People of Rhodes open up their homes to evacuee tourists

Classic rock melodies by Eric Clapton and Deep Purple drift from a shaded courtyard in the seaside town of Ialysos on the northern coast of Rhodes as Jake gently strums his guitar. It’s his way of finding comfort, and of thanking Irini Papastamati for opening her home to him and his family after they fled the wildfires roaring across the southeastern Aegean island since last week.

“We’re all rockers, so it’s been a great match,” he says, as his family and their hosts have breakfast – yogurt, custard pudding and milk were the first things Papastamati’s daughters went out to buy when she told them she was bringing a family of Britons home from a makeshift evacuee shelter in Ialysos.

Jake, his wife, their two children and their grandparents were on holiday in Lardo when the fire approached and they were evacuated, along with dozens of other tourists and residents, in an army truck and taken to the Ialysos stadium. Papastamati and her husband were there with other locals bringing food, supplies and support. When she saw the tourists flocking in and lying down on mattresses on the floor, she decided to open up her home.

Her first visitors were an Austrian couple with triplets who spent one night in her house before catching their flight home. “There were tears in our eyes when we said goodbye at the airport. We felt close to them after just a day,” she says. Papastamati returned to the stadium a few hours later and came back home with Jake and his family.

“They are so happy with the hospitality of the locals, but extremely disappointed with their tour operators and the government, because they don’t see them doing anything. We’re relying on volunteers and solidarity. We try to help wherever there’s a need. That’s what we did in 2015 with the refugees from Syria too. It’s the only thing to do,” Papastamati tells Kathimerini, going on to describe the flood of emotions she and her family have been feeling.

“We’re sad because they will all return to their countries, but we will be here, in the ashes. Our island was paradise and now it’s hell. I’ve been crying for days. We’ve all been crying. It’s a nightmare. We feel like we’re under attack,” she adds.

Dimitris Michalos has also been thinking of the 2015 refugee crisis these days. “We had to do something. We took them from their hotels, so we should have been at their side from the very first moment,” he says of the evacuees. “It’s not the tourists’ fault that we’re disorganized or that hotels don’t have firebreaks to protect their guests. We felt an obligation toward them. If more residents had gotten the message, we also would have saved Rhodes’ honor, because right now, we’re tremendously exposed.”

Michalos is one of dozens of local volunteers at the makeshift shelter at the Venetokleio Sports Arena in Rhodes town, which is hosting some 700 evacuees. They have set up a reception desk at the entrance, where they take down the names and phone numbers of arrivals, as well as the name of the hotel where they were staying and the tour operator they came to Rhodes with. They have also opened the stadium’s snack bar, handing out beverages and snacks, for free, around the clock. “The highlight for the Britons was when they realized that they could have tea with milk – it’s like what coffee is to us – when they woke up in the morning. The Scandinavians prefer espresso,” he tells Kathimerini.

Regular announcements are also made over the loudspeakers when locals come forward offering a room or a house. “I am mad, though, because there are a lot of units available on [short-term rental] platforms, some of which even raised their rates,” says Michalos, who took in a German couple who were on their seventh visit to Rhodes. “We became the best of friends. We spent hours drinking wine and talking about their lives and their children. They didn’t want to speak about the terror they felt when they had to evacuate the hotel. Here at least they were able to communicate with their families and tell them they were OK because they didn’t have any cell coverage for several hours. They assured us that they will be back, but I don’t think tourists who had a really hard time will return. People don’t forget that kind of thing,” he says.

“At the end of the day, all we have is our humanity,” adds Michos, who suffered heatstroke after two grueling shifts at the shelter and is taking a small break from hosting anyone else at his home after the German couple left. “I will be taking in more people, though; for sure. It’s such a simple thing, it doesn’t require a second thought.”

Sofia (who asked that her last name not be published) also hosted a German family at her home in Rhodes town. “They were completely lost at first, but they relaxed once they came here, were able to have a shower and we all sat down together for a meal. We did not say goodbye at the airport, because they promised to return,” she says.

Her voice cracks as she goes on. “Our island is ruined. It’s heartbreaking. How are we going to make it right? Nature, the trees, the animals, our olive trees, farms, it’s all gone, ruined.” Despite her grief, she plans to keep taking in evacuees. “It’s the first time I’ve done something like this, and I don’t regret it.”

“There was nothing else to be done,” says Kaiti Paraskeva who opened up the kindergarten she runs in Ialysos to tourists fleeing the fires. “My only thought was how many I could take in and sleep with a modicum of dignity. I didn’t want to pack them in. I only asked that I be able to host families with younger children who could use the facilities,” she tells Kathimerini.

Many of her guests spent the first night on mattresses laid out in the garden of a nearby hotel. “It’s lovely here,” says a 6-year-old girl with childish enthusiasm. She’s the only one who isn’t in shock. The people staying at the kindergarten – Swiss, German and Greek tourists – had fled in terror, unable even able to pack their belongings. They need time to calm down. Some parents sought a corner where they could not be seen by their children to cry.

“We try to give them what they need, without imposing on them,” says Paraskeva. “We’re making up for the state’s lack of organization. Everyone on Rhodes, the entire island, is doing everything they can to help.”