My Adventures: Intermediate Sternas

7.23.10

Today Giannis took us on another tour of the sternas. We were feeling slightly more experienced but were still just as amazed by these structures. If you're just tuning in, please look at my post on July 20, 2010 for an 'Intro to Sternas'.

In the middle of this olive orchard, you can see two big pits. These were used to collect water for irrigation of the olive trees.

Covered Sterna

A reflection of me looking into a covered sterna.

Water trough next to the sterna for the animals.

Giannis pointed out the holes in the sides of the sterna wall. From what I understood these holes helped release some of the pressure from the land surrounding the sterna; they allowed the stones to expand and contract with the surrounding earth.

Margaret and James are looking for 'psari' (fish) in the sterna. The lady behind them explained these sternas became contaminated when someone dumped their goldfish into them. The gold fish multiplied and now the animals refused to drink this water. The villagers are trying to drain the sternas, remove the goldfish, and see if they could be used again.

Either there's a leak in this sterna or the villagers have used all the water.

Pumping Water from the Sterna

The owners of these vegetable gardens (background) use the sternas to water their crops.

The farmers let us try some of their tomatoes. They were very fresh and flavorful. Margaret agrees!

Giannis and James agree too!

'Cultural Folklore Association'

'Have a good trip'

The sign above was right next to this man-made lake. The lake was basically a very large cisterns, used by the farmers and villagers.

The one side of the 'lake' had collapsed a few months ago. The villagers were trying to find funding to fix it.

Just across the street from the 'lake' was a stable for goats. The goats were so noisy! And cute.

The small black and white goat on the upper left was the loudest. I couldn't stop laughing at the racket he/she made.

Another group of sternas. I think there were at least 5 in this location.

Steps down into the sterna.

James and Margaret are having a little chat while the older Greek woman who spoke to us about the sternas (see images above) returns to her field work. She leaned on me as we spoke to her and I felt welcomed; like one of her granddaughters. She explained that the sternas were falling apart because over the years there were less and less people in the village to do field work. Families were having fewer children and most of them moved into the cities away from the farms for job opportunities, etc. She shared her worries about the quality of water being supplied by the municipal wells. She repeated what many other people had been telling us during our sterna travels, the rainwater collected in the sternas was cleaner and healthier.

Old windmilled used to mill grain.

Giannis took us to this Monastery because he wanted to show us the covered sterna. It was situated in the middle of the courtyard; when you walked through you were standing right on top of it.