Dunkirk Refugee Camp

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to volunteer in the Dunkirk refugee camp in France. It was a great experience. (Unfortunately, my pictures have all uploaded out of order but I am too lazy to put them in order.) I got up at 2:30am to drive over and pick up our team of six from St. Albans and left at 3:30am to make our way down to the Eurotunnel where we got on a mini bus with a bunch of other volunteers in a convoy of cars and vans headed to Calais.  Above: This is a picture of some friends and I in the Women's centre in the camp. We were doing a sewing project with the women of the camp that had just been approved the previous week. Old Singer sewing machines with crank handles were brought in and loads of fabric and sewing equipment was donated. We were the first group to try out this new project. We didn't get into the Women's center until the afternoon. There was one seamstress volunteer making dresses for several little girls who were all lined up waiting patiently for their turn to be sized for their new dress with the fabric they had chosen. I loved watching as each girl's dress was finally done and she tried it on with a big smile on her face. Other girls would then take out her hair and try and fix it to match her pretty dress, often running around finding ribbon for her hair to match. There was another woman helping to make quilts. We walked in and were asked if we would help an Iraqi woman make a dress/tunic. We looked at each other quite worried but agreed to give it our best shot. The woman did not help us, she simply wanted us to do it for her. So with our very limited sewing skills, we got to work. It was hilarious trying to make the dress several sizes larger than the pattern. We were running on very little sleep and had just finished doing several big labour intensive projects in the morning, so our brains were not functioning at full capacity.  



When we first arrived at the camp in the morning, we worked on the little school - consisting of two classrooms with a little play area in the middle. We painted, mended fences and swing sets, made shutters for the windows and leveled the ground and spread out wood chips and sand. It was a lot of work.

Here we are again still trying to measure this dress so we could cut it out. It was way beyond any sewing abilities I have. The Iraqi woman was looking nervous after we were still trying to figure out the measurements an hour later... We did end up with a dress-like garment in the end. I am not sure it was what the woman was envisioning. It needed to have some serious tailoring done but we were proud to get the main pieces sewn together. In the book we were using, the dress was labeled a level 4 out of 5 for difficulty. It had a bodice. I didn't even know what a bodice was before this experience.

This is the whole group. They were from places all over England. Not only did we get to talk to the refugees but I made many new friends from the other volunteers.

This is an 87 year old woman from our group (she is from my ward) who was showing the children how to knit. She was fantastic! They loved her.

Here is a panoramic picture of the camp. Dunkirk is actually a step up when it comes to camps. They are allowed to build these little wooden huts, though they are not big enough for a grown adult to lay down outstretched, they are at least off the ground and a shelter from the wind. The camp in Calais called the Jungle is not allowed these shelters so that camp is much worse off. The people live in make-shift tents with dirt floors or donated tents that sit in the mud.  

When we first arrived in Calais, we stopped at the warehouse for the Jungle refugee camp. We unloaded three vans of donated food. The volunteers there were in tears because they had gotten so low on food. A convoy bringing food the past weekend had been turned back because of issues at the border. It is Ramadan right now and most people are fasting all day and then have had very little or nothing to break their fast. I brought two boxes of dates into the warehouse kitchen. You would have thought I was carrying gold, people were jumping up and down, shouting "we have dates!"

Here is a friend of mine and I cutting wood for repairing the fence by the little school. She was much better at sawing than me. All those years at the gym and I am still a wimp....

Here are some of the volunteers with some Iraqi ladies in the women's centre. I spoke to the Iraqi woman on the in the hijab on the right side in Arabic. She told me she was from Mosul. She said her husband was in Britain and she and her two children have been stuck in the camp for the past 8 months. (Yes, I was albe to speak Arabic in the camp a little bit but not as much as I would have like. Not that many Arabic speakers in Dunkirk. Apparently, there are a lot more in the Jungle. I will go there next time.) The woman in the blue hijab came in and whipped up a gorgeous long dress out of some blue velvet she found. She even put some lace around the neck. She whipped that out in less than half the time it took us just to measure and cut out our dress pieces. I think the Iraqi woman we were sewing for had regrets about her choice of seamstresses.....

Here is a photo of one of the finished classrooms. Notice the lovely shutters and how nicely they are put together. I made those!!! I told Charles we will now be putting shutters up on all our windows because I know how to make them!  If you would like to hire me to make shutters for your house, just leave a comment at the end of this post. I accept all major credit cards....Aren't they beautiful?

We repaired this old swing set by the school that only had one swing. I have several pictures of a bunch of happy little Iraqi girls playing on it afterwards with their dolls. This is one of the volunteers trying it out.

When we were painting the school, loads of refugee children came running over wanting to help. The volunteers let them have a try. However, they started painting everything in sight, including the flower boxes which we were just going to leave unpainted but never mind, they are white now.

Here is a view of the main path down the middle of the camp. You could definitely feel a sadness about the camp. We ate our lunch in the camp from a meal truck along with all the refugees. There was a stack of plates and forks by two large tubs of water out in the open air. You take a plate go to the old broken down meal truck where a guy dishes you out a huge helping of rice and lentils (with bits of potato and grape leaves in it), eat it at one of the picnic tables, wash your plate and put it back on  the stack. It filled me up.



This is the finished play area between the two classrooms, in the foreground that you can't see, we laid sand. Isn't it lovely! The fence in the background is the one we repaired.

Here is the 87 year old woman in action teaching knitting to some of the children. She was fabulous. Her and I stopped at Burger King while waiting for our train back to England and shared French fries and ice cream for dinner. I don't think she ever eats that way but it couldn't not have been a better dinner.  



More pictures of the children helping with the painting.

Ok one more shutter shot....have you ever seen more lovely shutters in all your life?

Versailles

The girls had two weeks off for term break this year after Easter, so the second week of their holiday we headed out for Versailles, France. We always drive and take the ever-efficient Euro Tunnel. Here we are driving our car onto the train for the 30 minute journey across the channel to France.

You just sit in your car for 30 minutes (you can get out and stand on the side if you want) and before you know it, your in France.



Here we are the day of our arrival, exploring the area and getting a peek at the palace.

Unfortunately, with loads of children we are not eating at the fancy, exclusive French restaurants with their fine cuisine like I would prefer. We eat at family friendly restaurants with plenty of room....never mind! Someday.....We still manage to buy enough of the lovely baguettes, cheese and pastries that one can possibly eat.  Some of my favourites include: fresh baguettes with a variety of stinky cheese, the lovely peach or apple sauce, pastries with almond paste in the middle (actually I could go on and on, so I will stop now).

Here are the girls in front of the palace at sunset. To the right, is a statue of the infamous King Louis XIV on his horse. Funny enough, the palace started off as just a hunting lodge built by King Louis XIII but King Louis XIV chose the site to build the grand palace we know today. It was an absolute monarchy at the time meaning the king had all power. I marvel at that thought. The château lost its standing as the official seat of power in 1789 but acquired a new role in the 19th century as the Museum of the History of France.

I think this one is just happy to be out of the car and running through the streets.

The next day we set out for our tour of the palace and fortunately enjoyed a nice sunny day.



Here we are in the famous "hall of mirrors." Built in 1678. The main feature of this hall is the seventeen mirror-clad arches that reflect the seventeen arcaded windows that overlook the gardens. Each arch contains twenty-one mirrors with a total of 357 used in the decoration of the galerie des glaces. In the 17th century, mirrors were the most expensive item to possess. The hall has inspired many copies and renditions all over the world.

The Hall of Mirrors is also where the Treaty of Versailles was signed on 11 November 1918 that ended WWI.

Alex out in front of the palace with very tired feet.



After exploring the palace, you then have to tackle the massive gardens. We really enjoyed walking through them, though not without complaints from the girls that their feet hurt. But to their credit, they kept on walking. 

Ah, if only this was our backyard...sigh*

Resting our feet before going to explore the gardens further.

Still resting....

Out on the huge ponds.

Sadie having a fit from being overly tired. Never mind, just strap her in and go...

We decided to "rough it" a bit this time on our trip. We did some glamping (glamorous camping, if you don't know). We rented a cabin with no Wi-Fi and no T.V. It was about as rough as this family can handle. We are all a bit delicate, I guess. It was fun though. The site had an outdoor swimming pool but unfortunately, on the day we had time to swim, the weather wasn't so good. There was table tennis and a playground as well as plenty of board games to do to keep us all busy. That day we also ended up just going for a drive outside of Versailles to see the countryside. It was lovely.  We were amazed at just how far the palace gardens reach. We drove to the end of them after what seemed like a half an hour of driving!

Here are the girls up in the loft at the cabin. The place had a great location. We could walk into town and go to the bakeries and supermarkets. Overall, it was a much needed break and a fun getaway.

Au revoir pour le moment la France jusqu'à la prochaine fois que nous vous voyons à nouveau ...

Harry Potter World with Sammy

Sammy read all seven Harry Potter books in less than a year (she finished them over a year ago)  and then watched all the movies. So as a reward for reading all the books (Thanks to Aunt Cindy for giving us ALL the books a few years back), Charles took her to Harry Potter World last week. I have uploaded all of the pictures and have asked Sammy to write the captions. Sammy: As you can see, it's pouring rain and here I am in the car waiting to go to Harry Potter World. I can hardly hold back my excitement!  

In this picture you can see 'wizard chess' pieces.

This is the actual set for the cupboard under the stairs! (everything in every picture was used for one of the movies)

If you look closely you can see the faint outline of the real Harry Potter glasses!

This is the Great Hall and you can see the set tables. When they made the movies, to fill the plates that filled themselves, they would stop videoing and fill all the plates with REAL food.

In most movies when things look like they are made out of stone, they are not. They are made out of plastering. But the great hall floor was made out of real stone otherwise it would not be able to hold up the weight of all the props and Hogwarts students. The walls are made out of plaster.

If you look at the costumes, the middle one was worn by the character Draco Malfoy in the actual movies!

This is Hagrid.

Dumbledore is making a speech.

Behind me is the "sorting hat" sitting on the stool as it would have done when it was sorting the students into the various houses.

Hagrid and Snape

Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore 

Boys' dormitory set

This is how they made the corridor in the leaky cauldron look very long.

This is the mirror where you see what you most desire. Harry saw his parents in this mirror.

It didn't work for me. I just saw myself. Perhaps that is what I most desire! Ha ha!



This is the Gryffindor common room with some of the costumes.



This is Dumbledore's office. Most of the books in his office were actually just phone books with leather covers.

This is the Gringott's vault door used in movie 1 and another movie (can't remember which other one).

This is the secret chamber door which only two people in the world know how to open.



Off to the right, you can see picture frames. Those are most of the pictures used in the movies. Some of the frames were just frames with a green screen in them to create the image of moving pictures.

Me and the Hogwarts Express on platform 9 3/4



Professor Umbridge's office. When painting the tiles for the wall, they had to use about 9 different shades of pink to create the look of the tiles.

This is the triple decker night bus where Harry stayed during one of the movies. I went inside and saw all the beds.

I am knocking on 4 Privet Drive door which was Harry's home for 11 years.

This is the Hogwarts bridge which was situated over part of the waters around Hogwarts.



Diagon Alley

I am at Ollivander's hoping I will get the wand that suits me....

This model of Hogwarts looks small but it is actually very big. This is how they created the illustration of the castle from the outside.

When I was there, they made it look like day and night. At night, they actually had light in the little windows moving from one window to another like someone was walking through the halls with a candle. In conclusion, I would recommend that you go there someday. Warning: I took three hours without sitting down to go all the way through it. I bought a poster for my room, some every flavour beans and the time thing that Hermione uses to get from one time to another.