Introduction

Why the Little White Donkey?

My husband's grandmother, before she departed to the Great Kafeneion Beyond (where, in a reversal of traditional roles, the women get to sit around all day gossiping and playing with worry beads while men do the daily work that matters), said to her grandson: "That land you have with frontage on the main road is a treasure... Set up a coffee-shop there and call it The Little White Donkey. It will become a magnet, and will do well as a business."

We registered the name in her honour, but the building remains unconstructed. Until we lay the foundations, this Virtual Coffee Shop is all that we have. Come in, sit down, order a brew, share a yarn... If you prefer, just flip your beads in the shadows.

Stories surround me up here. A web of them extends through and around my immediate family to the extended family and out into the wider community. Cyprus is experiencing such changes! People flood in from all over Europe -- all over the world. Society is changing, the landscape is changing, the climate is changing. The affects of change touch all of us, cause conflict and upheaval, forge new bonds, create new stories. The stories cry to be shared: they form a collective portrait of our lives today.

And Asproulla? The Cypriot dialect feminine diminutive for White... Besides, there's a ring to it that I like.