Page 27 - Bulletin 12 2008

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Return to Kalk Bay

A few months after the marriage in Johannesburg the newly-weds arrived in Kalk Bay. This
was probably at the beginning of 1919. They took over the new premises which he now

named the ‘Olympia Café’after the town of Olympia in the Peloponnesus from which he

hailed. My grandmother had never been to the Cape before but is reported as saying that
she loved Kalk Bay from the first time she saw it.

Athanase and Judith had 7 children all of them born in Kalk Bay. The first was Nikolaos

Goles - my Uncle Nick who was born in 1919. (Fig. 2.6). He was followed by my Mother
Erine 1920, my Aunts Jean (Eugenia) 1921, Elpis 1923, Thalia, 1927, Theodora 1929, and

finally Panayottis - my Uncle Peter - in 1935. (Fig. 2.7). All the children were given Greek

names and were baptised in the Greek Orthodox Church. A very important person in the
Orthodox faith is the Koumbaras (m) or Koumbara (f). This is the sponsor at weddings or

baptisms who serves as a witness on behalf of the Greek Orthodox Church when he or she

is baptised. The Goles children’s Koumbaras or Koumbara included people from well
known Greek families, Drakopoulos, Zianis, Karadas, Razis and Bizos. Whether my

grandfather knew these people from Greece or whether he met them here, we don’t know.
What we do know is that these god-parents in the Orthodox faith are held in high esteem

and are regarded more or less as family members.

In a letter from my grandfather to his sister Ariadne in March 1935 he expresses his

annoyance that his sister had not looked after Mrs Karadas - (the godmother of Theodora)
when she visited Greece. (Fig. 2.8). He writes in Greek and the translation reads: ”I beg you

when she comes again to look after her. She is a very nice woman and her husband has
been very useful to me here. We have known each other for many years. I will write you

again if Mrs Karadas comes there to look after her, because she will return here and I don’t
want to create a bad opinion. Her home here is the one Greek house where there is no