Monday – May 23

The storms are over and today dawned clear and sunny.  I also had a full night’s sleep so I also rose up sunny!

We still have no firm information about why we are not at the camp.  Rumors are rife, of course.  Safety issues seem to be the main consensus.  We hope to get filled in tonight.

As we had not done our 4-12 shift last night, we joined the Eugene group (from a church in Eugene, OR.). It was nice for me as this group is all closer to my age than all the young people.  We headed out about 9 to an area further along the coast.   Molivos, where we are staying, is on the northwestern corner of the island so we just headed east.  The road was rutty and gravel but I wasn’t driving!  Praise to God!  The road ran along the coast and was just a beautiful drive.  The water is crystal clear and the shore is rocky and very steep in parts.  We drove about half an hour to Camp Lighthouse.  It is a tent camp staffed by volunteers.  They were the first line of relief for the people who came over in boats.  They met the boats, got people dry clothes, and food and any other emergency care needed.  Then the refugees were sent up the hill a bit to a stage two camp called Skala.  There they were processed and registered.  They were usually there for about two days and then headed to the main camp, stage 3.  Sometimes there were buses, but often people walked for 2-3 days to get there.

However, boats are not coming in now so beach clean up is the order of the day.  As I mentioned before, the rafts were usually punctured and abandoned and life jackets strewn everywhere.  A great deal of clean up has happened already but there is still much to be done.  So we cut up rafts, into manageable pieces, and made piles for later removal. We were right on the shoreline – gorgeous but very rocky so keeping one’s footing was a challenge. Clumsy me survived unscathed so grace of the Lord.  After working for a while, we broke for lunch.  PB and J sandwiches were slapped together.  A couple of the Lighthouse girls from Spain and Germany had never had it before and thought they were eating ambrosia!  God bless America!  More clean up for a bit and then a few of us walked into the little coastal town just a very short piece along the road.

It is the most charming place!  A tiny Orthodox Church up on a high rock, overlooking the water.  Small boats were in the harbor and they were a few open air cafes and shops.  Tile roofs, stone streets, shuttered homes.  Absolutely delightful.  We stopped in for coffee and here is the other side of this whole refugee problem.  Due to all the news reports about Lesvos, it appears that the island is just teeming with refugees.  The reality is that outside of the camps, there are very few and they are down in the capital area of Mytilini.  I have not seen a one up here.  All that to say, these little towns that live on tourism are suffering tremendously.  These are little villages rather off the beaten path so only more adventurous tourists visit up here anyway.  Those who wish to see the “real” Greece.  So I needed to help and thus shopped!  I will be back a few more.times and want to eat in each restaurant.

Back to our hotel for supper.  Since I started writing I have learned what happened.  Due to refugees who are friendly to the volunteers, a plot was revealed which would have involved the usual garbage bin fires but then also targeted buildings and hostage taking.  Needless to say, we won’t be returning until the ringleaders are rounded up.  They have been identified.  I doubt we will be back in this week but sure hope we can return next week.  There is so much to do and people to encourage.  It is such a strange mix of long busy shifts and then these lovely tourist like down times.

I think I mentioned before that most of the volunteers are very young people – a number in their late teens and then twenty somethings.  The rest are closer to my age – no middle aged folks that I have seen.  So many of the leaders and supervisors are the young folks.  Most do a very good job but a few don’t seem to know what to make of older people, especially an older woman.  The girls like to kid with the older men but I’m a bit of an anomaly.  Actually, the girls from European countries are the friendliest.  I’ve enjoyed them.  And there are two darling college seniors from University of Alabama who are great.  One told me she hopes she can be like me when she is older so that was a lovely, and much appreciated, compliment.  I’m sorry they will be leaving in a couple of days.  I’m learning much and God is very faithful to keep me close.