August 13 Day 3 training and burritos

Aug 13 Tuesday

Day 3

I feel as if the day was a long day, it was, but I fear the coming days will be longer.  John and I got up at 5:45 and made ready for the day, making our trek through the cat strewn streets to the bakery of the 3 loud sisters.  After procuring our pastry we made our way to Skiniko Coffee Shop and got our Americana coffee after waiting for the young man to finish opening the front doors of his shop.  We arrived back at our hotel and met the gang for our 7:00 devotion by Renee.

At 7:50 we met Kim who took us to the EuroRelief community center and had a 3-hour orientation with two other volunteers one of which was Dale from Tennessee who is a clinical psychologist.  The other was a young woman who is one of the many Mennonite volunteers that come here to serve for several months at a time.

The community center is located on the main street – and by “on” I mean scrunched up, really close, right next to the street.  There is the street and then the door.   You must look both ways before going out the door.  The door remained opened during our orientation to affect some cooling but that resulted in many pauses as buses, trucks and motorcycles flood the room with sound as they passed.

Kim did a bible study, a history/geography (side note – as I typed that word the mnemonic I learned as a child spontaneously crossed my mind “George Eagle’s Old Grandmother Rode A Pig Home Yesterday”) and a practical culture and best practices lesson.

The Bible study was Matthew 25.  The very familiar passage where Jesus is prophesying.  It is not a parable even though it is set in a series of parables.  In chapter 24 the disciples asked Jesus to tell them about the end of the age.  Jesus then began to teach about his Kingdom to come.  In chapter 25 Jesus continues his answer with the parable of the 10 virgins and the parable of the talents.  How do we know these are parables? Jesus tells us: “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins.” Then in verse 14: “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey.”  But in verse 31 he is telling us not a parable but rather prophesying about what is to come.

He begins by using the name he gave himself “the Son of Man” but quickly upon his telling of his second coming he refers to himself as King and the people call him Lord.

Philippians 2:9-11 New International Version (NIV)

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

The King will divide (judge) the whole of humanity into sheep and goats (saved and lost).   It is important to note that the judging takes place before the conversation about works.  Ephesians 2 is not nullified by this prophesy.  Salvation is by grace alone not by works.

But the King of Kings explains to EVERYONE what it means to be a sheep or a goat. 

³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

To the others he says

⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

It is important to note that both the righteous and unrighteous asked the same question of the King:  When did we do that to YOU Lord? Or When did we NOT do that to YOU Lord? 

Neither group understood that the way they were acting in life was unusual.  The sheep were acting like sheep and the goats were acting like goats.  The sheep became sheep by grace and then they just did what was natural to sheep – feeding, inviting strangers in, clothing people, and being hospitable to the vulnerable.  The goats went about their lives on earth acting like goats.  So wrapped up in their own lives that they did not feed, invite, clothe, or visit anyone.

It made me think not about this trip but about my day-to-day life.  Am I acting like a sheep or a goat?

The culture part of the orientation included many aspects I did not know.  For example, the difference between the Shia and Sunni Muslims is largely based on the earliest days after Mohamed died.  One group believed that only the relatives/descendants of Mohamed would be the caliph or leader and the other group believed the caliph should be elected.  And of course, as with many religions including Christianity at various times over the centuries the groups having different opinions of the will of god, decided to enforce their beliefs by killing others who disagreed. 

The main point of the practical side of the orientation was to be cautious with your relationships with the immigrants.  Be open and friendly, smile and admire babies but remember that these people are very vulnerable to feeling abandoned when volunteers leave as we will while they have to stay.  The second main point was no pictures in camp.  I did not take any but a google search will show that others have.   And of course the people who live in Moria can and do take pictures.  I did take a video on the road up to Moria.  The white structures to the right of the road and up the hill are part of the camp.  The people walking by the road are immigrants.  

After the orientation we took a tour of Moria.  I really don’t have the words to describe it.  If you google Moria Refugee Camp you will see video after video describing the horror of the place.  And it is horrible, but it is not a prison. The place has fences (with holes in it at the back where people go in and out) and anyone can go in and out the front gate at any time.  The fences do not keep people inside but rather control who comes in. 

When refugees are arrested at the shore, they are taken to Moria.  In the first day they are given food (typical Greek food, which many are not used to eating but that is what is available here) a mat, sleeping bag, blanket, set of clothing, a hygiene kit (toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, comb etc.)  The police register them and collect fingerprints.  They are in the system of the EU at this point and they are given police papers which serve as ID papers for virtually everything they do or get after this.

The new arrivals have a large tent (the size of a few basketball courts) with a floor to find space to sleep on.  As soon as possible they assign them space in a small family sized tent or one of the ISO boxes living spaces.  These are basically shipping container size metal boxes with electricity and fans. 

This would be perfectly adequate if there were 2000 people living here but as of today there are 8314 including 5 boats containing approximately 150 people who arrived today.  It is total chaos.  People, men, women, children (infants to teens) sleeping laying everywhere.  I will try to explain more later, but the volunteers who are here, and there are a few dozen, are here to serve and are doing all they know to do to feed and clothe these people. The military contracts for food to be brought three times a day as is water.  

The EU which is ultimately responsible for making decisions for who gets asylum.  The decision-making committee or board makes about eight decisions, about a family or person, each day Monday to Friday.  With 200 to 300 people coming each day you can see that the waiting period can be months or even years.  As is true on the US southern boarder the EU needs to provide more decision makers to process these cases more rapidly.  In the meantime the EuroRelief people and the volunteers are doing what they can to help the situation.

After the tour we went to the EuroRelief warehouse where our job for the afternoon was to make burritos.  Not food but clothing.  Donations of new but overstocked clothing comes mainly from Scandinavian countries.  Our task was to select a pair of pants (mostly sweatpants kinds of things because waist size and length are more flexible), two shirts (one long and one short sleeved), underwear and socks.  These are rolled up and then wrapped in plastic (I was the plastic wrapper today) and then labeled -Men L, Women M, girl 8- 12, etc.  Renee and Christine were doing the picking of clothing and rolling, and they were doing their level best to not violate fashion sense as much as they could.  Renee found a shirt that said “I don’t speak French but I do speak Fashion.”  She is hoping to see it in camp later.

The burritos are sorted and taken to camp to be passed out to new arrivals as the supplies in the camp warehouse become low. As each new arrival is processed in “new arrivals,” the number of people in the family or individual is noted and the size of each person is noted.  Then they are given a ticket and the ticket is exchanged for clothes of the appropriate size (if not the appropriate colors and patterns), a hygiene kit, mat, sleeping bag and blanket are given to them.  Unfortunately, the supplies of many things run out before the lines of people needing them runs out.  The mats and sleeping bags ran out and so people were getting only a blanket.