Aug 20 Day 10

Aug 20 Tuesday

Day 10

Second Day Shift

Well it turns out that the Greek Military commander was the one who told Euro-relief to start building tents outside the camp in the olive grove that is there.   Well yesterday after we put up the 5^th tent that houses 50 people the local government and police and landowner came and told them to stop.  There is a meeting of the military and the local officials tomorrow or the next day to come to some agreement.  The local people seem to have more power than the federal government.  The bottom line is that we will not be building more tents in the olive grove while we are here.

There were over 900 new arrivals today.  There are over 8,500 in camp. Most of the new arrivals are sleeping on the streets and all around the camp.  They are given either blankets or sleeping bags when they are processed. 

Our job was to put together small camping tents to house anywhere from 2 to 10 family members.  The problem is there is no good places to put the tents.  We began to put them in the alleyways behind the Iso-boxes.  Iso-boxes are prefab living spaces in the shape of large shipping containers.  But they do have AC and Heating and electricity.  The alleyways behind them are places where trash collects and where people have improvised to build little sheds that they turn in to stores.  Several people have somehow managed to bring in from somewhere small chest freezers where they store soft drinks and water to sell as well as snacks and cigarettes.  They buy supplies from local merchants.  A six pack of 1.5 liter bottles of water costs about 2 euros or about 33 euro cents per bottle.  They may get a discount of they purchase a number of six packs.  They sell the cold water or depending on the time of day the water may be frozen for 40 cents from one guy or down the hill it is 50 cents. 

I had an unfortunate experience from a mostly frozen bottle of water.  I was able to get water out a little at a time and wait until some more melted in the 85-degree weather and drink some more.  After a while there was a fairly good chunk of bottle shaped ice inside the bottle that was loose and sliding up and down the bottle when I drank.  I picked it up and turned it quickly upside down with the bottle in my lips to catch the ice cold water.  The ice came sliding down the length of the tall bottle and slammed the bottle into my lips and now I have a tiny little cut on the inside of my upper lip.  I hope the mouth cells do their quick healing routine tonight.

Back to the tent building.  Our jobs today consisted of a couple of people John and Richard who helped a bunch of volunteers from a sister NGO who do a great deal of the infrastructure work.  This NGO does plumbing for fresh and waste water.  Doing things like bring gravel in, and I think doing some electrical work.  Today John and Richard helped wheelbarrow and spread about a billion tons of gravel/rock into the alleyways behind the Iso-boxes.  The rational was to get the tents a little off the dirt so water will run under the tent rather than through it.  This may or may not work but the immediate problem this creates is that you are placing the small tents directly on the 3/4-inch to 1-inch rocks.  I am not a big camper - a few times in my life- but I recall taking my girls camping at Watkin's Mill Lake when they were small.  I also remember trying to sleep in the tent on the ground with a football sized boulder poking me in the back.  I can't believe how miserable their first few nights will be before they can manage to procure some padding of some kind.

Speaking of electrical work.  One young family with a couple of very young kids, one a baby, were housed in a tent.  The father said it was hot and hard on the children.  I said he was right.  He asked if there was a fan.  I said Eurorelief could not run electricity to a tent but I showed him that other people had run electricity to their tents and sheds.  This is what I had been told to tell them. Euro-Relief cannot help them run electricity but they will not stop them from doing it themselves.  I hope that they can somehow manage to make the kids comfortable.  It is horrible.  Within a few days they will probably find enough cardboard or other material to make it a little more comfortable.  But tonight will be pretty miserable.  But the 100 or so people we put in to tents today will not have to sleep outside. Although that might be preferable in this weather.

After we ran out of room behind the Iso-boxes we began putting tents on the concrete patios slabs in front of the Iso-boxes.  The people who live in these facilities were using the patio area for hanging clothes and for kids playing etc.  Now over half of the space is used to put tents and people in. 

The concrete slab will be much better to sleep on tonight. The problem is going to be when it rains.  The Iso-boxes are in 4 zones that you can imagine being stair steps up Mount Moria the Killer Hill.  The patio in front of 4 drains down in to the alley behind the next lower level 3.  Which wasn’t an issue last time it rained a few weeks ago.  But now the alley is full of tents with people living there.  Next time it rains the people are going to be drenched by run off.

ALMOST every family seemed very appreciative to receive a living space inside a tent.  A couple wanted bigger tents but when we pointed out that everyone in the same size tent he was getting also had 5 people sleeping in them.  MOST of the families were very appreciative of having something to call home for the foreseeable future. 

I can’t imagine the dangers and fears that they fled from to come to this horrible camp.  And Moria is one of the best in Europe.  They receive 3 meals a day from day one.  They have medical care.  There is a Doctors Without Borders clinic across the street from the entrance to the camp that sees children and pregnant mothers, as well as doctors inside the camp for adults.  Typically, within a month the start to receive from the EU a monthly debit card with 90 Euros per person.  Families with small children get a bit more per person.  With this they can buy in town diapers and other supplies to supplement the small number of diapers they get from the camp each week.  And as I said this is not a prison.  Families can take the bus or walk into town or to the beach.  None of this makes life easier because they still have to sleep in a tent on rocks.

The team is getting tired, but are still in good spirits.  We have two more days.  Tomorrow is Wednesday and everyone will work the day shift.  Thursday 3 of us John, Renee and myself will work the evening shift from 4 until midnight.  The others Christine, Richard, Paige and Kareen will work the day shift 8 until 5:00.  The evening shift folks will have to pack up before we go to work and will get precious little sleep before we head to the airport at 5:45 AM on Friday.  It will be a long travel day.  A short 50-minute flight from Mytilene to Athens then a 6-hour layover before we fly to Chicago and then to KC arriving at about midnight. 

On a bright note we ate at a gyro place tonight.  Kim was eating with a new group that arrived yesterday from The Netherlands.  Sophia joined our work group building tents today.  But Kim met us and ordered the Gyro Buffet.  They brought us pork, chicken and lamb with pita bread, onions and tomatoes as well as French fries.  We ate until everyone cried “Uncle” and then we took home a box of leftovers that John and Rich plan on make into sandwich for tomorrow’s lunch.

It was a good day.  Now for some rest.