My Refugee Journey – 8th March 2016
Today at camp there’s a lot of moving around in the community square we call Kara Tepe Square… The area where the refugees gather and where we serve the tea, and food. A number of new large containers have arrived and we’ve been told we need to move our tea station to the other end of the square, hmmm, this is a large shed and not made from the usual flimsy wood you get from B&Q. So we set about dismantling the walls from the floor so we can move it in two pieces. And with ten people on hand to life the shed its moved to its new location, once the floor base has also been move we put the shed back together but we soon have problems.
The shed is now not very sturdy, the structure has weakened and slanted to one side stopping the doors from closing and then there’s the even bigger problem. We don’t have enough space to safely boil the tea on the big gas burner that we use, so late afternoon we give the bad news to the refugees that we can’t serve tea for the rest of the day and most likely not in the morning either. This may seem a petty little thing to you and I, but a hot cup of tea brewed every hour each day is a big thing for the refugees, remember they have fled war and taken the very dangerous journey across the sea from Turkey to Lesvos where hundreds have drowned at sea.
We keep the kids amused by kicking a ball about and continuing the art programme throughout the evening but it doesn’t match a hot cup of tea.
MB Photography 