At the beginning of each course or gathering in Amari we take a ‘get-to-know-the-place’ walk around the village. We usually start at 5.00pm from our home space, the Estia, go uphill to the War Memorial and from there to Sarakina, the water place that has been giving life to Amari for thousands of years. I remember when I was a child (I’m 60 this year – so not soooo long ago!) my parents would send me to Sarakina to fetch lovely, clear, fresh, cool water for drinking, even though there was running water in the house. For centuries and even until about 30 years ago, it was the meeting place of young people after their evening walk in the village, strutting their stuff and showing off to each other, sometimes even dancing till the small hours of the morning. All in all a very central and vital meeting point for village life. For many years now, since the great tree that gave its abundant shade was cut down and the whole place was revamped, the water has no longer run freely and people no longer visit Sarakina in the evenings, sitting there chatting, singing and flirting. Nevertheless, there is a saying that if you drink from this water you will come back to Amari, so we always take all our guests and friends there for a drink of this fresh, spring water.