He had been living in Athens for 35 years. In the neighbourhood of Gyzi. He was a hard worker. Every day, very early in the morning, he went to the market and unloaded lorries of fruit and vegetables from the countryside.
“On Sundays, when my team played football, I always went to watch the match. I never missed a game”, he tells me and adds: “As a loyal Panathinaikos fan, it hurts me today when I see the team not doing well. But it will get better. Won’t it?”
The Baby Goat
We met Mr Michalis on the road that connects Kalavryta with the village of Planitero, just after the Cave of Lakes. We were talking as if we had known each other for years. When Amalia asked him to take his picture, he told her to “do her job” and, to be honest, he made sure to give us some very good pictures.
From the first moment one meets him, you can tell he is a kind and truthful. He stands there and watches his animals, some goats and a few sheep, as they graze. “An hour ago she gave birth to a baby goat” he will tell us, beckoning us to follow him.
Indeed, a baby goat has just got up on its feet and its mother is nursing it. “These animals are now my whole life,” he tells us and continues: “A few days ago I took them down from the mountain so they could give birth. During summer, until the end of October or so, I keep them up on Mount Helmos. At an altitude of 2000 meters. There they live freely, as animals should be,” only to add after a short pause, “and us humans”.
Radio and Sports
He doesn’t milk the animals because, he tells us, “this milk is meant to raise the baby goats.” Mr. Michalis lives alone with nothing but a radio, which is permanently on the sports channel.
“There’s no cafe nearby, there’s nothing. I do the chores and then sit at home and listen to sports. My team plays on Saturday. We’ll see what happens”. As he leaves, he stops and waves goodbye.
When we returned after 2-3 days he was still there. Stoic, calm, a man who has lived and seen a lot. He keeps his vision clear and remains consistent in his choices.
