Don Quixote de la Kedares
Few incidents showcase the accelerated post-division rise of a brash modern Cyprus than when the Urban Generation met the former Mukhtar of Kedares, an agricultural community in the southern foothills of the Troodos mountain range.
The former - represented by a cross section of big city professionals and entrepreneurs, typical of the educated generation that grew out of the economic rubble and destruction of a way of life following events in the 1970s. By-passing the normal path of economic development, the overnight military earthquakes supercharged a transition from a rural, agriculture based society to a post-industrial, educated, confident and brash community of professional service providers and young entrepreneurs.
The latter - an elderly farmer from a quiet village high up the southern slopes of the Troodos massif, carving out a subsistence-based living from his plots of land held in the family for generations – a representative of the traditional Cyprus whose remains are steadily and inescapably eroding with the passage of time.
These two contrasting life-highways cross while a group of the Urban Generation are on a 4 day hike through the Troodos range, raising funds for a children’s charity (story told in walking-for-their-dreams). Their route takes them through the river valleys that run down from the Troodos mountains to the southern coastline. On reaching Kedares in the Diarizos valley they stop to gather and rest and refresh outside the modest village church of Ayios Antoniou.
It is here, from out of the primarily xinisteri vineyards which surround the village, that the chimera of Don Quixote de la Kedares appears aboard his faithful horse Rocinante, cleverly disguised as a lawnmower-powered tractor, shimmering in the morning haze. Aboard Rocinante rides the Don’s amour, Kedares’ very own lady Dulcinea del Toboso in the form of his wife Rebecca. The lady Rebecca and the Don are accompanied not by one but two squires, their daughters Kyriaki and Demetra.
Rocinante chuggs and puffs and shudders, its carburettor breadth heavy under its load. Although this motorised steed is from another age, despite its frailties it still performs noble service for its lord and master, Kyrios Euripides, a former Mukhtar of Kedares.
The Don brings the trail of dust and diesel fumes and Rocinante’s cacophonous complaints to a compassionate halt outside the village church where the Urban Generation are resting. He and his noble wife and squires have come to the church that morning to give blessing to the icon of the Saint that bears the church’s name.
The sight of the farmer astride his timeworn dragon with his three ladies, clinging to their bonnets and the dragon’s braces, dressed in their everyday village attire, incites the passions of the walking party. They swarm like a hive of bees around photographic honey presented by such a traditional, now rare, country scene. They surround their target busy with questions, eager to feel and taste this slow paced, alternative life compared to their fast and full-on big city existence.
Kyrios Euripdes, as befits an elderly stateman of life, receives the interest with good grace and smiles. The three genteel ladies are overwhelmed, not knowing at first how to react to this sudden explosion of attention.
What brings each party to this fateful meeting of the old and new in Cypriot culture, here in this quiet shaded spot high up the slumbering Diarizos valley? Explanations are exchanged, the ladies are comforted and the Don continues to smile. Rocinante enjoys the rest and the attention.
Outside a small church, at the side of a mountain trail where generations sleep quietly beneath the soil in the church grounds, warm bonds are made. Together the farming family accompany the city dwellers inside the church to honour the village saints.
Cypriot hospitality has its roots in the basic simple subsistence rural village life that characterised the island for centuries. It still runs deep today, and is especially alive and well in the mountain villages. Church obligations over and saints satisfied, Kyrios Euripdes and his squires head into neighbouring vineyards. They return with an offering of a bucket of freshly picked grapes which they donate to the walkers to sustain them on their own knightly cause.
As the rejuvenated urban generation head east enriched by their encounter, the Don fires up his steed once again. Loaded with his good lady and faithful squires, the puffing and purring dragon turns west for home.
Two worlds, living side by side yet apart, represent both the charm and tragedy of Cyprus. They touch one morning unexpectedly but in their embrace they say so much about the Spirit of Cyprus.
https://www.spiritofcyprus.com/vignettes/walking-for-their-dreams