Éóôïóåëßäá ãéá ôï íçóß ôçò Áßãéíáò -Aegina island site

The Summer of 1970

In the summer of 1970 I was a poor student liiving on the beach near to the ferry terminal. My friend and I played guitar and sang along the waterfront for food and tips.

Late at night,after we had stopped playing, we would be joined on the beach, by Olga the neice, I think, of Dr. Lougis. She would bring us bread and cheese from the house. We would all talk until late. I would then walk with Olga back to her Uncle''s house. I have never forgotten her. We wrote a little after I came back to the UK but I have not heard from her for 35 years. Does anyone else remember her? She lived in Niger in Africa, I think, and her first language was French. I would love to know how she is.

Michael

My greek family in Aegina

Let me introduce myself. My name is Maria Vargas Chatzinas. I live in Chile, in the city of Coquimbo. I am 49 years old, I manage a company, I have one son (25) and one daughter (14).

I am writing to you because I am interested in meeting people with my same name in order to know if we belong to the same family. I searched in the internet for people named Chatzinas or Hatzinas in the island of Aigina where my grand father (Ioannis Chatzinas) was born about 1872-1875. He emigrated to Chile about 1910, he married a Chilean woman and had four children (named Ioannis Georges, Maria Athina, Anastassios, and Sotirios). One of them is my mother (Maria Athina) who is currently 90 years old and also lives in Coquimbo. My grand father died in 1917 after which we lost any contact with our relatives in Greece. The reason why I am contacting you is to find out if you are a descendant of my grand father?s relatives. For your information my grand father?s parents were named Georges Chatzinas and Athina Murcis. We also know that one of his brothers was named Georges too. That?s all we know.

I would be tremendously happy if you happen to be a relative of mine and if you could reply to me. You can reach me at 56-51-316387 or email to mcvargas@chile.com. My postal address is:

MARIA CECILIA VARGAS CHATZINAS
AV. OSSANDON 725 A
EL LLANO
COQUIMBO
CHILE

Sincerely yours,
Mar?a Cecilia

ÊÅÍÔÑÏ ÎÅÍÙÍ ÃËÙÓÓÙÍ ÓÕÃ×ÑÏÍÏ

Åðéóêåðôåßôå ôçí éóôïóåëßäá ìáò .Ç ãíþìç óáò , ìáò åíäéáöÝñåé!

Pistachio Harvesting On Aegina 2003

Pistachio Harvesting on Aegina Greece 9-3-03

Francis said," You''d better get here about 6:00 in the morning tomorrow before
it gets hot!" I had offered to come help gather the pistachios, a special experience
here on Aegina renowned for its many pistachio harvests.

Of course I didn''t sleep well knowing I had to get up early. Never mind, I hopped
on Dionissos (my motor bike) and sped over to help Francis and his wife Charina.

The tarp was laid down under the tree, the gloves and hats were on and each one
carried a big stick! We reached up in to the trees and knocked down the pistachios,
onto the tarp. Leaves, branches, bugs and pistachios began to fill up the tarp.
Francis climbed up the tree to reach those far away pistachios and send them
hurling down onto the ground. I was told that the pistachios which did not fall off were
not ripe and to leave them on the tree because we couldn''t use them.
The tarp was pulled under another tree and the beating began again. When the tarp
was bulging with fruit, we lay down our sticks and began to separate the pistachios from
leaves and broken branches. We then pulled up the tarp from every direction and
gathered the pistachios in a pile in the center of the mat. The next step was to scoop them
into a huge basket and eventually into a large sack.

For almost three hours we did this, while we chatted, laughed, groaned and sighed about
the sun beginning to appear over the horizon. It would soon be too hot and we would have
to stop until the next morning.

We rounded up the full sacks and piled them into Francis''s car. I hopped onto Dionissos
and followed the car as we found our way to the nearby village, to Gianni''s house. There
we found a huge machine which would separate the pistachios from their outer skins.
Francis stood at one end feeding the pistachios into the devouring machine and Charina
and I stood at the other end catching the shelled pistachios, rapidly scooping out any missed foreign
substances, and forcing the shelled nuts back into the sacks from which they came.
The pistachios which were not ripe or in good condition floated up to the top of a small vat and needed
to be removed and discarded. The fleshy outer coverings of the nuts were expelled
into a what looked like, a manure pile.

Now the pistachios need to be dried so they''re stretched out in the sun for several days and
presto, whamo they''re ready to eat. They can be eaten just like that or roasted and salted.
Sometimes they are mixed with honey or made into ice cream or all sorts
of sweets. Some of them will be sold for packaging to be distributed throughtout the world.

Thank you Aegina, pistachio capital of the world, for this fun and interesting time. Maybe
tomorrow we''ll begin all over again since there are many more trees to be attended.

FG.

Aegina Greece Ultimate Internet Guide

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