Hope is a word you hear a lot on Lesvos. Many here talk about how lucky they have been to have met so many people who have lost everything but still have hope. This week I was inspired again to have welcomed a boat to shore. After hearing that a lot of boats would be landing south of Mytilene, Jo from England and I drove over the mountain to Mytilene. We arrived at about 6:30am at “Campfire,” where the NGOs stand watch all night, and met Cedric, a photojournalist from Paris. Several boats had arrived before dawn, escorted in by Frontex or the Coast Guard.
Greece
A Day on Afghan Hill
Yesterday, I traveled with Oakland friend Nanci to Moria refugee camp, 35 miles south of where I am staying in Molyvos. Moria is designed to be a way station, a place where refugees can stay for a day or two while they are going through registration with the Greek government before they board ferries to Athens. It is likely to become something longer term as the Greek government tries to manage the back up from here to the closed Macedonian border.
Greeks Bearing Gifts
My cottage near Molyvos
As I settle in here and talk to locals and volunteers, I hear so many amazing stories. The community of Lesvos has made a difference in the lives of so many and has itself been profoundly transformed by the refugee crisis.
No Country Is An Island
For Lesvos, most of 2015 meant coping with the immediate needs of thousands of refugees arriving daily without help from government and little help from the world’s big NGOs. In the first two months of 2016, things have changed. The world has taken notice.
The Gifts of Giving on Lesvos
Outside the gate at Moria refugee camp.
During my first few days back in Molyvos, I have been settling in and trying to find my Greek center. I am staying in a small traditional cottage just outside of Molyvos next to a grove of olive trees with sheep — the two staples of the Lesvos landscape. It is quiet and comfortable and adorable.
Orangepeace on Lesvos
I arrived on Lesvos on Friday as Macedonia shut its borders and left tens of thousands of refugees stranded in Greece without adequate shelter, food or water. Ten Balkan countries, lead by Austria, declared they would no longer admit Afghan refugees inside their borders and would impose strict procedures on others.
Dispatch from Lesvos: “We are not going to stop helping”
In the past month, more than 90 people have lost their lives trying to find peace and safety in Europe by crossing the Mediterranean from Turkey into Greece, adding to the 3,700 deaths that occurred in 2015. Meanwhile, the geopolitics of fear are ramping up. Sweden is planning to “send back” 80,000 asylum seekers. Bulgaria is threatening to close its borders. Some EU countries want to kick Greece out of the Schengen area, which permits free passage in and out of EU countries. Thugs have bombed the homes of refugees and politicians who know better are accusing innocent people of terrorism.
Heal the World — A Few Heroes of Lesvos
Sappho on a Lesvos hotel wall
Imagine a place where every need created by a continuing, relentless disaster seems to be organically filled by people who are committed to One Important Thing. And when needs change, people change. With hardly any money or rules. The work on Lesvos is not perfect and the task is impossibly difficult but Lesvos provides plenty of evidence of what people can do. It is a place where you meet many heroes.
Camino Milagro 