October Convoy to Help Refugees in France

I went down in October to help with the refugees in France. There are still a couple of thousand people there. Conditions are worse than ever since the two camps that were there have been destroyed (the last one shut down in April of this year). Men, women and children are living on the ground with no sanitation i.e. toilets, showers or access to clean water. We were asked to do some crafts and sports with the children and men and some pampering with the women to bring them a little bit of joy. We enjoyed an unexpected sunny, warm day that day so everything seemed bright and cheery in some ways but I know every day is certainly not that nice and warm for them.   

This is some of our group driving home and shattered after a long day. 

Some of the children enjoyed playing with volunteers others were more shy. All the refugees were living in this industrial area of Calais, France. There was a river nearby that we saw a few men bathing in. As we arrived, we only saw men standing around but when we started setting up more and more families came out from the trees and joined us with their children. Most of them sleep during the day since it is too cold and dangerous to sleep at night so many were just waking up. 

I helped this little 7 year old girl make a necklace while her mum got a much needed haircut from one of our volunteers who is not a hair stylist (but she did the best she could and the woman seemed pleased.) I spoke to the little girl in Arabic and she answered all of my questions very politely. I spoke to her father as well. They were from Iraq. He showed me a wedding picture of him and his wife. He kept asking me about visas etc which unfortunately I could not help him with. I really enjoy speaking Arabic and talking to refugees. I sure learn a lot about them and they are always so polite about all the mistakes I am sure I make. 

This is a sign back at the warehouse that shows how many meals they gave out that day. That is a lot of meals seeing as they only serve one meal a day. That was a shocking number for us all to see and get an idea of how many refugees were living in these conditions. Someone from the kitchen told us that many times the French police come over and test the food temperature and if it is off a few degrees, they start throwing out all the food. The police just want to dispurse the refugees and don't want them there. They also take their blankets, tents and sleeping bags. 

Here is a friend of mine doing a facial for a woman just after she had her haircut. They seem to enjoy a little pampering. Several women had their haircut and seemed quite embarrassed when it was so difficult to get a come through the hair because of how matted their hair was. I ended up translating what they wanted done to their hair.  We also played football (soccer) with some of the teenage boys later in the afternoon. I got roped into a game and clearly demonstrated how terrible I am at that sport. Oh well, it was all good fun. 

We had Swedish torches to make candles and cook pancakes on. However, after a few tries with the torch, we just switched to making pancakes on the camp stove. 

Children and families enjoying the food, toys and crafts. The trees in the background of this picture is where a bunch of the families were living...

Candle making on a Swedish torch 

I was in charge of pancakes and went through an entire bag of Buttermilk pancake mix from Costco feeding everyone pancakes. 

This little boy was from Iran. His mother was sitting next to him and spoke perfect English. She said they were Muslims and had converted to Christianity and were going to be killed because of their conversion. She talked about having a big house and a car and leaving it all behind. Her son was on the chess club at his school even. He seemed very bright and was so polite. 

Painting

Enjoying some of my pancakes...

A few men joined in on the arts and crafts table and drew these pictures of their homeland, Kurdistan.