Jan 10, 2017 I give you a copy paste of the text I put on fb. I am living in Croatia and I was in Belgrade for the weekend only. I just worked with an NGO for a very short time. These are my impressions: So last weeked I was in Belgrade again. It was the Orthodox Christmas. Men were bringing branches home, wearing camouflage trousers. At night they would throw it to a big bonfire in front of the church. But let’s rewind. I knew there are refugees stuck there and they needed some winter clothes so I brought what I could. What I didnt expect is these freezing temperatures (-12 degrees). Just got out the train station, I could already see a couple of dark skinned ghosts, wandering around under a grey blanket. I am not the most expert Serb-Croatian speaker but I could hear men walking past me speaking some other language, which I guess it was Farsi or Urdu. In fact, the streets are flooded by refugees, and they are freezing to death. Most of them apparently are from Afganistan or Pakistan - the ones from Syria and Iraq are the priority to cross the border, even though Afganistan has been in war for decades. I had the pleasure to bring my clothes to Refugee Aid Serbia and work for them just a few hours. Sam, a Belgian volunteer, took me to the abandoned train houses where refugees are staying at. I could see the smoke from some bonfires. In the distance, some were playing improvised baseball. We walked by many other international volunteers and NGOs. Many refugees were saluting Sam and me. Some NGO installed heating machines for the houses, but they windows, walls and roofs are full of holes it may not be very effective. There’s an infinite line of people, waiting to get some food served. The food finished before half of them could get it. I wander around the place and some men approach me to talk. As I expected, I give my gloves to the first guy with bare hands that speaks to me. I slip on the ice and fall on my a---, and get my now-bare-hands all dirty. Some people laugh but help me get up and put a coin that fell, back in my pocket. We all laugh now. Later with Sam and other people, I went to distribute clothes. These people have shoes all f----- up, with holes. Or maybe they have the heels out because they dont fit. Or no jacket, no hat. Not even g.d. socks. Of course there is not enough for everybody and they keep skipping their turn to ask us for things. Some moments get tense and overwhelming. Meanwhile my hands are freezing, the skin hurts and my knuckles are red. Some kids are there too. One tries some boots but they dont fit. So he proceeds to put them on his hands, laugh and say in English; “gloves”. A young man is smiling at it. He has been doing translating work for the others all along. He tells me he came from a long way. From Afganistan to Pakistan. Pakistan to Iran. Iran to Turkey. Turkey to Bulgaria. Bulgaria to Serbia. Next stop? He isnt sure. In Hungary the border police is famously violent. In Croatia they have toughen up. But he dreams about Austria, Italy.. maybe finish in France. For now he has been in Belgrade for two weeks, and he is waiting for a younger cousin, who is still in Bulgaria. I ask him if he learnt any Serbian; he laughs and says its difficult. I agree. But he can pronounce one word: “dobro”, which means, “good”. All this just happened in two, three hours. That’s it. Imagine if I stayed a week. And actually it encouraged me to be more activist and try to convice you all to help too as much as we can. We may not be built to be soldiers at the frontline but still we can change things. Because meanwhile what is the Serbian governement doing? Nothing. While my hands were hurting from coldness, I was wondering why the f--- it had to be me the one who gave away my gloves? How the politicians can let people freeze in their streets? Oh well, it is not surprising at this point. But we are indirectly responsable for this. The things we buy, the things we support, the politicians we vote. It translates into repressive police, selling weapons and bombing countries. I know this is exactly what many of you want. But yes, it could be you or your kid the one freezing literally to death tonight.
