Arkoi

I first landed on Arkoi a few years ago by chance while seeking an escape from the August crowds on Samos, another Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea. There happened to be a boat headed there one morning – a relatively infrequent occurrence, even in summer – so I jumped at the opportunity.

While Samos is teeming with commerce and pleasure seekers, the tranquil and bucolic Dodecanese gem (population: 35 people, 450 goats) calls to mind a mythical desert isle – a rugged landscape mantled by brush and wild olive trees stunted by the wind, hidden beaches shaded by tamarisk trees and a luminous teal sea. For me, it was an antidote to the hustle and noise of city life.

Yet one person’s holiday paradise is another’s home – with all the joys and complexities that come with it.

I love my work, the animals and the land

Maria Faedra Tsialera is the only teacher who lives on the small island of Arkoi in Greece’s Dodecanese and keeps the primary school of the island open for the one and only student who lives there permanently.

Tsialera was born and raised in Thessaloniki but her teaching career brought her to one of Greece’s smallest islands.

As state-run news agency AMNA reports, she asked to be on this island a year and a half ago, since then she helped to build the island’s only school. Unfortunately, the school’s closure could be imminent due to the lack of children on the island.

The island is inhabited year-round by only 35 people.

If you stand on the eastern shore of the island of Arkoi on a clear day, you can see Turkey in the distance.

At 170 miles — and many worlds — from Athens’ bustling streets and the ups and downs of a seemingly neverending financial crisis, life on Arkoi moves at a slower pace.

The island’s last census was taken in 2011, when Arkoi boasted 44 residents. Today, that number has dwindled to about half, including seven in the Kamposos family, whose youngest — the bright, brown-eyed, eight-year-old Christos — is the sole reason this little village has a school.