Another day, another trip to Kozani. We arrived to some bad news. Before we had dinner yesterday evening, Annie and I sat chatting about various things while a serious-looking politician spoke at length on the state of the economy and plans for recovery. We turned the sound down, not wanting to hear what he said. Apparently his discourse touched on the fate of various public services, including that of IGME. We discovered that instead of the planned 9-month grace period, such services would be closed by the end of October.
This sounds like terrible news, and indeed it is if the intended closures come to pass. The worries of Annie and the other employees of IGME are compounded by the fact that no-one has been told anything; the first anyone in Kozani or Athens heard of this was on the news yesterday. The general director is currently in Cyprus, so it's unclear whether he has any more information.
The IGME jeeps, and associated puppies
As we returned to Grevena, we talked of the clouds gathering over Europe. After our return, rather less metaphorical clouds gathered overhead. Soon torrential rain pelted the roofs and streets of Grevena as thunder rolled around the hills and lightning lit up the leaden sky.
Lightning above Grevena
Dina and Babi invited me to their house for dinner. Babi cooked meat and sweetcorn on his barbeque (handmade from a solar water heating tank) and we sat underneath their vines eating and drinking, surrounded by local kittens also keen to try out some of the food. Cassandra stayed indoors, yowling, though she did manage to open the door once.
After feasting on the meat, we tried some of Dina's homemade apple and fig cake, which despite starting out purple turned green on cooking. It still tasted great, and after a few grapes, we went inside. Cassandra was on heat, and spent most of the evening crouching and stretching her body completely oblivious to the fact that there was a scary foreign person in her domain.
Babi insisted I have a second try on his drum, something I attempted for the first time in his shared room at Zavordhas. This time, we had YouTube and a computer (a wedding present from Mike and Annie) to accompany us rather than an old cassette player, and Babi had a new drum so that we could each play. After a rather shaky start, I actually got the hang of a couple of the basic Albanian belly-dancing rhythms. The more complex ones completely escaped me. I have absolutely no idea how it's possible to play an instrument where one hand keeps a perfectly natural rhythm while the other taps an altogether irregular beat, but Babi manged to do so. Still, I'm happy with how much better I was than the amusing disaster of my second year.
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