Camp Moria - First Stop in Europe

I have a very powerful story to tell from my shift last night, but that will have to wait till tomorrow

 because many have asked and I promised I would tell you exactly what my responsibilities would be while I am here.  

There are 3 stages that a refugee goes through.  Stage 1 is rescue.  For many months this meant waiting for them to land on the beach or have thier boat/raft flounder.  In recent weeks the Greek coast guard and others are patrolling the waters and picking up refugees as soon as they are in international waters.   During stage 1 they are provided any immediate medical attention.  Where ever that may be they are than transported to stage 2.  This is where they are registered or given immediate care.  Immediate care is hot tea, Ramon noodles cup, blankets and dry clothes.  

Stage 2 is Moria Refugee Camp.  I hear there are other camps, but this is the official one as far as I can tell.  My first shift was Tuesday night from 11:00 pm - 8:00 am. It is roughly a 45 minute ride over curvy treacherous roads.  My driver an American youth, too young to be one of my kids, I think made it in 30 hair raising and frightful minutes.  The passenger was a young lady from Germany who drove us back the next day at only slightly manageable speeds.  

We parked about a kilometer from the camp in a dark side road.  As we hiked up the road and approached the camp gate (former prison facility), it was not the kind of place that you want to get your first impression of at night.  Large floodlight, lots of concrete, high steel fencing, barb wire and guards.  Further in large white tents, fabricated structures, small 3 person dome tents scattered about, bodies sleeping on the ground in every nook and cranny wrapped in wool blankets, groups of refugee men standing around.  A landscape recently bulldozed and concreted over for roads.  Terraces cut into the hill for more structures, with seperate compounds for single men and families.  

We reached a section with a "Tent" (prefabricated and assembled structure donated by IKEA) tea and Ramon noodles, another "Tent" for blankets (and non food items), and a third tent for dry clothes.  They will typically follow through these tents in sequence, but if the lines get long they might switch from the tea tent to the dry clothes tent first.

My group is assigned to the dry clothes tent.  After getting oriented to the layout the previous shift leaves.  There are not refugees to serve at this time and it is expected to be a quite night.  The shift leader and the other helper set up cots in the very back to catch some sleep.  I keep watch outside.  I am given a mobile phone on which common messages are shared to about boats sited and thier progress to the camp, so that we can be ready.  At 1:00 am we are joined by 3 more volunteers who joined the others on cots in the tent (2 15' by 50' structures joined together).  I continue to wait outside.  At about 2:00 am one of the volunteers a young lady from Wisconsin? I think joins me and we talk about how and why we are here.  A common conversation when meeting a volunteer.  At about 3:00 am we are alerted that 66 refugee men who are wet are being brought in.  We awake the other volunteers to get ready.

Our tent is well stocked with donated clothes, with the exception of men's underwear and shoes.  The pants for everyone don't come in very accomadating sizes.  None of clothes are what you would want to be seen in.  The point is to have the refugees get into something that is dry and the next day they can dry thier clothes in the sun.  Soon the line is formed.  We let them into the tent 3 at a time and attempt to find them pants, sometimes shirts, a jacket and socks.   You only get something if it's wet or missing.  Many will try to get an upgrade for a worn jacket that isn't wet.  If they have wet shoes we give them socks and cut up space blankets to stuff between the sock and shoe.  The process is chaos because of the language barrier and the refugees thinking they might be getting better clothes than what they have.  Some even shed thier jackets outside, trying to game the system.  A few make it difficult for the rest and the volunteers.  

I did get about a 1/2 sleep between the first group and another that arrived about 5:30.  As we left during the daylight things looked less onimous.  Some of the refugee men in line for clothes and as I walked around the next day tried to engage me in conversation as best they could with 20 words of English and my 0 words of Arabic.

That's it.  That's what I am doing physically while here.  Tomorrow what is happening spiritually.