On the Ground: Bright spots among the misery; headed home

One of our translators, Esra Alev, and some of her friends started a Peace Campus after the earthquake. They saw that so many children were in need, living in tents with their families, crying all the time, no school, no home, lost pets.

So 3-4 times a week they gather children from her village in Antakya to play peace games, make art out of recycled things, take walks or go to the river. There is much laughter and camaraderie as the kids play and have a sense of normalcy.

Yesterday we did a medical clinic in a Syrian refugee center run by Syrian refugee women. Amazing, powerful, smart, compassionate women.

Can’t help thinking how right on the idea of supporting women in every culture benefits all.

These women created programs for the handicapped, women’s empowerment, education, craft and vocational skill training, all in a first floor foyer of an old apartment building.

They welcomed us and we set up a clinic and were busy with patients all day. Our team saw many health issues related to chronic poor nutrition, some skinny babies, failure to thrive and generally fragile health.

We will be going back on Thursday and they will be taking us to the border camp. We expect to see 100-125 patients and are planning to send Team 2 twice a week as there are many in camps on the border.

We have been assured these women know the immigration officer and we will be able to go in and treat patients, These camps also house a small percentage of poor Turkish citizens.

We passed the border wall and barbed-wire fences as we drove. We have been warned to not get out and walk around because there are mine fields. We could see the hills of Syria and were told just the other side were the huge Syrian camps.

It continues to be a struggle to work with the most disadvantaged.

The NGO (non-governmental organization) running the “base” REMAR has just gotten a fine for food distribution in a very poor Syrian camp. It is frustrating because it is politics not humanity running the show.

The weather has changed and we are in the rainy season and apparently it rains a lot here. The container ISO (International Organization for Standardization) boxes have been flooded in the rains , water pouring through them, and the tents are just rivers and then mud through them. It is pitiful to see losses of possessions again. This will continue for a very long time.

The environment continues to be toxic.

Cranes and bulldozers continue to clean up rubble and there are thousands of severely damaged buildings needing to be demolished. All this creates toxic dust. There is a huge increase in asthma-like symptoms in people and again we wonder the long term effects on the respiratory system.

The dust irritates the skin and we all rush back at the end of the day to wash off the sweat and toxic dust.

Tomorrow at the Syrian camp will be my last day.

Team 2 takes over. Although I am ready to come home I am sad to leave the wonderful translators I have worked with and the Turkish and Syrian people who continue to need support. Over and over we have heard how our presence has given them hope.

We see them, we hear them and we tell the story of their struggles.

Second email received Friday: Not to get alarmed but our last day was both tense and rewarding.

We went back to the Syrian Center, to be taken to a Syrian camp on the border and do a clinic. We arrived at the center and kept getting delayed, tea, tea, and tea again. So what’s up???

The director, some translators and people coming in and out of the room puzzled us and finally after almost 3 hours we are told we can go to the camp. Apparently there had been a grenade go off in the camp we were heading to and it wasn’t safe. I don’t know who or why.

We went to another camp, we were a bit tense thinking it could happen there too.

As it turned out we were welcomed and brought to a large tent to set up and had over 100 patients to see: Some really sick and a lot of kids. Even did some minor surgery under local anesthesia.

We were so busy there was no time to think about being afraid, which is why we have security.

We finished around 6 p.m. and the kids lined up to the car with thank you waves and hugs. We were surrounded by people thanking us, which made our security person very nervous.

He kept trying to get us all in the vehicles and all our supplies and we could barely get through the crowd because people were hugging us and children were grabbing on to our clothes. All was well.

We returned to base for a farewell dinner, vodka and tonics, tearful goodbyes from our translators and a hand over to team 2.

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