End of Day 1 for Andrew in Samos.

After trying to have a nap this morning & failing miserably I caught up with the volunteer co-ordinator Val. Then off on a whirlwind tour of Samos:-

* The port where a massive ferry was leaving from.
* The cabin where the clothes are handed out.
* The hostel where volunteers can stay.
* The camp where the refugees stay while being processed.
* The warehouse which shares a compound with the local council situated up a really windy road above the camp.

As we drove round I was told that the refugees are often stranded for hours on the rocks because they land in difficult to access coves. When awaiting rescue on the rocks and the mountainside (for as long as 8 hours), they remove and leave their life vests. Once rescued, the next boat is attracted by the sight of these discarded vests and lands there again – and so the cycle continues.

The clothes system acts a little like a giant laundry service. People arrive soaked, are given clothes and shoes, whilst the discarded wet ones are cleaned dried and sorted ready for the next boat’s arrival.

Right now all the rescue craft are in the harbour prepared and ready. Val informed me it has been very quiet for days but they are expecting many to come across now the sea has calmed.

Anywhere between 600-800 refugees a day are anticipated. That’s a lot of people to clothe, feed and be MSF (doctors without borders) health checked and processed. They reckon it will peak in the summer at 3000 a day! This place is barely set up to handle 200 a day at the moment.

So we started building & sorting tables and shelving for the summer and winter clothing to be sorted and stocked. The stuff all needs bringing in by car or van which means lots of runs up a super windy road. Then it’s a case of sorting and distributing back to the various points at the port and at the big refugee camp in the middle.

I managed to find an angle grinder, a hammer, some nails and mdf and made a start on constructing some more sorting tables. With the van I’ve rented through donations I’m going to drive and buy more wood and complete a drying room for boots and shoes. Then it’s a case of ‘shelving the sh*t out of’ the warehouse (that’s a technical DIY term!)

You can see in the pictures what a massive task it is to sort all the boxes of clothes, I have never seen so many! We have to use the van to collect even more clothes for the summer from a container sent to the other side of the island.

I’m going to be busy tomorrow.

Oh and lots of new and old volunteers for Val to meet and lay the ground rules down to. eg no assisting with any rescues as it’s against the law.

Today I met about half the volunteers here – 1 Norwegian, 4 Swedes, 1 Romanian, a German, a Swiss, an Austrian, a Polish, 3 English girls and Val herself whose a wonderful mad Italian!

Oh and 7 guys from MSF who brought us some lunch and helped hump boxes for an hour or two.

It's late & I have retired to my digs in need of an early night - let's see what the morrow brings. Good night folks.

PS: you took the funding page to over £1K today. Amazing! It remains open to donations until Friday midday. Thank you everyone.