It’s not easy to get bored in Kalymnos, but it happened.  On Tuesday after climbing we walked the beach and stumbled down into the sand, each in our own world, facing the north wind and the setting sun.  It was a grim silent scene made worse by plastic bottles, trash, and cigarette butts drifting across the sand and sea in front of us.

A few days before we had taken the 2 euro shuttle boat to the little island next door called Telendos.  On our way to Telendos a little boy tossed his candy carton into the sea.  On our way back, a different little boy did the same.  Supervised by unflinching parents, we could see that the kids were getting rid of trash in a very normal way.

Back at the filthy beach, our boredom evaporated in an instant and Nicky and Sanam had the same idea at the same time: clean up the beach.  Within 5 minutes we had planned an entire mission.  We would make posters, get Mr. Slouvaki at the mini market to donate trash bags, and get a bunch of climbers to come Help Clean Up The Beach.  We had traded boredom for a huge mission to save the beach!

Minutes later we had sucked Tanya into the plan and were getting the posters printed at the scooter rental shop.  We told every climber we saw and on Thursday at least 23 of them (from France, Canada, Italy, Greece, San Francisco, Switzerland and Spain) showed up. 

Many Greek shop owners agreed to let us hang posters at their businesses, but they all laughed.  They said Greek people don’t believe in this sort of thing (having a clean beach?), that Greek people don’t take time to do it (30 seconds to pack out trash?) and that we were crazy American girls (probably true).  I’m happy to say that these shop owners were wrong.  Many of our Greek friends came, and even a reporter from local, Kalymnian TV.