WE MAKE A LIFE BY WHAT WE GIVE
I walk into Idomeni at 10am this morning, the food queue is long, people are waiting to receive their breakfast. So much time is spent queuing for the people here, queuing for food, queuing for tea, queuing to speak with UNHCR, people say patience is a virtue, at idomeni, it’s a inevitable daily routine.
As I’m walking down the tracks, I see a young man kneeling down, as I get closer, I see a puppy, no older than a few weeks young. The pup is holding up his front paw, he is clearly injured. The young man has just returned from collecting his breakfast, his first peice of food for the day, he will have to wait another 4/5 hrs until lunch is distributed. The young man from Syria, in obvious concern for the puppy, opens his breakfast that’s wrapped in cellophane and starts feeding it to the puppy. I ask him won’t he be hungry not eating it himself, “he’s young and needs to eat” he replies. Once the puppy had finished eating the young man spends time petting and showing him affection, as the man gets up to walk away, the puppy follows with a limp. Unable to get up the step, the refugee looks back and helps the puppy up, they continue to wonder off together.
Later that day, I bump into the young man again and the puppy was still with him. It’s seems that the puppy has found a temporary father, someone to care and look after him for the time being.
Through the darkness that surrounds Idomeni, through all the smoke and hopelessness, generosity broke through and shone light today!
I’ve heard the saying “People who don’t have much, are the people that usually give” and today I understand why that’s said.
Anyone that has been here would have seen the generosity that the people show, so often refugees are offering food to volunteers, without anything, they want to give. This refugee today, sacrificed his breakfast that he had to queue at least 30mins for, I’m sure that this young man will eventually have the opportunity to get on with his life, to live a normal life, without having the daily routine of queuing for food.
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”.
