit for that, and reacted very early. There is a good reason for this: Greece only has 500 beds in intensive care units across the country and the rural and island regions have always been completely underserved medically. That’s why I’ve been supporting the Ikaria hospital with my fundraising campaigns for years.

It’s hard to imagine what will happen if the Corona virus spreads on the remote islands or in the refugee camps! Prevention is therefore the only alternative. The slogan these days that you hear and read everywhere:

 

We stay at home! (Ménume spíti) Wir bleiben zuhause!

We were lucky and caught one of the last flights home. My family and I arrived safely in Ikaria on March 16th and have been adhering to the voluntary quarantine since then, no contact with outsiders, only by phone or Skype, as we want to continue to care for our grandma and protect her from infection.

Good friends don’t get lost so quickly, we keep in touch, but we stay at home!

We have enough to do on the farm, the children are studying online and I personally don’t feel uncomfortable with the quarantine. I never get bored, on the contrary, now is finally the time to dedicate myself to everything I’ve always wanted and never found time for!

Curfew

After the partial curfew, we had the phenomenon that suddenly all the parks and squares were full of people, the beaches and forests around Athens and Thessaloniki were full of walkers. Everyone tried to escape the four walls. On weekends, families from the city flocked to relatives in the village. The government feared that the Corona virus would spread to the islands and that medical care would collapse completely. This is what happened in two villages in northern Greece, which are now under total quarantine. We want to avoid a second Italy at all costs.

That’s why the absolute curfew has been in effect since March 23rd. Industrial companies continue to work with major restrictions, everything else can be done from home. Public life is at a standstill. Exits are now only the most necessary and are permitted with special permission, which anyone can obtain online or via SMS, to work, to the supermarket, to the pharmacy, to the bank or to care for the elderly. An hour of outdoor exercise alone is also permitted. A minimum distance of 2 meters applies to everyone everywhere. Buses, trains, taxis, ships, all of which can only be used with special permission, if they still run at all. One person per car. Police, fire brigade, port police, all authorities monitor things around the clock, even drones are used. Everyone’s common sense is appealed to, violations cost money!

Of course, these drastic, unprecedented measures are intended to slow the spread of the virus, especially in metropolitan areas and cities with millions of inhabitants. But they are also adhered to with amazing consistency here in the village. Everyone has now realized that they are helping to protect themselves and their families.

 

Loss of our livelihood

Unfortunately, these measures mean more to us than just an infringement on personal freedom. For us, the Corona virus is another economic crisis. Our shop, like all shops in the country, is closed and will remain so for the time being. We depend on tourism and on earning our annual income from April to October and building up reserves for the winter months. We are currently at zero, which of course hits us very hard and also scares us. For me and my family, for my shop, my dance groups, for the entire island, from the hotel, the tavern, the musicians to the bus driver, the complete collapse of tourism means the loss of the main source of income and thus the basis of existence.

10 years of economic crisis have battered the country and finally there was a small ray of light at the end of the tunnel, and now this! We can’t yet estimate how big the scale really is! We are once again facing difficult times financially. Nobody knows when normal life and travel can resume. Unfortunately there is no financial support from the state. So we don’t know what will happen in the next few months.

Don’t lose hope

However, I am not afraid of the future. I focus on the positive! I’m glad that we, my family and I, are all in good health! I have a roof over my head. It’s raining heavily outside right now. I’m dry and warm. I have enough to eat and clean drinking water – all things that are not self-evident for everyone even in the 21st century and in Europe!!!

I often think of the refugees in the hopelessly overcrowded camps on the neighboring islands or in the forests on the border of northern Greece!

Somehow we will also bridge the times of Corona. Alternatives must be found. There is always a way out. I have experienced and survived many crises in my life and things always went on somehow. We must not lose hope!

In fact, crises are always a challenge and an opportunity in one. We can use them to reflect, sort out the old, break down structures and dare to try new things. It remains to be hoped that the Corona crisis will slow people down and focus again on the really important things in life. This has already helped over many a crisis in Ikaria Tradition and in the Ikaria Blue Zones.

And the last few who are still busy refusing or hoarding food will hopefully wake up at some point and understand that it’s not always just about them.

No matter how you currently feel about Corona and whether you support the global measures or not, the Corona virus and its consequences will be with us all for a while.

 

Μένουμε σπίτι! (Ménume spíti) We’re staying home!

This is how we protected the others, the risk groups, our mothers and fathers and our grandparents, and this is how we supported the doctors and nursing staff who fight for us on the front line, often under catastrophic conditions and with self-sacrifice.

Stay at home whenever possible, stay healthy and don’t let yourself get down!