» Read the Greek version of this story

Author: Ross Drivas
Storyteller: Helen Poulakis
Community Language School: Burwood Church Greek School
Main School: Putney Primary School

The story of Ross’ grandmother.

Life in Greece

I was born in a village in Greece called “Avariko”. I lived in a house, and like all the other houses, it was rendered white. In my house there was twelve people sharing two bedrooms. That included my parents, my grandfather and my other eight siblings. Being the eldest, every morning I had to dress all my brothers and sisters for school.

My mum would prepare breakfast in the kitchen which was about fifty metres away from the house. Breakfast would be fresh milk from the cow with very little homemade bread in it. My dad was a builder. However while we were at school he would come home and take care of the livestock. Then both my mum and dad would go to the fields where they grew all our fruit and vegetables. My grandfather would look after us and tell us stories.

Celebrations

Regardless of all the hard work we managed to have special family days often. Most Sundays were celebrated after church followed by a big meal, lots of dancing and singing. My favourite song was kolokithia. We celebrated everyone’s birthday by putting a lamb on the spit like we did for Easter and Christmas. Living a much simpler lifestyle our presents were things made at school from my brothers and sisters.

Migrating to Australia

I did not realize how much I missed my family and home until I migrated to Australia when I was seventeen. The intention was to try and bring my family to Australia but that never happened. I travelled forty days and nights in an old and overcrowded ship to get here. I was sick the whole time.

Marriage
When I arrived I stayed at my uncles’ house in Hurstville. He was my mum’s brother. When I first arrived I thought I had come to paradise. However, my aunty gave me a hard time. She was like the stepmother in Cinderella. She soon arranged a marriage for me with a man I had only met once. Within six weeks I was married. At eighteen I had my first baby. Now I missed home more than ever because Australia had now become my home.

Learning English

Learning English was very difficult at first but working in a shop helped me a lot. At first both my friends and I came across lots of funny and embarrassing situations. We would try to speak English, soon realizing that there were more Greek words in the conversation than English. Many Greeks that I knew, including my husband, would go to the butcher and in order to buy meat, they would act out the animals. However there were also bad moments when people would tease us. We would often get lost when traveling, and at times people would rip us off.

Life today

However after 35 years in Australia, 2 children and 5 grandchildren, Australia is now my home. I have to admit that in the last 20 years things in this country have changed quite a bit and I feel we are moving too quickly. Areas like technology, drugs, religious issues, morals, crime, expectations of the younger generations, health and most of all family values. I fear mostly for my grandchildren.

Needless to say after a couple of trips to Greece I think these issues have made things worse there as compared to Australia. That’s why I believe coming to this country was my destiny for a better life for both my family and I.