So I've been here a week and ..... uh, 2 days. Wow.. It seems like I've been here a bit longer than that.
I was so tired the first day here. I took my bags up to my room. Wandered around and then found a flat surface and fell asleep.
Saturday, we had worship. After dinner and before the festivities began.
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| Photo credit: Chris Greene |
The first three days of school were.... intense. Literally. We slept out in plastic tents the first two nights. Our school staff decided to as closely re-create a refugee camp out in the Garden in front of the castle as they could. So, after worship and the art track pitches we were given our "scenario." Keep in mind by this point it is 11PM and the majority of the people I had met all we had gotten to was name, country, and art track. No one really knew anyone else.
Our scenario went as follows. We were refugees from the country Yanistan. War had broken out in our home country and we didn't have time to grab but a few belongings. (I had a toothbrush, toothpaste, sleeping mat, socks, and a couple layers of sweatshirts/long sleeve shirts, later someone gave me their extra sleeping bag, PRAISE JESUS!) We were able to make it to a "neutral zone" (i.e. the garden) and the Controller, for now, was allowing us to stay there with minimal means of shelter and provision.
Here is a photo of the boy's compound sunday morning. We had been "highly" encouraged to just roll up in the plastic and save the tent building until daylight. So... yeah.
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| Photo credit: Chris Greene |
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| Photo credit Chris Greene |
The next day was filled with refugee contemplation. We were summoned to the basketball court after breakfast. We were told to sit on the cement for an hour and talking was discouraged. After that hour, the staff came back around from their further preparations and we had a time of refugee education.
While we had been on the basketball court the staff closed off the whole camp even more from the castle, rolled up big bins of plastic and paper trash and stuff. After the refugee education, we were given our further instructions. Up until this point we had access to the bathrooms on the ground level of the castle. That was no more. There were 2 bathrooms, one men & one woman that we would be allowed to use but could only get to by escort. Oh BTW, there are 110 of us. Showers, they were now these black plastic stations, the girls had one and the boys had one. But for water, we had to go to the one water station in the middle of camp and carry buckets to our respective shower stations.
On sunday, we built our tents.
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This is the castle!!!!
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After our evacuation into the castle the next day was our "information overload" day. We had a couple lectures, went over Visa information, School rules, and divvied out work duties and then completed those work duties.
That evening the staff called us all into the dinning hall and had us all sit down. First, they announced we were not having "Education" that night. The second announcement was that the scenario was over. I am not sure that us students knew how to respond at first. I honestly thought he was joking with us. But Derrick continued explaining that apart from Tuesday the rest of the week's weather was to be crummy and for the mental, physical and spiritual well-being of us they decided to stop the scenario.
Derrick did go on to explain what was to happen. Tuesday there was going to be a food shortage. And because the food had already been ordered, the food shortage was still going to happen. (He apologized). Also, Tuesday night the staff was going to kidnap some of the students from camp in the middle of the night. Wednesday some people were going to contract "cholera" and be quarantined. Thursday, the justice DTS students had been told to start "planting" thoughts in our heads that we were better then this & that we deserved to be treated better. Then Friday, we would revolt and two 'UN vehicles' would come and liberate us.
That is the Refugee camp. The parts that happened and some of the parts that didn't.
<3
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