24 Hours at Skala Skimmea

Tuesday morning arrived at Skala Skimmea at 7:30 AM, a stage 2 camp pretty much run by Operation Mobilization.  There is a doctors tent operated by WAMA (World Wide Access to Medical Advances). There is a tent operated by Samaritans Purse for blanket/sleeping bag distribution.  It appears that all the Samaritans Purse volunteers are Greek.  Aside from that there was just the 4 OM volunteers for food distribution, bus ticket management, coordination of refugees through the camp.   When we arrived we got the run down from the previous shift and became oriented to the layout and how the refugees would progress through the camp.  There is a stack of pallets at the corner of the parking lot where you can stand and look out over the Agean to see if any boats are arriving.  We could see 2 off in the distance. We then cleaned up the kitchen and sat down to visit.  I was with one of the volunteers I had worked with before from Switzerland, the shift leader was from South Africa and the other volunteer was a young man from Germany.  This was his first shift after arriving the day before.  We spent the morning catching up on our various backgrounds, christian faith and the refugee situation.  Meanwhile a Bulgarian lady from Samaritans Purse and the Greek Lady from UNHCR made us lunch.  It was quite involved and included rice, green bell peppers, tomatoes, chick peas and raisens (maybe more but I am not sure).  With only 7 of us in total at the camp they made enough for 20 people.  They said they wanted to cook for us in celebration of women's day. They served us large portions that I we really struggled to finish.  Afterwards we cleaned up. Since there no refugees in camp we all layed down for a nap.  I only napped about 20 minutes.   I was going to walk down to the beach to the stage 1 stations.  After zig zagging down hill at an incredible angle for 15 minutes I realized I was still a long way up from the beach and would not be able to get back quickly to the camp in case we started receiving refugees.  I then hiked back up and started talking to the other volunteers.  We had various groups come through the camp.  One was an international immigration board of about 15 people from various European countries.  Then some French journalist trying to unravel how the various organizations work together operating the camp.  Then people from the Danish Red Cross.  They're workers have been here over 6 months and they are trying to determine if they still need to be here.  Our shift leader who is in charge of the camp shows them around and explains how everything works. 

In the picture the refugees enter from the left, on the table will be bottles of water, figs and bananas.  As they move down th line on the right they will recieve blankets or sleeping bags, at the end there will be small table for bus tickets and the large tent at the end is where they can wait inside on benches and cots, to the left of the big tent is a large open area with benches and place to wait outside. This video will give you a better sense of what it is like in Skala Skimmea.  Who will remember?   Around 4:30 we start receiving refugees up from the beach a van full at a time.  We move to our various stations.  Food table, blanket distribution, bus ticketing, etc.  I follow the folks in the lead through the the process.  They almost walked right past the big tent expecting to board the buses for the next part of the trip.  I explained they needed to wait and it could take awhile.  I had to move to the exit gate to keep people in (technically they can exit if they want and start walking).  But after directing them to signs they start to understand they might be there a while.  The camp is actually a soccer field that was donated by the town.  So it actually has a high fence surrounding it.  This is not meant to keep the refugees in, but they might not know that.  I am really at the back gate to keep little kids wandering off into the countryside.  After a while there is about 40 refugees in the camp.  After a couple of hours they realize they are going to be there a while and frees me from the back gate.   They also understand the layout and they need to keep an eye on their children.  As it turns out we have been asked to keep them overnight because Camp Moria is full. So one of the workers starts making Lentil Soup in a 35 gallon pot over a propane burner.   A Greek priest came to visit us. He actually grew up in California, but has lived on Lesbos for about 12 years.  We had a great conversation about God's grace, caring for people and the refugee situation. He has been involved working in the camp with our shift leader since last summer.  After hearing my story that I had a great uncle who was a priest on the island, he offered to research church records for me to see if there are family on the island. At 10:00 the generator was turned off and the camp got real quite. I was used to being at camp Moria where  people are awake walking around all night long.  But at Skala Simmea it is lot smaller, plus this was only a single group they must have been exhausted they went right to sleep and we didn't see any of them until 7:30 the next morning.  One of the structures on the left of the picture above has cots for the volunteers.  I think I was able to get 6 hours sleep.  When we got up at 6:00 am we started really cleaning up the kitchen area (getting rid of cooked food from the past 2 days) making a vat of oatmeal, making another large pot of refugee tea (3 kilos of sugar per pot). After our relief shift arrived we left at 8:00 am and drove down to the beach where the boats land.  There are still lots of remnants of black rubber rafts (the rubber looks flimsier then an inner tube) littering the beach for the next 10 kilometers. This morning at 10:00 am the Operation Mobilization team got together at an apartment in downtown Molyvos, for coffee (what a treat), pastry, juice, fruit, cheese, bread, fellowship, singing, sharing and prayer.  There was 4 Americans, 2 Germans, 1 Greek and 1 Dutch.  Prayer time everyone prayed in thier own language. Even though it lasted over 2 hours it was a really encouraging time.  The rest of the day I have off.  My next shift is Thurday during the day.  God Bless, til then.