Greece, the land of paradoxes

Volunteer Life

by Roberto Gentile

"It was saturday, the 5th of february. Three in the afternoon of a normal day. I had the idea to take a coffee, so I got dressed, took the house’s keys and went to the first coffee bar I met on my way. I looked for a free seat and sat down. A waiter came towards me: “Can I check your vaccination?”, he asked. “Yes, of course,’’ I replied. He checked. Then said: “This certificate is invalid. You cannot stay".

Here starts my journey.

The main character of this story is Diogo Vilarinho, 25 years old, graphic designer from Portugal. He has been volunteering at Balkan Hotspot since October 2021.

This story will see him involved in a series of challenges just to get a simple thing: the AMKA NUMBER. No worries, I will explain everything to you.

Let’s go back to the story. Here’s again Diogo telling us his drama:

“You cannot stay.” The waiter said.“But I had my vaccine in July”, I went.“Yes, and now it’s expired. You cannot stay.”

Despite his rudeness, I kept calm and told him: “NO WAY!!! IMPOSSIBLE!!! I had my vaccine 8 months ago!”

And here I found out the problem: in Greece the vaccination certificate is valid for 7 months. In my country and in almost every country in Europe, it is valid for 9 months. The immediate consequence of this discovery was the awareness of having lost part of my freedom. I felt a lot of fear of missing out: imagine seeing people going out, planning trips or even smaller things like a simple movie at the cinema: you are there, listening to them, but you cannot go with them. And this is really frustrating.

Diogo Vilarinho

© Balkan Hotspot

And it wasn’t completely my fault, because I was vaccinated, and in my country, Portugal, my certificate is valid and that’s why my plan was to take the booster once back in my country.

Invalide Certificate

© https://covid-19.hscni.net/covidcert-check-ni-privacy-policy/

But then, eventually, something happened: almost every volunteer from my organization (USB) had their own certificate expired. Therefore we were all in the same situation.

“What was the next move then?” I asked him.

“I talked with the mentor of my project, Urania. She told me to go to the closest KEP office to get AMKA.

KEP stands for “citizens service center”: this office is one of those places full of stereotypes, which you think you know even before entering. One of those sad places where you expect to see old and ruined furniture and staff over 60, also old and ruined. And then you enter and you realize that’s exactly what it is.

Once there I told the employee, as well as the only person present in the room, that I needed to get the AMKA.

The employee, a very silent woman, looked at me with the eyes of those who have been doing this job for too long, with the eyes of those who have lost hope and feelings due to this job.

Then gives me pen and paper and with a really low voice starts saying, in a row: write your name, write your mother’s name, write your father’s name and then write your email. In 7 days your AMKA will be activated.

Okay, I say, I wrote down everything I had to and I left the office.

I didn’t know the lady was lying.It’s friday, the 18th of february, 13 days later.

KEP Office Thessaloniki

© https://pavlosmelas.gr/enarksi-leitourgias-neou-kep-sti-nikopoli-dimou-paylou-mela/

I went to the pharmacy to see if my AMKA is activated and there they told me: “Yes, it’s valid! Do you want to book an appointment?” I nod my head and cheer with my arms in the air.

But here something weird happened: the employee, who is about to make an appointment for me, starts saying: “your certificate will be valid after 14 days from the day you take the vaccine.”

“What? I know that for the booster I need to wait just one day.”

“Yes, but the system says that this is your second dose.”

“Second dose? the system? I don’t understand, this is my booster.”

“Then you have to go back to the KEP office, and ask them to update these information in the system”

This is never ending, I thought. But okay, let’s go back there at the KEP office to check what they wrote.

As soon as I entered, the lady screamed at me: “YOU NEED TO HAVE A TEST TO EN- TER HERE!”

I said that I just needed to know if they wrote a second dose in the system, and she replied back: “You need to have a test to enter here!”

In this country, sooner or later, you’ll need a test to make a test.

Eventually, the lady accepted my request and showed that yes, the system says second dose because my vaccine was Johnson & Johnson, that means that I had just one dose, that means that “the system” - as they love to call it - doesn’t count my booster as a booster but as a simple, normal second dose.

So I kindly asked her to modify this information in order to book an appointment with the right information, and her response was: “Okay, but to book you have to wait for your AMKA to be activated.”

Wait.Wait.WHAT?!?!

At the pharmacy they told me that it’s already activated. Why is she saying that?

“No. It’s not activated!” she kept saying after my insistence.

“Okay, but you told me it was necessary to wait 7 days for it to be activated, and 13 days have gone by. How long will I have to wait?”

“Few days”.

I leave the office stunned, confused, ready to give up.

But I gave myself one more chance to fix my destiny. I went to the first pharmacy to ask how long I should wait to see my AMKA activated - If it’s not clear yet, I don’t trust the lady at the sad KEP office. And the pharmacist sentenced: this might take a couple of months.

A COUPLE OF MONTHS.

At first, it was 7 days. Now it’s “a couple of months”.

I ask her how it’s possible that everyone has a different version, that everyone says the opposite from one another. And she replied: “It’s not because of us, it’s the system”.

At the time of the interview, Diogo has not yet seen his AMKA number activated.

Therefore the story cannot be said to be over. Nevertheless, I ask him what he has learned from this situation.

His answer, as true as it is touching, ends his journey:

“I have simply learned that Greece is the country of paradox. Ah, also that you cannot go against the system”.