The Legacy of Joseph Barnabas in Cyprus

The normal cause of our dust.

This dirt parking lot just across the street from our building explains why we have to wipe dust off the veranda tables every day before we eat dinner. During the day it is jam packed with cars–as in CRAZILY parked.

The cause of more dust today.

And here is the reason that today the dust is even worse than usual. We wondered why the three men kept hauling stones over to the shovel of the track hoe instead of the driver scooping all the debris up with the shovel. Why all the heavy lifting by the men? Then Lynne noticed that in the bed of the dump truck were only reusable stones. They are recycling the stone for use in other building projects.

Tomorrow, we get a car, which will give us a lot more freedom. I think that we may take a drive into the mountains where it is cooler.

Island of life in a sea of concrete

On Friday we traveled to Limassol to meet a legend. This gracious, 83 year-old man has an amazing repertoire of stories about his life experiences. He took us to his home, which is like an island of life in a sea of concrete—a profusion of trees and flowers from different countries. When his father bought the house many years ago, it was part of a farm. There were no other houses in the area. But Limassol has grown up around the home, and hotels and businesses crowd against his property.

He served in the Cyprus parliament in 1960, when Great Britain granted independence to the island. Then he went to Iowa State on a Fulbright scholarship. He stayed on to get his MA and PhD in horticulture. Lynne and I listened for hours as he told of his work among Bedouin in Saudi Arabia, his time in Africa and his current work in environmental horticulture.

Saturday morning, he drove us into the hills north of Limassol to St. Michael’s Monastery, where Father G., a monk from Mt. Athos, is working to rebuild this ancient monastery and prepare it for a group of monks from Mt. Athos who will arrive later this year. I was impressed with the way Fr. G. ministered sensitively to the people who gathered that morning. He seems popular with youth. I also like his sense of humor. Read the rest of this entry »

"The Holy Apostle Barnabas"

Today we walked to a small church in the NE of the old city. There were no prohibitions on cameras, so I photographed their one icon of St. Barnabas. The caption above it clearly identifies him as “The Holy Apostle Barnabas.” I hope to get an official escort to some of the larger churches so that I can photograph in areas that otherwise are off limits.

Friday afternoon we take our first trip out of Nicosia. We will meet with a man in Limassol who has many contacts with Orthodox clergy and should be extremely helpful for my study of Barnabas.

I am posting an HDR photograph that I took of part of the outside of the Ethnographic Museum. The wide variation in contrast between bright sunlight and deep shadow make photographing such views very challenging. But with High Dynamic Range (HDR), I can combine a series of photographs of the same view, taken with different light settings, and get a much better photograph. The technique will be very handy when I finally get to take pictures of the insides of churches and monasteries.