We had a really cool off day this week. A past world racer that came to Lesvos when the whole refugee crisis started showed us how the process starts when the refugees get to Greece.
So basically, they come from Turkey on anything that will get them here.
So that’s Turkey. They come across that body of water on rafts and tiny boats. The rafts they come usually look like this.
So this is what they call stage 1.
This is a raft for 14 people. We were told about 70 usually pile on to one of these. Imagine that. Sometimes small children fall off the raft because it’s just not possible for the parents to hold on in the chaos. She said a lot of times they find the people on the bottom of the pile of people of the raft smothered. It’s crazy that a body of water this beautiful holds so many grim stories. It’s also so crazy to me that hundreds of thousands of people have done something this risky because it’s better than their reality.
This is stage 2.
This is where the refugees wait to be sent to a more permanent camp. It’s way cleaner and nicer than the camp we’re at this month. They will sleep here on the ground of a huge UN tent if they come during the night time. (Stage 3 is a camp like the one we’ve been at all month. We can’t take pictures inside or outside of those.)
From here, we went to the life jacket grave yard.
These are all the life jackets they’ve picked up from the refugees. There’s over 500,000. They’re mixed in with rafts and floats and other things they find on the shore.
I knew so little about refugees a month ago. I had no idea how big of a scale this is on and how many people are literally fleeing for their lives. Everyday I’m amazed at the lack of funding and man power at camp. Basically if I’ve learned anything this month it’s that these people need more help than they are given. My prayer is that more people come here to pour their hearts out to these guys. They need to be shown love and grace and mercy and everything that our Father is.
– Alexis
See ya next week in MALAYSIA!
