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.