Kyra Rinio: The Guardian Angel of Kinaros

Kinaros, we arrived in the small port of Pnigos and disembarked in entrance of Kyra Rinio’s home. I used to be carrying a field of pastries, and she or he had made goat ragu pasta. We had a celebratory night picnic in the midst of the ocean, on an island with just one resident. We felt a way of accomplishment, however solely till we realized that the true achievement resides alone on a rocky islet for three hundred and sixty five days a 12 months, in virtually primitive situations, with many trendy fundamental wants being severely underserved. Discuss a change of perspective. Kinaros is positioned within the Dodecanese archipelago, east of Amorgos and west of Leros and Kalymnos. It’s straightforward to search out on a map, however approaching this can be very tough as a result of open sea and robust winds.

Kinaros’ solely present resident lives in an outdated fishermen’s café with a single room close to the concrete dock the place fishing boats are moored throughout the summer time. She was born in Amorgos in 1945, one among six daughters born to farmers Giorgos and Akathi Thireou, who had been everlasting residents of Kinaros. Kyra Rinio got here to the island when she was 9 days outdated.  To outlive on this harsh setting, with out operating water or a sewage system, with electrical energy offered by photo voltaic panels and communication with the “outdoors world” solely by way of satellite tv for pc cellphone, one will need to have a robust will. If the climate permits, the boat from Amorgos brings fundamental provides as soon as every week.

From daybreak to nightfall

 When the wind dies down, Kyra Rinio sits and stares for hours on the mouth of the slender Pnigos Bay, the place her tiny home stands subsequent to a small seashore. When the climate is gentle, personal boats or the boats of her fishermen buddies dock there, however when it’s stormy, she could not see one other human being for months. At different occasions, she barely has sufficient time to complete her chores. Earlier than she will go away a few stonefish to cook dinner in her outdated pot on her courtyard range, she should scramble up the rugged slopes of the dry cliff to water and feed her animals earlier than dusk. Along with her canine Shiva, Kyra Rinio has a dozen chickens in a coop and about 2 hundred hardy goats and sheep that graze on the slopes. “Nothing else grows right here anymore,” she says, “the solar burns every little thing.” Except for a carob tree, prickly pears, some wild figs, shrubs, and some vineyards with Muscats, Strawberries, Voudomato grapes, and raisins, Kinaros is a barren land.

Days of nostalgia

There are additionally these days when she is overcome by nostalgia. She remembers her husband Mikes, whom she misplaced in 2013. She climbs as much as the outdated, deserted settlement, tireless as a goat. There, in the small Byzantine church of Aghios Georgios, in-built 1878 by her great-grandfather Michael Davis, she lights a candle in his reminiscence each different day. Within the churchyard, there’s additionally a memorial for lieutenants Anastasios Toulitsis and Konstantinos Pananas, in addition to floor radar operator Eleftherios Evangelou, who died on February 11, 2016, when the navy helicopter Agusta Bell 212 crashed on Kinaros. Just a little additional up, the outdated home the place she as soon as lived together with her mother and father stands abandoned.

On the lengthy journey house, I thought of Kyra Rinio, whose laughter echoes all through all the island, and her brave choice to stay there, standing guard over Thermopylae and welcoming guests, solely to bid them farewell together with her handkerchief as soon as once more. So long as she lives and breathes on the island she has chosen to guard, Kinaros is greater than only a drop within the ocean; it’s a piece of vibrant Greece. As we left by boat, I watched her standing proudly on the shore, wearing a well-worn striped t-shirt. At that second, she appeared to me like a imaginative and prescient of the Greek flag.

“Why don’t you get out of right here, Kyra Rinio? Doesn’t the loneliness trouble you? Are you not afraid?” I requested her simply earlier than entering into the boat. Her reply left no room for misinterpretation: “I’m not leaving, my youngster; my house is right here. Even when they gave me a sack stuffed with kilos, I might give it to the poor and stay right here.” What ardour, willpower, and love she has for her homeland!

Kyra Rinio, the Woman of Kinaros, received First Prize on the sixteenth Gastronomos High quality Awards, which had been organized in December 2023 by Gastronomos, Greece’s main meals journal.

This text was beforehand printed in Greek at gastronomos.gr.