A rainy morning in Athens, Greece on November 24. These are some of the men that are homeless and live in the park Zappeio. Despite the rain and the cold their game of chess has been going on for years! I walked up to them and just said i have to take a photo of this moment! They laughed and said “ah, you must be journalist, go ahead take a photo.” The man on the right with the crossed over legs said “a lot of people take our photo, they don’t realise we live here, that this is a way for us to pass the time. The park is beautiful, but we’re not just some ‘interesting characters’ in a story this is our life.” The man with the grey umbrella pulled it down when I said I was a journalist. And the man next to me explained “who wouldn’t want to be in the park playing chess today?” with a smile.

~ by aliawriting on November 24, 2007.