Trying to get by without our kombares!

We get asked every day by numerous people how we are enjoying being back in South Africa. And, in case you’re wondering, we are enjoying it a lot! We really are blessed to be here on the Garden Route, wedged between the mountains and the sea in this beautifully green paradise. Life here is slower than in the big cities and is very much what life was like for us in Cyprus – that suits us perfectly!

But I wouldn’t be very honest if I didn’t admit the extent to which we miss our Cyprus connections. Some days it’s the food we miss! Taramasalata, Greek yoghurt, brown village bread, pitta breads, rice-pasta, Jane’s coffee cakes, Yvonne’s cooking, Maria’s curry, the Taverna meals with our special Cypriot relatives ….. I could go on and on! Some days it’s the odd possession: Ryan and Jed especially miss their bikes!

Ethan is definitely missing Cyprus more than all of us. Despite having explained our situation to him numerous times, he really doesn’t understand that why we aren’t going back. At least 3 times in this last week he has been upset and cried as he’s explained that he’s forgetting how things looked in the house and what things were like. He’s missing his friends and desperately wants to go back. My heart breaks for him! And I can’t blame him. Cyprus is where he and Aimee were born. It’s where they have spent their whole life up till now. It’s where they made their very first friends – and they’re really special friends! Ryan and Jed don’t remember much about life before Cyprus, they were 5 when we moved there and in the last 5 and half years they too have made very special friends.

I sure if we search hard enough we’ll find some Taramasalata (we’ve looked and it won’t be easy, but we could launch a nationwide search!) – but the special people we’ve had to leave behind aren’t replaceable. Some days are easier than others, and try as we might to fill our days with new activities and make new friends, the longing and sense of loss just won’t go away.

I miss my very regular afternoon coffee visits with the Petropoullakis girls (and Nikolas!). Just today I finished a scarf and wished I could show it to Yvonne – she would inspect it and tell me honestly where I could improve. We miss our meals together, the boys playing football or Wii and the hours of chatting and joking! We miss our visits to the Langes, where Sheila and I would sit and chat about a zillion things while the children did the most amazing things together. We miss visiting with Anna and her girls – our little ones would spend hours having fun together while we chatted about all the passions we have in common. I miss meeting Teddy at the airport and forming part of her welcoming committee when her children arrive on visits to Cyprus, or meeting for coffees and chats. I also miss my lonnnng chats with Heather (we always found it so difficult to stop once we started!) We miss Colin and Jane popping to see us unannounced and playing Sequence together, Angela popping in between lessons to chat over a cuppa, Lisa and Levi coming for an walk and lemon-honey Rooibos. We miss camping with Tony and Naomi and playing with ‘Becca and Ben and having picnics with the Dendles up on the Oroklini Hill. We’re missing the homeschool beach get-togethers and bring-n-share lunches after church. Ryan and Jed are especially missing Discoveries. These are just some of the things we’re missing – because we did them all with amazing people!

I know that with time, it will get easier, but right now the heartache is still raw. Not a day goes by that we don’t think of ‘kombares’ in the Med.