I wrote a very limited edition of this experience in another topic but was very warmly received so I thought I would expand on it here.

When I was 25 I backpacked through Europe. I chose an island in Greece to live for 1 month (Naxos). My goal was to live like Robinson Crusoe- I wanted to live off the land.

So when I arrived there off the boat the first place I went was to the store and bought a bucket, water, eggs, fishing pole, and bait. I was now ready to conquer the island!

So I walked 4 hours along the beach to the 'perfect' spot. I pitched my tent and prepared my pole and was ready to spend the next 4 weeks living off the land!

There was only one problem. I never caught anything...I spilled all my water....my egg carton fell and all but one egg broke...and I got a terrible headache :(

I started packing to walk BACK to the store to start over (being 25 years old allows you to do such things). At the last moment I decided to say good-bye to a Greek farmer I had briefly met. We had waved to each other and I had watched him herd his goats nearby, while he went into a hut.

Well..I walked to the hut and the man (Yonnie) motioned for me to come inside. There was retsina (greek wine), bread, and some freshly-made, warm goat cheese on a wooden table. The woman, Maria, was stirring a big black kettle inside a fireplace. I kept noticing how leathery tough her hands looked while at the same time wondering why her hands weren't being burnt by the fire. I have attached a photo of her on the day I met her.

They offered me the food and wine. I was in heaven! Except for one thing- I didn't speak Greek (and only a little Spanish), and they didn't speak English. And I (intentionally) had no translation books with me. Later on, we would draw pictures and use hand signals to communicate. We got to know each other not through our words but by our actions.

It was wonderful.

As I sat there eating and drinking I naturally wanted to thank them and talk to them. But it was really difficult to do at the same time (to eat and figure out how to talk). So I just sat there and ate and pointed to the food, then my stomach, and then gave them a thumbs-up and smile.

Meanwhile, Yonnie was milking the goats outside and bringing in the buckets full of goats milk to Maria, while she would dump the milk into the big black kettle and churn it incessantly, patiently letting the fire turn it into cheese. I thought I could show my appreciation for the food and wine by helping Yonnie carry the buckets inside and to help with anything I saw that needed it.

When we finished they motioned for me to follow them to their house, which was a concrete block (with no plumbing or running water) about 50 meters away. When we got there they motioned for me to put my backpack in a room, which became my bedroom. Basically all I did from that time on that day was to see what tasks Yonnie and Maria were doing and to offer to help them. It's amazing how far being nice and offering a hand can take you :) Maria offered me water and some treats, and eventually made dinner, and we ate by kerosene light 100 meters from the Aegean Sea as the sun went down.

It was at that time where we developed our communications the best. I'll give you some examples: Yonnie and Maria would point to my jacket and would say "America?". It was really cute. I would nod and say yes. (Later on I learned the words yes and no and answered in Greek). Another time Yonnie had developed a bad cough. It would get chilly at night so I wanted to tell him to not expose his throat to the cold night air. At dinner I got a t-shirt from my backpack and put it around my neck, and would then point to it and then to his neck, implying that he should tie something around it to keep his neck warm. Who knows if that was the right thing to suggest but he listened to me and wrapped up his neck, with Maria's urging :)

When it was time to sleep that first night Maria brought out a sheet and when I saw it I helped her put in on the couch in my new bedroom. She pointed to me and then the couch and spoke Greek, but I understood. I was now a guest of theirs.

I stayed for one month. I was a goatherder and helped them make cheese. In return, they tried to marry me off to a local, pretty Greek girl.

A few things stand out, which I'd like to mention.

They washed their clothes by using a large, carved-out rock. Maria, of course, hand-washed everything as they had no electricity. While she was washing one day I brought my dirty clothes to the rock, and pointed to both my clothes and then the rock, and then pointed to myself and motioned that I would do the washing of my clothes. She yelled no (in Greek) and pointed to herself. Well, I waited until she was busy doing something and then washed my clothes as I didn't want her washing them- she worked hard enough. When she came by and saw my clothes hanging on the line drying she yelled at me and tore them down and proceeded to wash them herself! It remains one of the selfless things anyone has ever done for me to this day. I couldn't believe it.

Another interesting thing was done in the morning. They would wake at around 6 am as they had a busy day each day. I would, of course, sleep-in :)
But Maria wouldn't let me sleep in after 7. She would yell out my name but couldn't pronounce it well. She would yell "JER-I-LEE" and, knowing that she wanted me to get up, I would yell back "O chi!" (no!).

She would laugh and yell it again and then I would swear in English and she would laugh more. When I got up the first thing I would do would be to go to the well and dump water on my head to wake up and to get the ever-present sand off of my feet. Then Maria would have a wonderful warm glass of goat's milk waiting for me with sugar and bread.

The food, which I loved, nevertheless created a problem for me, as I began to have digestion problems. To put it bluntly I was constipated. I needed to go into town for medicine to make me go to the bathroom. But how to explain it to my guests?!

I started out by pointing to my ass and said the only words that came to me in Spanish.....'caca no posible!' lolol

I kept repeating 'caca no posible' and pointing to my ass, but the poor couple just couldn't understand! :) I finally got through to them that I needed to go into town, so they nodded yes and let me ride their donkey to the bus stop.

Now...for those of you that have traveled a bit to poorer countries you know that to say the town was just 15 km or so really doesnt do it justice. We're talking about riding a donkey for 20 minutes to the dirt road, where the bus comes 2 times a day to take the 30 minute ride into town. Yes, its only 15 km away!!

And let me tell you something...if you are ever constipated and you have the option of riding a donkey 20 minutes over rough, hilly land, do yourself a favor and walk! lolol. It was horrible!

But...I did it and eventually the bus came and took me into town. I walked into the Farmacia, where there were about 5 people and....and....no one spoke English! Guess what I had to do again!?

That's right...'CACA NO POSIBLE!!' while pointing to my ass! Well, all the medicine was in Greek and I certainly wasn't going to take the chance of eating hemmroid shrinking tablets for a laxative! Meanwhile, the people in the Farmacia were all looking at my ass and then talking among themselves, probably telling each other how this stupid American has an ass fetish or something!

So what did they do? They went and got their friends so that there were soon 20 people in there- and NONE of them spoke English!

This went on until FINALLY a guy comes in who speaks English. And you know what the first thing this Greek guy tells me? "You know, I HATE Turkish people...but I hate Americans more.' Oh great! I think, I am trusting this guy with my ass literally and I have to hear this!

Well, I have to trust him so I tell him what 'caca no posible' means and he directs me to the medicine. By this time I am so relieved that I don't care if the 20 people are now laughing, once they understand what my problem was!

So I take the laxative and everything is ok. My bus comes eventually and I ride home, and WALK to the house of my adopted Greek parents. I show them the medicine that I wanted so badly for them to understand what I wanted. They start to laugh when they see it, and continue laughing while she opens a drawer and takes out the exact same medicine that I needed! They had it all the time!!!

Well...I broke down and bought a translation book the last few days I was there. I did it because I wanted to say good-bye to them in Greek. So on my last day I said, in Greek, "I will never forget the kindness you showed me, and will always remember you." Both Maria and Yonnie, and I, had tears in our eyes after that.

When I got back to the U.S. I bought bed sheets for Maria and a jacket like mine for Yonnie. I went to a Greek Orthodox Church and had them translate a letter from me to them and sent the package to them. A month later I received a letter back and went to the same Church and had them read it to me. They had received my package and told me how much they also enjoyed my stay with them.

Unfortunately, we never saw or wrote to each other again and I am sure they are long gone by now. But, as the saying goes, they remain very close to me and I feel wonderful that we got to cross paths with each other.

Maria and Yonnie after I showed him my shaving cream that gets hot on your face right out of the can-as you can see they loved it!

Maria making cheese-I had just met her.