Day One in Drossiá
This morning, I woke up on the top bunk in a room with a large patio. About level with my bunk were two, narrow, parallel windows showing a clear view of the ocean. Looking slightly down into the yard, I saw fruit trees - figs, oranges, lemons, olives, and apricots - growing in an overgrown yard. As I gingerly climbed down the ladder, so as not to wake my roommate, I stopped in front of the sliding glass door. The door opened to a patio nearly as large as the room itself, with laundry lines and an expansive vision of the beachfront holiday homes that make up Drossiá.
Eventually, the rocky shore turned into a soft, sandy beach that was beginning to show early signs of holiday season. As we walked, a group of girls shouted out to my housemate, who has worked in Ritsona for half a year. They work with another NGO in the camp, as did the other two girls a few meters down the beach who greeted us.
This coincidental meeting left me with two impressions of the context of my new position. First, one of the volunteers from another organization commented that all the 'big' NGOs had left Ritsona camp. From what I understand, the Greek state sporadically takes over aspects of what NGOs were managing in the camps - primary education, job training, etc. However, it is remarkable how many 'small' NGOs you can find in the area. One could assume that larger NGOs are 'delegating' to smaller, more ad-hoc groups as they allocate new efforts and attention to the most recent crisis. As large scale international attention for refugees in Southern Europe cools, the types of services needed are no longer 'code red', and are suited to delegate to many small, specialized group. (I'm going to study up/think on this a bit more, because it's a direct extension of discussions I had in graduate school, but if you have any thoughts, please comment or email me.)
The second impression, and granted this was based off a small sample size, was that the volunteer sector is largely a feminine workforce. I have a few early stage guesses as to why this is, but none of them seem adequate yet. The first guess is that many of these smaller NGOs are recruiting for education, women and children's services, and art therapy programs. All of these fields have conventionally feminine workforces. But it does not explain why women would be more likely to volunteer than men within these fields. (I'll think more on this as I start working, but again, I'd love to chat through this with anyone who has any thoughts.)
Tomorrow I start officially at the camp. I've found this really cool map made by the wonderful people at This American Life to accompany episodes 592 and 593. These episodes came out in 2016, so the situation has changed a bit, but as can be expected, there's some wonderful storytelling here. Hoping all of you who celebrate are having a wonderful Easter Sunday/Passover/Bank Holiday weekend. Going to put away my laptop for the night and try to charge up before my first day of work. Signing off with a photo of the dog friend I made today.
I could feel the sun through the walls, so I followed the cool tile stairs down to the kitchen to fix myself some breakfast, which I ate on one of the many patios of the Dream House. (The residence for long-term I AM YOU volunteers. I'll let you know when I find out where the name came from.) When the wind became strong enough to challenge the warmth of that early morning Greek sunlight, I moved inside and set to work on a mostly-completed puzzle that I had noted when I arrived the night before. After a few hours trading off between tinkering with the puzzle and reading (currently reading Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag - highly recommend), I joined two of my housemates on a walk. Turning left out of our front gate and walking between five and ten minutes, we arrived to the shore at low tide. Maneuvering through the tide pools, we walked slowly, just for the sake of walking.
This coincidental meeting left me with two impressions of the context of my new position. First, one of the volunteers from another organization commented that all the 'big' NGOs had left Ritsona camp. From what I understand, the Greek state sporadically takes over aspects of what NGOs were managing in the camps - primary education, job training, etc. However, it is remarkable how many 'small' NGOs you can find in the area. One could assume that larger NGOs are 'delegating' to smaller, more ad-hoc groups as they allocate new efforts and attention to the most recent crisis. As large scale international attention for refugees in Southern Europe cools, the types of services needed are no longer 'code red', and are suited to delegate to many small, specialized group. (I'm going to study up/think on this a bit more, because it's a direct extension of discussions I had in graduate school, but if you have any thoughts, please comment or email me.)
The second impression, and granted this was based off a small sample size, was that the volunteer sector is largely a feminine workforce. I have a few early stage guesses as to why this is, but none of them seem adequate yet. The first guess is that many of these smaller NGOs are recruiting for education, women and children's services, and art therapy programs. All of these fields have conventionally feminine workforces. But it does not explain why women would be more likely to volunteer than men within these fields. (I'll think more on this as I start working, but again, I'd love to chat through this with anyone who has any thoughts.)
Tomorrow I start officially at the camp. I've found this really cool map made by the wonderful people at This American Life to accompany episodes 592 and 593. These episodes came out in 2016, so the situation has changed a bit, but as can be expected, there's some wonderful storytelling here. Hoping all of you who celebrate are having a wonderful Easter Sunday/Passover/Bank Holiday weekend. Going to put away my laptop for the night and try to charge up before my first day of work. Signing off with a photo of the dog friend I made today.
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