An island on empty.

This is the island I return to every year and bring my children to, but this year it is almost unrecognisable in the way it has been beaten and bashed and left empty and wanting. I could spend the rest of the blog attributing blame, the president who left the island in a good financial state as opposed to the one who has just spent five years running it into the ground. The new president who took over in 2013 seemingly issuing the right messages but short on the delivery and the great cloud of uncertainty that surrounds all dictated by forces beyond the shores- will Cyprus pull through, has it bottomed out, are there better days to come ? 

No one is unaffected- daily you hear stories of families whose lives have been turned upside down in ways that are unfair and hard. Some were depressed about the state of affairs, others have taken it bravely and are a little more accepting. The bank I used,  has gone. The bank employees who for years looked after me so well dont know if they will have a job at the end of the month. Houses lay derelict, there is no money to maintain, shops and whole office buildings lie empty waiting for those inquiries that never come. People have stopped going to their favourite beaches, those that are a little far and the petrol too costly, the restaurants have few, if any customers and the mood is as oppressive as the heat at times. 

I wish I could say this is the end and there are better days to come. My husband says I am a bit of a pessimist and worry unnecessarily. I wish to god he was right on this one.I would love to stay positive but fear there are harder times ahead. The ravages of war, the lives lost in 1974, seem a different ruination to the present one but this is perhaps more insidious. Both affecting generations to come and those who came before marking people in ways seldomly erased.