Lesvos Scenery

We are back now! Here are some scenery photos from Lesvos. It’s a beautiful island, and we did have a few days off!

Castles, Roman ruins, mountains, beaches, waterfalls, red tile roofs, lots of sailboats, churches, cobblestone streets, great food (and cheap!) - this island has it all!

Warehouse Day

One of our workdays this past week was not at the camp but at the EuroRelief Warehouse. This is a huge warehouse in a former car dealership near the Gulf of Yera. Donations pour in from all over Europe - especially the Netherlands which is definitely over-represented in generosity in terms of giving money and volunteers to this cause (and nobody has really figured out why).

The donations in the warehouse must be sorted and packaged for giving to the refugees. New arrivals get a clothing “burrito”, shoes, and a hygiene kit. Most come here with the clothes on their back and a cell phone.

Giveaways at camp must be treated with great care. You must not give away items (like teakettles or strollers) unless you have enough to give to EVERYONE. For instance, they have currently run out of coats. So though coats were formerly in the “burritos”, we had to take them apart to take the coats out, so that the new arrivals would all feel treated fairly.

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Real Estate in a Refugee Camp

All of our team has taking turns working on “shelter.” The population of camp is in constant flux. It would be a much easier matter if all the refugees were from the same place and spoke the same language, but instead you have new arrivals showing up daily who may not mix well with the current population. So it is a constant shuffling puzzle.

There is also a “blue zone” for single women and families and a “red zone” where single men live. There is also another area of the “red zone” that is specifically for Afghan families (the largest ethnic group in camp). No single women are allowed in the red zone, and EuroRelief women are not allowed to enter the red zone alone.

The job that Melanie and I had yesterday was to try to get Afghan families in the blue zone to switch to the Afghan family area of the red zone to make room for single women new arrivals to move into the blue zone. Here we are showing different units to a blue zone family. It was like being real estate agents. We pointed out which units were cleanest, closest to facilities, etc, and let this lady decide which one she liked best. She was willing to move, and we were excited because the move would have made room for 8 new arrivals. But her husband overruled her. They like their current spot.

When the Afghan relocation plan didn’t work, we went unit by unit through the blue zone begging single women to accept more single women into their tent. Nobody wanted to take the women from Ethiopia. When we finally got some to agree, it turns out the paperwork was wrong and the girls were from Eritrea. Nobody was happy. Sigh.

Many folks are quite resourceful. Here someone has made a drying rack from an old bed frame.

These are the units made from IKEA. I did the English unit conversion, and they are 188 sq. Ft and
6 ft tall on the sides.

The cats do not care what nationality you are.

People!

I really love seeing new places (though Lesvos seems quite familiar now as I have spent many weeks of my life here since 2017), but the people are what really refreshes my soul. I wish I could show photos of the refugees, but the UN and the Greek government definitely frown on that. But here are some photos of volunteers and Greek people we have met on this trip. Stories are in the captions of the photos.

Our team had a special treat last night. Gina (who owns the hotel we are staying in) and her friend, Mercini (who owns the Olivewood House where we love to shop) made us a lovely Greek meal. Their hospitality is truly fantastic! Both these women are Greek Orthodox, but they seem serious about their faith (for many here, it seems to be just cultural and not a true belief). We had a great time, and it is true that the Greeks just keep putting more and more on your plate. You cannot say “no”. You must eat! And then you must eat more! We also found out that Mercini swims each morning in the Aegean. Even in the winter. No wetsuit. No kidding. 

We attended Oasis church on Sunday. It is a church started by I58, a Mennonite organization. Read Isaiah 58 to find out about their heart. It is a very vibrant congregation. We loved the worship and teaching there. There are at least 100, and most are 20-30. Some Greeks come as well as some refugees.

This is a group of EuroRelief volunteers planning their next task. Notice we all wear red vests and have walkie-talkies. New arrivals are registered by EuroRelief (we keep all the data for the Greek government). There are always a number on call to be at the camp within 20 minutes to greet and help those who have just arrived at camp. They arrive by boat from Turkey. Quite a few don’t make it. Melanie met a woman whose little baby drowned on the way just a little over a week ago.

There are about 70 EuroRelief folks here on the island. They meet for a meal, worship and devotion once/week, and we got to attend Tuesday night. This is such a great group of people. Most are from the Netherlands, Germany or the USA, but anyone can apply to volunteer here for EuroRelief. There is a LOT of support for the volunteers here which is really necessary to prevent burnout from the constant demands of the jobs at camp. For two weeks, it’s not too bad for us, but I can see how it could wear you down quickly.

This is Kathleen from Germany. Yesterday, when she and I were doing a bed count, we met an Afghan refugee who is teaching mathematics, German, and music to young refugees. Here he is asking Kathleen to check some of his German.  We were invited in for tea and heard a lot of his story. The Taliban killed his father and his first wife. He’s been in Greece for over four years, and he lived in the old camp - Moria (there are just a few left at this camp who were in Moria). He encouraged refugees to protest their condition, and for this reason, he was not allowed by the police to leave camp for two years. He is free to leave now (not leave the island with papers, but just to come and go out the gate as the rest of the refugees). His second wife and three daughters are now in Germany and he hopes to join them soon. In the meantime, he has made his Isobox into a classroom. He is definitely an educator at heart. He also told us he was not a Muslim anymore because of the way they treat women. He said he is now Christian. 

This lady is the artist behind all this pottery. We would have bought more if we didn’t just have carry-on bags.

 

Rainbow

This morning there was a huge rainbow over camp! This sort of describes how we are doing. There has been a lot of rain, but always the promises of God are shining through!

Slow Down to Serve

Working in a refugee camp with EuroRelief involves LOTS of walking. We are logging 15K to 25K steps a day! Interestingly, most of the longer term volunteers have bikes (pictured here). But they only use them to get to and fro from camp. At camp, we do everything on foot.

Why? Because we are trying to value people over tasks. As you walk, you can more easily stop to talk. EuroRelief delivers messages (mostly in the form of written tickets for things like asylum interviews, doctor appointments, coupons for the clothing or hygiene store, etc) on foot every day - sometimes going to a tent or isobox several times a day trying to find the residents home. Sometimes you are invited in for tea, and that’s always a special treat.

Pray for us for stamina each day. We are all doing quite well. But tomorrow and most of next week we are expecting rain ALL DAY. It is also supposed to be a high of 50 F. Help us do our work heartily, as unto the Lord.

 

First Day at Camp

Yesterday we arrived on Lesvos (an island in Greece that is just 4 miles from Turkey, so really on the border between the east and the west). Today we began our work with EuroRelief at the Mourovouni Camp (which simply means “Black Mountain” in Greek - the name the area where the camp is has been called for years).

Right now there are approximately 1700 refugees in the camp (who are more correctly called POCs - persons of concern - because they are not truly refugees until they are processed and given that status). 44% are from Afghanistan, and currently most of the rest are from Sudan, Yemen, and Eritrea.

I saw a lot that encouraged me. Compared to the conditions in Moria (the camp we served in 2019 that burned down in 2020), Mourovouni is so much cleaner and organized (there were also up to 20K people in Moria). There are also things like classes for children, a shop class where the POCs teach skills like woodworking, auto mechanics,etc, a social hall for women and another for men, and even a playground.

Everyone lives in isoboxes or in framed tents (which we found out are designed by IKEA).

We jumped right in today and helped with a variety of tasks (more about that on another day). The highlight of my day was having tea and cookies with some girls from Eritrea.

I will be able to show limited photos. They will let us take some with discretion but none of refugees. EuroRelief does have some approved photos to share which I may use from time to time. The ones in this post are all my own.

Our team getting ready to walk to camp

At the end of day one

View of camp from the hill

So great to see a playground!

Lunch is made every day for the volunteers by two ladies - either one from Sierra Leone or Haiti (I couldn’t believe there were Haitian refugees here. They must have quite an interesting path). Anyway, we pay for these meals which lets the ladies legally earn money. This meal was better than it looked. It was Cassava Leaf Stew - the national dish of Sierra Leone. I loved it!

Flags at half mast due to a train wreck in Greece

The harbor at Panagouida.  Panagouida is our home for the next two weeks. 

Afternoon in Windsor

I’m so excited to be headed back to Greece to work with refugees on Lesvos.  Our team was supposed to meet in Athens and spend a day there before flying to Mytiline.  But God had other plans for us.  We arrived at Heathrow in London at about 8 am with a little over an hour to connect to Athens.  We kept trying to find our connecting gate on the list of flights, only to discover that our flight had been removed from the list.  While trying to find the right line to find out what was going on, I accidentally left my carryon near where I emptied my water bottle to go through security.  By the time I realized I had left it, security had already called the bomb squad.  I was not allowed to touch my bag until they brought a team to scan it.  

It turned out there were no other flights until 10 pm.  This meant hanging out all day at the airport OR leaving the airport to have a look around.  I texted Terry, and he told me right away "Make lemonade!"

Melanie had never been anywhere in England, so the two of us opted to stash our bags at the airport and leave for an afternoon in Windsor.  It was so fun!  We loved the "Long Walk" at Windsor, having afternoon tea, and we even got to hang out with the locals and paparazzi to photo the prime minister and the head of the EU leaving a "secret meeting" on Brexit.  I guess it's not secret anymore!  

We did not get to see Athens (except for the airport) on this trip - but I will always remember this fun afternoon with Melanie!

And we made it back to the airport with plenty of time to spare!