December Convoy to Calais

I travelled to Calais, France on 15 December for this month's convoy to help the refugees there. We brought with us £3000 worth of sleeping bags (pictured above) from the money we raised from our winter sleepover (1 December). We also brought 200 brand new winter coats originally £75 but marked down to £16. What a deal! Before we went, we heard that the Cold Law in France had kicked in because temperatures had gotten low enough that all homeless and refugees were supposed to be given shelter. I then wondered if there was any point in going if they were all taken care of so I went back and forth trying to decide whether or not to go. Thursday afternoon, the day before I decided I would go. I am sure glad I did too. The Cold Law had taken effect but it did not give shelter to all refugees. Refugees told us they had gone to the shelter and were turned away and told there was no room. So, there were still an alarming number of people sleeping rough in the woods. The other alarming thing was that in the area where they were sleeping and living, there had been running water (I saw them using these taps in October when I was there) however, the local authority had now shut off those taps with the idea being that no one should be sleeping rough because of the Cold Law being in effect.  So these people were begging us for water. Fortunately, we had brought a lot of bottled water to make tea for them. We conserved a few bottles for tea and gave out the rest. It was so heartbreaking though to tell so many people we had run out and had no more water. As it was getting darker and colder and I had poured the last of our tea, one woman from our group, ran to the nearby shops and bought enough bottled water to fill her car. As we waited for her, we stood with the refugees in the cold and rain around a fire that they tried to keep going by putting some kind of wool, synthetic blanket on to burn. It stunk so bad but it burned pretty well. My face, hands and toes were freezing from being outside all day.  I could not imagine having to deal with that all night and if I could find a place to sleep that wasn't muddy. When the woman from our group returned with the water, all the refugees had disbursed and seemed to be gone. We were not sure what to do with the water. So we decided to drive back to the wooded area where they had all been drinking tea and standing around the fire. There were still a handful of people there. We stopped and started handing out water and from out of no where loads more people came wanting the water. Having access to clean drinking water has got to be a human right. As I am lying here on my sofa with a thick, warm blanket over me looking at my Christmas tree and all the decorations and thinking about yesterday, I think how wrong it would be for me to ever complain about what I have. How could I complain that my house isn't big enough or fancy enough? Or that I don't have a nicer car etc. These people have nothing.  

This is a picture of two men from our group helping sort clothes at the warehouse in Calais. The warehouse also has a large kitchen where they make food for the refugees each day. It is run by a French charity but is mostly staffed by volunteers from the UK and some other European countries. There are several of these warehouses in the area run by various charities. 

We were supposed to meet some volunteers at another warehouse in Dunkirk to give them half of the sleeping bags we brought. Things got a bit mixed up and they didn't show but we found about six refugees sleeping in two tents near the warehouse who we gave sleeping bags to. They were Kurds from Iraq and were very grateful. We hung out with them for a while and made them some tea and set up our new basketball game to play with them in the road. I spoke Arabic to them and asked them to only speak Arabic to me. They did. It was really fun. Of course, they were quite amused with my Arabic which is a very typical response I always get. I don't mind making people laugh when I speak my silly Arabic to them. They seem so pleased to just speak to someone in a familiar language. 

This is me and Reg (a volunteer from our group). We were freezing and tried to huddle together a bit while we ate our lunch. He gave me the white hat I am wearing because the hat I had on previously was rubbish. 

The black packs wrapped in clear plastic are the new coats we brought down. 

Here are the Iraqi Kurds who were living near the warehouse in Dunkirk who we gave the sleeping bags to.  We charged all of their mobile phones in our car, gave them tea and biscuits, played basketball with them  and laughed a lot together. They became our friends. I spoke Syrian Arabic to them but they understood it. I was able to use a bunch of lines on them from a Syrian TV series I am watching with one of my Arabic tutors. They laughed and laughed that I knew some of those phrases. 

These boxes are full of the sleeping bags we brought down. We unloaded them into the warehouse in Calais. It felt really good knowing I helped raise money to buy them. 

Here are my Iraqi friends again. I was trying to get someone else to come into the picture with us. Two of these guys weren't even wearing socks (the two guys on the right). I put on my thickest socks that morning and just after a few hours out in the cold my toes were frozen. The guy nearest me on my right, his shoes didn't even fit. His heels came out over the edge crushing the back of the shoe. We gave them all warm hats, wish I could have given them some decent shoes and socks too. 

This massive pile of clothes at the warehouse in Calais was a bit shocking to me. These are all the clothes and blankets that are unusable. People are very generous but many times, they are mostly just cleaning out their closets and giving their rubbish or unsuitable clothes to the refugees. It takes a lot of man power to sort through these mountains of clothes and such a shame that so many cannot be used. The volunteers at this warehouse had an all night clothes sorting party the night before we got there. We always load up all the unwanted clothes in our vans on our way back to the UK. The clothes are then taken to a place that weighs them and pays for them by weight. This is how they bought the 200 brand new coats from the money from the recycled clothes. So I guess in a round about way they unwanted clothes still benefit but it is a lot of work and man hours. One volunteer explained to us that refugees have only one thing left and that is their dignity. They do not want to be seen in rags. They want clothes without rips and stains. Anything that is ripped or stained is thrown out. He also said that many of the refugees are young and are still into fashion and want to look good. The other problem is that most refugees are small and large size clothes just do not fit. Another volunteer mentioned how on other trips she noticed how clean and presentable many of the refugees looked. However, that was not the case this time, we saw plenty of grubby faces and mud stained clothes. 

Here is the fire in the middle of what they call the "new Jungle." It is a large wooded area where many of the refugees hang out in the day and sleep. I don't think they really sleep at night. It is too cold. They mostly need to keep moving at night. I think most sleeping goes on in the day or morning hours. We did go over to the sports hall where a bunch of them were being housed especially the families. I went in and did origami with an 8 year old girl and her little sister. We made a dinosaur and an elephant for her. I brought a table tennis set and we played that as well. When it was time for me to go, she gathered up all my origami and table tennis stuff without my even asking and gave it back to me.  I thought about just leaving it but I took it home because without someone to do it with her, the origami set would go to waste. I can also bring the table tennis next time too. 

In the early evening, I mentioned that we were at the "new Jungle" handing out tea and bottled water. A volunteer in our group brought this tea pot. I was so thrilled. It is exactly like the tea pot in a Syrian TV series I am watching. I was asking everyone if they wanted hot, steaming tea (just like in the show) and that this cup of tea would be the sweetest and best tea they would ever have in the whole world. 

 بدك تشرب شاي بخاراحسن شاي بكل العالم