the camp of serres and our first movie night
In the middle of october we started our project with the refugees. In the camp of Serres there are about 400 refugees, all from northern Iraque.
Anna brought us (Pauline, Jule, Jan and me) to the refugee camp with all the equipment. We should already go inside by our own to set up the movie. But first we had to give our IDs to a policeman who was sitting in a policevan in front of the entrance. He wrote down our names to check that nobody stays in the camp and to ensure our security. There was a rusted fence all around, you could already see a group children playing on the big path out of concrete. Teenagers were hanging around listening to music, talking to friends or walking around. Right next to the entrance there were containers with people sitting in front on dirty, wet ground because it was raining a lot the last days. The people wore old clothes. I didn’t see anybody in jackets, a lot of them just wore shorts and shirts, some of the kids didn’t even wear shoes so they were running around bar feet while I was wearing my winter boots and winter jacket. But they didn’t really seem to care.
The movie night was inside in a building in the middle of the camp. Some people live inside this building, mostly families. Also there is a kitchen in this building where all the women went inside to wash the dishes from dinner. There was still food distribution going on when we came inside. On the way to the room all the people were really nice, saying hello and smiling. All of the teenagers were with their smartphones because there was free WIFI so called “#NETHOPE FREE WIFI”. All of them speak Kurdish and the ones who went to school are able to speak Arabic. Because of the war, though, there was no possibility for the young teenagers to learn Arabic. But quite a lot of them can speak English surprisingly good. Even small girls like six years old talked to me in English! Some of the refugees helped us setting up, mostly boys. When the little kids noticed there was going to be a movie they collected chairs from everywhere.
To start our project Anna wanted to hold a little speech for the beginning of our project but it was hard because especially the children didn’t stop shouting and we just couldn’t stop them. They were just so enthusiastic that they couldn’t calm down and I guess they are not used to be quiet in this camp without school or anything comparable. We were watching the jungle book with them. The movie was in english with arabic subtitles. When there was an exciting part the kids were so calm and showed a lot of attention in their facial expression. After the movie they were asking if we would come from now on every night because they enjoyed it a lot. So in the end we left the camp with the promise to come back the next Friday. Everybody who could speak any English was shouting goodbye, they taught us "I love you" in kurdish and lead us till the exit of the camp.
by Charlotte Selensky
Anna brought us (Pauline, Jule, Jan and me) to the refugee camp with all the equipment. We should already go inside by our own to set up the movie. But first we had to give our IDs to a policeman who was sitting in a policevan in front of the entrance. He wrote down our names to check that nobody stays in the camp and to ensure our security. There was a rusted fence all around, you could already see a group children playing on the big path out of concrete. Teenagers were hanging around listening to music, talking to friends or walking around. Right next to the entrance there were containers with people sitting in front on dirty, wet ground because it was raining a lot the last days. The people wore old clothes. I didn’t see anybody in jackets, a lot of them just wore shorts and shirts, some of the kids didn’t even wear shoes so they were running around bar feet while I was wearing my winter boots and winter jacket. But they didn’t really seem to care.
The movie night was inside in a building in the middle of the camp. Some people live inside this building, mostly families. Also there is a kitchen in this building where all the women went inside to wash the dishes from dinner. There was still food distribution going on when we came inside. On the way to the room all the people were really nice, saying hello and smiling. All of the teenagers were with their smartphones because there was free WIFI so called “#NETHOPE FREE WIFI”. All of them speak Kurdish and the ones who went to school are able to speak Arabic. Because of the war, though, there was no possibility for the young teenagers to learn Arabic. But quite a lot of them can speak English surprisingly good. Even small girls like six years old talked to me in English! Some of the refugees helped us setting up, mostly boys. When the little kids noticed there was going to be a movie they collected chairs from everywhere.
To start our project Anna wanted to hold a little speech for the beginning of our project but it was hard because especially the children didn’t stop shouting and we just couldn’t stop them. They were just so enthusiastic that they couldn’t calm down and I guess they are not used to be quiet in this camp without school or anything comparable. We were watching the jungle book with them. The movie was in english with arabic subtitles. When there was an exciting part the kids were so calm and showed a lot of attention in their facial expression. After the movie they were asking if we would come from now on every night because they enjoyed it a lot. So in the end we left the camp with the promise to come back the next Friday. Everybody who could speak any English was shouting goodbye, they taught us "I love you" in kurdish and lead us till the exit of the camp.
by Charlotte Selensky
