Day 5

I'm so tired today, but I want to make a short post before I forget everything that happen on this day. We arrived to the camp and you could feel that the atmosphere was much more relaxed than the day before. There were orderly queues for registration and the people were sitting down on the floor waiting for their turn the police had their heavy gear on, which was very intimidating.

But because there was order the volunteers could distribute water and whatever else was needed. There were no people fainting! Yay! 

We spent the day distributing clothes to kids without shoes or people with wet clothes from the sea crossing. Everyone was so thankful. It was nice taking them to a safe room where we could talk and help. We also distributed sanitary pads to the ladies and nappies for the babies. Tooth brushes and paper roll. There's no many things that these people need, but it's nice to be able to provide some. We always say goodbye with a smile and say "good luck". 

A girl, around 8 years old, had all her clothes wet and with mud. I took her to a small room and asked her to take all her clothes off and quickly found new ones for her. The hardest past was to find underwear. Underwear is not usually donated and we really don't have much. But I found a bikini and that was enough. When I took her wet shoes off, her feet were so wet and for so long that all the skin was coming out. It was like her feet were sponges that never dry. I cleaned them and put new socks. Jack got new pink shoes. She was so happy :)

And so was I. 

We also had a guy speaking English really well and he said he wanted to reach Switzerland. He was cheering up his wife. She kept crying and he would say "things are good now. Relax." He asked where I was from and when I said portugal he said "Cristiano!!!!! And Mourinho!!!! But I like Messi."

We also met a sweet afghan lady who took some time to speak to Hellen, one of the nurses and let us interview her and record it in a video. I will upload it soon. 

We have her baby milk and tooth brushes and shampoo and everything else. Her baby's clothes were wet from the sea and he had spent the whole day without a shirt. 

Apart from the happy stories we saw a lot of police violence. The police forbid us to take pictures and record inside the camp. I tried to film the police hitting the refugees but I was so scared they would see me record that I decided to not do it. 

I saw one policeman screaming at the refugees and laughing at the same time. 

They scream in English but the Afhgan people don't understand. One policeman saw a man getting up from the queue and hit him with the stick until the stick broke. I was horrified. Then another man got up as a policeman kick him. I filmed this. Then I saw the police screaming at a kid because the kid was next to his father and the police didn't allow it. They wanted the kid BEHIND the father. They told the kid this in English. And when the kid didn't understand they screamed  louder. And when he didn't understand they pushed the kid. I saw a police and screaming at someone saying "DONT STAND THERE. STAND HERE!!!!" And the "here" was 5cm to the side. When the refugee moved, the police turned to anther police and laughed. The whole team of the Doctors of the World condemns what the police are doing. But we are just as scared. There's not much we can do. I feel like if we stand up to the police we will be kicked out and that's worse because we cannot help the refugees. Some policeman are good!! One of them kept calling me to go and give shoes to the babies who were barefoot. And when I would do it he would clap and say "thank you. Bravo."  

It's hard to know what's going on in here. 

I know there's so many people that needed help today and we simply didn't noticed them. But I am keeping in mind that we did help some people. I'm doing what I can. That's the spirit I think.