the start of the big one

Attention: This post may be interrupted at any time to go to the beach.

So, I left off with Ithaca, eh? Well, we went. It's an island that is right next to Kefalonia, and may even have been a part of it at one time. Much page space and argument has been wasted over whether or not Odysseus actually lived there; at least three other places in Kefalonia claim to be his home and one crazy scholar lady thinks he went to Florida. But no one really listens to her. So anyways, it was gorgeous. We had lunch and swam in a beautiful little harbor, surrounded by an idyllic little village, wrapped up in the middle of some stunning little mountains, and had a great big awesome time :).

Then hardcore project work kicked in. I was in three different groups, working on four projects. Have I ever explained the whole concept of this program to you all? I get the feeling I haven't, which was definitley unintended.

Basically, we're in Kefalonia studying the village of Farsa, which was destroyed in a 1953 earthquake. They rebuilt farther down the hill, and left the ruins alone. Now they want to rebuild, and we're using it as a service learning/case study project for community planning. Students have been doing this for three years now, and we're layering information to help build a comprehensive plan/proposal for them to rebuild using A. traditional architecture and B. sustainable methods. We want the community itself to become sustainable (environmentally, socially, and economically).

My projects included creating an identity mark for Farsa to use when they start promoting tourism, helping with a video documentary about the project, studying the traditional women's crafts and enterprises/finding funding for them to develop new businesses, and helping to build a physical model of the site. That last part took the longest--i was up all night once, and my roommate was a bunch! Then, Saturday, we presented all of our work to the community. It was the brief version, but still took 3 hours. Other groups this quarter studied food security, hotel development and marketing, a disaster relief/management plan, agritourism, designing a community center and developing a business plan, water catchment and renewable energy sources, etc. etc. Quite a lot of work has been put in! This summer a book is going to bring everything together in a comprehensive plan.

oh, beach time! Love to all!