Women’s Space, English class
Final meeting with coordinator Molly
Going back to Germany
My last English lessons at the Women’s Space.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
I feel happy and sad at the same time. I feel as if my stay had just started and I also feel like I had been here for month.
I’ve got so many ideas about things that could be done here.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
I have my final meeting with Molly. Further communication with other Dråpen i Havet volunteers will take place in an after-stay Facebook group.
I talked to them, I worked with them, I played with them, I danced and laughed and cried with them, I listend to them telling about their lives, their problems, their fears and their future plans. I taught them a little bit English and German, they showed me a little bit of their way of life, I showed them a little bit of my way of life.
But do I realy know what it means to be a refugee? Of course, I don’t and I would never do.
Women’s space, English class
Check out market
Gardening
A small boy who had told us a few days ago that he would move alone to Belgium to live with his uncle and aunt the following day. Now he is still at the camp. He tells me that he was only waiting for his passport, and then he would have to leave. But it was not really sure if he would leave. He seemed to be sad. The boy speaks a little bit English but no French. I ask him if he’d know his uncle and aunt, but he didn’t understand my question.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
In the big community area there is a fire drill practiced by the military and the fire brigade. They make a fire in a grill and everybody who wants can try out the powder fire extinguisher. The children have a lot of fun. I ‘m happy to see this. I know that the people are very afraid of fire. Losing their homes again for them would mean to lose everything they have for another time.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
I meet the mother and daughter whom I visited the day before again at the English class. They try their very best to speak and write in English, and they make fantastic progress.
Today is my second to the last day at Nea Kavala. I have my lunch break. A young man from Syria comes to sit down with me at the community space. You can clearly see, he isn’t going very well. He shows me some strange scarring’s on his arms and legs. As much as I understand those were caused by torture of his imprisonment for one year. He had pains but here at camp there wouldn’t be a doctor to care for him. He tells me in his cracked English that he has been here for five weeks now after he was imprisoned for one year.
Will the people at Nea Kavala ever get any chance in their live? Will they get the possibility to start a new life somewhere else. Or will they be refugees without any home? Will Nea Kavala turn into a long-term camp for people without any other perspectives? That is not the idea of Nea Kavala, but could this get possible? Will the people get used to live here?
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
Some refugees already started to run their own business at the camp.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
My last gardening evening.
I see a small boy playing with a toy-machine gun. I’m startled. First he appeals to something else, later he directs it towards the other playing children. His mother gave it to him. Nobodys shows any reaction. This seems to be normal over here.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
I’ll miss the children and their parents.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
Living at a camp like Nea Kavala gives people the chance to feel safe for the first time after many years making experiences of war and violence.
But how long?
Today a young colleague of mine and I are invited to the container of a Syrian family of my English class. It is cosy inside. The family consisting out of six members share two about 10 qm rooms in there. In the first room there are two fridges, a small place to cook and four beds.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
In the second room there are three big mats. The Muslim family celebrates Eid today, which is a day on which usually the extended families meets up, celebrates, dances and eat together. We sit down on the ground with the mother and the three daughters trying pita bread with a sauce consisting mayonnaise and garlic. Besides we also have crumbled egg and wine leaves filled with rice.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
Considering that there are not much food choices at the camp the mother and the daughters have made fancy food. We would love to stay longer, but unfortunately, we only have half an hour lunchbreak today.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
Quickly the youngest daughter shows us how talented she is. Besides being able to cook she is very good in drawing and besides being able to speak Arabic she also speaks Turkish, English and a few sentences French. I hope that the very best for this nice family.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
It is so amazing to see the positive energy in so many of the people and children! (S.L., volunteer from Norway)
I leave Pigi and go back to the hotel at Polycastro. The others decide to stay at the house and drive the 25 km to the camp every day. I prefer staying at the Hotel in the nearby city.
Today my parcel had arrived after a delay of one week. There are T-shirts and other shirts in it which got too small for my son. So that is exactly the size that was missing over here. I also had packed two first aid boxes.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
Today there are two new entrants at my English class. Eight women went over to class level two. One of the new women has big problems following the lessons. I understand, that she had never written our letters before, so I sit down next to her and practise writing the letter A.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
After a few minutes she copies it, it is lying on its side, but it definitely is an A. We continue with the other letters of the alphabet and she is so happy.
At the afternoon I work at the laundry again. I’m hungry, because I haven’t eaten for hours. I’m getting myself some sweet cakes and an ice coffee frappe at a Kurdish take away which is served by a refugee.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
The making is very easy. A spoon full of Nescafé powder is getting mixed with a third cup of ice-cold water and then gets foamed up. This tastes incredibly delicious and it is more refreshing at this heat than hot coffee. He also makes delicious falafel.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
This evening it rains for the first time. Two children and I make a rain dance outside the laundry. Later at the gardening project we see a rainbow and the children enjoy a lot.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
I love the evening mood at Nea Kavala.
Would you like to live as a refugee?
You spend the whole day together with people you get to know better and better. It feels like being part of their community, but at the evenings you leave the camp, drive back to your hotel and after a couple of weeks you take the bus to the airport, you go back to your home …
Somebody broke in into our shop and stole some sewing machines. The self-made buildings are not safe, and the police and the military didn’t notice anything. Volunteers and refugees are very sad about this.
A man from Africa mounts a new lock onto our door. Helping hand are always easy to find over here.
The sewing project doesn’t take place today.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
Gardening in Nea Kavala means to let children learn how to use utensils like shovel, spade, bucket and watering can. It’s not really expected to get any harvest from seedings. Because they had lived in a country with war or because they were fleeing these children had never had any possibility to play like other children. The most important thing this evening is, that the children and also the volunteers and the parents have a lot of fun. At the end of the day, four children are sitting upon the sink to wash themselves.
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
“Children in a refugee camp
Most children are very skilled in climbing, but they are delayed in their other development. First, they need to learn how to play. Often, they just wander around the street or are watching the adults. Unfortunately, there is not much interesting or informative things for them to see.”
Foto: Andrea Koltermann
Today my good friend and roommate leaves Nea Kavala and goes back to Norway. Many evenings We’ve been talking about our experiences we made over here. Volunteering at a refugee camp is not always easy, but we agree that it is a very good experience. I will miss her.
