Lottsathoughts

Back in the UK and reflecting on Calais and the 10,000 people there dependent on our help. Jim and I ended up with very different experiences and yet ultimately very similar. I spent all my time outdoors in the woodyard whereas Jim was in the warehouse. We therefore met and talked with entirely different people. Every volunteer has a different story. Many (possibly most) are there on their own, answering some inner voice that compels them to get involved. They are all ages, all nationalities, all backgrounds. Self-employed musicians and actors, corporate employees using their precious annual leave, the unemployed and the retired. Some very physically fit, many not so. The jobs are many and varied. Needless to say the woodyard is physically punishing but even there we had a lady yesterday with a bad back who found she could help by standing at the saw-station removing nails from planks. Some came with money, some with donations, some came with just their time and enthusiasm. The oper

A new first for me - foraging at the tip! Came away with a truckload of wood and then spent the rest of the day helping break and saw it up for firewood. The mood around the impending eviction is wary. Many believe that the demolition of the camp will achieve little beyond destroying the homes and few possessions of desperate people. New refugees are expected to continue to arrive. Maybe more and more smaller camps will continue to spring up along the coast - there are several already. The trouble with this is that it becomes much harder to provide aid if everyone is spread out. Oh what a mess. Jim and I saw a small group of refugees appear to make a half-hearted run at a lorry. No answers. Only continued concern for these humans in distress.

So. ..10,000 people living in squalor and uncertainty. Apparently they will all be forcibly moved on in the next month. A good many possessions will be lost I suspect. One in ten of them is an unaccompanied child. The *hope* is that the UK will get its act together and take care of these children but many who are involved fear these children will be overlooked and prey to traffickers. Meanwhile many of the helpers are not convinced that the problem will now go away - they think unofficial camps will begin to reappear as soon as the press has moved on. Who knows? But for the foreseeable future people still need to eat and stay warm every bit as much as normal. What a time to be here.