Afroditi: Naturally, they didn’t like it, but they said that their children will live better lives than they did, ‘To make a life that we couldn’t live.’ This was the only thing that gave them courage and bravery. One time we brought our parents here. My sister had three children. The youngest two were babies. My parents took the two youngest, so my sister could go to work. For the money, of course. They looked after them for two to three years and then they returned them back here again.

Interviewer: The children were in Greece for two years?

Afroditi: Yes, yes.

Interviewer: How old were the children?

Afroditi: They weren’t two years old; the younger one wasn’t walking. What I can say is that my mother was something else. All mothers do a lot of things for their family. She was very strong. You know in an airport for a grandmother to hold one child and a grandfather to hold another. Everyone helped them on their journey—on the plane, at the airport, to please them to help them. It was something very emotional.

Afroditi: The women were happy. The men, naturally, […] weren’t so, you know. They weren’t feeling so comfortable for a woman to be amongst them. But the priest told them, ‘I put this lady there and she will stay there, and I don’t want any complaints from anyone.’ So that’s what happened. But later, they started wanting me more because they had extra help. From that perspective, so their minds wouldn’t go where they weren’t permitted. I was embarrassed that I hid a little in the chanting area. I felt somewhat inferior. But later, slowly, slowly, I said, ‘My God, to be embarrassed doing this for you. You gave me everything.’ My mind started looking at things differently. I didn’t go there by myself. Obviously, I wouldn’t go there myself. Given that the priest put me there, I will go to the classes, and I must learn.