El arte del diseño: de la idea a la realización
€1,100 unpaid rent. €72 in my BoC account. My name is Vasiliki Andreou. I am from Rethymno, Crete. Two and a half years ago, I moved to Cyprus with my daughter. Now we live in Limassol. I am 38 years old, and I raise my nine-year-old daughter Lucie alone. I work cleaning rooms at Park Beach Hotel. Every day, I clean the rooms, change the bedsheets, wash the bathrooms and prepare everything for new guests. It is hard work, but I always believed it was stable. My salary is €1,300 per month. From this money, €600 goes directly for the rent. Then I need to pay electricity, water, internet, buses, food and the monthly payment for my loan. After all these payments, almost nothing is left. Every time the balance in my Kyprou account goes below €100, I feel something tight in my chest. The problems started after the tourist season finished. The hotel had much fewer bookings, so the management decided to reduce the staff. They told me that they would not renew my contract. Everything happened very fast. One day, I was cleaning rooms as usual. The next day, I had no job. I registered at the employment office and applied for unemployment benefit. But they told me I could not receive it because I did not have enough social insurance contributions. For almost two months, I had nearly no income. I tried to pay at least some part of the rent, but the debt slowly became €1,100. Then I missed one payment for my loan. After that, I missed another one. I spoke with my landlord two times. The first time, he agreed to wait a little. The second time, he told me that he could not wait anymore. After this, he contacted a bailiff. One morning, I found two official envelopes in my letterbox. I opened them there in the hallway, still wearing my coat. The first letter said that I had to leave the apartment. The second one was a warning from the bank about the loan payments I had missed. Amounts. Dates. Warnings. Everything was written there. I read both letters many times, even if I understood
