Faking is an art

Totally aware of the fact I didn't get all too far with my reporting on our Interrail trip, I decided to write a little something about the art of faking following yesterday's events.

Yesterday had been marked on our calenders for a long time as being extremely important because the media would come by to document some of the work we conduct at Archipelagos. Since we're currently working on surveying and protecting an ancient Holm Oak forest in the central part of Ikaria, this is logically what we'd feed to the Sky TV crew.

At around 10.30 am Greek time (meaning 11.15 am in reality), we arrive on site. We'd been told that journalists are hungry animals, wanting all information you should by no means give to them freely. Our supervisor Mihalis also warned us that we would not be doing actual work, but rather be part of the theatre play he had in mind. I am assigned the task of walking around and registering geographic coordinates of anything I encounter on my way, just to look busy. Others were to measure tree trunk diameter, fauna and flora occurrence, etc - the usual thing.

I however, am not the best person to fake things and find myself struggling with suppressing nervous smiles when I know I’m being filmed. We are told to march down into to the forest from behind one of the cars. Since we all still have to adapt to the idea of being part of ‘Big Brother Forest’ however, even walking naturally is a bit of a challenge. In fact, it probably must have looked as though it were Snow White's 7 dwarfs going to work more than anything else.

Once on site, the Sky TV crew asks us to take our instruments out and to start the work as we would normally do. I grab my loyal GPS receiver, which is basically a near-invisible yellow box-like instrument which one operates by pressing one button on its face. Quickly becoming aware of the fact this type of surveying may not be the most fascinating for the viewers to watch, the cameraman urges me to dive back into the fieldwork box and choose a more exciting instrument. I pick out the inclinometer to determine tree height using angle measurements. Unfortunately for general scientific credibility, I cannot recall the last time I held one of those things and end up holding one up in the air while staring into it from the wrong side.

Not long after the Sky TV people leave the site charged with shots of complete and utter unprofessionalism, we decide to call it a day and return to base. The road back however, is incredibly windy and takes over an hour, enough to activate my stomach’s bad temper. Barely able to stand up, I step out of the car when back in Kastanies and make my way toward the office. After a whole morning of theatre play and a rough ride back, I felt confident I would finally get a little well-deserved peace. To my surprise however, yet another filming crew awaits us in the office premises. This time I am to act as though I’m studying seeds from our seed bank, great! With a stomach keen to erupt, a head that feels like it had cracked in numerous locations and no knowledge as to where our seed bank is located, I can only agree to do as I am told. Hollywood, hmm, maybe not for me! :)