Buying a Donkey?

As Pelagia and I walked to Vespers tonight in our little 'village' of Panorama, we passed an old Greek man leading his donkey through town! The donkey was, evidently, carrying his groceries for him.

After this, we decided that we should get a donkey rather than a car -- it would be a lot cheaper and probably more reliable. With the traffic here, it would probably be just about as fast too.

Seriously, though, after doing some research on buying a car here, it seems less and less likely. The cars we were looking at for 2000 Euros were really not very good -- they could easily break down tomorrow and then we'd be out 2000 Euros. As our neighbor Ann put it, it's a 'false economy.' It seems like we're getting a car for cheap, but really we're just postponing payments in the form of endless repairs.

Everyone suggested that if we're going to get a car it would be better to spend say 5000-6000 Euros up front and get a little Toyota that's only a 3-4 years old. It could then be resold when we leave.

I've concluded that this really is the best way to go, but it's just too much money. 2000 was a reach! So, I think we're off this kick for now, unless/until something changes.

Meanwhile, I'm desperate to do something exciting that I can take pictures of and write about here, but sadly pretty much all we do is study Greek, go to church, etc. Nothing too exciting. A couple trips were planned by the School of Modern Greek but were then canceled at the last minute due to lack of participation. We keep hoping to tag along with some friends with cars, but those trips never materialize. 'Plans,' if they may be called such here, are very fluid -- you're never really sure what the day will have in store for you. It's taking some getting used to.

Anyway, all for today -- I will try to write again this weekend!