Cyprus-Forum.com

[Jerry]

I don't have any personal memories of Cyprus before the age of sixteen but my father told me a few things about life in Komi Kebir. His older brother was the village carpenter. My dad told me that one of his sources of timber was from Turkey. I asked him how they transported it from Famagusta port to the village, he laughed and said the timber arrived by sea onto the beach in the form of tree trunks that they dragged home. They used to cut the wood up lengthwise with a very long saw, my uncle on the roof of the house and my dad underneath pulling the saw down and getting covered in sawdust. My dad did'nt have very happy experiences with timber, once he was chopping firewood and cut off part of his little toe.

He left Cyprus at the age of 22 for the UK from Famagusta, the last memory he had of his father was seeing him crying as he waved goodbye from the port, he was the fourth son to seek his fortune abroad.

The first time I visited Komi Kebir it had no electricity or running water in the houses, I can still see my grandmother carrying an earthenware pot full of water from the village tap. We used to sit on the veranda at night and watch the beetles fly at the tilley lamps. The worst thing about staying there was having to use the toilet, a slot in a concrete slab over a pit where the beetles lived. Happy days

Did you forget the roaches and centipedes? Or dont you have them in KomiKebir?

I think the beetles I mentioned were in fact cockroaches but I never saw a centipede. I saw a cat once stealing my aunties sausages that were drying outside, she shot it with her son's airgun. Another time she gave my two year old son a "mechanical" toy, it was a large moth impaled on a stick flapping its wings. My auntie was not a lady to be messed with.

[Oracle]

I didn't know what happened to the silk cocoons either, so thanks for filling in the gaps, Kafenes and Deniz.

Reading about boiling cocoons in cauldrons reminded of collecting snails after the rains. Us kids (dozens of cousins ) were sent out with baskets to pick them off the wild, wet plants. I still remember the freshness and feeling of freedom to roam that this task contributed. Then, auntie (my mum was too squeamish) used to boil our harvest in a big cauldron whilst standing over it with a ladle which she wielded to tease them down into the hot water, thwarting any attempts by the victims at crawling back out.

Then everyone would pick out the, now firm, gastropods from their shells (little coffins) with a needle and pop in their mouth .... Except me.

[denizaksulu]

I didn't know what happened to the silk cocoons either, so thanks for filling in the gaps, Kafenes and Deniz.

Reading about boiling cocoons in cauldrons reminded of collecting snails after the rains. Us kids (dozens of cousins ) were sent out with baskets to pick them off the wild, wet plants. I still remember the freshness and feeling of freedom to roam that this task contributed. Then, auntie (my mum was too squeamish) used to boil our harvest in a big cauldron whilst standing over it with a ladle which she wielded to tease them down into the hot water, thwarting any attempts by the victims at crawling back out.

Then everyone would pick out the, now firm, gastropods from their shells (little coffins) with a needle and pop in their mouth .... Except me.

Ethnic cleansing in its infancy.

[Nikitas]

Starting out from Famagusta Komi Kebir was the first "real" village of Karpasia. Bogazi did not count as a village, it looked more like a coffee stop. Komi Kebir was the first real taste of Karpasia and then I remember the villages on the "long journey" all 60 miles of it, so long in fact it merited two coffee stops, as opposed to Famagusta-Nicosia, which at 38 miles merited only one stop in Lysi.

One notable point along the way, before Komi Kebir was the village of Agios Sergios and Limnia. You often could see young men exerccising horses in the fields. Why and how Agios Sergios became a horse breeding center I do not know, but it was unusual for Cypriots to breed animals for cosmetic reasons, maybe they sold them to the race course in Nicosia.

Further up the peninsula was Leonarisso, with a feature that was special, it had masses of cactus plants and cactus fruit. I think i got addicted to cactus fruit from the frequent stops in Leonarisso.

[denizaksulu]

Starting out from Famagusta Komi Kebir was the first "real" village of Karpasia. Bogazi did not count as a village, it looked more like a coffee stop. Komi Kebir was the first real taste of Karpasia and then I remember the villages on the "long journey" all 60 miles of it, so long in fact it merited two coffee stops, as opposed to Famagusta-Nicosia, which at 38 miles merited only one stop in Lysi.

One notable point along the way, before Komi Kebir was the village of Agios Sergios and Limnia. You often could see young men exerccising horses in the fields. Why and how Agios Sergios became a horse breeding center I do not know, but it was unusual for Cypriots to breed animals for cosmetic reasons, maybe they sold them to the race course in Nicosia.

Further up the peninsula was Leonarisso, with a feature that was special, it had masses of cactus plants and cactus fruit. I think i got addicted to cactus fruit from the frequent stops in Leonarisso.

I suppose you also remember the cypress platation in the form of the outline of Cyprus. That always interested us as it was upside down.

[Nikitas]

That plantation was somewhere near Lefkoniko, I recall seeing it on a school trip from the bus.

[kafenes]

My childhood recollections of Famagusta was lot and lots of windmills.

[Nikitas]

One thing I would like to know, if anyone remembers, is the way of building roofs on the old adobe houses.

My grandfather was the village engineer and I watched the actual mud brick making several times, but I never saw him finishing a roof. From the inside of the house you can see the beams, the voligia, and on top of that you can see the woven straw mats. What goes on top of the mats? It is a mix of clay and vegetation, and a final water proofing layer made of what though?

[Nikitas]

Kafenes, there were lots of those old metal windmills in Famagusta, but a real "forest" of windmills was on the slopes approaching Derynia, just south of Famagusta. Those that like to extol the virtues of wind power and renewable energy should look at some old photos of Derynia.

[denizaksulu]

One thing I would like to know, if anyone remembers, is the way of building roofs on the old adobe houses.

My grandfather was the village engineer and I watched the actual mud brick making several times, but I never saw him finishing a roof. From the inside of the house you can see the beams, the voligia, and on top of that you can see the woven straw mats. What goes on top of the mats? It is a mix of clay and vegetation, and a final water proofing layer made of what though?

Beams are placed on the walls at one to two foot intervals. Canes (from riverside cane plantations) were laid across them and tied together with strong string. Dry hay was stuffed through any wide gaps. The material (same by which yo make the mud/hay slabs) name? was then pulled up on the the roof and spead all over and shaped before the mud sets. Hopefully the clay used is a good clay to avoid seepage. In Turkish this 'dam aktarma' is carried out every ten or so years or when and where necessary. As a kid I helped the 'builder/roofer from Alaminio twice. These would be flat roofs, but strong enough to sleep on them during hot summer evenings.