When I arrived in Herrnhut on September 2nd after a long two days of traveling, I fully had in mind to write this blog post filled of what I now realize would all be complaints and gripes about traveling and how I lived in an internet-less apartment for the time being. Then Saturday night happened. All we were told was that we should be on base by 6pm for dinner, and bring warm clothes and sleeping bags if we had them. We thought we knew what was going on, since most of us had seen THIS (the part about sleeping in boxes) video from the MOTA DTS that was last fall.
We had a great night of worship and getting to know the leaders of all the art tracks, but then they changed the tone. We started to talk about the millions of refugees around the world, and what their situations are right now. Many of the leaders have a very passionate heart for the refugees, and wanted to share what they knew and where their heart was at with all of us.
That night, after our discussion about the refugees, we were split into groups of four. Girls on the soccer field and guys on the garden. And waiting in these locations were a bundle of sticks, some string, and a 6 x12 foot tarp for each group.
“I suggest not building your tent tonight, but sleep with the plastic covering you in your sleeping bags, if you have them. There is barbed wire surrounding camp, and you must ask permission to use the bathroom,” said one of the leaders.
We were asked to think about what it would be like to BE a refugee. Leaving with nothing, hoping to find something better on the other side. Well, it didn’t really sink in quite yet with me.
It was a beautiful night. We slept in our sleeping bag with the plastic covering us, and laid under the stars. I’ve never seen so many shooting stars in my life! My “tarp mates” were two lovely girls, one from Egypt and one from Singapore. We talked all about our lives back home, and customs. It was just so beautiful.. And my thoughts at the time were ‘Really? I’m sleeping under the most beautiful night sky in a georgous new country talking two two girls from all corners of the world. This is so awesome! God you are so good!’
Also, this whole evening I was thinking this was a one night deal, and even though I was pretty sore from sleeping on cold ground, I knew I had a really nice bed in a cute German apartment waiting for me the next day.
Or so I thought.
The next day went something like this:
We were now refugees.
We had to stay in the clothes were wearing.
We could not exit the refugee camp (unless of a health issue).
We could leave the social experiment at any time, but would not be allowed back in.
We were cut off from the outside world.
We had to make our tents with the given supplies.
Our food was rationed.
We at one point had to share a bowl with another “refugee” and had to eat with our hands.
We went for a long looooong walk in the blazing sun (it’s hot here!).
We were eventually allowed 3 minutes in our rooms to grab belongings for the next night, but they could only be a few select items.
We slept in the rain for a bit.
Unfortunatly, due to the weather this week, the leaders were forced to stop the social exercise to avoid sacrificing our health. I wish it had worked out (as miserable as we felt, we knew we needed to do this in order to really understand a tiny smidge of a fraction of what it was to be a refugee). They revealed to us the plan for each day of the week they were planning on keeping us there. They were going to cut our food supply drastically, set off fireworks during the night to sound like gunfire and “kidnap” some of us, grant some people rights and let them leave the camp (to show how the flow of people is constantly changing in refugee camps), destroy tents during the night, have 2/3 of us develop a disease in which we’d have to sit in the hospital tent with nothing to do, and had planted certain students around to start a discussion that ideally would lead to a camp revolt and we’d be rescued by big white vans on Friday night.
Great social experiment, right?
………
Well, after just two days of it, we were all so physically and mentally exhausted. Mind on overload, no sleep, no comfort, all sweaty, all jet-lagged, all without a clothes change in days. But we knew that in reality, it would end, and we would have a bed to go to. And it makes us feel blessed but also broke our hearts for the people that will never have the option of a soft bed.
It made us all think. Although were might have been sore, and tired and uncomfortable, we still had so many luxuries. We had sleeping bags, and coats, and whatever else we could grab to keep us warm. We had journals and pens. We had limited toiletries.
But real refugees, they have nothing.
Although the experience was nothing like a real refugee would have, it really got our minds going and started to open our hearts to these people who are so in need of our help.
Throughout the discussions we had on the refugee crisis, I heard three stories that night that I wanted to share with you.
Right now, thousands of people are fleeing Libya to flee from war and revolution. They want a better life for their families and have heard of refugee camps in Italy. So a large number of these people spent the last money they have for a place on a boat to take them there. But this boat was not sea worthy. And everybody wanted a piece of this hope, that this boat was their salvation, that this boat meant a new life and a better life for their children. They fled their homes taking nothing, and family after family piled onto this boat. After they set off on their journey filled with hope, desperation, and dreams, their boat sunk because of the amount of people, and every single one of them died. Drowned. Whole families were wiped out.
A woman in Kenya heard about a refugee camp a couple hundred miles away, and left with a group of people to find this camp. With her she had her baby and her other younger children. They walked for miles in the heat with little food or water. All they had was a promise of a better life in the refugee camp. And during the long journey, this woman had to make a choice. She barely had enough to go on herself, and she was forced by the situation to choose between feeding her younger children or feeding her baby. That baby was left at the side of the road, helpless, and no doubt died shortly after. Can you imagine, having to make that choice?
One thing I should mention about these refugees is that most are walking the far distances with bare feet. When they arrive their feet are bloodied and mangled, many with infections and sores. One woman agreed to talk to a reporter on her journey, and when he asked “how do you feel about this?” she replied, “I feel great! I have flip-flops while the others are barefoot!” The reporter looked down to see two mismatched pieces of plastic on her feet, very sorry excuses for flip flops. And yet, this woman was joyful because they were of so much value to her.
These stories are real. Things like this happen every day. They are happening right now.
And I feel like if I heard this story on the news a couple months ago I would have felt like “Oh, wow, that’s so sad.” And then flipped the channel so I could think about something else. Or maybe I would have wished I had never heard it at all.
What’s wrong with that paragraph? Notice how many times “I” was used. And how selfish to see a fellow human being who breathes the same air and who’s heart beats the same, suffering, and think about myself.
And what I realized was that, yes, this is sad. But it doesn’t help them one bit to feel sorry for them. And if you can’t physically help them, pray for them. Pray for them as your brothers and sisters. Pray for the women that are forced to leave their babies behind to die.. Pray for all the men, the women, and the children that are so desperate to find relief from their country, they have to leave their homes with nothing in search of a better life. And that better life is a camp. It is a sea of small tents, with little food and little supplies.
There are currently over 400,000 people dwelling in one camp in Kenya. Can you even picture all those tents, and all those people?
I know that I have learned alot here in the last few days. And this is just the beginning.
I have many more things to discuss and more thoughts to process on here, but I think this is enough for today. My brain is on overload! God is doing really good things here, and He has certainly carried me through these last few days of change and uncertainty.
If you want to get a hold of me, email me at k.calli@Hotmail.com! I'll try to get back to you asap, but my internet is extremely limited at the moment.
