Last year when I was in my village in the Home Country, I stooped down and picked up a handful of earth and put it in a plastic bag. I thought it would be nice to have a little piece of my village living with me in Athens. In the plastic bag stayed this earth until I could find it a suitable home.
Last Friday night we were out with friends and I swiped an empty Ouzo Plomari bottle from the table. It was the perfect size for my piece of village so I washed it out several times and let it dry thoroughly to get rid of the ouzo smell.
Today I got round to digging out the bag and opened it to start transferring the earth into the bottle and give it pride of place on my mantle piece. As I undid the knots in the plastic bag I thought how special it was that the earth from my village was so fragrant. A little too fragrant. And to my utmost horror I realised that it was a bag of henna.
So what happened to my piece of village? I searched high and low, in the miscellaneous crap in the basement and in cupboards containing broken pieces of whatever just in case Elvis ever comes back from the dead. I searched in my waxing box and my unmentionable times box, I even searched in the bottom of my underwear drawer where I keep Especially Important Things. Nothing. No sign of it. The last time I remember seeing it was months ago when I did a big clean up. I know I wouldn't have consciously thrown it away so one of three things has happened:
1. I put it somewhere so safe that I can't find it now - happens a lot
2. It made its way into rubbish and got thrown out
3. Mr Zeus's mother threw it out on one of her clandestine cleaning trips when I'm out of the country.
I hope it’s scenario one but even if it got thrown away I can't be upset. If you came across a bag of dirt you'd toss it out too unless you knew what it was.
Last Friday night we were out with friends and I swiped an empty Ouzo Plomari bottle from the table. It was the perfect size for my piece of village so I washed it out several times and let it dry thoroughly to get rid of the ouzo smell.
Today I got round to digging out the bag and opened it to start transferring the earth into the bottle and give it pride of place on my mantle piece. As I undid the knots in the plastic bag I thought how special it was that the earth from my village was so fragrant. A little too fragrant. And to my utmost horror I realised that it was a bag of henna.
So what happened to my piece of village? I searched high and low, in the miscellaneous crap in the basement and in cupboards containing broken pieces of whatever just in case Elvis ever comes back from the dead. I searched in my waxing box and my unmentionable times box, I even searched in the bottom of my underwear drawer where I keep Especially Important Things. Nothing. No sign of it. The last time I remember seeing it was months ago when I did a big clean up. I know I wouldn't have consciously thrown it away so one of three things has happened:
1. I put it somewhere so safe that I can't find it now - happens a lot
2. It made its way into rubbish and got thrown out
3. Mr Zeus's mother threw it out on one of her clandestine cleaning trips when I'm out of the country.
I hope it’s scenario one but even if it got thrown away I can't be upset. If you came across a bag of dirt you'd toss it out too unless you knew what it was.
Tomorrow is the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and I'm trying to stir up some interest in my fellow Athens 2004 volunteers to have a reunion but so far nothing but stony silence on Facebook.
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