Lesvos, Day 3

We left our hotel in a residential area of Mytelini heading north again. We decided to stop in Moria to see the goings on. We thought we must have missed a turn off because we didn't see anything like the converted prison described to us nor any people. We stopped to ask an old man sitting at the side of the road. He knew no English. Julie had a map. I motioned crossing the water from Turkey on the map and he understood. He pointed us in the right direction. We made a turn and then we saw the concrete, the barbed wire and refugees walking up and down the road. There were people selling fruit, SIM cards,etc. Capitalism finds its way everywhere. There was a charging station where people were charging their phones. We got out and walked around. I noticed there were small children. I had some fingerpuppets in a small bag in the car. I went to get some. I put a ducky on my finger and wiggled it and said, "quack, quack." Quack is right thought the little kid. I motioned it to him as to offer it. Maybe he thought I was selling it and shrugged. Then I took it off my finger and into his hand. He understood and appeared happy. Other kids started catching on and came around for their own. By now, both Julie and I were distributing them. One kid came back with his frog wanting a horse, but we had no horses, so he settled for a dog. The mothers seemed quite grateful and Julie reported later that she got hugs and kisses from them. We did a lot of waving and just said "Hello." We did the same as we drove off. Those being let off from buses seemed glad to be there making progress in their journey. Others looked like they had been there a while and wished things moved faster. Driving from there to Skala Julie spoke of how she was so jazzed by that experience. We went back on windy roads to reach our destination of Skala Sikamias. In one curve we encountered two donkeys just standing there by the road without explanation. We stopped for a nonsequitur photo op. We made the turn off to Skala and looking out at the water, we noticed a boat coming in. We parked and hurried over for a look. I took some pix from a distance. These were all men. There was a UNHCR van/bus there to take them immediately to stage 2 up the hill. They go from stage 2 to Moria. This is the protocol. If it is a boat of all men who don't look to be in any distress, they are immediately wisked off to stage 2. This was powerful stuff. Our first encounter with a boat coming in. There were people filming and taking pictures. There were townspeople in the form of little old ladies watching the activity. There were mostly volunteers there to greet and clap once they stepped foot on dry ground. I said, "Salaam." This Arabic word for hello and peace was taught to us by Marwa the day before. We went to the camp where Callie from Indiana showed us around - kitchen, men and women + children's changing areas, etc. We met Norwegian Liv there. She was playing with the little goat, Caroline (whether she is a goat or a lamb is debated in the camp; having seen her, I would call her a goat as she has a furry and not a wooly coat). Caroline is certainly smitten with Liv which is so sweet to watch. Liv runs around and Caroline butts her little head and chases her. We ran into Marwa and put ourselves on the schedule. Julie signed up for the early shift beginning at 7:30am and I signed up for 3:30pm. We checked into our lovely room at Hotel Gorgona. Who knew that my minimal German would come in handy in Greece, but it has here at the hotel where they don't speak any English, but they do speak German. The hotel itself is an older building modernized with Ikea fixtures inside. Our room has a small balcony that looks out at the water beyond. It's all so perfect except that we can only have it for three nights as others coming in have reservations. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.