Life in Maroni Fifty Years Ago by Mimis Neocleous

People in Maroni, in the majority, being farmers, lived in stone or mud-brick houses, usually built with the help of the owners and a builder. Water was carried into the house in buckets from stand-pipes in the main road, and collected with the help of donkeys, from wells and the river, as the houses did not have a water supply, there was also no electricity or telephone line available.
Food was usually their own produce of bread, beans, macaroni and fresh vegetables. On Sundays, they would have chicken from the backyard, and every Christmas, Easter or on a big day, there would be a speciality of pork for Greek Cypriots and lamb for Turkish Cypriots. Halloumi and olives were always on the table and milk from their own sheep or goats. Fruit would have usually consisted of local produce, such as oranges, watermelons and melons. Although Maroni is near the sea, there were no fishermen in the village, but a couple of people would use dynamite to fish, which was illegal and dangerous. Hunting was a way of life for many, which meant having meat on the table for special days. Cooking was done in the traditional way in earthy or tinned equipment, by burning wood in a stone fireplace. Food was kept fresh by covering with cloths, and hanging high near windows, or other airy places, inside the house. Shopping was done locally, in tiny shops, usually the local coffee shops. There was not much to buy anyway !!
Washing of clothes, was done in stone basins, and cleaned with warm water and alousiva, a traditional soap. There were no doctors in the village, people would go to town, for an injection or tablets. They would die young, and sometimes helpless, because their illness could not be diagnosed, or due to lack of treatment.
Churches in Maroni, were the same as today – the two St. George churches and the now, derelict, mosque, which also contained a school for the Turkish Cypriot children. There was no electricity and night-time service, took place with the use of candles, people used to go to church more frequently then. The present Youth Club was the school for Greek Cypriots, which moved to the present buildings in the late nineteen fifties. Most of the people were uneducated, an Elementary school certificate would be their highest achievement. Some boys tried secondary education, but only a few managed to succeed, and there were no university graduates in the village. Higher, even state, education was expensive at the time. In Maroni, being an agricultural village, young people preferred to work in their fields, rather than go for further studies, which meant going somewhere else to live and work – town or abroad. People started work early, with the first daylight, to make most use of it, since they had no electricity, no cars, only animals (donkeys) to bring them home, late at night.

Clothes were hand-made, usually by the wife, mother, grandmother or relatives, and sometimes by a local dress maker, if they could afford it. Only one or two families had a car, and there was only one bus, that would go to town, once a week, and was also used to transport building materials and animals when needed.
Grandparents were key figures in families, they would support their children and grandchildren financially, and help with the work in the fields, and also in the house. There was a lot of respect for grandparents, who took most of the decisions and responsibilities for a family. Entertainment was very little, but enjoyable, for men, playing cards and drinking zivania and wine in the local kafenio (coffee shop), especially on rainy days, when people wouldn’t go out to work, and for women, coming together in a house in the neighbourhood, and having coffee, and talking about their worries and problems, and generally doing embroidery work and sewing. Children, would play various games in the village square, church and schoolyard. Local weddings were a cause for real entertainment, there were only two to three weddings a year, and people would look forward to having a good time. They would all help with the food and drinks, and dance to the sound of violin and laouto, a local Cypriot lute for Greek Cypriot weddings and a zorne, which is a flute and daouli, a large drum, for Turkish Cypriot weddings.
Holidays ? An unknown word !! Nobody could afford a holiday abroad. Young village men, even married, would travel abroad, not for a holiday, but to look for work and a better future for themselves, and their families left behind. They would travel mainly to England and Australia by ship. Yearly income was very low, wages as little as 25 cents a day for a labourer or 35 cents for a builder per day.
Communications were difficult, no telephone in the house, and no local telephone. One could only communicate by writing a letter, which took a long time to reach its destination.
Life, generally, in the village was peaceful and quiet, people had a hard, but, easy going life, with no pressure. Greek and Turkish Cypriots were living, working and having a good time together in the village. People would sleep outside of the house, on the terrace, in the summer, their houses left open all the time, they had no security problems with real friendship, and their relationship and daily lives revolved around cooperation.
There are many more interesting tales to tell of this era,

Harvesting (By Mimis Neocleous)

May is harvest time in Cyprus. As you have probably noticed the crops are ripened and are ready for collecting.
Harvesting used to be a very difficult procedure and most of the work was done by hand with the use of certain ancient tools such as a hand sickle Animals were used to carrying the products. Each individual was responsible for marketing and selling his product. Nowadays machines have taken over and made the procedure very easy. All the village crops are gathered in Zygi and trading is done collectively.
The harvest in Cyprus has been one of the farmer’s main source of income for hundreds of years. In our village it is no longer the main income anymore. For many years now the government have given subsidies to farmers so that their income from crops was reasonable and also insured their crops from bad weather.
Joining the European union will bring many changes to farmers... Subsidies will stop or change and government will not guarantee their income. But there will be subsidies for new machinery like tractors and combine harvesters

Farmer Makis Demetriou

We met Makis a few days after the high winds had hit Maroni, which is a major problem with local farmers. In two hours his green beans had been destroyed at a loss of approximately £4000, with no government grant or insurance to cover this devastation. From his demeanour, it was obvious it would take considerably more suffering before this hard working farmer would give in to the elements. Another problem all farmers have is the competition from “amateurs” and he feels that farmers should be registered, only about twelve per cent being authentic, and the markets should only accept produce from those registered. Not enough produce is exported and when the prices are high there is competition with imported goods.
Makis was born in Maroni and his parents and one of his brothers still live in the village. His father, now 82, still works and like his father before him was also a farmer. Makis has one other brother, who lives in England and two sisters, one of whom helps him on the fields, live in Larnaca. He went to the local Elementary school and the American Academy until 1977, when he went into the army. After that he was an accountant at the Vassiliko Cement works for three years and in 1982 married his wife, Andria. It was at this time he commenced farming full-time, although as a youngster he had helped his father. They have two children, a daughter, Rebecca aged eighteen and a son, Demetris aged fifteen. He grows all kinds of vegetables on a number of plots of land around the village and has greenhouses near the “old wreck” along the Zygi sea front. At the present time he is picking olives to sell the oil wholesale and his vegetables he sells to the local Maroni Farming Co-operative along the old Limassol-Nicosia road near the Tochni turning. He realises there is a problem with disposing of the plastic sheeting used for the green houses and thinks it a good idea for the Government to supply re-cycling bins for this sheeting.
More than thirty per cent of farmers have to have second jobs to support their families and in Makis’s case he buys and sells land. If anybody is interested in land transactions then please call him on 04-332170 or 09-403780.

The local shepherd

Mr Theodoros Lazarou and his wife Nitsa have been local shepherds in the Maroni area for the past fifty years. They have a farm in the farming area of the village but I am sure most of you have seen him out and about in the fields with his sheep and goats.
Theodoros was born in Maroni and the farm has been in the family for about eighty years, three of his children used to work in the farm, but now just one of his children and his wife work with him. Business is steady with about 250 – 300 sheep to care for, this is a full time job and as they need feeding and milking everyday they have to work 365 days of the year, even Christmas day!
Over the years the business has not really changed except for the rebuilding of new farms and some new equipment to comply with new regulations.
Theodoros also has some land in the area that he plants barley and wheat in, he harvests this and uses it as feed for the sheep and goats.
Sheep are one of the only animals that you can sell everything they produce, you can sell the milk, fur, meat, and the manure.
About twenty years ago Theodoros wife Nitsa use to take milk home and produce halloumi cheese, anari cheese and she would make the village homemade yogurt . They would sell the produce to friends and local people in the villages and whatever remained take home for personal consumption.
Nowadays the milk is collected by the big companies such as Charalambides and Pitas diaries and taken to the factories.
Since entering the E.E.C barley has gone up in price from seventy pounds a ton to one hundred and twenty pounds a ton this has made business a little less profitable but the government is now giving a grant of seven pounds a year for each sheep you keep.

Carob Growing
by Mike Demetriou.

Over 50 years ago, the main trees in our village were Carob trees. We used to look after them carefully, as they were the main income of our villagers. Just for you to realise, over 60 years ago, my father, when choosing his portion of my grandfather’s land, instead of retaining land near the sea, without trees, now worth £200,000, preferred to keep land consisting of 10 Carob trees, to obtain income, which now has little value.
However, 40 to 50 years ago, the villagers started picking Carobs by the end of August, and within two to three months they would be delivered to Zygi at large warehouses, originally by donkeys, as there were no tractors or lorries, but with progress this is now the mode of transport.
About 20 years ago, greenhouses started to be erected in the village and this became the main job, instead of Carob picking. Unfortunately this has resulted in the loss of Carob trees, to make room for cultivating crops and greenhouses. Carobs are used for many things, such as, making syrup, cocoa, fruit for Arabic countries, music tapes and for animal fodder, and 228 kilos will fetch about £20, and the Government is trying to help, by giving subsidies of 7 cents for every kilo collected.