Winter Sleep Out on Behalf of Refugees

I did it and I survived. I slept outside on December 1st to raise money for refugees living in Calais with nothing. The two camps that have been there in the past have both been demolished and now the refugees in Calais are living in the woods of an industrial area of Calais. They have no sanitation, no toilets...nothing. The French police are always taking their blankets, tents and even shoes to try and get them to move on. So 1 December the men and women that I normally go to Calais with all decided to do a winter sleep out. We slept in one of the volunteer's back garden. It was very close to 0 degrees Celsius. The weather forecast said it felt like -1 Celsius.  I wore about six layers of clothing and socks. The week leading up to the sleep out, I really began to panic and wonder how I would get through it. The night before the sleep out, I really appreciated my bed like never before. Now I appreciate its softness, warmth and roominess like never before. Here are a few volunteers bundled up sitting around the fire.    

This is my friend Jenn (in the sleeping bag). She is being tucked in by a man named Reg. It was so difficult getting in your sleeping bag when you had so many layers and a coat on. Some people even kept their boots on inside their bag. Our bags were also inside these large plastic bags to keep the water and mud off. We slept on cardboard. Someone had to literally help you in and pull the bag up. Many of us including me had extra blankets shoved into our bags so that added more difficulty in getting into the cocoon. Once you were in, there was no getting out unless you have a weak bladder like me and drank too much hot chocolate and had to get up twice in the night. I was wearing so many pairs of socks, I couldn't fit my feet into my shoes. If you managed to find my shoes, then with them half on, you had to navigate your way around all the other cocoons of sleepers while also trying to avoid the muddy patches. At least, we had an indoor toilet. However, lets not even talk about the difficulties in the toilet with all those layers....people described the whole experience as a lot of work......so true! 

Here I am, just half way into my bag. I ended up being pretty warm but thought how lucky I was because I know refugees mostly just have the clothes on their backs. They don't have expensive, thick thermals and coats like I did. My biggest problem was the hardness of the ground. My hips and back hurt by the end of the night. In fact, I woke up around 4am and just couldn't bare lying down on the hardness anymore. I did catch an hour of sleep here and there between potty breaks and re-positioning myself inside the cocoon. My friend next to me suffered from freezing feet all night long. When we were rolling up our bags in the morning, she realized her bag had a bottom vent that was open. She suffered all night. Poor thing! 

Here is one sleeper. I don't even know who. Once you were in your cocoon, you could only see a tiny portion of most people's faces or no face at all if they were buried inside. Many people complained of cold noses. The man that was with us began snoring in the middle of the night and was immediately banished to inside, that is after he was everyone's slave for an hour getting us various items because we were already stuck and tucked in our bags. 

Here is the whole crew at breakfast the next morning feeling pretty proud of ourselves but a bit shattered. 

We ended up raising nearly £3000  and I personally brought in £420. However, donations are still being taken until we go on our convoy on 15 December so we may even have more by then. I was so surprised that I raised so much. I put my goal as £50 and ended up well over that. So exciting! 

We had LIVE Facebook broadcasts every hour throughout the evening and were followed by some Syrian refugees in Paris. They told us how grateful they were for our efforts. That felt good. I said a few words to thank them in Arabic. 

The woman that opened up her house and back garden to us also made us this wonderful curry that is served a lot to the refugees in Calais. Through all the trips I have made to help the refugees, I have developed some life long friends. I have met some of the best people ever who are regular volunteers and we have so much fun together. I love hanging out with them all. Now we all need to figure out what exactly we will be buying to haul over and give out to the refugees on the 15th. I look forward to each and every trip. One last thought: I currently have 4 Arabic tutors I study with every week. 3 of the 4 are Syrian refugees. They have all become my friends but one man in particular, who is my favourite tutor of all has become a really good friend. Many times, after our Arabic session, he calls his wife and daughter and baby son over and we all chat for a half hour. I have recorded Sammy and Alex reading various children's stories in English and sent them for his five year old daughter who is learning English.  I have really grown to love them. One day when we were chatting, I had the overwhelming feeling that he is my brother. I am so grateful to know such great, humble people who enrich my life so much. It has taught me not to see refugees are simply that, they are human beings and have so much to offer. They have sadly just been uprooted and displaced but it does not define them. Besides, it could be me one day.