A Lunch Table as Metaphor for the Problems of the Modern Greek Government

Jon Stewart recently had a hilarious little bit on The Daily Show about the turmoil that is currently taking place in Greece. He comically addressed the conflict between tradition and progressiveness, which is at the heart of a lot of the stalemates happening within the government. Modern Greek society has a fierce need to hold on to the traditions and ideals of the past-- and with good reason! The Ancient Greeks are a civilization worth revering and emulating and taking inspiration from. The problem is, not surprisingly, the difficulty in keeping to these traditions while simultaneously keeping up to speed in an ever changing and modern world. Since there is no real gray area right now, the "progressives" politically are closer to "anarchists" a lot of the time, and the "conservatives" are really only focused on "if it ain't broke don't fix it" with no room for change. I'm speaking generally, of course, but that is the crux of the problem. The result of this clash of interest is, well, chaos. No one is willing to budge and no single "side" alone can do anything without moderation from the other, so chaos it is.

Lunchtime at the HAEF summer camp proved to be the perfect example for understanding all of the problems with the Greek infrastructure (or lack there of).

The normal lunchtime policy at the elementary school where the camp takes place is very much rooted in manners and proper meal time behavior. The "rules" are posted on the cafeteria walls and include strict instructions like the requirement of asking to clear one's plate to the washing station. The tables themselves are set in clusters of circular tables (not the long, orange-stooled lunch tables I remember from my childhood) that are covered with white cloth tablecloths. The glasses and plates are made of glass. Each meal is homemade and freshly cooked, and there is only one choice for lunch-- an aspect of lunchtime that often resulted in hysteria ("But I HATE this!!!"). There are no lines, no trays, and no ladies with hair nets scooping mashed potatoes onto your plastic dish. We, the teachers, are required to serve each student and cater to their specific requests regarding their meal ("Tomatoes but no potatoes, please.").

That's the tradition part. The anarchy is the camp itself.

Camp is not school; it is a whole new monster. There are more kids and fewer staff members, and there is far more physical activity for the kids during the day making them even hungrier than normal and therefore more impatient to get down to eating. So, with that in place, let's keep this valued mealtime tradition while overstuffing the cafeteria with tiny students and having lots of hungry Sports Camp kids clawing at the doors to get in for their turn. And let's give everyone approximately 15 minutes to get all of this done!

And then, you get the chaos.

Because there was only me and 18 of them, and since I was required to serve each of them individually, lunchtime basically turned into a recurring nightmare of my waitress days from high school. These kids were starving but had to wait (because of the traditional rules) for me to get to them. They couldn't pour the water themselves because it came in glass pitchers and went into glass cups, which was simultaneously too heavy for them and also a recipe for broken glass disasters. By the time I would finish serving each of the munchkins, the first one I'd served would be done (those buggers eat so fast!), so that one would then be demanding permission to take their plate up. Perhaps I was supposed to keep them at table until other people started to finish, but I gotta tell you, I just didn't care after a point.

There was never enough food set out for each individual class, so it became a fight of the hunters and gatherers. I would find myself going from table to table begging other classes for their extras or stealing from the Sports Camp tables if necessary. I felt like a lioness determined to feed my young no matter what lengths I must go to in order to do so. There were also never enough chairs for my class to sit together, which meant I was also trying to steal chairs and work them into our table set-up, so that everyone had ample eating space; or it meant that some of them would run away to a different table, which I would often not notice until midway through the serving process. Since they were not to take their own food, they would just be sitting there at the other table staring into space waiting for someone (me) to come and serve them.

Sometimes the kids would get impatient (can't say I blame them) and would start grabbing for food before they were served (or after if they desired seconds), which would add to the chaos. Since rations were scarce, there was always a need to make sure everyone had the proper amount.

I think I may have eaten lunch a total of three times during the course of summer camp.

Anyway, I think you can see how lunchtime has come to represent the entirety of the Greek governmental issues for me. That values and traditions [of mealtime] are perfectly lovely to hang on to, but in the times of something new and exciting (in this case, summer camp) keeping to those traditions just results in chaos. Make the kids line up and hand them some plastic trays and sloppy joes. Or plastic trays and pastitsio-- that way we can still keep with traditional identity.