Its a Good Start

Surprise!  Construction has finally begun on my house!  When my engineer/builder (mihanikos μηχανικος) Peter Boufeas, informed me on March 5th, 2012 that they had begun the earthworks measurements on the property, I needed to sit down.  I felt dizzy...with delight.

 I looked around to share my news with my family, but the twins were busy wrecking Yiayia's house and she was busy helping them.  Richard Syrett, ( http://www.richardsyrett.com/) my adoring husband, was in Chicago filming season three of his tv show (http://www.theconspiracyshow.com/ ) .  So I just sat there, and continued to read with great anticipation all the news that Peter had written. The title of his email report, "the Start".

We've had so many false starts over these past 2 years, that I just wanted to stop altogether.  First we learned that the house had illegal structures.  Then we found out that the property itself is illegal.  To build a house you need 4 acres (stremmata στρέμματα) and I was short 700 sqm.  There are so many bylaws and they change weekly, as well as taxes, and IKA and VAT and fines/penalties to pay,  that you feel completely unwelcome.  Don't they want my business?  This house had become a personification of my father; an energy vampire. It just sucked the life out of me.

The story of my house and its illegality is not uncommon or unheard of, I am not in a unique situation, unfortunately. I just find the timing poetic.

The house becoming legal and finally being tended to is almost a metaphor in itself for the entire country. Strange time to have actually started construction on my house.  Why now?  Why have the cosmic tumblers finally allowed us to have a breakthrough at this point in Greece's history?   Greece is at a critical turning point on all levels, not just economically. It needs social and cultural reform and buckets of bailout money can never remedy that.  (Watch Peter Economidis' lecture in English on "Rebranding Greece" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chhn5oEmITs )

Conflicted.  An Evzonas crying.
The image says it all.

The corruption and deception runs deep through all levels of society; from the boys in parliament, Ceo's, restaurant owners and the builders whom you trusted because they were family.
My father  hired his cousin, PI (initials only), a builder/engineer a mihanikos (μηχανικος) along with his then wife VK, a notary (συμβολαιογράφος), to help purchase the land and then build the house. The notary in Greece are not like here in Canada, they are lawyers and VK's job is to draft binding, legal contracts of all kinds.  And in this case she drafted 5 binding legal contracts for the purchase of properties.  As it turns out, the contracts that I have claiming that I own 4 acres of land in Verga is a lie.   So too, are the bogus topographic schematics of my house, that are signed by PI, showing that it's legal on paper but not in actuality.

Well, this dynamic villainous duo continue to run the show in Verga and when I visited them in November 2011 to discuss my situation, they stood their ground. I had to visit PI on two occasions to retrieve documents for Peter, and PI couldn't even look me in the eye to talk with me, but insisted that he did nothing reprehensible.  VK on the other hand is a real pistol and said, and I quote, "What would you do in Canada?"  I replied, "hire a lawyer".  "What are you going to do, put the father of my children in jail?  Your father was in on it."  "Says you", I replied with such anger, that my 5 year old son Zachary hide behind my legs.  "He is dead", I continued,  "and I have contracts that tell me all is legal and to code." 

My father may have been aware of these incongruities, but then again he also suffered from a pre-frontal brain injury. He trusted these people to do the job and to get it done and he died telling me that the spiti (house) was good to go.  My father even went so far as to give his engineer/mihanikos power of attorney, to make the purchases, sign contracts and even have access to the bank account. What?  My father allowed who do to what with HIS money?  I once had a tug of war with my father over a $2 bill so that I could take the bus to school and the tips that I made working at my dad's restaurant, I had to put in the till! LOL.  My father trusted no one and as I said before, consulted with no one.  They saw that he was vulnerable and took advantage of him.  I discovered all of this while I was in Greece for the month of November.

It was a month of discovery, and it was emotionally charged.  I toured the inside of every government office, IKA office, laywers office, bank and notary office between Athens and Kalamata. You won't find that tour of Greece on anyone's wish list.  And Peter Boufeas was always the charming, upbeat, positive guide that walked me through this landmine tour.  As my mother said to him, "You are the best thing that happened here."

I travelled with my family, Richard, my twin boys Zachary and North and my mum.   I felt embarrassed and ashamed at certain points because Richard had never been to Greece and he was getting the raw under belly tour, instead of the first class tour that he deserves.  Wait until we visit the mountains, just wait until you experience the Taygetos, I kept telling him but he wasn't complaining really. Once we finally found a moment together we made it up the mountain and ate a late lunch at my favourite spot at Theotokos.  Everything seemed clearer and I could think clearly way up on the mountain top.  After a few hours of a leisurely lunch, lots of young wine and reunions with old friends that had popped in for a snack, Richard said, "I see what you mean about this place.  I could live and die here on the mountain."  Gotcha. 

My house looking out towards the Kalathi

As Greece goes through a reconstruction, so does my house and by extension all the people that are involved with it; the antagonists and the protagonists, the willing and the unwilling.  Its a good start.

Admittedly, at first I was unwilling. Unwilling to acknowledge that perhaps I do have a future in this breathtaking but tragic country.  And now I've come too far and sacrificed too much to turn back .  Just like Greece.