![\"Geschenke](\"https:\/\/ursula.ikaria.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Anna-im-Garten-1024x919.jpg\" "\\"Anna")
<\/span><\/div>Everything at the beginning!<\/h1><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>Guest article by Anna Avramidou – It’s been a lot of excitement these past few days! We have been living in our new home in Agios Dimitrios since the summer. We bought a small house here, in the middle of nature. I had heard a lot about the close-knit community in this small village. That was also one reason why we chose this place. It was important to us to break out of the anonymity that we often experienced in Germany and find a real community, with all its advantages, disadvantages and challenges.<\/p>\n
I had taken a lot of pictures of what our life would be like up here in the small mountain village, about 6 km from the sea. Would it be too much for me if nice neighbors wanted to be close to us? Would I be able to meet the demands that would be placed on me as a new member of the village community?<\/p>\n
Would we perhaps be immediately overrun out of curiosity about who \u201cthe new guys\u201d are?<\/p>\n
As is so often the case, everything turned out completely differently…<\/strong><\/p>\nAfter the first few weeks, I was surprised that I was sitting alone in my little house. I missed the people and the place that had been our home for our first two years on the island. Nobody really noticed us. Thank God, my friend Ursula, who has lived in the same village for over 30 years, stopped by every now and then.<\/p>\n
Too much attention would have overwhelmed me, but I didn’t find anything strange.<\/strong><\/p>\nOur son Leander also had to fight his battles in the \u201cnew pack\u201d at the age of eleven. People here still live in a very archaic way. Now that he was \u201cthe new guy\u201d in the village, he first had to fight for his place in the new community (yes \u2013 unfortunately in the truest sense of the word). As a mother who has always been in favor of peaceful solutions, it was difficult for me to see how he sometimes came home either injured or crying and completely exhausted.<\/p>\n
The parents of the other children reacted completely differently.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt was so interesting to see how the adults here deal with it. In Germany, with my older sons, I often experienced that the parents dealt with the children’s conflicts. Often the children had long since gotten along again while the parents no longer spoke to each other. Here, on Ikaria, all I ever heard was the sentence: \u201cThey have to sort it out themselves, they are just children.\u201d I felt a great deal of trust in the children’s abilities. Of course we talked a lot with Leander about his challenges. We always told him: \u201cTell us if we should take action.\u201d That meant if we should talk to the relevant children, parents or teachers, then let us know. But except for once, it never got that far. But it took a lot of strength for us to endure his pain. Of course, our own insecurities and memories from our childhood were reflected here.<\/p>\n
Guest article by Anna Avramidou – It’s been a lot of excitement these past few days! We have been living in our new home in Agios Dimitrios since the summer. We bought a small house here, in the middle of nature. I had heard a lot about the close-knit community in this small village. That was also one reason why we chose this place. It was important to us to break out of the anonymity that we often experienced in Germany and find a real community, with all its advantages, disadvantages and challenges.<\/p>\n
I had taken a lot of pictures of what our life would be like up here in the small mountain village, about 6 km from the sea. Would it be too much for me if nice neighbors wanted to be close to us? Would I be able to meet the demands that would be placed on me as a new member of the village community?<\/p>\n
Would we perhaps be immediately overrun out of curiosity about who \u201cthe new guys\u201d are?<\/p>\n
As is so often the case, everything turned out completely differently…<\/strong><\/p>\n After the first few weeks, I was surprised that I was sitting alone in my little house. I missed the people and the place that had been our home for our first two years on the island. Nobody really noticed us. Thank God, my friend Ursula, who has lived in the same village for over 30 years, stopped by every now and then.<\/p>\n Too much attention would have overwhelmed me, but I didn’t find anything strange.<\/strong><\/p>\n Our son Leander also had to fight his battles in the \u201cnew pack\u201d at the age of eleven. People here still live in a very archaic way. Now that he was \u201cthe new guy\u201d in the village, he first had to fight for his place in the new community (yes \u2013 unfortunately in the truest sense of the word). As a mother who has always been in favor of peaceful solutions, it was difficult for me to see how he sometimes came home either injured or crying and completely exhausted.<\/p>\n The parents of the other children reacted completely differently.<\/strong><\/p>\n It was so interesting to see how the adults here deal with it. In Germany, with my older sons, I often experienced that the parents dealt with the children’s conflicts. Often the children had long since gotten along again while the parents no longer spoke to each other. Here, on Ikaria, all I ever heard was the sentence: \u201cThey have to sort it out themselves, they are just children.\u201d I felt a great deal of trust in the children’s abilities. Of course we talked a lot with Leander about his challenges. We always told him: \u201cTell us if we should take action.\u201d That meant if we should talk to the relevant children, parents or teachers, then let us know. But except for once, it never got that far. But it took a lot of strength for us to endure his pain. Of course, our own insecurities and memories from our childhood were reflected here.<\/p>\n