The last few days have been both tiring and emotionally draining. To be honest I’ve been having trouble finding the words to detail my experience and haven’t felt much like writing. However, today was a good day and I felt like we made a lot of progress. After sharing a lovely dinner with a bunch of other volunteers, I’m feeling energized and ready to dive back into this story. This is going to be a long one, so bear with me and enjoy the pictures.
One of two castles on the island, just outside Mitlini (a little out of focus)
Greek Coast Guard
I’ll start with the night shift I had in Moria a few nights back. We had expected it to be a quiet night as many people had left the camp earlier that day and the weather was expected to be quite nasty overnight. However once we got there it quickly became obvious that in reality there is no such thing as a “quiet night” in Moria.
I spent the shift working in the clothing tent where refugees can come get fresh, dry clothing in exchange for their wet ones. As the buses rolled in one after the other, we were constantly running back and forth trying to aid as many people as possible. What was meant to be an 8 hours shift turned into 11.5 hours for me and 15 hours for another friend who decided to power through the day (he left the camp at 5 pm).
The clothing tent is an exceptional experience as it really gives you insight into what kind of mentality refugees have when they come to us. This may be a little hard to explain, so bear with me. At the clothing tent there are two lines (as well as two changing areas), one for women and children and another for men. I worked with the women and children most of the night. Something that you have to remember about people in this situation is that they are often coming with very little of their own possessions, sometimes with only the clothes on their back. Most of the time, not only are their clothes wet, but everything that they have brought with them is wet too. To ask them to change into ill-fitted clothing and hand-me downs is often a blow to their self-esteem. As one woman I was working with pointed out, we really are making them look like refugees by giving them these clothes and asking them to hand over their nice (but wet) ones. Many of the women come wearing beautiful dresses and ornate accessories that get ruined by the water. Often they don’t want to part with their clothes and even more often they reject the clothes you try to give them.
One girl I was helping rejected just about everything I tried to give her despite the fact that she was shivering and her hands were turning blue. It’s easy to get frustrated in these situations because there are so many people to help and a limited amount of clothing. (Items that are really lacking are shoes, pants and gloves.) Having said that, it’s important to remember that in a way we are stripping these people of their last inkling of dignity and it only makes sense that they will fight tooth and nail to keep that for themselves. Eventually I was able to figure out that the girl’s favourite colour was red and soon we were able to put an outfit together that was both warm and to her liking.
The other challenging part about the clothing tent is that I speak Farsi. This would seem like a good thing but it can be tricky once people understand that I speak their language. All of a sudden, I’ll have 5 or 6 people making requests at the same time and often they try to coax me into doing them favours because I am their “sister”. I’ve heard things like, “I know you can help me because you understand me,” or “You don’t have to tell any of the English speakers, but please can you do…” This hasn’t been the experience of the people who speak only English and can more easily turn people away. I’ve wondered if it’s worth pretending that I too only speak English, but I know in the end that this would be a horrible waste of a skill that is greatly needed as their are very few translators to begin with.
As the night progressed the weather got colder and around 6 am the power in the lower part of the camp gave out. Luckily it was in between buses and power was restored just before the next bus rolled in. However there were some women and children still in the changing tent and the children became really scared of the dark. I took the opportunity to make it a light moment and started making shadow puppets with my headlamp. The kids loved it and the mothers were appreciative to have a moment to themselves as we scrambled to get them their last items and send them off to sleep.
The clothing tent
As I mentioned, there are a few items that seem to be constantly lacking in the clothing tent. The biggest one is shoes, as just about everyone comes in with wet feet. One solution to this problem is giving them dry socks and wrapping them in emergency blankets before putting them back in their wet shoes. It’s not ideal but extremely efficient, even if the refugees are not always happy about it.
After the night shift, I went back to my hotel and slept for about 19 hours straight, something that only happens when I’ve pushed my limits beyond reason. I’ve had to be careful with how much I do physically due to my chronic pain condition and admittedly I didn’t pace myself properly the first few days.
Once awakened from my mini-coma, I went back to Moria and did some more work in the clothing tent as well as help stock tents with lifejacket mattresses. There seems to be a little confusion around what to do with these mattresses by the refugees. We’ve been finding that some of the refugees understand and appreciate their use, while others just chuck them out of the tents. We also realize that there is likely a negative connotation that comes with the jackets (which is why we have avoided using the bright orange ones) and are currently trying to come up with a way to make them less discomforting.
By the way, the lifejacket project made to national Greek news! You can check out the article and video here. Look out for a little cameo by yours truly.
At the clothing tent I met a young Syrian girl and her 3 year old brother who had a particularly nasty cough, so I took them into the medical tent to get looked at by the doctors. Despite his cough, this little boy was a chatterbox. Though I have no idea was he was saying (they spoke Arabic), he did not stop talking and laughing from the moment I met them. After leaving the tent, I found their father and did my best to explain to him what had happened with gestures and a few common words (i.e. doctor and medicine) until he understood. He was grateful for my help and the little boy gave me a big wet kiss before going off on his way.
Skipping ahead to yesterday, it finally started raining as promised around 3 pm and did not stop until late into the night. A few of the LUSH tents started collapsing (while people were inside) as the earth underneath became soft from the rain. Around 7 pm, when it was already dark we started going around and distributing blankets to people in the tents. Many were huddled up closely together to fight off the cold rain as it poured down. Earlier in the day, a woman had been separated from her children after having fainted and being taken to the hospital. Apparently she was so traumatized that all the medics could get out of her was that she wanted to see her children. We took the opportunity to look for the children while distributing the blankets and eventually they were found and reunited with their mother.
“The Inside” 
Today was a beautiful day in the morning. I recently moved to Panagiounda, the town just south of Moria and was able to walk to camp, passing olive groves, farms and sheep! on the way. The sun had dried out a lot of the enormous puddles in Moria that had developed overnight but many of the tents had pools of water and mud inside. We spent the afternoon cleaning them out and setting up the ones that had fallen up again.
I also brought an elderly woman to the medical tent and helped relay her pains to the doctor. As it turns out, she had fallen a few days prior and had gone to see a doctor in Istanbul who bandaged her up. However, while getting off the boat here in Greece she fell again and the doctor believes she may have cracked one or more ribs. We got her some pain killers and found her a place to rest, as well as some new clothes as her dress was still wet and uncomfortable. Her family plans to leave in a couple of days but told me that they will wait until she feels up to travelling again. I was left thinking of my own grandmother who has her share of health problems and felt good about being able to get this woman the attention that was needed.
Earlier tonight I had dinner with several volunteers I’ve met over the past several days. It’s incredible to meet so many like minded people from all over the world and share this unique and daunting experience with. We laughed, ate delicious food and planned for the next few days. Many of us are leaving within the week (as we all have to go back to work), but others who are staying longer are hoping to continue on with projects such as the lifejacket mattresses and the maintenance of the donated tents.
My time is coming to a close here and it doesn’t feel like enough. It seems like no matter what you do, the work is never ending. I know that in a small way I’ve contributed my part but there is still so much that needs to be done. The truth is, Moria isn’t being given the assistance and support it needs by the Greek government, Frontex, and other EU contingents. Thing is, I’m tired now so that explanation will have to come in another post.
This Many Days to Freedom 