After the wildfires of 2007 in the Peloponnese, Greeks anxiously awaited the forest workers who barricaded the slopes of the burnt mountains with tree trunks. They were viewed as saviours. But how many people wondered where they came from and how they learned this job?

Day and night among burnt wood

"We used to work all day long in the burnt forests. We were one with the smudged landscape, except for our teeth which were white. People laughed at us. When we tried to wash off the charcoal it was even worse, because we just spread it around. The heat and smoke choked us. It will be years before we know if we damaged our health". 42 year-old George Rachovitis lives in Livadi of Olympus, a stone village of 2,800 inhabitants at an altitude of 1,160 meters.

He is of Vlach origin, which means he is a member of a highlander Greeks' community, that was latinised during the years of the Roman Empire and speaks a language very close to the Latin. Breeders, muleteers and woodcutters, live an authentic life on the mountains and in the forests of Olympus, away from noise and the unnecessary tension.

He adores his village

13-year-old Thanassis, George Rachovitis's son, a seventh grader, yells "fuggi" (leave) "fuggi daua" (get away from here) so that he scares the sheep. He knows everything there is to know about animals.  He points to a horse with a short tail and explains: "The man who sold it to us put it in the same pen as the oxen, which ate its tail".

He wants to work with animals like his father did while the thought of leaving his village doesn't even cross his mind. He prefers toys such as little trucks and tractors that pull the tree trunks, while he has not a computer, only some electronic games connected to the television.

He stares into his father's eyes while he's shoeing a horse and waits for his nod in order to hand him a nail. Thanassis is a fan of Olympiakos, but playing football in Livadi is not so easy, because when the children kick too hard, the balls tumble in the deep gorges of Olympus and disappear forever. 
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com

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Partial view of Livadi, the Vlach village.

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