Greeks will bear gifts even during a lockdown

Greece has done an impressive job handling the pandemic and last week leadership began a phased approach to relax some of the lockdown measures. Prior to last week, we had been cooped up for about two months (aside from short trips to the supermarket, etc.). We took a 5 mile walk around the beautiful lake here and it was a bit thrilling to see all the natural glory. Today, more shops, senior high schools, and businesses started to open. We went for another walk today but it was jarring to see so many people walking around this time. A small number of people were wearing masks but not many other than those working in certain types of shops. Thankfully, there are no known cases in this region, but it is surprising how activities that have been normal our entire lives, such as people walking around in groups, people chatting on the sidewalk, seem a bit ominous after two months. We're in a safe bubble now and we hope that this doesn't change.

Oddly enough, during our walk, a car pulled up next to us and the guy said in English, "Where are you guys from?" We were taken aback! He said he could tell we were foreigners by looking at us from behind. He said he's from South Africa but lives here, right before he zoomed off because lots of cars were behind him. Last week, a guy in the supermarket asked us the same question while we were trying to safely shop without much people contact. Turns out he's Greek-Canadian but moved to Ioannina to get out of the rat race. And about five minutes later we met a Greek woman who spoke perfect English due to spending part of her childhood in Kansas City. A strange confluence of international incidents after feeling like the only foreigners in Greece for a few months.

Despite the lockdown, we have experienced an amazing amount of Greek hospitality. Aside from some fun chats (e.g., with Ioanna, the most cheerful butcher you'll ever meet, our 87 and 81 year old neighbors who chat with us over the balcony) in our very minimal Greek, we've gotten:

a dozen eggs from the hens owned by our landlady's best friend who lives in a village a bit outside of Ioannina;
a couple deliveries of wine from our landlady (who lives in Athens), including some for Sam's birthday;
a shipment of fresh mint (!!) from our friends in Thessaloniki who run a green market. They also sent a cute homemade card for Sam's birthday and a care package of numerous tasty treats from their shop;
several homemade dishes (e.g., cheese pie and giant beans with greens as examples; oh and ouzo of course!) from our next door neighbors. And on May Day they left flowers at our door as per the custom here; and
help ordering an electronic device. The guy who works at a phone repair shop across the street helped us figure out how to order a Google Chromecast so we could watch movies on the TV here (which had sat there, ugly and unused, for 6 weeks). Prior to that we've been watching things on a little computer screen.

And that's not all of the cheer and hospitality we've experienced. It has been life affirming to see how kind and hospitable Greeks can be even under such stressful circumstances. We've also gotten a number of sincere coffee date invitations from neighbors and it would be nice to dream that we could safely accept those before we have to head back to the US in June (Note: looks like we will head to Rockland Maine in early June to spend the summer there; getting flights there is the current challenge!). We'll hope for the best in the coming days, weeks, and months. This New Yorker cartoon from the other week touches on gifts and Greek history and maybe it strikes a chord?