News From the Refugee Trail: July Edition

Posted on August 2, 2019 by

I’m in the home stretch, as of this writing. In a few days, I’ll be departing Leros and moving on with my time in Europe and “on the refugee trail”.

July has proven to be, yet again, another interesting month, filled with milestones and new experiences. The month began with my final three days of the course I was taking in Wales, UK where I was learning about how to launch lifeboats and rescue people who are in trouble both on land and at sea. I wrote briefly about each day of the course here on this blog, feel free to click back through the entries to get a little more detail about what I was actually doing.

When the course concluded, I spent two nights in London with one of my friends from Leros who had departed the island back in April. It was so great to catch up with her and to see a small piece of London for the first time. Having spent the previous two weeks in Wales and having experienced Edinburgh last year on my way home from Europe, I felt like catching a glimpse of England would be a good idea. Having just gotten out of my course, and knowing where I was headed back to, it was a unique time to be in a massive city, but I enjoyed my time there. It happened to be Pride weekend as well, despite it being July, so my friends and I were able to head down to the parade and experience all of the flamboyant rainbow sassiness over the weekend I was there.

Seeing happy, proud, colorful, excited queer people was such a relief to me. This experience of working with people mostly from the middle east for the last nine months has put me in the position where I’ve had to stifle certain areas of my life again and it was nice to be reminded of what healthy LGBTQ people are like. Even still, my mind was not far from all of my friends and students on Leros. And the refugee crisis has spread all over Europe, including into the UK. I thought about what some of them would think about the openness and honor that everyone was presenting in the city and in the streets. Worlds will collide, and cultures will blend. This is destined to happen.

Upon my return to Leros, I was overwhelmed with the number of hugs, smiles, and kind words I was met with. Having been away for two weeks, I think many of the residents were beginning to believe they would not see me again, even though I told them that I would return. Two weeks on Leros feels like two months in “real life”. My ego loved returning to the classroom and feeling loved and needed. From that moment forward, I’ve been drinking in every little moment, treasuring each person and each interaction. I also kept my eyes open all month for the uniqueness and perfection that exists on Leros. The architecture, nature, streets, locals, tourists, refugees, all of it has been amplified by my forthcoming nostalgia. July has been a very “woke” month for me, very present.

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One final Beach Clean activity with my pal.

With my departure looming, I’ve been paying more mind to how I spend each minute of each day. In the winter, when this experience seemed like it would go on forever and I needed to make sure I was protecting my energy in an effort to avoid burnout, I would often leave the Hub when my shift was over. This has not been the case for the month of July as I’ve stayed around the Hub well into the evening hours almost everyday.

There are just so many magical things that happen around the Hub each day that I wanted to spend more time absorbing. Even just sitting on the coach in the library and being around as volunteers and residents mosey through or sit down and swap stories with one another is so nice to witness. The Hub is a place where people’s energy has permission to shift and the lightness we as volunteers get to see from the residents is beautiful.

I also enjoyed spending time with some of the guys playing paddleball and volleyball, a luxury I didn’t get too much time to encounter during the winter months while I was teaching so much. It’s nice to just have fun with people. When you’re trying to teach English, people have a certain mentality and attitude about them. But while playing sports, the intensity melts away and the language barriers go down a bit. Unless, of course, it’s a competitive sport like football, then sometimes the intensity is amplified and fights break out. But that’s beside the point!

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The final team on the ground in Leros that I’ll be working with.

For the last few weekends, I’ve gone on some epic hikes to the other side of the island and done my best to get into the sea as much as possible. When I move to Athens next month, there will be a sea nearby, but it won’t be accessible daily and it won’t be all mine, I’ll have to share it with both locals and tourists. And so, I’ve taken the opportunity to hop around mountain tops and dive into pieces of the Aegean that other people just don’t seem to know about. July has been the most fruitful month of the nine that I’ve been here when it comes to connecting with both the people and the nature around me.

The number of refugees on this island and all of the Aegean islands continues to grow at an alarming pace. We’ve continued to hit record numbers each week and this month has been no different. The camp is now at double it’s capacity and 88 human beings are officially homeless as there is no room for them within the fences of the camp. Things are about to get very grim around here if a tent village begins to pop up because people have no other options. This has been the disastrous case on many other islands for years. I’ve already witnessed families sleeping on the streets of Lakki and found makeshift sleeping areas of blankets in small nooks on the sides of buildings. People who are arriving now are allowed to register at the camp, and can partake in the meals being provided to the camp, as well as the toilet and shower facilities, but they are not being given housing. This doesn’t come across as entirely atrocious as it hasn’t rained in two months and the weather is warm and comfortable throughout the days and nights, but summer in Leros will not last forever. The refugee crisis desperately needs more eyes on it, and more brains in the mix to help put more appropriate solutions together.

I’ll be on my way to Athens in two weeks. Until then, I’ll be taking in my last moments in this beautiful, unique corner of the Mediterranean.

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Stark Contrast

Posted on July 13, 2019 by

Last month, I was having dinner at a friend’s house and was given a chilling reminder about where I am in the world.

I’ve spoken many times on this blog about the confusion that exists within me due to the stark contrast between the beauty of the island I live on and the disturbing politics that play out before my eyes in the form of how refugees and asylum seekers are treated.

My friend invited an intimate group of people over to his home for the evening. I’ve been to his house a handful of times before and am always impressed with the vegetarian spreads that he and his wife put together. On this particular evening, there was a vegan among us, so most of the food was even accommodating of him, which is preferred for me anyway. Delicious vegan food is not readily accessible on Leros, so I felt like I was really being treated. There was a pasta dish, homemade bread, a variety of dips including humus, a couscous dish, and both a Greek salad and a legume salad. This was my first time being at their home during the summer months. While the place is cozy in the winter, because it’s summer, we were able to spend the evening on their terrace which overlooks the castle that sits on the hill in the next town over and the outline of lights on the horizon, the lights of Turkey, less than 15 miles away.

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Dinner commenced, we ate, they drank, I got some wine poured on my lap, I stubbed my toe to the point of bleeding. Overall, there were just little atrocities happening among the conversations about the Hub and the refugees and the situation in general on Leros. It was an evening among like-minded people, so the conversation was smart and positive. Then, in the middle of our posh meal, our spoiled glasses of coke and white wine, our view, my friend called out into the night and tossed his pointer finger into the air, indicating the horizon, “THAT’S A FLARE!”

We all turned to see what he was pointing at. Sure enough, a glowing red light was slinking its way down the night sky, vanishing after a few moments. I couldn’t stop staring at the darkness. I know that, often, a second flare can follow a first.

The contrast kills me. Here I was, enjoying a rather exclusive dinner, and then a flare sails across the sky. Farmakanisi, a small Greek island half the distance to Turkey from where I live, is the island that all of the refugee boats aim for if they want to end up on Leros and live in the camp that we have here. The flare was being shot up by a boat that was just arriving on that island and making their presence known. There’s nothing on that island. It’s just a rock in the middle of the sea. The people would likely have to wait until morning before any help arrived for them. I looked down at the glass in my hand and thought about what was going on just a few miles away, what that flare meant. It signified so much. It was simultaneously a cry for help and an invitation for celebration. The people landing on Farmakanisi had officially made it to Europe. They wouldn’t be caught by the Turkish Coast guard and returned to that unsafe country and thrown in jail. They clearly were not through their long endeavor, but they had successfully made it through one of the most difficult processes, especially since they likely paid thousands of dollars to a smuggler just to get them in the boat.

The cry for help though, the second part of what the flare meant, is what gets me. Here I was on a veranda, looking at the view, and just through the darkness, there were people crawling out of a tiny non-seaworthy vessel onto the wet rocks of this small chunk of land that just happens to be claimed by Greece, that just happens to be called “Europe”.

Sure enough, there were 33 new arrivals at the camp the next morning.

What is wrong with the world?

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News From the Refugee Trail: June Edition

Posted on July 6, 2019 by

Here I am with my first chance to write about the month of June, already a week deep into the month of July. Looking back on it, June was yet another rollercoaster month over here in Europe on the refugee trail, but at this point, what else could you expect?

Summer is in full force now as I sit on the ferry from Athens to Leros and keep having to wipe the sweat off of my wrists in order to not drown my laptop in moisture. Greece is boasting a humid, ninety degree summer for the weeks ahead and, while tolerable, isn’t my favorite kind of weather. The temperature in the classrooms has been slowly climbing as well, and the volunteers and staff at the Hub have done our best to not use the air conditioning in the month of June. Energy is expensive for both the planet and the pocketbook, after all.

In terms of the students I’ve been teaching, many of them continue to make major progress in their levels of English, which makes me very proud. This isn’t even something I necessarily noticed on my own, but one of the teachers who used to teach at the Hub returned for a weekend and pointed out specific students who have clearly made progress. This was interesting for me to hear as the person who has stayed for so long and is no longer capable to recognizing how a student is progressing. I’m sure if I stepped away for a few months, I’d see the difference and the strides people are making. That being said, as always, I’m still having a ball being in the classroom.

Throughout the month, our number of attendees continued to steadily increase, resulting in the school having more than 1,100 check-ins for classes in any given week. Feeling overwhelmed once again, we opted to close registration for the school, not allowing any new students for an undetermined amount of time. We’ll have our first open registration again this coming Wednesday, after more than a month with our doors closed to new students. It’s sad and it sounds harsh to not allow new people to attend school, but the fact of the matter is, they would hear us telling them “NO, classes are full” more often than not, and they already hear the word “no” far too frequently for our liking. We figure those who are really dedicated to the idea of school and classes and learning and progressing will show up in full force as soon as we are open again.

Volunteers

The revolving door of volunteers has continued, with many of the “summer crew” showing up in the most recent weeks. This has meant that many of the people who have been on the island for significant lengths of time have been bowing out. For the most part, the turnover has been really nice, with fresh energy coming in and new ideas being brought into the Hub. Unfortunately, it also meant the conclusion of the work of two of the people who have been on this island the longest with me, here since before I arrived. They were coordinators of all of the volunteers and were total badasses for the project, reshaping so many pieces of the project that desperately needed a facelift. They were also my best volunteer friends on the island. It was difficult to say goodbye to them.

With summer now in full swing, and a new team in place, I feel like the old man on campus. This feeling won’t last long as I too will be moving on, but I’m acknowledging the feeling nonetheless. I was only with the new team for about a week before I took off for a pre-planned two week stint away from the island. I wasn’t taking a holiday though, which most people have been calling it.

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Atlantic Pacific

Initially, when I knew I was coming back to Europe for a whole year, my plan was to move around a lot. Other than that, the only other thing I knew that I wanted to do was attend a two week course in Wales, UK with an organization called Atlantic Pacific. This amazing organization provides “Lifeboats Where There Are None” to areas of the world at risk of flooding and hurricanes that may need to deploy maritime assistance at a moments notice. They currently have operations underway in Japan and Mozambique with their project called “Lifeboat in a Box” in which they literally send in a shipping container to a location, filled with a working rescue dingy and a work room to hold and prepare the craft. These containers are then placed in the at-risk areas where they can be easily accessed and used to assist with water related disasters. The locals are given trainings before hand about how to use them, kind of like volunteer firefighters and ambulance personnel.

Other than this, the organization also runs a “Summer School” once a year for two weeks where they teach people first-aid and how to launch and use lifeboats at sea to rescue people in distress. This is the course I attended for the last two weeks. I applied for a spot back in March and was accepted and have had the trip in the back of my mind ever since.

This is why I’m on the ferry right now, headed home to Leros after two weeks away. Like I said before, with the exit of our long-term coordinators on Leros, this wasn’t the optimal time for me to leave the island, but there was nothing I could do about the bad luck. This was something that I felt like I had to do, and I’ve had it in the back of my mind for almost an entire year.

I was able to write a blog post each day, though they were really lacking in detail, this gave me the chance to quickly debrief each day because otherwise, by the end of the week, it would have felt like one giant day, not an entire course. They can all be read at AutoPilotNoMore.com.

Basically, from the first day arriving in Wales, I knew that I was out of my element. The first thing I noticed was that there seemed to be more instructors than participants, which actually turned out to almost be true! The participants were all dressed in navy blue and the instructors were wearing blood red shirts—fitting since most of them were medical personnel. It eventually made sense why we had so many instructors. THey’re all volunteers, no one is paid to come to the school for the two weeks, so the organization doesn’t take a financial hit because of them. Also, all of the volunteers gave us, the participants, the chance to actually afford the course. This was evident by the low cost considering our accommodation and food was all provided for us right along side this intensive course. One of the other participants pointed out to me that for the cost of the course, you couldn’t even feed and house yourself for that in “the real world” and we were getting this intensive course along side of it! That made me feel better whenever I was struggling.

And, indeed, I struggled. When the group of 35 participants and 30+ instructors met on the first evening and everyone went around the room and introduced themselves, I really felt like I was out of place. So many people had already volunteered with rescue operations and far more than half of the group had experience on ambulances, but I knew this was something I could be walking into, so I was ready to put my head down and “play the game”. That ended up being what I had to do. The course was 11 intense days of CPR and first aid training, casualty care, boat launching and maintenance, search and rescue operations and scenarios, and multiple lectures. I had to keep my head down and focus the entire time, there was no opportunity for day dreaming or getting distracted. I knew that as soon as my eye came off of the ball, I’d fall out of line and wouldn’t be able to recover. So, I stayed focused. I challenged my brain to stay super-charged all day long and to remain a sponge. When a lot of the participants were up till 4 in the morning drinking, I’d go to bed by 10 or 11 in an effort to prepare for the next day. There was no room for distractions.

In the end, my strategy paid off as I passed the overall course as well as all three individual assessment. I also walked away with a handful of cool new friends. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to know everyone on an intimate level, but those I did were really interesting, quality people. Everyone has their heart in the right place when they do things like this course. One interesting piece to the whole endeavor was that I’ve grown so used to working with people who are on one side of this issue. I’m with the refugees after they’ve already arrived in Europe. But this whole crop of people in Wales are used to being there to actually rescue the people from the water and to get them to shore. They’re literally saving lives that would otherwise literally he lost at sea. Often people on the boats from Africa and Turkey are not recovered when their boats go down. This was a whole different breed of people, but with the same hearts. A number of them even had conversations with me about which end of the operation is more difficult. Interesting to think about it this way, is it more difficult to pull people from their watery graves or is it more difficult to help them integrate into a society that doesn’t want them? I’ve come to no conclusion on my end.

The course, while intense, was really wholistic. We would learn about CPR in the morning and then how to patch a boat in the afternoon and then in the evening listen to a lecture about PTSD in refugees. Or, we’d learn about how to treat a trauma wound before learning how to rescue someone stranded on a rock in the middle of water and then close out the day by learning about what it’s like to apply for asylum in the United Kingdom. There was so, so much packed into these 11 days, and then each moment that wasn’t already laid for us, we’d try to review some of the things we’d learned or get caught up in conversation about some of the things everyone has been doing over the past four years of the crisis. Every minute was a learning opportunity. In two different instances throughout the week, we were given two surprise scenarios in which we had to try to rescue casualties and perform first aid on them. There really was no time to rest because you never knew when something was going to jump out at you.

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The Future

Now, I’m on the ferry heading back to Leros after my two weeks stint in the UK. When Atlantic Pacific’s Summer School concluded, I went to London for two nights to visit some friends who used to volunteer with me on Leros. It just happened to be London Pride weekend, so we got a taste of the gay scene in London in the form of the pride parade. It was refreshing to be reminded of how some places in the world are not just accepting, but celebrating diversity. This, sadly, while Brexit continues to loom in a country not too far behind the United States in all its present day political complexities. From London, I returned to Athens, where I’ve just concluded a meeting with one of the founders of the Hub in Leros. I’m committing to a second project with the organization, heading to Athens in August to assist in the beginners of their English program. I’ll hang up my teacher hat on Leros and fly over to Athens and start all over again. I’m excited to remain involved and to begin a new adventure.

As I mentioned before, my time on Leros is now limited. I’ll only be returning to this island that has been home for so long for a single month more. I think this is just the right amount of time to say goodbye though. I won’t have to do too much reintegration. I can just jump back into the classroom and enjoy my students and the people I’ve grown to love in my time there. I’ll only have to be the senior volunteer for a little while longer, then I’ll be the newbie again, but this time in Athens.

So, I suppose, that’s the month of June. Too many students, too few coordinators, a two-week long course, and a plan for the future! Onwards and upwards…

Posted in Greece, Refugee Trail, Spirit & Light, Western Europe | Leave a comment

Lifeboats Where There Are None: Day 9 – “Always Had a Smile On”

Posted on July 3, 2019 by

The. Course. Is. Over!

About three or four days ago I actually doubted whether or not I would make it. I felt like I wasn’t good at assessing casualties, I couldn’t tie knots correctly, there was no way I was going to remember how to tow a boat properly, and I always seemed to panic in triage situations. In between sessions, I would sit on my bed for the few minutes that were allotted to me and I would pander how many more times I’d have to get into my wetsuit, how many more potential knots I’d have to tie, how many more presentations would be put in front of me in an effort to cram more information into my brain.

But here I am, on the other side of it. It’s done. And the certificates are in my hands. The course is complete and, perhaps, I’m a little wiser because of it.

The instructors informed us this week that for today, our final day of seagoing, we would be having a review day, a chance to redo any of the maneuvers and lessons we had learned over the week if there was something we weren’t sure about. This turned out to be a massive lie as we all arrived from breakfast, ready to suit up and spend our last day at sea only to walk into yet another mock scenario. On the slipway, there was a massive white board with a message written on it. The scenario was that there had been a boat crash and multiple people were lost at sea. We had three boats to rescue them. Having failed miserably a week ago when given a surprise triage situation, we did our best to delegate who would do what and to better prepare ourselves for the situation.

Almost everyone ran to get into their wetsuits, but one woman and I ran to the sea instead to see if we could see any casualties from shore. As we ran up the steps, we saw a radio and a map that had been left for us to assist with the rescue. There was also a pair of binoculars on the table, which I grabbed and began scanning the horizon with. After quite some time, I was able to find two boats bobbing in the water, miles from shore. Unfortunately, at this point, we had already scrambled to launch two of our three boats and they were headed in the wrong direction. The third boat went in the right direction, but they didn’t get to the casualties anywhere near as quickly as they could have if our communication was better.

And so commenced a two-hour scenario in which we were trying to orchestrate this rescue. There were only a few of us left on shore as most of the team opted to get into the boats. This wasn’t well thought out. Most people wanted to be heroic and be in the boats that were scooping people out of the sea, but we really could have used more help on land, especially as casualties were beginning to be delivered to us and we had to pull the boats in and take care of the hurt people. This was the coolest part of the whole ordeal. We were rescuing people at sea and assisting them by using what we’d learned from all of our casualty care courses throughout the week.

Feeling overwhelmed, a boat came in and dropped off our second casualty who a few others and I helped from the boat and brought onto the land. Spread really thin at this point, as one person had to be “Beach Master” and wait in the water, two people were on the radio, and one person was helping the casualties, I noticed ten of our instructors behind me climbing out of the woods. Right away, I knew that they were going to become part of the scenario. And they did. We got the radio call five seconds later telling us that there had been multiple stabbings on a boat and the casualties had washed ashore. There were only two of us able to even go over to this mob of hurt people, and the boats were coming in for landing at the same time, requiring assistance in order to get them to shore.

Prior to the second round of casualties erupting onto the scene after an hour of getting people from the sea to shore safely, one of my colleagues had said to me, “I’m just waiting for the whistle to blow” signaling that the scenario would be over. But it stretched on for hours. And we didn’t do the best job “rescuing” all of the hurt people on shore.

In the afternoon, we took our written exam, which was 40 multiple choice questions about everything we’d learned about casualty care over the past 10 days. It wasn’t anything overly difficult, but I definitely had to focus on what I was doing and ended up using the entirety of the hour allotted to us. As soon as our exam was over, we were tossed into one final lecture about assisting in giving birth. I could hardly believe that after our grueling morning and our exam that we were actually being expected to sit through yet another lecture, but of course, it proved to be interesting and I learned a few things about babies that rush to come into this world. My takeaway was that I think I’d rather not be around unexpectedly for the birth of a baby.

When that final lecture finished, I could hardly believe that the course was over.

In the evening, we did not have dinner scheduled as usual, but rather there was a farewell barbecue. Our certificates were handed out and everyone enjoyed their final evening of mingling with like-minded people. I realized that I hadn’t gotten to know everyone as much as I would have liked, but I also knew that this would have come at the expense of getting an adequate amount of sleep and being able to fully focus on the course. When my name was called to collect my certificate, the man announcing my name said something along the lines of, “he always had a smile on during this course” which sounded like a steaming pile of bullshit to me. I think he was just trying to come up with something unique to say as he had already called twenty or thirty names before me.  I certainly did not feel like I had a smile on at all for this course.

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Lifeboats Where There Are None: Day 7 – “It’s ‘Mad Max’ Out There”

Posted on July 2, 2019 by

Today, on the sea, we learned how to recover people who are stranded on rocks and areas of land beside the sea. After my low day yesterday, I wasn’t looking forward in the least to getting back on the boat this morning, but I rebounded a little bit and was able to get my head back in the game more today. Rescuing people at sea is kind of the whole point of this course. The migrant crisis in the Aegean and the crisis in the Southern Mediterranean have fueled this course into existence. Unfortunately, rescuing people at sea is not easy, so there are many maneuvers to be taught. Trying to pick someone up who is stranded on a rock in the sea, which apparently happens a lot near the island of Lesvos when the refugee boats run aground, the rescue boat needs to be anchored to the bottom of the sea and then slowly letting out line while reversing up to the stranded casualties on the rocks. The conditions in the water today were not the best, with decent sized waves crashing ashore as I tried to navigate the boat, so each time a wave came, I’d have to coast on it and then rev the engine again, all while continuing to move backward toward the stranded casualty. I don’t think I was great at this particular scenario of the course, but I didn’t totally fail at it either. Doing anything with ropes and anchors isn’t fun in a boat, I’ve decided.

While on the water, we also practiced our landings about ten different times. This is how you get the boat to the shore, disembark the crew, and get the vessel safely onto a trolley and up the slipway without any huge issue. Each of the people in our boat practiced this twice, so we did it a total of eight times. Landing requires coming into the slipway very fast, quickly killing the engine, and then everyone jumping out of the boat all in one motion while hanging onto its sides and directing it onto the trolley waiting on standby. It’s all one giant motion, and quite annoying after ten different tries. I don’t think I’ve ever taken the time to write about what it’s like to actually get into these boats. The sea often isn’t cooperating, so the waves have the boats bobbing wildly in front of us, and when the Helm (driver) yells “crew in!”, we have to get ourselves into the boat, which usually involves jumping as high as you can, throwing yourself forward, and clinging to anything you can find while heaving yourself in. It’s fun, but doing it ten times in a row is exhausting, not to mention that there really is no dignified way to go about it. We all flop around like fish getting yanked in from the sea with nets. It’s not pretty.

In the afternoon, I was so relieved to be done with the sea for the day. I felt like I still needed some time to fully get my head back in the game. Unfortunately, once we were out of our stinky wetsuits, we had only an hour for lunch before having to return and slip them back on again as our afternoon session began with “Sea Survival Training” in the pool.

I’m not sure how much I maintained about how to survive at sea other than that your life jacket is your friend, keep the survival kit with you, and read all of the directions. We were trained as if we were on a boat that was sinking and we had all the necessary means to survive on the sinking boat with us. In the pool was an inflatable raft with a roof, so it looked like a tent. Even in a pool, it was most unpleasant to sit in this tent as there was no air circulation and the bobbing of the water was a bit much.

The afternoon involved a lot of bobbing around in the pool and jumping onto floating objects. For the most part, it was really fun, but still the water was too cold, so it wasn’t something anyone wanted to be a part of for hours and hours. I continue to be amazed at how wholistic this course is. We’ve just had classes and briefings on so many different things.

One of the instructors said, “It’s ‘Mad Max’ out there”, in reference to being on the seas. This isn’t a comment made because of the rough waters. It’s a comment made because of people. Laws are literally changing these days to work against migrants who are risking their lives at sea on non-seaworthy vessels in attempts at new lives, futures. The fact of the matter is, if you put out a distress call, depending on who you are and who the people near by are, you may not be rescued. And that is 2019.

When the classes were finished and dinner was done, some of the instructors volunteered an hour of their evening to review some casualty care scenarios with us on the castle lawn. I did not feel the need to do anymore reviewing, but I went to the lawn nevertheless, just to get a little more individual attention and to prove to myself and the instructors that I was committed. The evening turned into a grand, goofy time as my classmates and I got to switch back and forth playing the patients and the first responders. It’s amazing how quickly people can bond, get to know one another, and execute new tasks.

We will be assessed tomorrow. First thing in the morning, I’ll be dropped into a scenario like I have been over the last week, and I’ll be graded on everything I do. 60% is a passing grade. I’m not too worried.

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Lifeboats Where There Are None: Day 8 – “We Take Beginners and We Make Them Do the Most Difficult Things at Sea”

Posted on July 2, 2019 by

Things were thrown into perspective a bit more for me out on the sea this afternoon when one of the instructors told me that the maneuver we were about to do is one of the most difficult things you can do at sea. And here we are, a whole lot of beginners, who’ve just garnered an understanding of the water.

Today’s maneuver was transferring people from one boat to another while both boats were still in motion. This involved the first boat maintaining a course and a constant speed while the second boat comes up beside it, matches its speed, and then cuts over into the other boat, literally making contact with it and then turning slightly into it in order to create friction between the two boats. It’s incredibly insane to think about now that its over, but this afternoon, we did this over and over again, ramming our boat into another moving boat and creating the opportunity for people to move from one boat to the other. Even in the crashing waves and even at high speeds, we were able to figure this out.

Before getting on the water, we also learned how to do a couple of different search patterns. If someone is lost at sea, there are multiple different ways to search for them in order to expand your chances of finding the needle in the haystack. Unfortunately, having to focus so much on our first task of transferring people from one boat to another, we didn’t get to do any search patterns, so I’ve promptly forgotten them all, having not had the chance to cement them in my brain by seeing them demonstrated.

This morning, the day began by being tested on our casualty care response. I was the first participant to go, quickly volunteering in an effort to just get it over with.I did okay, but not as well as I would have liked. Oh well, I’m not worried. We then had a brief one-hour session on boat repair and learned how to patch a whole with fiberglass in the bottom of a boat. I wasn’t super interested in this as I don’t see how this will benefit my existence in the years ahead, but you never know. How did I get here? What am I learning!?

Unlike a couple of other nights this week, we did not have the evening off today. In fact, the evening was very much ON as we were called to a stretcher presentation and ended up doing relay races with our teammates strapped into the stretchers. Terrifying and fun. My group finished last in all three challenges we did. This is about how well I feel I’ve been doing over all. (Joking).

I’m so glad this course is wrapping up, but so grateful for all that it has offered me.

 

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Lifeboats Where There Are None: Day 6 – “That’s Show Business”

Posted on July 1, 2019 by

Navigation and Engine Repair. Two things I know nothing about; two things that instructors tried to teach me about today.

How is one suppose to develop any sort of grasp for how a boat engine works or how to navigate the worlds waters in an hour and a half? I think the answer is that they cannot; however, introducing ideas to us is the basic idea here, I think.

Our instructors here are brilliant. They’re volunteers and they’re passionate, but they teach like professionals and they recognize that everyone has different levels of understanding of all of this stuff. I did my best to keep myself focused on what was being taught, but these particular subject areas are not fortes of mine and I walked away only having learned that I have more to learn.

In the afternoon, my group was back on the water for our fourth session of seagoing. This proved to be my lowest day so far. I just really wasn’t “feeling” getting back into the boat. Prior to launch, some of the instructors showed us on land how to tow disabled boats at sea. This is something we may actually encounter when trying to assist refugees–disabled boats. The demonstration on the land was fine, but once we were on the water it was quite confusing. There are so many different places you have to tie ropes to. Some places need to hold tension and other places simply need to direct the boat.

During our actual execution process on the water, the “disabled boat” needs to be tied to the rescue boat. This requires the rescue boat to hover near the other boat for a long time while the ropes are getting sorted and passed from one boat to the other and then back again. While idling, the engine fumes really engulfed the surrounding air and the waves kept coming in hard. Each time the boat bobbed and each time I took in a breath, I felt a bit queasy, making it much more difficult to focus on the task at hand.

By the time it was all said and done, I was so relieved to be getting onto dry land and for the session to just be over. I really feel like I fell out of the rhythm this afternoon.

For our evening lecture, a lawyer from Bristol came to present “Seeking Asylum in the UK” to us. A fascinating talk with plenty of time for questions. It’s nice to have more information about where the people we would be plucking out of the waters would actually be going and experiencing once they’re on dry land in Europe.

My biggest takeaway is that the United Kingdom seems to be about as messed up as the rest of Europe. They don’t want to help the asylum seekers. In fact, they try to discourage and deter them.

 

Posted in Spirit & Light | Leave a comment