Week one, απίστευτος.

Just want to write a brief update as it's been more than a week since touching ground here in Greece and unfortunately haven't had a chance to do so yet.

It's been an incredible first week. Incredible in terms of the number of the refugees arriving on a daily basis.  Incredible in terms of those that are assisting with the relief efforts, both local and from abroad.  Incredible in terms of the severity of the situation.  Incredible in terms of the journey that I know these refugees have ahead of them to reach their end goal of just living a normal life again.  

The island of Lesvos is a breathtaking place, with beaches, waterfront cafes and beautiful hotels dotting the coastline.  Coincidentally, these are the same beaches that boatloads of refugees, from Syria, Afghananistan, Iran, Iraq, North Africa, and other places are arriving.  Daily.  And by the thousands.

This picture is what much of the northern coast of Lesvos looks like.  The mountains in the background are Turkey, just a few kilometres away, making this one of the shortest distances by water separating Europe, and the reason why this small Greek island with just 90,000 population has all of a sudden become one of the focal points of this global crisis. 

If you look towards the left side of the photo, you may be able to pick out the 100 or so refugees in two rubber rafts making their way to the Greek coast from Turkey.  You could sit at this point on any clear day and watch a number of boats arriving, right into the night. 

I've primarily been focused on the operation of one of two transit points on this island, where each newly arrived refugee will board buses destined for a camp in Mytilene (the largest city on the island) to be officially registered.  From there, the refugees are allowed to proceed onwards on their journey to whichever European country they choose (and whichever country keep their borders open).  

Sadly, the suffering is very real here each day.  Each of us sees or at least hears the stories of boats capsizing and people drowning.  Yesterday evening we took in a full boatload of people, where one woman had passed away en route, to be questioned by police the next day.  Fortunately, the great vast majority do make it safely ashore and they are elated to have reached a European country.  However, they still have such a long journey both physically and legally, to reach permanent safety.  

Thanks for the continued support and prayers and emails and messages so far.  I hope this helps bring nearer the reality of this refugee crisis, especially for those of us in distant North America.  This truly is a global issue that is not ending anytime soon and we all are able in some way to support the millions of people whose lives depend on it.

Wes

The orange dots in the picture below are life jackets, each a remnant of a newly arrived refugee along the coast of Lesvos.