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.

Second Service, Trailer Parks, and a Day Off

A day off, finally a day off, and a bit of quiet!

I'm sat in pajamas, it's 2.30 in the afternoon, and I have the trailer to myself, total bliss.

So I haven't done the blog in a couple of days due to them being pretty hectic. Quite a bit has gone on. Did my second shift leading food service, and nailed it. We had a split pea daal, with roasted butternut squash, and cashew rice. It went down a storm in both the warehouse and on camp, with all 600 portions eaten up. Cooking for that many, in only a few pots is pretty daunting. We measure spices by eye, and instead of pinch of this, teaspoon of that, it's half bucket of this and fistfuls of that, there is a constant worry about putting in too much of one thing, and ruining lunch for 100's. So nailing the spices, and getting it right good.  It was pretty tasty, though I'm already growing weary of curry and pulses.

I've moved out of Sylvies, which is a shame, but i'm now living with the rest of the long term volunteers here in what can only be described as an exact replica of the park from Trailer Park Boys. Comforts are few and far between, so there is a constant flow of people going between each others caravans in search of a working shower/toilet/kettle/knife etc etc. Our caravan seems to be the worst of them all. The plumbing doesn't work, so no loo, shower, or sink, which means either a trip to the other side of the park, or look for a caravan closer to use. It's so rubbish it goes beyond annoying, and is just ridiculous. Still our heater works, there is ok wi-fi, and I'm not sleeping in a shed, or outside like the folks down the road. In short, it'll do.

I'm staying with 3 guys, Leo, Alex and Josh, though Josh is leaving tomorrow to head down to a camp in Serbia, via another camp in the Alps where a farmer has opened up his land and barn and has a few hundred people living there, but it's swelling by the day and they need help. One thing that amazes me is the turnover of people, some because they come for a week where they can, but also many who have adopted this as a lifestyle. They just up and go where they are needed, be that a 22 hour drive to Serbia, or Greece, or even just back to the UK to earn some money for a week before heading back out. They exist in this traveler bubble, and network, they decide one evening that there is a lift going the next day to wherever, then the next morning they are gone. Our kitchen team seems slightly more stable than some of the other teams though, which is nice. It's a mixed bag of people from all walks of life, including grandmothers, anarchists, business owners, students,  oh and hippies, plenty of goddamn hippies. Actually the one's here are pretty lovely, I think because they are actively doing something good, they are less likely to preach about good things they do, they just get on and muck in.

I haven't had much news from camp, the weather has been pretty grim though, lot's of freezing fog and rain, so I imagine it's not much fun right now, well it's not much fun at any point really, but I'm guessing it's even harder at the moment. I'm going back in on Thursday, seems like so long ago that I was last there, but i'm really looking forward to it. It will be doing hot food service, which will be nice as the curry we will be serving will be the one I make on Wednesday, so I will be able to see how well it goes down and get some feedback. The kitchen is really good at getting feedback and using it, Ugo's rice technique came from an Afghan chef in camp, and we have signs on the wall telling us what each of the cultures we are cooking for like and don't like. For example the Iraqis have very different tastes to the Afghans, who have very different tastes to the Eritrea boys. We try and make sure that we cater for each culture as often as possible, which throws an interesting twist when coming up with the menu.

Going to sign off. I have a film to watch, and a stew to cook this afternoon, plus probably another nap.

Sunday 29 January 2017

Hello

Hi, if you're here you probably just saw my share on Facebook. Hope you enjoy the blog, and feel free to leave comments so that doesn't feel like I'm writing it to thin air. The full week is covered if you hit older posts down the bottom of the page.

And as always feel free to chuck some money to the cause you can right here

Hope you enjoy the read.

T

Someone donated their old Blind Melon costume. Not sure how appropriate it is one so many levels..

Saturday 28 January 2017

The Vicente family.

Me and my 2 favourite unicorns

Chicken crisps

Chicken curry

First solo service, safety meetings, and the Vicente family.

I did my first solo service today running the kitchen. By solo I totally mean team effort, with many people involved, but it was a menu I put together and executed. It's was terrifying! Back home if I mess up a dish, my boss gets angry, I probably get sworn at, but ultimately I've just messed up a small amount food for one person. Here if I mess it up, it's 600 people's worth of food, 600 people who might only eat this one thing today. Luckily it came off good. We did a chicken curry main, with potato, mustard seeds, chicken, mint and preserved lemon, with a chicken skin crisp and a tomato and onion rice. It was well received both at the warehouse and the camp, so I'm pretty happy to have to got over that first daunting challenge.

After work today we had a pretty serious meeting about a few things. The biggest is safety when in camp. I talked yesterday about the mafia, and rape etc, and how there can be real danger, well today there have been some new guidelines implemented to ensure volunteer safety, which is really good. The guys who run the kitchen are really on it with regards to things like this, and that's heartening, but there's always that little niggling thought in the back of your mind saying 'what if something happened to a friend of mine'. Still fingers crossed it won't!

OK, onto much happier things. There was a good mood around the warehouse today as news of a refugee who was well liked and had helped RCK setup in camp, had made it to the UK unharmed. The refugees become friends with us pretty quickly, so you worry about them getting hurt trying to get into the country. A young guy was killed in the motorway just last week trying to make the crossing, sadly this is all too common, so when someone people know makes it unharmed it's a big deal, and really lifts spirits.

Last night was my last night in the guesthouse with the Vicente family. I'm going to really miss them all, but I think I'm going to head back and have dinner with them in the next week or two. Sylvie is amazing, and inspirational! She does so much work helping the refugees who want to settle in France, get setup. She loves and cares for so many of them that she carries the weight of the world on her shoulders. If this was 80 years ago I can see her being high up in the French resistance, helping smuggle Jews out of the country or helping allied spies, cest formidable! Oscar is a pretty damn cool kid, he's 11 and properly into graffiti, I spent quite a while showing him photos of graf in Bristol, and Sylvie is going to take him to Upfest (a graf festival in bristol) maybe later in the year, I hope she does and I can maybe show them around Briz. Celeste has been so much fun to hang out with, neither of us really speak each others language, but we play top trumps, uno, or with her hoverboard  and have lots of fun, maybe it's because we have the same mental age, 8. They have all been so welcoming and it's made my first week here a really smooth transition. I'm going to miss them all very much, but being on the campsite will be cheaper and mean I can stay longer, so it has to be done.

I don't have a kurdish word today, I'm trying not to cheat and use the internet, rather learning directly from the refugees, I will try again tomorrow.

T

Friday 27 January 2017

All pans in action, well the ones you can see anyways.

Pans ready to go

It's bloody cold out here!

Day 5:: Pickin' Chickin' and More Unicorns

So today was looong!

I mean it was a standard 8.30 till 7.30 day, but it felt long as hell.
It started with finishing off the days curry ready for the lunch service. It was a red curry with tomato, fenugreek, and kidney beans, it came out well and had a nice smokey flavour about it.

After lunch we started work on my curry for tomorrow, which was supposed to be a nice simple bombay aloo, with potatoes, onions, peas, spinach, finished with lemon juice, mint, and fresh corriander, then the chicken showed up....

So each element you add to the meal adds hours, and I mean hours of work, and prep time. You want onions at home, that can be done in 20 minutes, you want onions over here, it's 4 people chopping them for an hour, followed by 2 people constantly stirring them, and reducing them down for between 3 and 4 hours, normally me.
When some short dated chicken got donated there was an instant pang of happiness, because the refugees love it so much, followed by a bout a dread due to 70kg of supremes need to be prepped, roasted, and then pulled off the bone to be added to the curry. We were making really good time and on track for an early finish, but the addition of the chicken added a big load to the job, and as such the day became a lot longer and harder. Still I have a giant amount of chicken skin left over, and am going to make chicken skin crisps for the volunteers at lunch tomorrow. Who says I can't get a bit cheffy in refugee kitchen, aye? We were thinking of sending the chicken skin crisps into camp, but it makes big problems if there isn't enough to go around, in the past it's caused fights, and problems with the mafia in camp who would insist they got it, and might take it from others.

The mafia are a problem. Most of the refugees come from very difficult countries, like Iraq and Afghanistan, where all they have known is war. War breeds very hard people, and while vast majority having nothing to do with criminality, when you have 1000's of people caged in a camp, by police who don't like them, the gangs take over. They are mostly very friendly to the volunteers as they know that it we don't do our jobs, then they don't eat either, as they are trapped just like everyone else. However a fight almost kicked today when a guy pushed to the front, and was asked to wait in line. He may have been mafia, he may have just been someone that was desperate, I don't know.

The evening was really good fun, I mostly hung out with Celeste who is mad into unicorns! I downloaded a game on my phone that involved them, and we played that for a while whilst wearing her unicorn hat, then she tried to teach me how to use her hover-board. I wasn't very good, and ended up on the floor more than once, to screams of delight from her.

Todays Kurdish word: Mirisk, meaning Chicken, as in 'you want me to put HOW MUCH mirisk in the curry?'


T

Thursday 26 January 2017

Playing cards with Celeste

Working on that gout

Bloody onions again!

Gangsta rap and onions

Today's going to be a short post. If I'm honest I'm shattered, not working for a while then jumping back into 10/11 hours days is taking it's toll a bit.

This morning started with a really good hip-hop playlist, and sorting out some rice pudding. It was nice, fairly chilled, and just got to play about stirring stuff for the first few hours. Then stuff started to get a bit tougher. Magdelaina, became quite ill after lunch, and wasn't able to stand up, feeling dizzy and being sick. In the end she went to the hospital as she hadn't been through this before. It turned out it was just a really sudden migraine that had swept in. The French hospital by all accounts was amazing, they even did a brain scan, and gave her a photo of her brain to take away as a souvenir, that's pretty cool! It did mean that me, and Ugo got backed up a bit, but we got through it. The flip side of her not being around this afternoon is that I'm not doing tomorrows food, to be served Saturday. We have some mint that needs using, so i'm going to do a kind of bombay aloo with potatoes, mint, peas and spinach, spiced with preserved lemons and chilli. I'm pretty excited that one of my dish inventions is going to feed around 500 people, best not mess it up!

This evening has been very chilled out. I played Adventure Time Top-Trumps with Celeste. She's only 8 so of course I wanted her to win, but being so sweet she didn't want me to lose, so kept picking low numbers when I got low on cards. What 8 year old does that! In the end I had to start pocketing the good cards when she wasn't looking so I could get round to having my dinner.

Diner is tartiflette, with some smoked ham and cornichons, it's almost ready and I'm really hungry.

I didn't do a kurdish word of the day yesterday as I was far to excited about Pammy, but I have one today, and actually a rude one. When I was in camp the other day I thought a refugee was asking for cous-cous, so I said cous-cous quite loudly to check as it not something we have there. I was told very quickly that this word is 'haram', meaning forbidden, as 'cous' means 'pussy', and in the rude way. So there you have it, want some pussy-pussy for dinner?

Now in a sentence: 'Donald Trump likes to grab them by the cous'

And on that note, I'm out.

T

Just realised I haven't talked about onions....
Oh well

Wednesday 25 January 2017

Celeste, the Jazz Unicorn!
We don't speak a word in common, but she's totally one of the best kids I've ever met.

Ugo, and Magdelaina with the yellow curry

Bread scraped in roast chicken juices for breakfast. There are perks of being in the kitchen.

Just Thom and Pam, hanging out!

Pammy! Nothing else, just Pammy!

Pamela Anderson!

Wow, never in my life did I think that I'd meet CJ from Baywatch! That girl on the poster on my bedroom wall when I was boy. She was absolutely my first crush and for as long as I can remember I've been a little bit in love with her.  

I think it all comes from loving Saturday afternoons the most as a kid. Saturdays were great, I used get up really early so mum wouldn't see how much sugar I put on my cornflakes. Then I'd head to the living room and watch Trans-World Sport, followed by cartoons for hours. After that would be a day with friends/family, but it would normally end with Baywatch and the A-Team, possibly MacGuyver too. Mum used to joke about how much my dad enjoyed Baywatch, you can guess why.

She has donated $10,000 to L'Auberge and wanted to have a look at the situation in the area, that involved a trip to our little kitchen. She was very sweet, and let me get a photo, plus what star for the help, and making the bloody effort! The warehouse, and the camp aren't the prettiest of places.

Oh we cooked some food too. We finished off the yellow jungle chicken curry, and it went down really well, both in camp, and at the warehouse. Then we did lots of prep for tomorrows service, with is looking like butternut squash, and pan fried carrot curry!It's Magdalena's recipe, spiced with cinnamon, and cumin, it's already tasting really good.

Think tomorrow I'm back out in the free shop, in camp. I'm hoping to see Rebar, as he's no longer at the guesthouse. He was going to stay in France and apply for asylum here, but his family has very little money after ISIS burnt down their bakery. They had to pay the people smugglers to get him away, and now he has to work in order to get money back to them. In France no one will hire him, but in the UK he has contacts, and can go to work right away. His parents are both ill, and the area which they live in is dangerous, I can't imagine a worse situation to be in. He had been wanting to go the UK, but after many times trying and getting busted (this also means a trip to the detention center) he was going to try and stay in France. then the situation changed and again he needed to go where he could get work the fastest. Sylvie had taken him in from the camp for the last couple of days so he could get some time out, and really think what his best move is. For him that move is trying to get to a place where he can get work and send money home, unfortunately this means trying to get into trucks unnoticed, and make it past the cops/dogs etc. I hope he makes it, I really do! He's such a sweet kid, and he's just doing what he can to try, and support his family who through no fault of their own are in danger. I'd hire him in a second!



So that got a bit heavy. Let's end on a lighter note.......

Pamela f**king Anderson!!

T

Monday 23 January 2017

Some spice packs for cooking with

Housing for families

The free shop and kitchen from the outside

The inside on the community kitchen/single mens bedroom.

Highs, Lows, and Free Shops

First day proper, and what a day. There is so much to go through!
So the day started at at 1am, the internet here his rubbish so I wasn't able to watch the Pats smash the Steelers, but the net was good enough for me to be able to live stream a southern Alabama radio station, so I got to listen to it. I also decided that Alabama probably isn't for me.

We got to the warehouse at around 9am, and the first job was chopping veg and loading the van with supplies. I wasn't expecting to be in camp today, so I was surprised to get seconded to the Free Shop team, and sent out to Dunkirk.

The free shop is basically a rationing station, like in the world wars. We have a container unit stocked to the gills with essentials, bread, oil, tins, and some fresh apples (not enough though). The refugees would come up and present us with a little card that stated what hut they lived in, and how many were in the family, they would then tell us what they wanted and we would pick it for them. The women and children were allowed into the container, the men had to queue and we would pick for them. I have never seen so much excitement for some mealy apples, and stale bread, but it's all we have to give. We have a couple of special items each day to mix things up, today was some posh popcorn, they loved it, but it ran out really fast, and the look on their faces when we said we had no more was heartbreaking. The free shop was attached to a community kitchen, by community kitchen I mean a tent with some wood burners in. Whilst the families get basically a crappy beach hut, many of the men just live in the kitchen, so it their bedroom too.

Dunkirk is a mainly kurdish camp, so these are guys fleeing ISIS. They are really cheeky, very friendly, but hard and tough as nails. Many were from Afghanistan, but also Iran and Iraq. They were from all walks of life, I spoke to students, IT bods, bakers, but being in the camp is a leveller, they are all just people eeking out an existence. I had my heart broken at least once an hour, luckily though they are so friendly you only stayed down for a minute. There is a dark undertone though, crime is very real, the camps are run by basically the mafia, and they cause problems for other refugees and aid workers alike. An aid worker who worked with women over there has had to leave camp after death threats just today, and those threats are real, not just bluster.
The shop was mental when it opened, lines out the door, and people just thrusting their cards at you. My kurdish is non existent, but by the end of the shift I knew a few words. I will be updating you on what I've learnt, and should you want to learn too I will be doing a word a day, it will spelt wrong, but as it sounds.
At about 2.30 it started to calm down a bit, we had a few chancers come back and try and get more apples, but we'd long since given them away.

Conditions are for want of other words, fucking terrible, even though this is seen as one of the better camps. It's freezing, there are services, but they are stretched, and mud/litter make up the ground. Imagine a festival at 6am in the cold hard light of day with people huddling round burning trash to keep warm. There is a police presence, but by all accounts they are as much part of the problem than they are part of the solution. I'd like to speak more about the situation, and I will, but there is just too much to cover in just one post.

The warehouse however is great. Full of lots of happy smiley people, from all walks of life, youngest would be 18, right up to a guy in his 70's. I'm going to be working more as part of the cooks crew over the next few days so will be able to tell you more about the production side of food.

The lady who's guest house I'm staying is is amazing! Sylvie is very involved in the camp and knows many people there. Around lunchtime today she came and asked it I would mind moving rooms as she is taking in a refugee who she has been working with, to the house for a week to give him a break. So there are currently 2 other volunteers, both girls, one American and one Portuguese, Sylvie and her daughter Celeste, and this 22 year old refugee from Iraq, Rebar (pronounced Ree-Bear). This kiddie is amazing! He has known nothing but war and persecution his entire life. ISIS, Sadam, and western intervention has destroyed his homeland, killed his friends and forced him to flee for his life, and he is still happy, smiley and so incredibly friendly. He was a baker back home and has promised to show me how to make naan bread, he likes Snoop, 2Pac and Celine Dion, yep, that's right, Celine Dion, he loves her voice and listens to her in French to help his language skills. He has kindly agreed to let me write down his story, and in the next day or two we are going to sit down and get it all on paper. It's heartbreaking, but I want to make sure I have a record of it to remind me that no matter how shit my life gets, this kiddie has had it a 1000 times worse, and is still smiling!

I'm going to sign off now as it's been a long and emotional day. There is so much I haven't been able to fit in, but over the coming days, weeks and months I hope to get as much of it down as possible, for posterity.

T


Today's Kurdish words:

Insha Alla: God willing

'We have no more apples today, but maybe we have some tomorrow, insha alla'
Alix, sums it up pretty well!

Sunday 22 January 2017

And we're here!

Annnnnnnd, we made it!
Actually a really painless day. Got up in the morning, went to the station, saw Stewart Lee looking homeless, which was nice, then got picked up by Leah, the girl that was offering the ride out.
Never been on the car train before, so that was fun, and super quick. Then a fast stop off at a service station on the outskirts of Calais so Leah could feed a crow she had made friends with (yup, exactly as it sounds, but the crow was there waiting and enjoyed the nuts she'd bought it), before heading to the warehouse.
I had a little intro to the kitchen which looks like it's going to be really fun working in. They had a bunch of very sassy Muslim girls who had come out from Croydon for the weekend to cook some amazing smelling curry, they were having loads of fun, singing and dancing while making bread and what looked like a keema curry. So that means there is meat! God, I've been worried about doing 3 months meat free, I can barely do 3 hours these days without craving bacon or jerky of some form, so that's put a big smile on my face, though I have been told it's a rarity.
Now I've got back to the guesthouse I'm staying at before heading to the caravan hopefully next week. Sylvie seems lovely, and she has a daughter Celeste, who I'm guessing is about 10, and is pretty damn good at the clarinet. I'm a bit worried about my lack of French, so I've downloaded an app, and am learning the basics again. I kinda wished I been to more French classes in secondary school, but it was totally the easiest class to bunk off from  (goodness, sorry mum), so I don't know that much.
The warehouse looks good, they have an inbuilt charity shop for items that aren't right for the camp, but are available for us to buy super cheap. It was full of Fulham Football Club strips for some reason, I guess even people fleeing conflict wouldn't be seen in them.
So all in all, really nice day to start the adventure with, great weather, lovely people, and no hassle. Looking forward to staying up late tonight, and watching the Pats smash the Steelers before heading back tomorrow.

Saturday 21 January 2017

All Packed And Ready To Go!

All packed! Well kinda, still a couple of little bits to do, but essentially my life is in bags and ready for the off tomorrow morning, early doors. Reminds me of my fundraiser days living out of a bag for 3 years.
Luxury items packed:

3 Montechristo Petit Tubo cigars (one for the Patriots/Steelers game, one for the Superbowl, and one for completing my time out there). Complements of Louies trip to Cuba.

1 tin of Old Bay seasoning, because I can't go months without it.

2 packets of Rib Rub, don't think there will be much opportunity to smoke meat over the next few months, but it's there just in case I can get my hands on some ribs for the Superbowl.

1 can of Ting

The Ainsley!


Had an amazing last couple of days in London with some great folk. A day of culture, salt beef and a cheeky cocktail with Kelly. Followed by an evening out with Taan and Lucy for Lucy's birthday, at a Chinese lantern festival, and tonight Helen is taking me out for a farewell meal at an amazing little restaurant down the road. Oh, and I ate vegan fried chicken with Sam, was actually ok, who'd of thought it.
Want to say a massive thank you to Helen for putting me up over the last few weeks in hipster central, it's made the whole transition of becoming homeless, to heading to camp an pretty pain-free experience, and allowed me time to properly plan.
My next updates will likely be from France now. My phone will work when I turn it on, but I only have a limited amount of free use of it over there, so if you want to contact me, grab me on FB or email is thomrewcastle@googlemail.com.

Au revoir!

T x x

Monday 16 January 2017

So I've taken a little break from writing the blog, as daily updates on me being excited about money coming in are, well pretty boring. Although, I am pretty damn excited as I've hit my target! In fact I'm really excited as actually I've gone over my target, and a few people also have promises to pay, so might get well over it by a bigger margin, meaning I can stay longer.

Plans are coming together well. I have managed to get a lift sorted all the way to camp on the 22nd, which is great as it's both cheaper, and I won't have to use my limited French skills to try and navigate public transport. Also most of the boring stuff like insurance, medical prescriptions, packing and logistics are done, which is probably the first time ever said things have been done before the morning I leave/in the airport over a G'n'T.

Went home at the weekend to say goodbye to the family which was ace. Little Poppy is growing bigger by the week, and looks be be getting healthier after a pretty ropy start to life, Boo and Rob say she's doing better at night too, which means by proxy they are too! Well needed after 5 weeks in the ICU and zero sleep. I'm gutted I'm not going to be able to see her over the next few months, but look forward to seeing how much she has grown upon return.

My accommodation is now all locked in too. I'm doing a few weeks in a guesthouse, which I was trying to avoid as it more expensive, but after that I'm going to be living in the static caravan which will be cheaper, and I hope more fun as there are a whole bunch of them next to each other, full with other volunteers. My nerves are kicking in big time, whilst I think this will be a hugely rewarding experience, it's going to be tough emotionally. News of refugees freezing to death have started rolling in, and the lack of compassion in the news, and from governments is just horrible, but I'm looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting stuck in.

So before I head and the blog takes a turn to cover what I doing, rather than the fundraising and prep, I want to say a huge thank you to each and every person that donated. It's been amazing, and such a humbling experience, so THANK YOU!

Donations are still being taken, and coming in, and the page will continue to accept them while I'm out there, should anyone have been skint in January. Here's the link: https://www.gofundme.com/cooking-for-refugees

Much Love

T

Wednesday 4 January 2017

Another day, and the plans are getting more, and more set in stone.
Had a chat with one of the co-ordinators in camp today and found out a little bit more about my life over there. Looks like I'm going to be joining the long term chefs camp, and will be staying in a static caravan with some of the rest of the team. To prepare myself I spent the day watching Trailer Park Boys, whilst going though vege cookbooks. All feels very real now!
I'm a bit concerned about donations, after a slamming start it's tailed off a bit, and I don't want to pester my friends or take to Brewdog style begging on people's timelines. I'm hoping it will speed up again, but I think I'll give it a day or two before the next round of asking. Also I think when I get out there and people start reading the blog it might jump start it again.

Tuesday 3 January 2017

Wow!!
So in the first 24 hours my campaign is over 1/4 funded, which is amazing! Still a long way to go but it's put such a huge smile on my face, and I'm raring to go now!

Something has dawned on me this morning though, the next few months of my life are going to be pork free. The overwhelming majority of the people in camps come from a Muslim background, so pig won't be on the menu at all. I guess my body will thank me in the long term for giving it a break, but god-damn if it doesn't wipe out half of my cooking repertoire. Luckily I'm staying with my friend Helen up until the off, and she's veggie, so plenty of time to dig through her cookbooks, and learn the dark arts of meat free cooking. I can imagine the smiles on my vegan/veggies friends faces now, after years of gentle ribbing from me.

Monday 2 January 2017

Hi, I'm Thom, welcome to my blog.

I'm starting 2017 by trying to give something back to the world that has been my home for the last 35 years, and travelling to Calais to work with the amazing Refugee Community Kitchen, cooking for the refugees in various camps across northern France.

Right now I'm a mixture of emotions about the whole trip. I'm incredibly excited to challenge myself doing something positive, but at the same time I'm under no illusion that the lives of the people living in the camps is going to be unfathomably bleak, and heartbreaking. I'm hoping that in some small way I can use my cooking skills to improve the lives of those fleeing conflicts across the Middle East, and north Africa. The role is entirely voluntary, and I will be supporting myself off my own back and via a GoFundMe page located here https://www.gofundme.com/cooking-for-refugees, any donations would be greatly appreciated, and allow me to stay there helping for as long as possible.

Many Thanks

Thom