THE MUKHTAR
MEET THE MUKHTAR
It’s fascinating to sit in the Muktar’s office for an hour and see first hand the problems he faces on a daily basis; the way he deals in the same even-tempered straightforward way with everyone, from disaffected house owners to staff supervising repairs; how there’s hardly a minute to draw breath and yet he remains composed, ready to take on whatever crisis the day throws at him.
This is our Muktar, Christos Foutas; born and bred in Pissouri and now doing his fighting level best – it seems to me – to keep the village from becoming another Peyia or falling more at the mercy of uncaring developers. A man of fairly humble origins who worked on the family land as a youngster, Christos went to our local primary school and then to Limassol High School/Lyceum. ‘Some days I would work in the fields from first light and then catch the bus to Limassol’ he remembered. ‘When I got home from school, my work clothes were still waiting for me in the fields and I worked on the vines or vegetables until suppertime. I often fell asleep at the table doing my homework!’ For some of this time, the only light was from petrol lamps: electricity didn’t come to Pissouri until 1969.
Between 1973 and 1975, Christos was called for National Service – a bleak time covering the Turkish invasion in ‘74. ‘National Service is not good, but it’s necessary. You go in a boy – and come out a man,’ he remarked. Christos then studied English/Greek Literature at Athens University for three years, while working nights as a porter in the central market to pay his way. Once graduated, he had a year studying and practising TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) before returning home. He formed the first Pissouri nursery school in 1991 and still teaches in the village in the afternoons.
Christos met his wife, a mathematician, in Athens in 1975 and they have three children, all of whom have followed their parents’ path to Greece for further education. He is rightfully very proud, more so because ‘My children all love Pissouri and come home often.’ His three brothers also live in the village.
A man with a quiet sense of humour and an abiding love for nature and the land, Christos comes across as diligent, well-spoken and with an excellent commercial sense from his years in business. He has an unparalleled record of working for Pissouri: firstly as Chairman of the Co-Op Bank for 20 years and now as Muktar. I pushed him to give me three words he might use to describe himself. He prevaricated modestly before coming out with ‘Honest, hard-working, straightforward.’ Exactly the words I wrote on my steno pad in the first 10 minutes watching him at work! The tide of the village life engulfed him as I left.