Just when you thought I was done talking about Greece!
In the prologue of the ridereport, I posted the above picture. At the end of the trip compilation, I'm also unpacking something at Cape Tenaron, but right before you get to see what it is, the vid ends. Well, this was a secret sideproject, called 'Péus'.
Péus was an idea dating back to the origins of the Dekatria Project. When doing motorcycle lessons I reckoned I wanted to remember what started it all - the suicide of my childhood friend in 1996. He was 11 years old when he committed suicide, so he didn't get to do most of the things I got to do. Albeit symbolically, I wanted to change that... and Péus was the result.
Prior to starting it, I officially asked his father permission to do so. He agreed, saying I wouldn't just do it for my friend, but all the others who ended their lives prematurely. With the charity of To Write Of Love On Her Arms as beneficiary of the Dekatria Project, this had already been taken care of.
The plan
I asked his father whether I could fill a small container with some earth from my friend's grave. I made this container sacrificing two pencil sharpeners - nothing fancy, but it'd get the job done. This improvised container would then go into my motorcycle jacket, where it would stay until I had successfully reached my destination.
So on what would've been my mate's 27th birthday in 2012, I went to his grave, to fill the container with some earth, after which I sealed it off and put it in my motorcycle coat. The container made all the smaller trips too, both the one to Northern Holland and the tour of Great Britain, it has done all the group tours... it has pretty much done every mile I have done. And when I reached Cape Tenaron I opened it up, to replace the earth inside the container with earth from the Cape. You can see this in the vid at the bottom of this page.
Upon arrival back in Holland, I gave the container to his father to put at my late friend's grave – this way, part of the grave would forever be in Greece, and part of Greece will forever be at his grave. I reckon that people are only really dead once we have forgotten about them, and this way, my old friend had taken part in it all as well.
The name
Peús is not a real word – it's the abbreviation of a Latin proverb by Horace: Pulvis et umbra sumus, which translates as 'We are but dust and shadows'. I thought it was quite appropriate.
