Being here in Greece is surreal. I’ve known since the day of our team change in Amman, Jordan that this was the path I would take with my now not so new team, Powerhouse. I’ve known since being Cyprus month 3 that this was something my team leader Taylor was praying about and proposing to our squad’s leadership back in Gainesville. That’s a lot of time to build up expectations. I anticipated this time for a while, and to be very candid my expectations going in (or lack thereof) just aren’t my reality. I never had this deep call for this place, it was Taylor’s call at least this is what I felt in the stages leading up to actually being here. I had little God winks confirming this is where I was supposed to go even before the race, but I didn’t realize in the moment what was happening. My friend Jack who did the race back in 2014 told me stories of his time here before I even left my job back home. Now, I’m here in the thick of everything, and I’m seeing that God had a plan for me all along, despite me not getting very many of the details worked out in my mind beforehand. Thank you God that you have the details worked out ahead of time for all of us. This is what He’s doing here in Greece:
So, I’m not just in Greece here to see the sights. I hope that’s very clear. Just like on the rest of the race and wherever God leads me after, I’m here to serve. My team and I serve with an organization, EuroRelief, that is mainly in charge of housing for a camp called Moria (technically a ‘hotspot’ – Google it)on the island of Lesvos. It’s about a 20 minute bus ride from the port city where we stay Mitilini. We work eight hour shifts, five to six days a week. The shifts are day, evening, or graveyard. Duties vary depending on which shift you work, and what’s needed in the camp. So far, I’ve worked mainly day shift, but I’ve also done a couple graveyard shifts. I’m scheduled to do a couple evening shifts in the upcoming weeks, and I’m pretty excited to try that out. We’ve been here two full weeks serving in the camp and we keep going another couple of weeks. Those are the big picture details. Now, let’s get down to the details.
There is one shift in particular I want to showcase for everyone. Thursday, January 8th I worked day shift. So far, dayshift is my favorite. Every shift starts with a quick devotional and a reminder of the volunteer rules for camp. Basically the rules are as follows:
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Wear your bright orange vest
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Why: it identifies us for everyone in the camp
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Wear and have your walkie
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Why: to communicate, also important to listen in case of evacuation or other emergency
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Be careful how you build relationships
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Why: the people here are vulnerable and therefore can build unhealthy attachment, many have already lost loved ones, and we will leave in a relatively short time. unfortunately, many here will not
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Don’t hand out political or religious material in camp
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Why: EuroRelief is subject to UN and international Red Cross standards for humanitarian aid. Handing out material in camp directly tied to our aid does not fit that standard and would result in deteriorating EuroRelief’s ability to continue operating in the camp. That being said, we are all Christians, and EuroRelief is a Christian organization. Sharing our faith is encouraged in a discerning and discrete manner. Mostly, when POCs (persons of concern or refugees) bring up the topic. Thank the Lord, it’s often.
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Be flexible
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Why: because everything changes all the time
So after our devotional, and a reminder of the rules above, jobs were assigned as usual based on what’s needed. The choices for day shift are usually info – answering questions for POCs in front of the EuroRelief office, tickets – being the mailman for important papers in POCs process for leaving Moria one day, housing – an umbrella term for a number of duties around camp, or new arrivals – food, clothing, hygiene packs and bedding are handed out to people who just got off the smuggler’s boats from Turkey and have arrived to Moria, the POCs are also processed to be given meal cards and housing within the camp as soon as possible. I worked housing this particular Thursday, which is where I usually end up.
A typical housing day looks like this:
First, doing a census of particular locations of concern within the camp to determine if the correct people are registered to whichever particular living situation. Often, while doing census we also look at how the space is allocated for the people living there to determine if we can or should move people in or out to make more space in the camp for the new arrivals and people living in unacceptable or illegal (on private property just outside of camp commonly called ‘The Jungle’) conditions created in essence by the overcrowding owing to the often very slow process of granting POCs asylum in Greece and other documentation making it possible for them to be granted asylum elsewhere in the West. We have to make sure people live where they are registered so ticketing can give them there important documents, and the POCs can be transferred out of Moria.
Next, we may do any or all of the following various jobs: clean a space where people have moved out, guard a space where people have moved out so no one moves in without being registered to the living space, help people move out or move in either from new arrivals, The Jungle, or simply a living situation that wasn’t as good – not that any of the living situations are very great, we may meet with individuals or families about a potential move or new roomie(s), we may follow up on our census to confirm individuals who may not have been home earlier because we must see each registered POC in person with their identification to confirm they live where they are registered. Finally, the work time is usually concluded with taking down illegal, unsafe, or unacceptable housing situations in and around camp which we often call structures. The structures are usually built out of desperation by POCs because the housing process of Moria like everything else here is slow and can’t really provide ideal housing for everyone. As you may imagine, some of what we do is welcomed by the POCs and they are evidently very thankful, but much of what we do is thankless or on the outside even backwards. Why tear down structures? Really, who cares that structures aren’t safe or they’re on some olive farmers private property – even much of the UN sanctioned housing has mold, soggy floors, holes, mice infestation, bed bugs, scabies, broken windows, and potential for POCs to be housed with others from a cultural background that doesn’t mesh with their own.
The problems we face in Moria are the same. Overcrowding, bad legislation from on high, lack of enough funds and manpower to really make a difference, but looking deeper the problem seems to be war fueled by greed, extremism, and deep seated differences. Again, we can go deeper, the problems of Moria, and the problems faced in housing people here are the same of all humanity. Sin – our own broken relationship with God started in the first two humans Adam and Eve, a tradition all humanity has since carried out quite well. Deceit and death reign through the evil intentions of man’s heart. We deceive even ourselves into thinking we’ve played no part in the evil we experience every day. Yet, self – preservation or prosperity – that seems to be the default. I can just see it more clearly in a place like this.
Thursday was a hard day. Despite all the problems faced in Moria what I and my teammates and other volunteers often feel is “it’s not that bad”. We know their are very real problems here and many of the problems faced we are actually somewhat helpless to “solve”, but their are really often very many good things about the people here and the experience we’ve had serving here among other volunteers who have been at it for weeks, months, and years. Almost every place we stop at for any reason, we get invited in to share a meal, a snack, or tea from these people who currently don’t have very much to offer in the way of material things. I’ve started to learn a new language, Farsi, and best of all their is still the reality of hope for these people. Hope is in the eyes of so many here. They hope for a future where they are no longer endangered, persecuted, or suffering. Like all of us, they long for something greater than is offered in our temporary stay in this existence. Nevertheless, I set out with Joelle to confirm the previous EuroRelief census of housing in an area of camp we call section two, and inform the Somali single men community living there we need to consolidate some of their housing by Monday to make room for new arrivals who will most likely be other single men from Afghanistan, but possibly families still likely from Afghanistan because most of the people coming in from Turkey lately have been from there. As you can imagine, this news isn’t something that was joyfully received. Our bottom line request is that three of the housing units the Somali men’s community are using be made empty so they may be filled with people of the Afghan community, be it single men or families, that need housing.
So as you maybe can see from the sort of requests we have to make that camp really does change all the time. I was informed recently that last year the camp was largely Syrian, but now the camp demographic is about 80% Afgan with a few Arabs and Kurds from Syria and Iraq as well as Arabs from Yemen and Palestine. Somewhat surprisingly, there are a few Haitians. Their are also a few Africans, people from Somalia, Nigeria, Niger, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Morocco (though in Africa, the people of Morocco are largely Arab), Ghana, and The Ivory Coast, many places in Africa and all in all, but few people in comparison to the larger demographic of Afghans.
So l, Joelle and I go to each house and tell them basically the same thing:
“Hello how are you? I’m good too. So, I have to give you some bad news. We need to make room for new arrivals and people moving out of The Jungle, so we need to consolidate some of the housing in your community, we [EuroRelief] are actually asking this of every community, but right now specifically of you guys. Where you live is meant to house, in less than ideal conditions, eight people. You currently have, insert an amount here, people. Would you consider taking in, again x amount of people, or moving out and joining some friends from your Somali community. If you move out, we will re-register you guys in our system to your new housing and help you move, and if you take in new people we will help you rearrange your space to make room for your new roommates.”
The basic response was essentially no, but with justifiable reasons. The reasons generally being because their already isn’t that much space and they need room to cook or pray. Also, they will mention that they have been living here already for a while (some for over a year) and they like their current roommates and don’t want to learn to live with anyone else. Some of the guys are sick. Many reasons, but no.
So, from there we continued talking with our Somali friends. We’d try empathize as much as we could while also understanding that if we can’t consolidate housing in camp now as much as possible, in the summer when the camp that is now only about 3,000 people above capacity with around 5,000 people will get to roughly 8,000 people over capacity, and more of the POCs will go without a proper roof over their head. We feel in the midst of this a great deal responsibility for the welfare of the people coming in, even if only for a few. This responsibility is only bearable when released back into the hands of God.
We were persistent. After talking with all the guys and hearing all the nos we could stand we went back to the EuroRelief office and with the director of housing at camp, we came up with a plan to set a meeting with the Somali guys for the next day asking them as a group to help us figure out the best way to consolidate and get three of their living quarters cleared for other POCs. The spaces “made for eight” could be consolidated enough to reach our goal if six guys lived together in each of the housing units. Some had five, some four, some three, one had a guy who just wasn’t registered yet – he was probably taken in graciously being a fellow Somali by the guys he was living with rather than through the EuroRelief process – something we try to avoid, but it’s often a reality we face anyway. Thankfully, the guys have no problem with setting the meeting, and like many in the camp we are hopeful for the outcome of the Somali meeting set for Friday at 2pm in front of the camp Mosque constructed with pallets and tarpaulins by the POCs near the Somali community housing in Zone two.
So we head back to our director with the news and we begin to work on the mixed Arab, Afghan, and Bangladeshian single men communities living intermixed among the Somali single men community to do essentially the same thing. We only met with a few of the housing units we intended to visit from this next community as we soon discovered the answers from the Arab community to be the same as the answers we received from the Somalians, only more impassioned. We went back to our housing director with some of the news after our first round of informing the folks in these other housing units, many of the POCs just weren’t home so there wasn’t much we could do about any of it yet. There was one unit that only had two guys registered to live there, and it had been a problem house for many who have taken census in the weeks prior because it often had more people staying than the two guys. If someone lives in a unit but isn’t registered it’s either possible we need to update the registration of the housing unit, or they are registered someplace else. The game being played was discovered after many census visits and claims of various legitimate occupation numbers nearly confirmed by claims of x person staying but just not home right now, when the reality is they left camp without being processed of their own accord. Regardless, it’s unfortunate and a situation all to common in camp especially among single men. People take advantage of the system which is admittedly broken, and use it to their advantage because they are desperate and on the edge, vulnerable, have experienced varying degrees of extreme trauma, not realizing their own value, and not knowing what else they can do or Who they should indeed turn to. They just want a little extra room a little extra comfort. It’s the same reason some are turning to drugs, some to prostitutes, and some to prostituting. In some ways we often ask ourselves of the more ugly situations we encounter,
“Well, isn’t this what you’d expect after all that?”
To rectify this particular situation, and prevent further unfair housing we were told to go to this unit (this was not for the first time for EuroRelief) and help/convince the two registered men move to different housing options selected for them that were more fair, for them, a downgrade. Also, we were to facilitate the return of other men staying unregistered or registered to another location either back to where they are actually registered in camp or to our office to try and find them housing through our process. The situation quickly escalated.
I had my friend from Yemen staying in the camp come help translate. He and his friends were cooking dinner and invited me to join when I knocked on their door for help. Instead we were both pulled away from enjoying that meal together. The two guys were not having the news I brought earlier with Joelle and our other volunteer friend, Star, who joined us for this last job of camp. I thought being more clear may help the guys to cooperate with us and calm the situation. If we understand what they are saying maybe this can go very peacefully. Maybe they will listen and we can make this housing full of registered people from new arrivals or The Jungle or move people out of one of the structures and into this unit. Maybe. That’s the goal. The shift ended only after having to get the police involved. They watched us as we tried to begin moving everything out amidst protests and curses. At one point the shift coordinator and another long term staffer had to be called. The police were there for our protection in case things were to escalate any further. They did.
Not responding to the curses, we continued. In many ways empathizing with the men we were moving to different housing, but maybe in more ways frustrated and angry that these guys won’t seem to do the right thing. Our pleading was no help. We moved things outside so we could lock up. They stood in the doorway. Our shift coordinator was shoved. I was shoved. The walls were kicked and a light was smashed in protest by one of the inhabitants we were moving out rendering the space without light for the next family or set of men to eventually move in since EuroRelief isn’t in charge of repairs, and doesn’t have the capacity to do them.
Evening shift took over, because we already stayed an extra hour dealing with this one unit.
That was Thursday. Emotionally charged, but with a glimmer of hope for the Somali meeting and for the people of camp in general.
We called the police Thursday evening because it was the very last resort. It needed to be in the hands of the police to take the guys away, so we could make the desperately needed space in camp for others but I found out on Friday that the two guys weren’t moved to their new place and that they were still squatting in the unit. As of now, EuroRelief is still trying to move these guys out to make room.
Also, on Friday we had the Somali meeting and it went ok. The community leader who wasn’t present when we visited everyone’s homes made it to the meeting and said they are thinking over everything we are asking them to do. Today, they were to give us their plan of action knowing that if they can’t decide on a way to do it that works for them EuroRelief will have to come up with one for them to put up with. Unfortunately, Joelle has informed me that the community decided as a whole they don’t want any changes (she worked, it was a day off for me). That means that Monday the 11 of this fine February we will have to move people in a way that is less suitable to their desires, not that any of this is desirable, both these Somali men and probably and finally the two Arab men who are squatting in the unit nearby.
How do you balance justice and empathy for all these people? How do I live out grace and love and say and do these hard things? Right now these are the questions I’m wrestling through with the Lord.
All this to say, pray for us on Monday. There is much unfinished business to attend.
Jeremiah 9:23-24
“This is what the LORD says: The wise man must not boast in his wisdom; the strong man must not boast in his strength; the wealthy man must not boast in his wealth. But the one who boasts should boast about this, that he understands and knows Me — that I am Yahweh, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things. This is the LORD‘s declaration.“
-Daniel
