Aug 22-23 Day 12 and 13 Last Greece Post

Aug 22 Thursday

Day 12

Evening Shift

The last day in Lesvos was a good one.  Three of us John, Renee and worked 8:00 to 5:00 yesterday and today we got to relax in the morning.  We were going to walk down to the bay to have coffee but Ellena and here husband Evangele accosted us and just about killed us with kindness.  They sat us down at the patio table near their garden.  Ellena brought us Greek coffee which is like an espresso with the grounds in it.  It is very hot but that is OK since the trick is to wait about 4 minutes so the grounds can settle.  Then you sip so you can be careful when you reach near the bottom so as not to get a mouth full of grounds.  Then she brought cheese and hard (really hard) cookies and bread.  By watching we figured out you are supposed to dunk the bread or cookies in the coffee.  Not bad.  With the help of Google translate we found that they have been married 65 years, and have run the hotel for 50.  They have several children.  One is a professional diver and one is a doctor and one  is a chef and one runs the Kitchen Bites Restaurant where we ate several times.

The area below the red striped canopy was where we had morning coffee and conversation.

We then had to pack our bags to be ready to leave for the airport at 5:45 the following morning. I left a pair of flip flops, a couple of shirts and an airplane blanket with Kim in the hopes some of it could be used.  The rest I managed to pack in my carry on which I did not but rather I checked it.  Leaving home on a trip with everything in the carry on and no checked bags, makes me feel secure knowing my stuff will arrive.  On the return trip I am less paranoid since if it does not arrive I will be at home with more stuff there.  So my backpack became my carry on with my computer and earphones and journal and a few other items.

 We had lunch at Skiniko with Jenny and Kim as well as the three folks from S. Carolina.  The day and company were delightful and the food while a bit slow in appearing at our table was still good.

At 4:00 the three of us started our last shift of service at Moria.  I asked if I could work in New Arrivals since I had not done that.  So the process is when the coast guard brings a bus load of refugees the police register them.  They stay for up to 24 hours in the first reception area.  While there the EuroRelief people meet with them and take note of who is in their family.  Male Head of House size large, wife size medium, girl age 4, boy age 6. They are then given a small piece of paper with a number on it D23 or D24.  The paper work is taken to the New arrivals.  It was my job to then look at the paper work and pack a bag with a clothing burrito for each person, a hygiene kit (TP, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, feminine hygiene pads).  The kids get similar stuff but also a toy (a ball, small stuffed toy, etc.).  The problem is that the demand is larger than the supply.  Last night there were toothbrushes but no toothpaste and no combs.  Then we add shoes if they have none and if we have some in their size, and then we add a blanket for each person.  The plastic bag is then put on a shelf with the family number on it to wait for distribution of the bag to the family.  There are so many new arrivals the camp cannot house them all in a timely fashion.  So there are hundreds right now sleeping on their blankets in any space they can claim, behind buildings, on the edge of the street, outside the camp in the street or edge of the field.

Until they are assigned a “house” they get their meals at New Arrivals.  They get police papers (ID) when they are processed.  With their papers and number, they can be checked on the computer and given food three times a day.

Breakfast usually consists of a prepackaged croissant with a chocolate filling and water.  Lunch is a small package (about the size of one of those frozen microwave meal from Gourmet) of warm beans with a protein like chicken, bread and water.  Dinner last night was a tomato, boiled egg, bread and another bean dish. 

After the dinner meal was handed out.  The people stood in a mob, although we asked them to stand in a line, came to the window and gave the window ladies their ticket and the ladies called out the number and I ran up and down and found the bags with their supplies and then we added the blankets and yelled the name out into the mob and hand them their bag and the police papers. 

During this whole food and clothing procedure there were people standing and knocking on the door and saying “My friend, My Friend, I need ________.”  The policy does not allow individual requests while we are doing the other things.  Our standard response was come back later.

At 8:30 my job became guarding gate B where the unaccompanied minor boys are living.  I enjoy this.  I was able to recognize many of the boys and do not have to see their papers to let them in.  Some of them run in and out a dozen times a night.  Occasionally a friend who does not live in section B will try to sneak in.  That is what we are trying to prevent because some are quite a bit older.

The limited English results in the same conversations over and over again, but that is OK.  One young man from Afghanistan had a very good command of English and we talked a long time about religion and politics.  He claimed to be an atheist but was talking about good and bad people and I asked him how his atheism allowed him to talk about good and evil.  He then said he was really antireligion rather than atheist.  It was a good conversation.

A bus of 52 refugees arrived at about 9:00 and John, Kim and Renee brought them all food and water.  That was on top of the 4 that had already come earlier on Thursday.  It turns out that the immigration people have two busses that bring people from where they come ashore, usually on the north shore of the island which is closer to the Greek shore and which is dark on the shore of the Turkish land because there are no settlements, but one of the busses is broken down and thus the other had to make all the 1.5 hour round trips.  That just took a long time.

My time at Moria has drawn to a close.  I have mixed emotions.  It felt right to be a part of the EuroRelief team that fed, clothed, and housed (sorta) the least of these people.  It was frustrating to know that the line of people coming was not getting shorter and that the number of people in the camp was growing.  Winter is coming and since Moria is on just about the same latitude as New York, winter can be harsh.  It is hard to look at the faces of the babies and children who will be living in tents, if they are lucky, or on the streets and know that when the rains and snow comes what life will be like for them.  I am glad I came.  But it is difficult to know that what I did was a drop in the bucket.  A drop nonetheless, but only a drop.

Aug 23 Friday

Day 13

Trip Home

The day began began a few hours before day began.  We loaded into the van and rental car and headed for the airport near Mytilene.  The drive that time of morning is eerily quiet. Very few cars and even fewer people on the streets.

The tiny airport that has about 4 flights per day from Mytilene to Athens was actually very efficient.  They checked our bags to Chicago where we had to claim them to go through customs.

We had a six hour layover in Athens which was forever but not forever enough to allow sightseeing in Athens.  So we ate and starbucked. 

The flight to Chicago and customs in Chicago were uneventful and we made it home.

It was a very rewarding and very sad trip.  It was what I believe I should have done.  I learned a great deal about immigration.  I am convinced that the USA policy toward immigrants is not what I want it to be.  This will be a matter of major importance to me in the next election.  I have thought a lot about how God will judge the people who live in a democracy.  Jesus said "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s."  But in our world we are Caesar - we have a responsibility to elect people that support Godly policies and not just on the abortion issue.  Will God at judgment say 'when I was a stranger you separated me from my parents and locked me in cages because you voted for people who made that policy?'  I do not know, but I suspect He might.

August 21 Day 11 Greece

Aug 21 Wednesday

Day 11

Third Day Shift

This was the last day shift.  It was an emotional day for me.  I was on the tent building team.  I wanted to work the New Arrivals crew but did not get my hand up fast enough.  So, I wound up walking 12,250 steps and 15 flights of stairs.  There were actually no stairs only Mount Moria.  I will be happy not to have to walk that hill again. 

The morning started on a good note.  Renee and I moved a family.  Renee had been awakened with the thought of this family running through her mind.  We probably should not have done so without permission but if we had asked the answer would have been no.  But I justified it because the removal of their tent to a better location allowed two smaller tents to be placed in the same location, thus housing more people.  I am bothered by how I use the term housing.  No one was housed while we were there.  A precious few were tented.  This is not the same thing but “perhaps”it is better than sleeping on the street.

The donated tent situation is really frustrating.  They are marked with 3-person or 5-person or 20-person tents.  So most of the families are 3 to 6 people.  So you get a tent from the storage area and walk it up to the top of the mountain only to open it to find it is missing parts to set it up or to find that it is an old tent that requires ropes and stakes to keep it standing up but the area where you are building is either a concrete slab which is hard to put stakes in or is such a confined area that the ropes cannot be put out because they would prevent people from passing by or would take up too much space where other tents needed to be placed.  This situation thus required a trip back down the mountain to find another tent.  Why would someone donate a tent without the tent poles? 

The emotional part was taking a family with a 1- or 2-month-old baby to a tent that has been placed on newly installed large gravel.  The father asking in broken English and hand gestures for something to put down so the baby might be able to sleep.  There is nothing to give them other than the blanket they may have gotten on arrival and some of them are thin little blankets.  They will eventually learn the system to find cardboard boxes and to get things from others but tonight will be miserable for everyone.  So, I was the one having to say there is nothing to give them.

I went to the WC/Toilet/Bathroom in the afternoon. The toilet for the staff and volunteers is in the police headquarters.  There are toilets and places to wash kids and clothes all around the camp.  Speaking of washing a kid, as I was waiting for someone to bring the family for a newly set up tent, I saw a mother with a 4 or 5 month old little boy.  He had wet himself and to help prevent diaper rash she had taken off his clothes.  She was trying to pour water from a 1.5 liter bottle on his little body and was having trouble holding the child, who could not easily stand on his own at the correct angle while she poured the water.  A ten-year-old girl walked by and helped the mother pour the water.   As the ten-year-old walked by me after the mini-bath was complete I said “Thank you.”  Her face exploded into the biggest smile I think I have ever seen.  The little boy did not mind the impromptu shower at all.  The water was not refrigerated and it was hot so it probably felt great.

So back to my WC break.  I was walking through the area were the vulnerable are housed: unaccompanied minors, single women, women with kids, and pregnant women or New mothers with infants.  Three women from Africa were there with their new born babies slung across their chests in bright wraps.  One lady stopped me and because I had on an orange EuroRelief vest on and a walkie talkie around my neck she thought I might have some authority.  She was wrong but she charged forward anyway.  She was asking about housing requests she had made.  She had been waiting months and months for something better and is always being told to wait.  It was not fair.

It is so very frustrating to only have the ability to listen and to say “I know it is not fair, or good.  I know it is miserable here.  But I have no authority nor power to change any of that.”  The complaints get repeated as does my answer.  But then she takes a breath and I get to admire her beautiful baby and tell her so.  She then realizes I could do nothing and she says “OK then.” 

And I go on to the next questions and crises.  The mother with asthma which is aggravated by the heat.  It is hot. But there is no house with air-conditioning.  The man who wanted an extension cord to reach his tent.  I told him that the camp cannot run electricity to tents but “look around,” I say and see what others are doing.  He says “But I need the wire.”  I pulled back my vest and said, “But I have no wire.”  He laughed and said OK.

The emotions ran the gamut.  If I smile and wave I virtually always get a smile and a greeting with a right hand that goes to the heart in salute.  The children smile and want a fist bump.  But there is also the sadness in the eyes of the mothers and fathers who want something better for their children.  But they are here and it is not good and not fair.  But almost everyone says this is better than what they had run from. 

After our shift the team was taken by Kim to Mytilene, the largest city and capital of the island.  It is a lovely old Greek city.  We ate pizza at a seaside restaurant (being an island virtually everything is by the sea).  We sat outside within spitting distance of the water.  (No, I did not spit. Gee whiz, you guys have so little faith in me.)  The pizza was made in a wood fired oven and the cook had the pizza dough flying and twirling high into the air all to the delight of the patrons.

Kim, our fearless leader driving (as if that was not obvious).

A boat in the harbor by our pizza restaurant.  The boat in the background across the bay is a British Coast Guard ship that is part of the EU service that patrols the waters and picks up immigrants at sea and on shore.

Pizza oven.  It is not huge.  2 or 3 pizzas at a time.  Our group ordered 4 pizzas and they came out one at a time over the course of about 30 minutes.

The world's last pay phone?

We walked around the central bay where the shops and bars were for the tourist.  We stopped at the Sugar House and all partook of some wonderful gelato. 

We then made our way over a couple of blocks to the shopping street where the locals do their shopping.  As it was after 9:00 PM the shops were closed but the windows were fun and the evening was cool so a good stroll was had by all.

The return trip to Elena’s was an uneventful 45 minutes. Tomorrow is the 4:00 to Midnight shift for John and I.  Then we leave for the airport to go home 5 hours and 45 minutes after we get off.