Katina: I was crying. What trauma! By then a group arrived and sat at another bench. Themos was curious and went to them. He hears them speaking Greek. He returns and says, ‘Mummy, mummy! They’re Greeks! They’re Greeks!’ They started up a conversation with Themos […] He tells them everything. Then at one point we hear a bell. They then tell Themos to tell me that it’s time to eat. ‘Mummy, mummy, it’s time to eat!’ I said, ‘Themo, we have no money to pay for food.’ ‘But mummy, I am hungry.’ Then I said to the man, ‘Please, take my child [so he can eat]. I‘m not hungry.’ ‘No lady, you must come with us to eat.’ He asked about my circumstances, and I said this and that happened. It turns out he was from Rhodes, one [Moschos] Taxidiotis. He said to me, ‘Lady, one of my cousins gave me £10 to shop for her in Aden, which is one of the stops. I will lend you this money, and when we get to Australia you can pay me back.’ I said, ‘There is a God.’ And so, we went and ate. And he paid for our hotel bill.

Katina: After two days, I heard my name called out on the speaker. ‘Mrs Mexi, please come to the office.’ I went there. They said, ‘Please tell the other? passengers that we have a Greek passenger group, and many of them come from villages. They therefore don’t know a few things, so can you please tell them [the Greek passengers?] that they cannot move about the halls and cabins in their sandals and pyjamas. They should be well-dressed.’ And they asked me to tell them using the speaker [laughs]. It’s the first time I spoke on a microphone. ‘Now hear this! Now hear this!’ And the people in the office were looking at me and laughing.