Why? Why are you in Lesbos, everyone asks. Because people are beautiful. Refugee used to be just a word for me, but now it has meaning, depth. And here I worked in an international team, which was amazing.
At home I am a one man show, as an entrepreneur. When I meet someone I think: ‘How can I get out more money?’ Here I don’t get money. Here I get smiles, affection and appreciation. The more I worked here, the more I wanted to give. Here I learned so much about humanity.
Discussions with friends
I had discussions with friends at home. One friend is controller for a telecom company. Just like one of our translators here. The same job, almost the same age. But our translator had to flee, that’s the only difference.
Another friend said in a text discussion: ‘All those refugees… I don’t want them on my porch.’ Then I looked up the family tree of my own family. Where do I come from? My mothers side consists of refugees, they came from France. It’s ages ago, the same situation.
This is the foundation I volunteered for, the website has a section in English: Stichting bootvluchteling.