The Man from Eglouvi

Saturday  10 December 2011

We were both up and about, doing chores on Saturday morning, when a man and his grown up son appeared on the land.  He introduced himself as the owner of the trees (his son spoke good English) and pointed out exactly which eight he had a claim to.  We had been told by Adonis that he was ‘a good man’ – not out to make trouble, and we found him so.  He showed us his contract – all stamped officially, and bearing the date 1932.  I’m sure it’s genuine, although I couldn’t read any of it.  The meeting didn’t do very much good, except that we gave him Vassillis the land agent’s number to pursue his enquiries further.  Hard to know what the etiquette is in situations like this, but I gave him our names, and he told us he was Vassillis and his son Nikos.  We shook hands, although he seemed a little reluctant to do so – wonder if it was inappropriate in some way?

I rang Vassillis to warn him he was going to get the call and he said he’d already heard something from Adonis’ brother Savva, but he thought it was the man who’d complained about the NE corner.  I said, ‘No, Vassilli, that was Vassillis who claims the NE corner, not Vassillis who owns the trees.’  Simple really.