Wednesday 29 March 2017

Bike security Los Palaminos style

We had a fellow Pats fan come volunteer for a couple of days. Was so good being able to talk about football.

Poker night

Made some poker chips out of bottle caps I collected from around the trailer park

Shiram chilling on Saturday morning when we had a cheeky day off

Tuesday 28 March 2017

100th post, and some great news.

So this is my 100th post, which is kinda cool. It's fun writting this blog, though sometime hard coming up with new things to talk about all the time.

Since the last time we chatted day to day life has remained mostly the same, although we have a brand new trailer with actual working toilets, well I say that, they worked for 48 hours before breaking. I've lost all faith in the guy that runs the trailer park being able to do anything, so today I went to Brico (French B&Q) and this evening I will be fitting new new flush system to the toilet myself. My plumbing skills are ropy at best so there might well be a flood, but I'm fed up of walking across the trailer park at 6am to go to the loo.

Onto some much better news! In this blog I have talked about a refugee friend I have called Zee quite a bit. Well news has just come through that he has made it to the UK safe and sound, and will be applying for asylum there. This is such great news that he has made it over, although I'm sad I won't be seeing him in camp each time I go in. He was one of the friendliest guys there and would always come and hang out, sometimes bringing us food or cups of tea. I have no idea what the future holds for him, and if the UK will match up to his expectation of what it is, but I wish him all the best, and look forward to hooking up when I get back over there.

In other news, I have adopted a cat. There are a ton of stays that hang about the trailer park, but there is one big, fat, tom cat who is equally as annoying as he is fun, bit like me. So we have taken him in and are now making sure he gets fed and somewhere warm to sleep, normally on my toes at the end of the bed. He's called Shiram and it's nice to come home each day to a pet and a bit of food based unconditional love.

I haven't been into camp so much over the last week, spending a bit of time cooking and the rest doing other odd jobs around the place, so there isn't much to report on those fronts. Oh, I had a Big-Mac today, I'm bloody done with CRS (curry, rice, salad), it was a real treat, and normally not news worthy, but it's been 3 months since my last greasy burger and I miss them so much.

T x 

Wednesday 22 March 2017

Laurel pretending to be a mermaid on the bin

The finished thing. And laurel posing.

Today's meal

Arty beans shot

Laurel and Kira in the bin after the bin collapsed

Bakery

Bakeries, good news and working toilets (maybe)

So it's been a long time since I was able to update the blog, it's good to be back.

First an update on the bakery, it's finally done and looking good! It was so nice to have a little break outside and do something a bit different with a few folk that I don't normally get to spend work time with. We now have the stuff to fix the tandoor to, so should be pumping out fresh flat breads into camp any day now. I'm very much looking forward to learning how to make naan bread. I've been back cooking for the last couple of days. We made a veg korma yesterday that was pretty good, and a low country stew today, with loads of chickpeas and smoked paprika. Sam, one of the founders, was in the kitchen today doing the rice a way I haven't seen before. It was a heavily spiced Pakistani rice, almost like a pilaf, it was very good, and I'm looking forward to learning how to cook it myself.

After a couple of quite somber posts recently we got a bit of really good news today. The ban on feeding people that was imposed the mayor of Calais was overturned at the regional court for breaching human rights. It's a real win as it means the guys from Utopia can now (in theory) distribute the food we cook without fear of being tear gassed or arrested. A story linked to this that I'd like to pick back up is the distribution of hot meals. Last time I talked about the bento boxes we were putting out the numbers were something like, 150 at lunch, and 250 in the evening. Those numbers have thankfully dropped off to about 50 and 150, it makes getting them all out much easier. The sad news is that this is an effect of the ban. The guys living in the woods were finding it hard to get to the places we were setting up away from the cops. It's really sad to think that people may have been going hungry due to this horrible womans 'starve them em' policy. Luckily the guys at Utopia don't let the fear of tear gas, or arrest stop them getting out, incredible bunch of people.


The final thing to talk about tonight is the trailer park. If you have been reading the blog back far enough you will know that we haven't had a working toilet in the trailer for the last 10 weeks. Well after trying to fix them many times, including soaking himself in sewage, the guy has finally decided to condemn the trailer. This means we are on the move. We saw one trailer last night, and it was grim so we aren't taking it. Today however we have been shown a much better one, with such luxuries as actual light switches instead of holes, and toilets that work. Also it has a deck and picnic table, so perfect in time for the weather getting better.

Monday 13 March 2017

Inside taking shape, and our lovely new floor.
Now with a new floor, new side walls, and most of a front.

Upsetting news, more building, and Afgan eggs.

Ok, so again I'm going to start with some bad, and quite upsetting news. Last night a minor was killed trying to make the crossing. I'm not too sure of all the sad details, but it seems a teenager was trying to cross on a lorry and had a fatal accident. As you can imagine it has affected many people here, and there were quite a few tears around the warehouse and people in very somber moods. These are the dangers these guys face on a daily basis trying to make the crossing and get away from life in the refugee camp. If and when I get more details I will update if appropriate.

That's the horrible news out of the way. Today was spent with Seamus building the bakery further. It's really coming along now and tomorrow we should get it finished. Playing about with power tools and being outside in the sun is a welcome break to smelling of onions and washing up. We found some old windows, and some faux stained timber plastic cladding, so everything is going very Grand Designs at the moment, and we are coming up with new ideas on an hourly basis for fun stuff we could add in, we are thinking a retractable roof, though that might just be a pipe dream.

Finally a friend suggested that I maybe write down some of the recipes that I cook. The first one I'm going to do is the one dish every single volunteer knows how to cook, and most eat at least 3 times a week.

You will need:

4 Eggs

Tablespoon of Cumin Seeds
Tablespoon of Smoked Paprika

1/2 Tablespoon of Chili Flakes 
Tablespoon of Sugar
2 Tins of Chopped Tomatoes

Couple of Garlic Cloves
1 Large Onion
Teaspoon of Oregano

Method:

Put he cumin seeds in a dry pan and lightly toast on a medium heat for about a minute, basically until they start to smell. Then add onions and a splash of oil and sweat down until turning slightly golden. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two. Now add everything apart from the eggs and cook down for about 3 to 4 minutes until the tomato liquid cooks off a bit and it gets a little bit thicker. Now crack the eggs in like you would a fried egg and cover with a plate for about 3 to 5 minutes or until the eggs look like fried eggs on top of the tomato sauce. Serve with bread to dip into. Boom, Afgan eggs.

T x


 

Sunday 12 March 2017

Feast time

Dubs and BBQ's

Let's get the bad news out of the way first. The other day a vote was taken on the Dubs Amendment, and by a margin of just 20 votes the UK decided to renege on taking in the agreed amount of children 3000 down to 350. Words fail me, I don't understand how when councils say they are willing to help, charities are saying they are willing to facilitate, how rich people could decide that taking in child refugees would be a bad idea. How do these people sleep at night, and what if it was their children living alone on the streets or in a camp where sexual abuse towards children is common place. For some reason I find myself thinking of the film The Railway Children. When I was a kid it was my little sisters favorite film, and I must have seen it over 50 times as she watched it pretty much everyday for years. It tells the story of kids fleeing the bombing in WW2 London, and heading out to the country where they find a new life among thatched stone cottages in the Yorkshire dales. It's a romanticized way of looking at children fleeing conflict, that ultimately has a happy ending. Now I think about what I'm seeing unfolding in front of me. Children the same age as those in the film, alone, in some truly horrendous conditions with danger at every turn. Instead of the kindly old people taking them in and offering a new life, there's a new breed of apathetic and hateful people, dreaming of the old days but failing to realize that what made the old days good was an attitude that included looking after those who needed it. Where will these kids get their happy ending? Who will step up and offer them the sanctuary they need? Not the UK it seems.Where has our compassion gone that we would leave children to rot in harms way.

Ok onto so happier stuff, the sun is out and we had our first BBQ in the trailer park yesterday. In true trailer park, and being skint fashion, we bodged it up out of what we had lying around or could find. This involved a chicken cooked on a pole I found on the beach and made a spit roast out of using some breeze blocks, tins of ravioli cooked in the tin over the coals, and a few cheeky sausages. I went to bed last night last night smelling of cooked meat and charcoal for the first time in months, it made me so happy. Can't wait for summer time proper to kick in.

Back to work building the bakery tomorrow, hoping to have both walls sorted and build a bit of ventilation as having a tandoor over that gets to 380 degrees in a tin shed will be pretty uncomfortable work come mid summer.

T

Friday 10 March 2017


The beginning of what will be a bakery 

Building a bakery

The last couple of days have been really good. I'd been a bit ill with a head cold and was pretty grumpy because of it, however I got a special project to head up, building a bakery on the side of the warehouse.

We have recently got hold of an old tandoor oven and Sam has been fixing it up, ready to make flat breads for food service. It still needs a bit of work as the outside coating of the clay part, but the guy is coming out next week and then we will be able to produce naan bread en masse, and maybe even a cheeky tandoori chicken after work.

This new toy needs a home though, and the kitchen is already cramped enough, so I asked if I could head up a team to build a new floor in a shed out the back to house it in. What started as a little project has now turned into a full rebuild. Seamus, Laurel and myself took the roof off and rebuilt the frame, then spent the afternoon ripping up the floor. Today we rebuilt the floor and have started on putting new walls on. Looking forward to actually finishing the whole thing off and getting the new kit in early next week. It's been really nice to take a few days away from either cooking or being in camp, and spending a bit of time in the sunshine working with a couple of friends I don't normally get to spend time with. 

The sun being out changes everything too, despite being tired from the hard work, and emotionally strained, the mood has lightened up after a few darker days earlier this week.

T

Wednesday 8 March 2017

Hard times, guns and bed bugs

This evenings post isn't going to be such a happy one I'm afraid. There has been lot's going on, and none of it that good.

Today was pretty intense, we rocked up to do the free shop, which I had been really looking forward to as I was paired up with my buddy Bella who I always have fun working with. However after we had unpacked the entire shop, humped tons of food up onto the shelves and opened for all of 5 minutes, security came and shut us down on the premise that they were going to spray the community kitchen for bedbugs. So the long, slow process of getting everything out of the kitchen while people were trying to get their items began. Eventually we setup in the other kitchen and ran the entire operation from there, which was cramped, and very very hectic. It was going ok until some 15 year old kiddy turned up without his card. We need to make sure that everyone gets food, and we will never let anyone leave without getting at least the basic items. However each day we have 2 'treat' items, today's were tomatoes and apples, which only go to people that have the cards to make sure everyone gets some. This kiddy had rocked up wanting 7 of each for the guys in his hut. Bella quite rightly refused, asking him to go get his card, and then things started to go south quite quickly. He started getting abusive, and trying to throw our paperwork about over the counter, in the end he threatened to kill her before being escorted out by some other refugees. She was obviously quite shaken, but was a trooper about the whole thing. It turned out that this kiddy was in  bad place. He had paid money to a smuggler to help him get out of camp, however the smuggler had just ripped him off, this only happened 2 days ago, so he was pretty raw about it. Eventually I met him outside and had a chat to calm the whole thing down. He had felt disrespected by a girl, and this was the crux of the situation. In Afgan culture there is a big divide between women and men, and being told no by a ballsy little Italian girl had pressed his buttons at a time when he was already feeling very wound up. Nothing came of it though and everything was fine in the end. One thing I find myself having to remind myself is that these guys are having a terrible time. Whilst it's not acceptable in any way, it can be understood by the terrible conditions and danger that makes up their lives.

While we are on the subject of danger in camp there have been another couple of incidents in camp. Today as we were closing up shop someone had let a tear gas canister off in the toilet block next to the shop. I have no idea who or why, but there were some very unhappy looking guys with their eyes streaming outside the block. Whilst this may seem like an extreme incident, it pales in comparison to what went on 2 days ago. At just 6pm in the evening a fire fight broke out that ended up in 5 people being shot including 1 security guard. Again I have no idea how it came about, but the camp has been visibly very tense since it happened. At this point I'd like to interject that I have seen very little of this, and don't feel threatened at all. There is a criminal element, and a very dark one at that. I've talked before about sexual abuse and violence, however the vast majority of people are amazing! They live in such horrible conditions, getting grief everyday by the police, and treated like animals, yet through this they are some of the most welcoming, and genuinely amazing people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. I think about my friends out there in camp, and how they are able to just keep going, and it amazes, and humbles me every time. I wish there was more I could do, or even that I could tell them it will be ok in the end.

Ok, enough heavy stuff for tonight. Here's a couple of kudrish words before bed:

Bashi: You good?
Bashum: I'm good!

T x

Sunday 5 March 2017

Wind and Korma

It's windy, and I'm not just talking about the fact we live on a diet of beans. The weather since Storm Doris has been grim. High winds each day mean we are constantly fighting battles picking up crates blowing away, or trying to make sure the wind doesn't send our food flying off down the camp. There has been driving rain, hail, sleet, and even a pretty impressive lightning storm the other day. It makes our life harder, but it makes life in camp for the refugees intolerable. I've talked before about shoes, or lack there of, and this is a much more acute problem in the wet. The ground in camp is basically stones and mud, with a single road that runs through the center of it. When the rain is heavy parts of it become very swampy, and you see people tripping over lots. Lack of decent shoes means many of these guys live with permanently wet feet which leads to all sorts of nasties on their feet. Many just have flip-flops and no real shoes, or shoes that are to small so they are forced to cut the backs off in order to get their feet in them, so they offer no protection to the elements at all. It makes me think of Glastonbury '97 where is didn't pack wellies, only a pair of tatty old combat boots, and ended up getting trench foot and having to have the boots cut off my feet at the end of the festival, pretty grim.

I've been coking with Annie over the last couple of days, and it's been really good fun. She's super chilled out, and it makes getting the work done very easy. Yesterday we spent ages putting together a Korma for today's service. Someone went off to the shops to buy us some coconut milk, but came back with what I can only describe as a condensed milk version of it. It's kind of this grey jelly sludge that's super sweet and coconutty. At first there was a bit of panic as we were already past the point of no return cooking, so committed to the recipe, but we figured what the hell and put it in. It's made probably the best Korma I have ever tasted. There's a lot of this that goes on, bodging up recipes on the fly, and working with what presents itself. It's very good fun, and so far we haven't produced anything that I haven't been happy to serve, but there is always that slight worry that it might not work out well, and ruin a 1000 meals worth of food. Annie has an amazing job working on a elk ranch in Texas during the season, she is going to make inquiries about maybe getting me a little work out there for a month or two in September which I would love. I'm spending this afternoon looking at visas that may let me do an internship there.

Ok that's about all for today, it can be hard thinking of fresh content to write each time I log on, but hopefully tomorrow will present itself with some new stories.

T

Friday 3 March 2017

Box Kid
Born to distribute rice
Drag party

4 days worth of blog

Not been on here for a few days, apologies, lot's has been going on.

First of all was a really good fun food service on Tuesday. There were loads of little kids about, and by little I mean little, between 3 and 7, hanging about in a giant flock of smiles and runny noses. They drove my hot food team mate Jacob mental climbing into the truck cab and beeping the horn, I think after a while they were just doing it on purpose which was hilarious. We made a little boy aged about 3 a cardboard box hat with a smiley face on it and he was made up. He spent a good hour running up and down the road scaring people, and having he time of his life. As heart warming and fun as it all was, that feeling of helplessness came back strong. These are preschool kids living in a site that's not fit for human habitation. Being kids they are wildly oblivious to what's going on around them, playing with what they find and getting up to mischief, but being an adult it breaks my heart to know that this is their life, and they have little or no hope of leading a normal one.

After work on Tuesday it was my housemate Leo's birthday, so we had a party. One of the best things about working in a warehouse full of clothes is that's it's basically a giant fancy dress box, so with that in mind the theme of 'drag' got floated and accepted. Being a balding man, dressing up as a pretty woman is kinda hard, so I settled on doing Britney Spears when she lost the plot and shaved her head, cue hot pants, a thong, and skimpy tee, with a badly shaved head. There were some great costumes, we had a Jesus, a couple of army rangers and Leo went as Elsa from the film Frozen. It got pretty messy, and my memory of the of it is a bit hazy, but loads of fun was had with some booze that we had been sent by a sympathetic distillery.

Wednesday was a nice chilled day off, spent  most of it in bed just relaxing and napping before going back in on Thursday to do mains.

Thursday was lush. We had a guy called Seb in just for a flying visit and we got on with some amazing food. He's an old rave crew head from the early 90's so we spent ages talking about free parties, old rave tunes and food, it was loads of fun. He'd been working on a north African curry with loads of sumac and that went out Thursday lunchtime, before we got to work on my dish. I've been craving BBQ so much that I took the decision to risk cooking something along those lines. We roasted up some chicken in a classic north Carolinian spice mix of smoked paprika, brown sugar, cumin and garlic, before making a base of onions, roasted red peppers, more smoked paprika and black eyed peas. It came out really well, and went down a treat in camp. I'm glad they dug those flavors as it means I can play about with BBQ style a bit more.

Then today was Friday and it was a day in the free shops. Got to see all the boys too, Zee, Reza, and even Rebar. I'm so happy I got to see Rebar, it's been almost a month and I have been worried sick about him. He's told me where he lives now, so next time I'm in camp I'm going to go round and chill out for a bit. There were some folk in camp doing crepes with jam, so they all brought us little snacks throughout the day. It was very nice and chilled out.

Ok so that's loads of nice news and happy stuff, but as with life out here for every up there is also a massive down. The mayor of Calais seem to be taking a leaf out of Theresa Mays book (probably called How To Be A Heartless Bitch), and is trying to ban the distribution of food to refugees. This doesn't affect the food we do in camp, but all of those outreach boxes that we do each day, currently 150 at lunch and 250 in the evening, she wants to stop that. Basically she's trying to starve people out. The camp can't take anyone else so the numbers of people who now live in the forests and on the streets is growing, via some other charities we supply food to we try and make sure that these guys get fed. She's now said that people doing this will be arrested. Already a girl I know got tear gassed yesterday, and tonight Leo got pulled over driving home by the CRS. It seems this is the signal the cops need to make life even worse. Kids going to get fed at a local church that we supply food too are being arrested for nothing more than having brown skin, and I feel the harassment is only going to get worse. You can read more about it here, there's even a cheeky photo of Lux cooking.

So that kind of bring us up to date. Hotdogs for tea tonight and an early night.

Will check back in tomorrow with updates.

Sunday 26 February 2017

The beaches of Dunkirk and how you can help

Day off yesterday. It was really nice. All of us are a bit skint at the moment so we decided to go and culture ourselves by going to the beaches of Dunkirk to learn about what happened there in the war. It's still the tail end of storm Doris, so there winds were huge and the flying sand stung our faces, but it was good fun, if bracing. It's weird being in this one town that has so much sad history, be it past or current. I felt myself imagining what it must have been like to be a young man in Dunkirk with the Nazi forces surrounding me on all sides the only hope of getting out by relying on the kindness and courage of strangers to help. Then skip forward to today, where again we have 1000's of people trapped with little or no hope of getting out, but this time rather than sending help in their hour of need, the powers are ignoring them in the hope that they will just somehow magically disappear. It was/is a very sad and sobering experience. 

I've always known that I have come from a privileged background, a stable home, food on the table, loving parents, education etc. It's only by doing this that I've realized just how privileged my life has been. Sure there have been rough times, I've slept rough before, I've skipped meals when I didn't have enough cash for them, but there was always a light at the end, and I knew ultimately that things would sort themselves out. I can't quite fathom what it must be like to live not knowing, just trapped in this limbo hell. Even when compared to the other volunteers I have it so much better. We have been doing more safety briefings, and hearing about the experiences of other girl volunteers can be harrowing. I've talked before about how sexual violence is a real problem in camp, but only through speaking to some of my female colleagues am I now starting to get a bit more perspective on it. Most won't use the toilets in camp, for fear that the mafia have keys and it would be easy for them to break into a cubicle when someone was in there, but even going beyond that their days are so much more draining than that of the men. There is a perception that if you were to marry an English women you would get instant access to the UK, that coupled with the fact many of them are quite young, and also very pretty, means they get hit on constantly. It's hard to think about it as there are two sides to the story, one is that if you were a young man, trapped, and you believed that maybe you could charm your way out of that situation, would you not try too? The other though is the fact that it is totally inappropriate. I think most of the girls get why it happens, and from what I have seen handle it amazingly. Some choose to wear a ring on their wedding finger and say they are already hitched, others use fake names on facebook to try and safeguard against someone in camp coming across them there, it must be so draining.

Ok onto some happier news. Yesterday I decided to actually put some effort into spreading this blog about and got some nice feedback, both on Reddit and Facebook. I was also contacted by some people who have a bit of spare time and wanted to come out and help, which was amazing.

If you're reading this and want to get involved here are some ways you can. First of all if you have time, it's really easy. Go to the Refugee Community Kitchen or Help Refugees websites, fill out a small form that will take about 5 minutes, arrange a date, and come over. It really is that simple! That could be for a weekend, week, month or longer, it's up to you.

If you don't have time to offer then we need stuff. One of the biggest needs is shoes, all sizes but specifically mens size Europe 42. All the guys seem to have the same size feet, to the point where it's a running joke in the warehouse about how everyone is size 42, and now quite a lot of staff now have 42 tattooed on one of their feet. Sadly they just don't have enough to supply camp, so seeing residents with flip flops or shoes with the backs cut off is a regular thing. Other big needs are sleeping bags, socks and mens small/medium clothing. There are collection points in most cities, so if you have stuff that is decent quality please send it on. Likewise with food, we do rice and curry every day, if you have items that would go into these, spices, salt, rice or drinks items like tea, hot chocolate, coffee etc, then please box them up and send them over.

The other thing is money. If you can spare some you can donate directly to either charity via their websites or fund a volunteers stay out here.

The final, and most important thing is your voice. We are a temporary solution to a growing problem, more of a plaster on the wound than a cure. Write to your MP, get friends involved and put pressure on the powers that be to do something, it's the only way the problem will get fixed at it's root cause.

Cheers for reading

T x

P.S: look mum, an entire post with no swearing ;-)


Saturday 25 February 2017

Funding

I shared my blog around a bit more today, so am seeing some extra views come in which is amazing. Please consider donating to allow me to stay out here long term while the crisis is worsening again. You can donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/cooking-for-refugees

Much love and many thanks

T x

Friday 24 February 2017

Part of the team, and just part of the outreach boxes that need filling.

Thursday 23 February 2017

Rice, lice and nice.

Ooooft, what a day!

It started off with cooking 100kg of rice. That's 100kg of uncooked rice which equates to 5 large pots of of cooked rice, or to use the parlance of the day 'a metric shit-ton'. It's literally twice as much rice as I have ever cooked before, and it was mental. It took myself, Kira, and Sandy all morning, and while it wasn't quite a good as normal, it got done and out on time, despite my internal panic of messing the whole thing up. Kira spent so long doing the extra rice for the lunchtime outreach boxes that when she went to go get herself some lunch from the volunteer service area there was no curry left, only rice. She was so fed up of rice at this point she just walked away. The darker side to this is simply, more rice means there are more people needing it. We are now up to 100 boxes at lunch, and 200 in the evening for outreach alone, which is nuts, and the numbers are jumping up daily. At the moment we are coping well as it's half-term and we have lots of people, but come next week it's going to be much tougher when the numbers of volunteers drop off again.

As soon as the rice was ready I went out on hot food distro. We are currently in the midst of storm Doris and to say it was windy was an understatement. This made life hard as the wind would pick up food out of the gastro trays and send it flying down the camp, but we coped with the aid of lots of rocks and some friendly camp residents and kids. Actually the sun came out to for a bit which made it nice, despite it being bitterly cold. It turned out to be one of those days you think you're going to hate, but actually ended up enjoying. I got to spend time with some of the usual faces and made a couple of new friends, even though one of the cheeky lads said I looked like Donald Trump because I have a bronze coat. A refugee called Oscar came down with some tea to warm us up, and then another guy appeared with these sweet, fried batter pancake things, that were just sugar and fat, perfect for a cold day. They have such a sweet tooth it's unreal, every cup of tea has probably 2 or 3 heaped tablespoons of sugar in it.

I want to talk about their generosity a bit. These people have nothing, they live in broken garden sheds and half don't even have proper shoes, but what they do have they share freely and happily. I mentioned to my friend Zee the other week that I had skipped breakfast and was feeling hungry, 20 minutes later he turned up with Afgan eggs, basically a spicy tomato sauce, that you then fry the egg in. I haven't eaten eggs since I was about 6 years old, but out of respect for him I made the effort, I'm so glad I did, they were actually really nice. This is common place in camp. The guys who live in the community kitchens often bring us bits of the food they have cooked with the items we have served them from the free shops, most of it is pretty damn good, not the stewed mackerel though, that was grim. It's truly humbling!

So there was other news in camp today, which was they are going to try and stop people sleeping in the community kitchens due to large outbreaks of scabies, bedbugs and lice. The camp is run by a private contractor, Afeji, who have been given millions from the French government to do next to nothing. I think they are hoping that by stopping the hundreds of people who are sleeping in the kitchens, people will head off to the 'illegal' camps and become not their problem. This of course is the worst thing that could happen. I'm not sure what is going to happen to these hundreds of guys, I'm hoping maybe when they actually do a headcount and see the scale they might actually get off their asses and start addressing some of the real problems there in a proactive way, but there doesn't seem to be much hope of that. Recently we handed over repair duties to them, and day by day the sheds are looking worse, and worse. There is a real worry that because it's a job for them and they aren't invested in the same way volunteers are, that the site will get worse and worse, and it's already pretty awful.

Ok, that's enough for tonight, early too bed as I'm in the free shops again tomorrow so need my wits about me. I'm off to dream of rice.

T

Tuesday 21 February 2017

Swelling numbers

Ok, so today isn't going to be a nice anecdotal story about what I was up too, some cool people I met, or what I cooked, it's going to be about the the worsening situation.

Numbers are swelling, and not by a little bit here and there, they are starting to jump up on a day by day basis as the weather is getting a bit better. I've kind of talked in general terms about the setup, but thought I'd take some time this evening to properly focus on it. The main camp we cook for is Dunkirk, and then we supply food to some other organisations who do outreach work. Dunkirk is officially not growing according to the government, they have built a fixed number of shelters (all full to bursting) and then we have to community kitchens which are now home to 100's of men who are unable to get a shelter unit as they are reserved for families, or full already. I'm not quite sure the exact amount of people in camp, a guess would be 1.5k to 1.8k, but there are no plans to build any more shelters, despite the fact they are desperately needed. So that's the camp, it's run by the government and as such has police, security, and some amenities. Away from the camp there are lot's of little splinter camps that have been setup, these are 'illegal', and in many cases just people sleeping in tents, or sleeping bags in the woods.  We send food out to these guys via other charities we work with, this is 'outreach'. While the amount of food we send to Dunkirk has remained stable, the amount of food boxes we are producing for outreach is growing, and not just by a little bit. When I first got here a month ago, we were doing maybe 15 boxes at lunch and 30/40 in the evening, plus enough food in a large container for about 30 people who get it via a group called Secour Catholic. Today that number stands at 100 lunch boxes, 150 dinner boxes, and food for about 200 via Secour Catholic, plus then the 500 to 700 meals we send to camp. Those numbers are growing on a daily basis, it's quite frankly terrifying. 


Many of the numbers are people who are arriving now the weather is getting a bit better to try and make the crossing, but there's another side to it too. When the jungle was demolished all of the unaccompanied minors were sent to children's'centers across the country, and were told to wait it out there while their paperwork was handled by the UK government, who had agreed to take in 3000 of them. Whilst these centers aren't ideal, they are much safer than camp and at least had hot showers, beds etc. Since Theresa May reduced those numbers to 350, all of these kids, and they are kids, have realized that they aren't going to be able to get into the UK, so have run away from the centers to head back up this way, on the hope of being able to jump a lorry or train and make the crossing. It's pretty obvious this is really dangerous for so many reasons. Number one, the camp isn't safe. Sexual assault, is a real problem, both for men and women, especially if you are young and can't fight them off. Then there is the crossing itself. People are dying trying to jump on trains or lorries. Many of them will get caught over and over, get a beating from the cops, get sent to the detention centers, and then put back out of the streets/camp. It's an endless cycle, with danger at every turn. This also plays right into the hands of the people smugglers, they can now say there is no way you're going to get in unless you pay us, so the situation is getting worse, and worse. 

A guy I know, who I'll refer to here as 'H', got badly beaten up last week for being friendly with the volunteers. He used to come and give us feedback on the food, and was one of the happiest guys in camp, but the mafia see this as a threat as he might pass on information which could get back to the cops, and he got smashed up. We had a meeting today about the dangers in camp, and it made me realize that I need to maybe act slightly differently around some of the guys I'm friends with in camp, for their safety. The last thing I want to do is be responsible for getting someone I care about in trouble with the gangs/mafia that operate in camp and put their lives in danger. We were also briefed on what to do if we get in into a situation with the CRS (riot cops). If they CS spray us, which has happened in the past when volunteers have seen them abusing minors, we can get up to 2 years in jail just for putting our hands up to block the spray. Same if they punch us, we can't try and block it or it's assaulting a police officer, and again, that would mean jail-time. Whilst this doesn't happen as much as it did in the Jungle, it does still happen.

Ooooft, this is a long and depressing update, and to cap it off there is a storm blowing outside. Whilst my days are normally filled with happy smiley people, it's times like this when I'm sat in my trailer reflecting that the enormity and helplessness of the situation really kicks in. I've made the decision to stay for longer, and now will just head back to the UK to work some festivals in order to fund me staying out here on a slightly more permanent basis across 2017 (back permitting). As such here's my bi-weekly funding ask, should you be able to spare a few quid, please sling it over at this link: 


https://www.gofundme.com/cooking-for-refugees

Peace

T x 

Monday 20 February 2017

Back and Backs

So, first post in a few days, both good news and bad.

Lets get some of the bad crap out of the way first. I hurt my back again, not as bad as last time, but four days in bed and shooting pains. Luckily i'm more mobile than last time and have been able to resume light duties as of today. One of the good things about working with so many people, from so many walks of life, is there always someone about to help. This morning consisted of a half hour physio appointment on some pallets on the warehouse floor, followed by some stretching out the back of the tent, and blanket piles. I'm going to try and actually be a bit better about the whole thing, rather than just convincing myself that that wiggling my hips about for a few minutes is actually the physio I should be doing. I'm on light duties this week and hopefully should get back to strength as soon as possible.

Today was a camp day which was ace, got to see a few friends, including my boy Zee. Some of the guys are guys are really funny, and it's nice to get a bit of time at the end of lunch service to hang out with them. Also I spotted 2 NFL jumpers, one Giants, one Jets. That's probably the first time I've seen a Jets top and not shouted Buuuuttttttt-Fumble at them, but their lives are rough enough without me taking the piss. I tried to talk to the Giants guy, but his English was pretty ropey, and my Kurdish is still on a word basis, rather than full sentences. My duty today was managing the line, making sure people don't jump the queue, handing out plates, and generally being welcoming. It's a really nice job, most people are friendly, and up for a chat, you get lots of handshakes and smiles too.

I don't really have that much else to report. Being in bed sucked, but I got an email from my mum with a picture of Poppy which was really nice and cheered me up. I was dreading the thought of maybe having to leave and go back to England to heal, but fingers crossed I'm past that now.

Ugo left to go back to Italy which was a shame, but I think he's coming back soonish, and I have extensive notes on how to cook bulk rice. I wish I had a camera to show you guys, just in case you ever wanted to know how to cook 60kg of rice to perfection in one go.

T

Tuesday 14 February 2017

Sun's out

The sun, phones and vegan food....

So I broke my phone, it's a pain as it's also the way that I update the blog and upload photos. Good thing is it's covered, and the excess isn't to bad, so it should be back in a week or two. There might be a little lull in blog posts, but hopefully I will find a way. It's just the screen, so I haven't lost all my stuff to which would have been rubbish after all the photos.

The sun was out today which is always a treat, it's still bitterly cold, but it's nice to be able to have lunch outside of the warehouse, even if it is vegan. On that topic, I haven't eaten meat or cheese two days by accident. Feels weird, won't be doing it again.

So the last two days have been rice (solo, nailed it!), and food prep. I had a conversation last night about what peoples perceptions of what we do are? Do they think of us charging about on the front line slinging 3 star meals to starving people, or a more moderate view. I hate to burst the bubble, but quite honestly there's a lot of peeling, a lot of washing up, a hell of a lot of stirring, and a bit of sweeping. There is the distribution and the free shops, but they are a much smaller fraction of the man hours we put in. Today was a straight up day of cutting veg for four hours, then washing up for the next four, followed by a bit of sweeping, then home. I'm not complaining, we have good music, there's always someone to talk to and the time flies past, but it's far from what you see in movies. I have free shop, and distro duties later in the week though, so looking forward to going back into camp, and seeing the people I starting to know a bit better. It can be quite hard thinking about that. Making friends with these guys comes so naturally, but it's also so emotionally terrifying, as I want to help more, but I have no power. I've caught myself thinking about how could I get this guy into the UK, or how hard would it be to rent a sail boat and get a few people in. It's total fantasy, and wishful thinking, but these thoughts keep popping in there.


Day off tomorrow, cartoons, and peace and quiet, can't wait.

T

Sunday 12 February 2017

Matt and the puppy

I love the industrial tool to play about with.

Production line veg prep

Some donations that came in from a school. Love the art.

Snowman, or what's left of him

Back to the Onions

Urrrgh, pretty grim day.
It's cold, and wet, because of that mood in camp is on a downswing which is never good. When tensions become high, bad stuff happens. I won't go into detail as it's just a few trouble makers, and I would never want to tar the rest of the refugees with their actions, and actually nothing happened today, but there is somber mood around.
We had a safety meeting today just to reinforce a few rules, it's all pretty standard stuff like not going off alone, not entering shelters alone etc etc, but it's something that needs to happen. For more info there was a guardian article today explaining about some of the much darker stuff that goes on, you can read it here.

Anyways, let's get onto happier stuff. Back on onions today, hello my old friend.... Also there was a puppy at the warehouse, I've never seen so many people down tools so fast to go and play with it.

Had a new role today, rice. Rice is really important, probably more so than the curry as it's much easier to mess up, and if you do there will be hell to pay. It's such a staple in the diets of the refugees that they are all very fussy about it. We get more feedback about rice, be it good or bad, than we do about anything else, in fact the recipe that we use has come directly from a refugee who is also a chef. It's a pretty damn good recipe too. Thing is we cook rice for 100's, so it's a huge task, and takes two people working flat out all morning to have it ready in time, today was myself and Ugo. Tomorrow though it's just me alone, which I'm kinda nervous about, but i have extensive notes, and should be ready to roll.

Dropped my phone today and the screen is going a bit weird, so I'm hoping it's not completely broken and I will be able to carry on with the photo updates to the blog, be a bit shit if I can't, still it's just a phone. Had a nice chat with mum too, and got an email from my auntie in the US, which was great. I miss friends, and family quite a bit, it's made easier by having loads of cool people here, but still I have moments when I get really homesick. I also miss fruit squash, they just don't have it here, which means I only drink water, and that gets a bit tedious. Still mustn't complain, there are far worse issues to have.

Off for a shower now.

Night

T

Friday 10 February 2017

This is the best sight, forget the smiling refugee faces, or the other lovely volounteers, this is hands down the best sight!
It's the toilets being drained....

Onion foam. Not sure how we are going to use it, but it will be fun to find out

T-May, and Love You

Warehouse today, so fairly standard bagging up baggies of salt/sugar/rice etc. Fairly easy, but damn cold.

There's a bit of a sombre mood around the warehouse today. Our illustrious Prime Minister, T-May, has decided that rather than take in the 3000 unaccoumpanied minors, they will take in just 350. Are you fucking kidding me! These are kids, they are the most vulnerable, perfect targets for the sex trade traffickers, and she has the fucking nerve to say we should 'proud of ourselves' for taking in such a pitifully small number. 350, think about it, for the whole of the UK, 350 kids, the left just left to rot.

This means that a lot of the other volunteers who do case work with the kids are panicked. An example being a 14 year old boy, who's alone in camp, self harming, and in danger. In his mind he has two options, try and get UK papers, probably not going to happen now, or move to Paris to stay with two Afghan men who have offered him a room. We don't these guys, it could be above board, but using common sense, it doesn't seem likely, so what's this kid to do? Stay in camp knowing full well that the UK doesn't want him, so just exist in this outdoor prison, or go and have a room, maybe. People are worried that he just won't be there one day, which is unfortunately the case quite a bit.

There are more people turning up everyday, the numbers are starting to swell again. There was a family that turned up just last night with 2 kids under 2 years old, one only 6 months. Imagine crossing Europe with a new born, and no money, it's just mental.

Anyways, onto happier stuff. Did my washing last night! None of my clothes smell of onions! That's a win in my books.

Also another little thing that's kinda weird, but kinda sweet, but also totally annoying. There's a custom here for saying 'love you' instead of 'thank you'. I'm still a grumpy asshole and don't do it, but it's quite nice, within moderation. Bloody hippies!

Kurdish word of the day: Spas (pronounced spaz), meaning; Thank You

T

Weekly link to my donations page here: (http://www.gofundme.com/cooking-for-refugees) feel free to donate if you can. Thanks very much x x

Thursday 9 February 2017

Hot food distribution at the end, the queue is normally 100 strong, but it's way to busy then to get a photo.

Beef jerky on a plate, the Dutch are weird.

Thom and Josje

Vondlepark

Amsterdam, back problems and back in camp

First let's get the Dam out of the way. It was a lush little holiday, made all the better by having an excellent host and amazing gaff. The girl who we stayed with Josje (pronounced Yosh-A) was totally lovely. We had thought we had somewhere to stay but it fell through last minute, so I put an ask out on a drum and bass message board I used to use when I was 20, asking if anyone had a spare room we could rent. Josje came back and said that 5, tired, dirty hippies could crash out in her spare room. It was very sweet of her, and it ensured we could have a good time on the cheap. Amsterdam is very expensive, but we did a lot of walking and ended up not spending a fortune but getting to see lots.

I sampled the coffee, very good ;-)
Had a couple of drinks in a couple of bars.
Walked around the vondlepark.
Ate vegan food, at possibly the world's only Japanese/Jamaican vegan cafe.
Discovered fries and sauce 'Orloog', which is half satay sauce, half mayo, and then tiny chopped onions, total game changer.
Oh and saw the Patriots win their 5th Superbowl, sort of.

On the subject of the Pats winning, I missed it, biggest Superbowl comeback of all time and I'd left the bloody bar because we were down 25 points with 7 minutes to go, and it was half 4am. So I left feeling dejected, and stayed my walk home only for my phone to start going mental. Managed to catch the last few plays of OT so saw the game winning TD, but I'm kicking myself for missing it. Should have had faith!

On the way back I was pretty tired having been up all night for the football, so decided to sleep in the back of Leo's micra, bad idea. Woke up and my back was grim, so grim I had to take the last two days off in bed. I'm all strapped up now and on the painkillers, so back in work and just taking it easy.

Was back in camp today doing hot food distribution. Basically we rock up with all the hot food, setup trellis tables, and scoop food till it's gone. We had fresh bread today, this causes problems as people jump ahead to get it, but most people got some and I only got a couple of glares asking people not to take more than they are owed. Hot food distribution is really good fun, everyone is happy, and they give feedback on the food which is cool. The kids are a nightmare though, they all want to ride in the van, so they find ways in, and suddenly, boom, the volume on the radio is at full power and you see a little shadow legging it across camp.  They are all sweet though, both the boys and girls have some amazing 'sassiness' about them, so it's great fun working around  the smiles.

We had a couple of the residents come down and help out too which was both useful and fun. They have infinitely better kurdish than I do so help take the orders and then feed back to me what people want. We had Reza with us today, he's the only other NFL fan I've found in camp. He's a big Redskins fan, though his pride and joy is a Bears top that he was given from clothes distribution. We had a nice chat about the Superbowl and he gave me a huge hug when he found out my team won. It nice having another fan here, even better that he's such a cool refugee. I'm finding the more I work in camp the more friends I make, and it's always nice when you hear 'hey Mr Thom' from behind you when you're doing the rounds.

We lost a couple of people from the house on their way down to Serbia. There seems to be a large contingent of people who kind of live of the adrenaline of the illegal camps, like the jungle was, and chase them around Europe. Serbia and Greece are the big hot spots right now. I ask myself do I maybe want to join them and go do some what's called 'combat cooking', where you just rock up with no documentation and fend off the cops to get people fed. Right now though I'm settled and with Ugo leaving next week it means we are down on cooks.

Have a nice night of doing washing tonight, 9 bloody euros though, for such a shitty trailer park they don't half charge through the nose for you to wash you clothes. Still having stuff that doesn't stink of onions will be a real luxury!

T

Friday 3 February 2017

Baseball with rocks is popular amongst the young.

The sunshine making the camp look nice.

The kitchen during Friday prayers, normally there are at least 50 people at any given moment, but it was a quiet break for some.

Ugo after setting up the shop

Free shops, bread and sunshine

The sun came out!
Everything is so much better when the sun comes out!
The camp even looks more humane than it actually is. Also the sun puts people in a good mood, so the day was full of smiles and people making the best of it.

We had bread, which is a big deal, they haven't had bread in days. The bread is mostly out of date and pretty stale, but it makes a difference for them. The bread hierarchy goes like this; baguette, pitta bread, white sliced bread, brown sliced bread, unsliced bread. There's a big look of disappointment when it gets down to beyond white sliced. We also had apples and peppers as the luxury items, and quite a lot of them which made things even better.

It wasn't all good though, one of the last guys I spoke to, Hamid, had just got to camp after a long travel from Afghanistan, and he said the conditions where inhumane. He's right. There is nothing to do but sit around. It's basically an outside prison of both the body, and the mind. Many of them are still hopeful that will make it to the UK, even though getting caught could mean a beating from the police, detention in the detention center , or having their shoes taken by the CRS (police), a game they play to teach them not to run. You see the stitches, and split lips on a regular basis. It's soul destroying.

Was working with Ugo in the shop today as Viv is in the kitchen. We work really well together, so there was much less of a queue than there has been in the past. So all in all a productive and fun day, despite the horror all around.

I have 3 days in a row off now after working 13 of the last 14. Going to head to the Dam, watch the Superbowl, and relax for a little bit, got 30 euros in my back pocket, a place to stay, and the petrol is covered, so the world is my oyster.

Might update the blog, might not, we will have too see.

T

Thursday 2 February 2017

Fort Batani

Batani means blanket in Kurdish.

The shower works!

The shower works!
The toilet works!
The sink works!

Good day! Although not for the guy who was fixing it as I hear he got caught in a fountain of shit when the pipe disconnected.

Had a new job today as we have an extra chef. I was doing warehouse stock for the free shops. Basically you know in films about drug lords, there's always a scene where there are loads of hot women cutting coke into little bags? Well basically the same thing, but with chickpeas, salt, sugar etc. They all go out to the free shops to be handed out to the families in camp. It's quite good fun as there are lots of people doing it round a table, so there's plenty of time to chat. Today we had a 16 year old, a doctor, a prison outreach worker, and a student. I'm back in camp tomorrow so looking forward to that too, and I'll learn a new kurdish word too.

Tonight a trailer down the road is having a blanket fort and film night, so we are heading over there with some snacks to help build the fort, then watch aliens. Living in such cramped conditions with so little amenities for fun means you make your own, which is cool.

Another cool thing is I had the weekend booked off for the Superbowl after working 10 days solid, however some volunteers need to go to Amsterdam and my housemate Leo is taking them, so I'm gunna go on a road trip and watch the game in a bar in the Dam. I'd put aside a bit of money to do a Superbowl meal, so will have 30 bucks to have some fun with, maybe a bit of coffee ;-)

Having a good time though my body aches after such hard work and shitty bed, still very happy.

T

You think your spice rack is impressive?

Wednesday 1 February 2017

On the Craq tonight!

Ugo and the bottle of vodka Pammy left for us.

Each night we do meals for 'outreach'. These are guys who go out at night to find people who aren't living in the camp. 50 little curry boxes ready to go.

There is loads of junk out the back of the warehouse that a team turns into burners for the huts. All I can see I smokers.

Back to it

Today was long, and now we're lost searching for a decent supermarket to buy some stuff. Gunna treat myself to some bacon to counteract the amount of beans I'm eating. If I never see another chickpea again it will be too soon.

It was a good day though, we had a bit of lamb, and some beef to add to the curry. This is a big treat in camp, and the food flew out with no left overs. We have a new chef in for the week who's been before, Viv, this means I'm going to be doing some more varied work in the next couple of weeks which will be fun.

Life at the trailer park is entertaining, though last night there was some drama when a couple of guys got into a bit of a tussle. Some of the long term people suffer from PTSD, and quite badly. The things some of these guys have seen is mind boggling, and as such there are a few people that have various issues. The good thing is there are services for those who need them, and it's calmed down since the jungle got demolished.

Just a short post tonight, almost home and not actually that much to report.

T

Tuesday 31 January 2017

Trailer park life

My bed! It's pretty grim, your feet get wedged under the cupboard, and I'm about 8 inches longer than it. Still should get a new one in few days.