Greece is different to what is on your TV at present

Dear all,
It has taken some time to get to this blog but be assured rioting violence and economic crisis has had nothing to do with it. If I had travelled a day earlier, I would have been very inconviencied by the strike which closed the airport but as I didn't, I knew nothing of the problems in Athens. Here on Lesvos Athens is a long way away, except for the shame and concern about the violence in the capital. I am safer here than I am at home.
In this part of Lesvos, the mountains met the sea and the scenery is stunning. Geoffrey is living in a small village 5kms away from, and above Molyvos - said to be one of the most picturesque towns in Greece - and I could well believe it. The village has about 180 people living in it and about 100 from the village living in Australia. As I am introduced, I get told of the relatives in Melvorne. There are some vacant houses in the villages, mostly owned by australians to whom they have been left.
Geoffrey has the house on the edge of the village but remember that they are all joined, cheek by jowl. He has four rooms plus a courtyard an storage shed. The views from his place are breathtaking, espcecially the sunset at night. The village is very quiet, except when the travelling shops, on the back of utes come round. This week we have had the clothing shop, the fishmonger (twice) and the household gadgets shop come round. Geoffrey has something to do with the villagers but not a lot - I don't think he wants to get too involved. But he has plenty of friends and contacts down in Molyvos and Petra and of course he knows all the farmers via the produce store where he works for about 15 hours a week.
Living in the village one gets a completey different view of the Greek economic crisis. I can imagine that about 30 years ago this could have been a poor place, with the chief sources on income being fish, sheep's cheese and olives - the olive oil of Lesvos is regarded as the best world wide. But since the tourist industry took off, I sense that the local population has moved into a quiet economic compfort. From what I have seen of the inside of the small houses, they are very comfortable. All seem to have two sources of income. Stefanos who I met yesterday is a public servant who also has 30 sheep which he milks daily. Other farmers who have more sheep, would also have olive trees. Some would have family who work part of the year in the tourist industry. It is very much a lifestyle. As for the economic crisis - here there is high government debt and very little personal debt - the opposite of what we have in Australia.
There are a number of expats who like Geoffrey live here for the lifestyle. Working also at the hotel that Geoffrey works at is Walter - a young american who want to use the winter to write - poetry and short stories. His wife (Greek from Athens) is an artist. So there are a number of like minded foreigners.
Yesterday I went to Vespers in the parish church, the vigil before the Vigil of Ascenion, I believe. The local priest celebrated the service at breakneck speed and did, what must have, all the various roles - in our terms - priest, deacon, subdeacon and thurifier. Discounting Geoffrey, I was the congregation. Afterwards at the coffee shop, we were told that the priest had to go down to Molyvos and celebrated that same service in two more churches as there is no priest in Molyvos due to the shortage of priests. I wonder if he had anymore congregation down there. I intend to go to the Vigil this Evening.
Tomorrow I leave the island by ferry and get into Athens early Friday morning. My flight to Rome isn't till late afternoon and I'm glad I allowed so much time in case anything does go wrong in Athens.