Kos. The rain.

The weather here has worsened. it's bucketing down in biblical proportions. the drain lids are popping up and the streets are like rivers. I've been walking in ankle deep water. Those poor bastards…they are really only festival tents. quite few had collapsed by this afternoon. most of them were soaking inside. tonight that's where they will sleep.

i got my second soaking for the day. I stayed down at the port for about 5 hours helping but then so wet and cold i came back to my room. i've met enough other volunteers now to form a bit of a plan. Today I bought loads of bin liners to hand out as makeshift raincoats. they are so grateful. One guy held my umbrella while I tore ten off the roll and then kissed my hand and thanked me. I bought some little lollies for the kids. 

What happens is; they get those awful flimsy boats from Bodrum and have to sail at night so the authorities don't see them. Must be terrifying. When they land, anywhere of about a 3 mile stretch, many of the boats collapse and they have to swim for it. Then they lose everything, and the death rate is quite high. They  are then required to walk to the police station to register. Nobody is allowed to help them, give them a lift, because if they do, they (the person who helps) are then classed as people smugglers; they have to get there themselves. They then have to go at midnight to this place out on the port for papers. If and when they get them, they have so many days (i think it's 3) to catch a boat to Athens. So many of them do not even have shoes or any money (lost when the boats sink). I met 2 young men today completely sunk in despair. they have lost their families. I just wanted to hold them.

Tomorrow the weather is forecast to be just as foul. Let's hope they are wrong. I'll go to the Kos Solidarity warehouse and sort things for the day or whatever they want me to do.

At night, when the ferry leaves for Athens, volunteers from Kos Solidarity find out who is leaving for Athens. They make sure they have shoes and dry clothing. It's a bit of a scrum for everything. I did that part tonight and will go again tomorrow. Please God they don't send any boats from Bodrum tonight, it would be suicide. But every day the volunteers go and meet those boats when they land.

It is all disorganised, with different local aid groups showing up randomly.

the young man staring at the water?well, i'll never know. but given everything i've seen and heard today, and the fact that he had so little- makes me think he has lost someone in the waters. so many of them have. 

it's all dire. but makes me thankful i came.