All about Mani (ePub)

Even though I am an American-Greek, I am not too different from the Greeks born here. We all have the same DNA. I wrote about the development of the so-called "Greek Crisis" that began to surface 14 years ago when my wife and I first arrived. I wrote about all the circumstances as I saw them, particularly as to how the Greeks reacted to the dilemma. I described the early symptoms of the oncoming financial crisis and the battles with the European Union that fortunately bailed the country out of bankruptcy, as well as the subsequent protests against the agreed-on austerity measures that were required in order to receive the bailout money. I wrote in the First Chapter about my life in America where I was born and raised as a Greek American. Both of my parents were born and bred in Greece, and later found the American Dream. They raised 5 children "as Greek as they could be." I described the reasons in the subsequent 34 chapters for our decision to live and practice medicine here. First, we had to rehabilitate my mother's old house. The two-story rock building was now a ruin since my grandfather built it in 1842. My mother left with her parents and siblings for America in 1913 when she was 12 years old. I described in detail how we converted the ground floor that used to be a barn into a livable studio apartment. After we decided to live in this paradise on an enormous mountain in southern Greece located in a unique and historical place called Mani, I make a study of the outspoken natives and the way they live today. There was obvious pride of being a "Maniati" where their ancestors reclaimed the freedom of Greece from Turkish occupation almost 200 years ago. I wrote about the bureaucratic barriers of obtaining my medical license. After listening to my Greek American friends back home in Miami, Florida who were full of telephone and Email questions of what I found here, I described my relationship with these people, and how they lived. They were very proud of their ancestors.

My Greek American friends were intrigued with the stories of my current life in Mani, and Greece in general I wrote about the many unique discoveries, good - and some not so good - of Mani that were a surprise to me. I found out that many of these vocal Maniates were unique, and probably not too different from their ancestors that freed our country, or from the ancient Greeks that founded civilization and democracy. I also touched on the village customs, food, elections, our wedding again, farming, immigrants, economics, GDP, civil service employment, private unemployment, protests, strikes, Crete union, austerity, gossip, so-called laziness, garbage disposal, politics, fiscal deficit, pensions, olives, laws, religion, mythology, medicine, relatives, Cyprus, crime, wild flowers, Mesons, our arrest, landlords, arranged marriages, anti-Americanism, bribes, Eleftherios Venezelos, the Balkan Wars, etc, and more history. I wish I had read a book like this when I first arrived here.