April Convoy to Calais

Saturday, 14 April 2018 saw me on another convoy to Calais, France to volunteer with the refugees there.  We met at my house at 4:30am waited around for Jenn who got stuck in road closures and arrived at 5am. Had only an hour and 10 minutes to make an hour and 45 minute drive to where we were supposed to meet all the volunteers. I am proud to say while reaching speeds exceeding 90 miles an hour, we made it in the allotted time! Lets just pray no speed cameras caught me and there is a lovely speeding ticket in the post on the way to my house. This trip we were joined by my new friend Durdana from the London Colney mosque and her husband, friends and family (5 in all). Their mosque donated £300 in cash a few days before we left. All the cash was handed over to me, which filled me with all kinds of stress to make sure the money was used in the best way possible. I ended up messaging the aid organization in Calais and found out they needed sleeping bags, tents, baby milk and nappies most urgently. Only having £300 to spend, I decided to focus on the baby items and a kind friend volunteered to go clear the shelves of Tesco for me and purchase all of the nappies and baby milk (about £150 worth). We used another £100 for water (because there are still no public water taps in the new jungle where people are sleeping rough and they are still desperate for clean drinking water). The last £50 I spent on facial scrub, masks, lotions, creams, and nail files for the women.

I had already collected loads of stationery, markers, crayons, colouring books, play dough, card games, cricket equipment and more for the last trip we were supposed to take in March that got cancelled due to inclement weather. I was all set on Friday (the day before our scheduled trip) when I received a call from my friend Durdana who announced to me that she had another £418 from the mosque! I was amazed! I had no idea how I could go out and spend that kind of money so quickly and if I would even have room in the boot of my car to hold much more, so I decided to use the money for our next trip. However, two hours later, I received a message from our coordinators in Kent saying that a camp had been dismantled the night before and they were in desperate need of tents and sleeping bags for 40-50 people. We immediately got online and started comparing tent prices in the UK and France to use the £418 to buy tents. We decided to buy the tents in France upon our arrival. When we met up with Durdana, she actually had collected more money Friday evening for a total of £478! We were able to buy 30 tents from two shops in France and even got a 15% discount for such a large purchase.

We met up with our group of 13 and took the ferry to France. On the ferry, we came up with our 1st plan of action (it changed several times after that) splitting the group to go buy tents at a possible two locations (in case they didn't have enough tents on hand at one location as I stated above) and then another group to buy several trolleys of water and the last group to head off to the sports hall where many of the refugees have been living for the past four months. (To our surprise, the refugees had not been kicked out of the sports hall in March like they planned because the French government did not know what to do with them so they have extended their stay).

I walked into the sports hall where the women and children and families are living still at the moment and I was shocked to see how overcrowded it had become since I had been there last in January. I thought it was crowded in January as the last space of floor was taken by a new family while I was there. However, this time it was so crowded that the large tables that had been in the room previously that we had done crafts on were no where to be found. There was absolutely no room for them. There were tiny narrow walk ways between each family dwelling still walled off by the cots turned sideways and used as walls like last time. The air in the large gymnasium seemed stale and stifling from so many crammed into one space. We were told later that the other gymnasium where only men slept was so unhygienic from men sleeping in it for the past four months and no formal cleaning that it was rampant with scabies (and who knows what else). Men were moving out by the dozens and complaining of itching all over their bodies. Most likely a simple cure is available for such a condition if you had access to a medical facility but I doubt that is the case with these unfortunates. I wondered if the government was not taking advantage of the non-hygienic situation to get the men out.

We spoke to one man who said that a bunch of the families were going to take advantage of the nice weather and were all going to the new jungle. We decided to meet them there since there was no space to do our activities. However, a few children were begging us to come back so we promised we would in an hour or two and headed off to the new jungle, happy to be outside.

When we got to the new jungle area where many of the refugees sleep and live, we were surprised by the numbers. We drove up and my car was immediately swarmed by 20 or more refugees wondering what gifts we had brought. Unfortunately, we could not start handing out the tents that we bought for fear of mobbing and a frenzy taking place. We decided to give the tents to another aid organization that came to the jungle daily and knew of the people with the greatest needs. We set up our gazebo, table and camp stove and began preparing tea and biscuits as well as a craft table for children. I handed out play dough to very excited children as well as a few scooters and a skateboard that was donated to us. Other volunteers got out skipping ropes, footballs and cricket equipment.

After some litter picking and a few crafts, we headed back to the sports hall to keep our promise to the children stuck inside for the day. The gymnasium was very quiet with most families in the jungle for the afternoon. Only a few women and children remained. Another volunteer and I began handing out crafts, colouring, games and play dough to the children, who swarmed around us trying to grab everything. I didn't judge them or blame them for this. They are in such desperate circumstances that if you don't fight for what you want, you will get nothing. I handed out all of the items in our bag and wasn't sure what to do next since there were no tables to sit at to properly help with colouring and crafts. I grabbed the bag of facial scrubs, masks and creams etc and began handing one or two to each woman. I handed one to an old woman who had quietly observed us handing out activities to the children. She looked at it strangely and politely gave it back with a big toothless smile on her face (she only had about 4 teeth). She quickly began reaching into a box behind her wanting to offer me something. She gave me and the other volunteer each an orange. She was Kurdish so I was unable to speak to her at all but I felt her kindness and love to give what she had to me as a gesture of appreciation for what I was doing. I then moved on giving out more facial scrubs when I came upon another old woman sitting with 4 boys ages 6-12 and a young girl. Three of the boys were playing the UNO game I had just given them and one of the boys was putting together a cardboard sports car kit I had handed out and needed my help. I sat down on the blanket of the family's little walled off space and began helping the boy. I was so happy to see them using the items I had just handed out and not just throwing them into a corner. After helping the boy finish his car, I decided to teach the boys how to play a different silly game (other than the official one) with the UNO cards. They quickly caught on and were laughing and slapping themselves from the silly game. I then got out some face cards and taught them two more games. However, I quickly realized that they were unfamiliar with the numbers. So I showed them the order including the ace at the beginning and the Jack, Queen, King at the end. After only a few more rounds, they quickly caught on to those games as well and even started beating me (and I won't lie, I am pro at these games). I had so much fun with them and felt really good about teaching them so many new games that they could play in the long hours of the boring days ahead. I was so happy to leave them with the UNO cards and a few decks of playing cards and picture them teaching all the boys and maybe even adults in the coming days and getting a bit of enjoyment and distraction from them. Even their grandmother or whoever the old woman was that was sitting with them was finding a lot of joy in watching us all play. In fact, when it was time for us to head back to the jungle and meet back up with the rest of our group, I couldn't tear myself away. I kept saying, "one more game, one more game." That was probably the highlight of my whole day playing games with those boys for an hour or two. It was so simple but I really felt like it made a difference in their lives and will continue to for a little while to entertain them. Even their little sister was catching on to the games by the time I left.

On the way home and since then I have felt the importance of spending time with those around me especially my own children and how giving them my full attention is so important. I am so grateful for this experience. It was crazy because our plan throughout the day changed multiple times trying to juggle who would ride in what car and purchase what items and go to help refugees in what place. We all just went with the flow and worked together, that way everything we wanted to accomplish got done and the day turned out perfect!