#kai bashira

[rosycheekies]

My New Friend Wasn't What I Expected by Kai Bashira

[ghostgirlyuri]

caught up on my new friend wasnt what i expected by kai bashira this morning and its just so warm and comfy while still having the characters deal with personal problems that arent super serious like both characters have some difficulty relating to people but it feels grounded and real

its just nice to see a story treating interpersonal relationship trouble as serious and not an overblown world ending problem that cant usually be solved with just a little communication

the fluffy art style is absolutely adorable and im loving seeing these cute girls realise theyre eachothers people <3

[houndlesbian]

every kai bashira comic update is like surgically crafted to make lesbians swoon

[chiisana-lion]

DID THEY COMMISSION MS KAI FECKING BASHIRA FOR A BROMIDE????????????????????????????????????????????

[narwhalaoibhe]

私はかいばしら先生のファンアートを描きましたばかり。先生のかっこいい女が大好き！先生、ありがとうございます！ このキャラは『推しが働くカフェで社畜OLが癒される話』のです。

I drew some fanart of Kai Bashira sensei's comics. I love the cool women they draw 🥰🥰! Thank you, sensei! These characters are from "The Overworked Office Lady's Cafe Crush" You should go check out sensei's comics over on their Twitter https://twitter.com/bashira0777

[jpekblue]

Get you a girl who can do both 😇😈

(My New Friend Wasn’t What I Expected - Kai Bashira @bashira0777 on twitter)

[zukoscomet]

I realised recently that I never actually collated all the ideas I had about my Zutara kids so here, have some steambabies! Idk I just really like the idea of Katara and Zuko having a big family after all they’ve lost when they were young, and as an only child, I guess I kind of romanticise the idea of having siblings. 

TW: I hc that Katara would have had a miscarriage, so if that is a trigger for you then maybe don’t read on.

Shameless plug but if you wanna read more about this, my series on AO3 is roots and wings.

Their firstborn is a boy who they name Kai after Kya. His full name is Kaito but nobody who knows him ever calls him that, not even when he’s in trouble. I’m not going to go into too much context about like the pregnancy bc you can already find that stuff here. He turns out very much like Zuko physically - tall, golden irises, straight black hair, narrow angular face - but he has mixed tawny skin and his eyes are shaped round and wide like Katara. He’s born on the last day of summer in 109 AG, so because of superstition that firebenders are born in peak summer, there’s some uncertainty about what he’ll bend - if at all - but then when he’s three and a half, he makes a flame. Iroh trains him to firebend until he’s about 16, then he goes off to the Sun Warriors for a year to finish off, and he ends up a very spiritual firebender. Kai is like the dream first child - the softest boy ever to live - and when Katara and Zuko go on to have more children, he’s a really great big brother, like wholeheartedly adores his little sibs even if they drive him completely nuts about 95% of the time. He’s quite a conflicted and confused kid growing up. He’s never quite sure of what he wants in life but finally, when he’s 17, he decides that he realises that he doesn’t want to be Fire Lord and passes along the heir status to his sister. After that he joins the Sun Warriors and eventually marries the chief’s daughter, Himari, and they have two firebender girls, Aiko and Sol. 

Izumi arrives not long after her brother in 110 AG. Katara and Zuko planned to wait but it ends up that there’s barely a year between Kai and Izumi and it comes as an extra shock as Katara didn’t figure out she was pregnant again till like 18 weeks in. Katara goes into labour early at 35 weeks and Izumi is born really small - she never completely catches up either and it’s hilarious because after successive generations of tall male Fire Lords, they get Izumi who’s barely 5 feet - but she’s otherwise fine. She’s physically a mish-mash so overall she resembles nobody especially - Katara’s hair, complexion and big round eyes, Zuko’s irises, Azula’s heart-shaped face and highly arched brow line, Hakoda’s facial features. The superstition about summer births for firebenders peters out real quick when Izumi, born in the autumn, bends blue fire at two and a half and, taught by Jeong Jeong, she grows into a prodigal master. When she’s young, Izumi is the polar opposite of her brother - feisty, stubborn, determined and whip smart - and she’s a heathen teenager but by about 15 she mellows and matures, and part of Kai’s reasoning for abdicating is that Izumi seems a better fit for Fire Lord. Izumi was always kinda apathetic to kids but at 19, she accidentally gets pregnant and has her son, Kazuo, then her daughter, Kira, eleven years later. Izumi becomes Fire Lord at 37 but she only rules for about 14 years before retiring. Since she had Kaz so young, if she stayed on the throne much longer, Kaz would also be an older man when it came time for him to inherit, so she decides to step aside and Kaz is coronated just after his 33rd birthday. 

(Kazuo takes after his Gran Gran in more ways than just his blue eyes; he’s a waterbender so Kaz is the first waterbender Fire Lord)

After a break, Katara and Zuko decide to try for a third addition and Katara gives birth - in the Southern Water Tribe, for the first time - to Bashira, four years after Izumi. Shira looks probably the most like Zuko out of all the children, even more than her elder brother does. They share the same tall and lean physique, the same long black hair, Shira is mixed but still the palest of all the steambabies and their faces are practically identical. They’re characteristically very similar, too - serious, intense and reserved. The only differences is that her hair is curly, her eyes are blue and finally, Katara gets her waterbending child. Both of them suspected that Shira was going to be a waterbender even at the early stages of the pregnancy, but it’s still super exciting when Shira tosses a wave at her elder siblings when she’s two. Katara is teaching her as soon as she possibly can but over time some tension develops between them when Shira turns out to be quite different from her mom in terms of natural bending style. Shira is very fight-oriented, she learns dao swords from Zuko and never shows as much of an interest in the healing arts, but when things blow up and eventually Shira is able to explain that she wants to be able fight like her mom did during the war, things straighten out and Katara guides Shira all the way through to mastery. She eventually moves to the South in her late teens to lead the tribe’s warriors. There, she has three children - waterbender twins Kenzo and Kenji, then a daughter named Kanna who’s a firebender like Grandpa - but the marriage to their father doesn’t last and in her 50s, she ends up in a relationship with Aang and Toph’s daughter, Lin.

Katara gets pregnant for a fourth time - planned - just after Shira turns two, but this time she has a miscarriage. Zuko was overseas when it happened so she went through it alone. Katara is devastated and resents Zuko for not being there. She knows it’s not his fault but she can’t help her emotions and that makes her feel even worse so she just shuts down - stops doing her Fire Lady work, stops spending any more time with Zuko and their children than necessary, won’t let the rest of the family visit them and spends most of the day lying in bed. Zuko doesn’t know how to help her so initially he decides to give her space to grieve however she feels she needs to, but it just deteriorates until one day Zuko suggests that maybe they should both go to therapy or marriage counselling or something because it can’t go on like this. Katara just completely loses it at that and ends up yelling at him all the things that she’d been bottling up over the last couple of months. Katara says some awful things and she’s expecting Zuko to take it poorly, hence why she kept it all inside up till now, but Zuko just accepts every bit of it and after that, she’s finally able to grieve properly and mend.

About six months after they come back together, they decide to try again and Katara eventually falls pregnant. The pregnancy itself goes smoothly but both of them are so stressed about something going wrong like last time and the effect that might have on both of them, then Gran Gran passes away when Katara is in her thirtieth week, so the full ten months were incredibly hard-going. 

It’s a big relief when the baby is finally born on Ember Island, three years after Shira in 117 AG. They name her Lili in honour of their recent losses, since lilies can ease scars and Iroh once referred to them as lights in darkness. From the beginning, Lili is the image of Katara in every way physically and characteristically - kind, patient, gentle, but does have quite a temper if she’s pushed too far. She’s also a waterbender, though it takes her a little longer to manifest her abilities than any of her siblings, first gaining control of the water at the age of six. Lili is incredibly endearing, as both a child and an adult, and she becomes so particularly popular with the Fire Nation public that the firebending qualification to be considered an heir to the throne is reversed, so Shira and Lili are inducted into the succession. Born in the same year, Lili had a long-term relationship with Tenzin, Aang and Toph’s thirdborn, but as they grew older, Tenzin was concerned that if he married her, their children would have heritage of all four elements and degrade the chances of Tenzin producing airbenders and continuing the Air Nation. That concern resulted in a kind of on-again-off-again thing but eventually Lili sent him off with an "I don’t want to be with someone that isn’t even sure he wants me" and went travelling the world for a few years. When they’re both in their thirties though, Lili and Tenzin reconnect and get back together, eventually marrying and producing five children - Jinora, Aya, Hiro, Rohan and Kano, the elder four airbenders and the youngest a waterbender.

A few months after Lili is born, Sokka and Suki have a baby girl and when Katara and Zuko go to visit their new niece, they agree that night on a spur-of-the-moment that they want one more child. The morning after, they talk about it properly and decide it’d be better to wait till Lili was a bit older, but Katara found out six weeks later that that one time had been successful. About halfway through, they find out that they’re expecting a boy and Katara is especially excited since their son had always been more closely attached to her whereas their girls were very firmly Daddy’s girls. Sure enough, when Kallik arrives in 118 AG, he’s a big Mama’s boy and remains so his entire life. Apart from his curly black hair, Kallik is the spitting image of his uncle, to the point that Hakoda says that seeing Lili and Kallik together is like seeing young Katara and Sokka. Kallik is the hardest to handle out of their children - loud, playful, mischievous and an exhausting troublemaker. All of the siblings fight like cat and dog but Kallik and Izumi are by far the worst, on the level of one walks into a room and the other is like “And I took that personally” and they never seem to grow out of it even when they’re both old and grey. Kallik is the only nonbender in the family and initially he struggles with this a bit but he spends a lot of time hanging out with Uncle Sokka, learns dao swords with Shira and Zuko, and by the time he hits his teens, he comes to view it more as something that sets him apart from his siblings. When he’s 18, he goes to join the United Forces and he stays in service till his late thirties, when he meets Ren, another serviceman from the Northern Water Tribe. After beginning a relationship with him, the pair settle in Republic City and end up adopting two daughters, Kirima and Alasie.

About a decade after Kallik is born, it seems like things are kind of slowly drawing to a close as the kids are getting older - Kai is 19 and has left home, Izumi is 18 and living away in Republic City while she studies at university, Shira is 14 and already talking about moving South the first chance she gets, Lili is 11 and wanting to go Northern Water Tribe to train with the healers there, and Kallik is 10 and dreaming of being a great military commander like Grandpa Koda and Uncle Sokka - when suddenly Katara starts to get really, really sick. Zuko is absolutely terrified, thinking that there’s something seriously wrong with his wife, but after some deduction, it turns out that Katara is actually pregnant again. The relief at realising she’s not dying is short-lived and the reaction from both of them is basically holy shit holy fuck we are too old for this our other kids are practically all grown up now we are done with babies we can't seriously have six children what are we going to do. There’s a lot of discussion, especially since Katara is 43 by then and the risks for her to be carrying another child are higher, but they ultimately decide to go through with it. Ironically, it’s the easiest of all her pregnancies and when Katara delivers a baby girl in Republic City in 128 AG, there hadn’t been a single complication to speak of. Iroh had passed away two years earlier, devastating the whole family but Zuko in particular, but the baby is born with his irises - a darker gold - so they name her Ilah. Her eyes are big and round like Katara’s but other than that, Ilah resembles her Grandma Ursa most strongly, with her thick chestnut-coloured hair and slight, delicate facial features. Naturally, Katara and Zuko think all their babies were the cutest baby but Ilah is probably objectively the cutest, with her big honey-coloured eyes, chubby cheeks and soft little curls.

Inevitably, since Kai, Shira, Lili and Kallik had all either left home before she was born or did so when she was still a little girl, Ilah gets a lot more concentrated attention from Katara and Zuko. She’s completely spoiled and doted upon by the whole family, including her elder brothers and sisters who visit her as often as they can manage. Since Izumi still lives in the palace permanently as the Crown Princess, she and Ilah are close, but Ilah ultimately ends up being closest with Izumi’s son, Kaz, who is only a year younger than his aunt. Ilah was even in the room when Kaz was born, though it wasn't an intentional move. Zuko was supposed to be watching Ilah when things got intense with Izumi’s labour but things escalated from 0-100 real fast and Katara didn't have time to hand Ilah off, so she stayed tucked in a sling on her mother’s back as Katara helped her eldest daughter to deliver her own baby, somehow sleeping through all the noise and commotion. Ilah and Kaz end up more like a brother and sister or best friends than an aunt and nephew, though Kaz always calls her Auntie Ilah when he’s teasing her. Ilah is perhaps the shyest around strangers of her siblings, uninterested in celebrity and attention, but she’s the most adventurous, determined and creative, interested in science and invention from an early age. Growing up, Ilah felt a little pressured by the renown of her family, especially when her firebending turned out to be just about average in power, but when she’s 12, Ilah figures out that she can combustionbend. From there, she applies her bending abilities to science and when she leaves home for university, she invents the combustion engine at age 20. The rest of her adult life is spent travelling virtually non-stop, working on innovation projects for the different nations. She never has children, on the account that it would be unfair to expect a kid to move around as much as she does and she’s happy enough with her numerous nieces and nephews, but she eventually marries her long-time girlfriend Li-Mei, an Air Nomad tasked with searching the world for new airbenders. 

[vstranslations]

SKY-HI - Snatchaway - Lyrics

official video (Youtube) Japanese/Romaji/English lyrics under the cut

誰が止めても一切聞く気しない 夢を見るも掴むも自分次第 宙に舞い野を駆ける自由自在 こんなイケてるチームなんざ他にない You Know?

1, 2, 3 止め処なく Gain, Again, Again Let’s Snatch Away

どきなどきな 三本柱のお通りだ 真っ赤な顔してどうした？ まだやり合うなんて正気かい？ とうに取り仕切った いかにも俺がここのリーダー Okay, 止めれるモンなら止めてみな

Oh Yeah!!!! かかってこい 逃げも隠れもしないぜBoy 圧倒的ってのはこういうモン Go Crazy 空より高く飛べ 簡単でしょう？ 尻尾巻くくらいなら下がってろ 最高が何か証明しよう Go Crazy

そう固まんなルーキー そう急かしなさんなグルーピー おかげさま暖まった空気 だがこの先ちょっとばっか注意 Thrill Like A Movie They’re Shooting?? ご自由に でも言ってんだろこっちも少しも手は抜かないのが流儀

1, 2, 3 止め処なく Gain, Again, Again Let’s Snatch Away

どこだってフィールドさ 切って貼ってスクラップ＆ビルド 勝利の女神からのキスを受けたお前にとってのビースト 幾度も幾度も傷を負ってなおこのスピードフロー 止めれるモンなら止めてみな

Oh Yeah!!!! かかってこい 逃げも隠れもしないぜBoy 圧倒的ってのはこういうモン Go Crazy 空より高く飛べ 簡単でしょう？ 尻尾巻くくらいなら下がってろ 最高が何か証明しよう Go Crazy

All We Do Is Win So All My People Say All We Do Is Win まだ遊び足りないぜ All We Do Is Win やってやる何回だって ハンデも何でもかんでもあっても関係も無いほど 圧巻のShow Time

意地と覚悟 夢に掛ける担保 今日も明日も一度引けばラスト どこからどこまでリアルかすら グラグラ揺らぐ落差＝苦楽の間 益々増す策略が塞ぐ「自由」を歌うのさ

Oh Yeah!!!! かかってこい 逃げも隠れもしないぜBoy 圧倒的ってのはこういうモン Go Crazy 空より高く飛べ 簡単でしょう？ 尻尾巻くくらいなら下がってろ 最高が何か証明しよう Go Crazy Everybodyこの世界を遊べ

--

Dare ga tometemo issai kiku ki shinai yume o miru mo tsukamu mo jibun shidai chuu ni mai nou o kakeru jiyuu jizai konna iketeru chiimu nanza hoka ni nai you know?

One, two, three, tomedo naku Gain, Again, Again Let’s Snatch Away

Doki na doki na sanbon bashira no o toori da makkana kao shite doushita? mada yari au nante shouki kai? tou ni tori shikitta ika ni mo ore ga koko no riidaa okay, tomereru mon nara tomete mi na

Oh yeah!!!! Kakatte koi nige mo kakure mo shinai ze boy attouteki tte no wa kou iu mon go crazy sora yori takaku tobe kantan deshou? shippo maku kurai nara sagattero saikou ga nanika shoumei shiyou go crazy

Sou katamanna ruukii sou sekashi na sanna guruupii okagesama atamatta kuuki daga kono saki chotto bakka chuui Thrill Like A Movie They’re Shooting?? Go jiyuu ni demo itten daro kocchi mo sukoshi mo te wa nukanai no ga ryuugi

One, two, three, tomedo naku Gain, Again, Again Let’s Snatch Away

Doko da tte fiirudo sa kitte hatte sukurappu and birudo shouri no megami kara no kisu o uketa omae ni totte no biisuto ikudo mo ikudo mo kizu o otte nao kono supiido furoo tomereru mon nara tomete mi na

Oh yeah!!!! Kakatte koi nige mo kakure mo shinai ze boy attouteki tte no wa kou iu mon go crazy sora yori takaku tobe kantan deshou? shippo maku kurai nara sagattero saikou ga nanika shoumei shiyou go crazy

All We Do Is Win So All My People Say All We Do Is Win mada asobi tarinai ze All We Do Is Win yatte yaru nankai datte hande mo nandemo kandemo atte mo kankei mo nai hodo akkan no show time

Iji to kakugo yume ni kakeru tanpo kyou mo asu mo ichido hikeba rasuto doko kara doko made riaru ka sura guragura yuragu rakusa kuraku no aida masumasu fuyasu sakuryaku ga fusagu jiyuu o utau no sa

Oh yeah!!!! Kakatte koi nige mo kakure mo shinai ze boy attouteki tte no wa kou iu mon go crazy sora yori takaku tobe kantan deshou? shippo maku kurai nara sagattero saikou ga nanika shoumei shiyou go crazy Everybody kono sekai o asobe

--

I try to stop them, but they don’t wanna hear my view Whether you live the dream or not is up to you Drift in space, run in a field, do what you wanna do There’s no one out there better than my crew, you know?

1, 2, 3 - can’t stop us now Gain, Again, Again Let’s Snatch Away

Everyone step aside, the squad is coming through Why’re you all red? Still think you can pick a fight? We’re already in the spotlight, and I’m the obvious leader Okay, if you think you can stop me, then try it

Oh yeah!!!! Come at me! You can’t run or hide from us, boy We’ll crush you into dust Go crazy Isn’t it easy to fly above the sky? If it scares you, then say goodbye We’ll prove what the best really is Go crazy

Yeah, a stuffy rookie and annoyingly pushy groupies You helped warm up the air But now you gotta take care Thrill Like A Movie They’re Shooting?? Feel free But I told you I don’t cut any corners – it’s part of my policy

1, 2, 3 - can’t stop us now Gain, Again, Again Let’s Snatch Away

Anywhere can be your field – cut and paste, scrap and re-grow Getting kissed by the goddess of victory unlocks your beast mode Even after all the pain and hurt, I just spit this sick flow If you think you can stop me, then try it

Oh yeah!!!! Come at me! You can’t run or hide from us, boy We’ll crush you into dust Go crazy Isn’t it easy to fly above the sky? If it scares you, then say goodbye We’ll prove what the best really is Go crazy

All We Do Is Win So All My People Say All We Do Is Win I’m not done having fun yet All We Do Is Win It doesn’t matter what happens or gets in my way ‘cause I’ll still have an incredible show time

I built my dream on resolve and pride If I can keep drawing a little attention, I’ll be fine Now even my grip on reality wavers back and forth in the pleasure vs. pain duality I’m saying that “freedom” oppresses us more each day

Oh yeah!!!! Come at me! You can’t run or hide from us, boy We’ll crush you into dust Go crazy Isn’t it easy to fly above the sky? If it scares you, then say goodbye We’ll prove what the best really is Go crazy Everybody, just enjoy yourselves!

[dhofberg]

Going back;Take three

Well it has been 8 months since I left Lesvos the last time, and about five months since I decided to go back again. Once you know how things are, it’s hard to forget that for the refugees in Greece and many other places, things are rarely getting any better and mostly are worse as movement from Turkey to Europe is more difficult. Nevertheless landings in Lesvos continue and now those who hoped to seek asylum in Nirthern Europe are inevitably stranded for a long time in Greece. Two years ago they were able to bypass the Shengan rules that required asylum seekers to seek refuge and legal status in the first country in which they landed. But that has long ceased and now the requirement is in effect. Not because the Greek economy has improved or has become more welcoming to refugees, but because much of the EU has closed its borders to most refugees.

I have not followed things as closely as I had been. I quit Facebook for a couple of months in my frustration over (partly) political vitriol and even family members hateful messages. But I am back on now because it is actually helpful to look at posts of friends in Greece who write about goings on there.

I had thought this time I would work with Doc Mobile again, and I told them in April I was planning to return in October. Although the experience working last year in a tent, a construction zone, with a large dose of chaos and lack of adequate... well anything, the team was good and the organization’s founder Kai Whittsock undeniably had his heart in the right place. Unfortunately after giving them my dates, beginning to arrange housing with Paula, a doctor from Spain, they informed me that the schedule wasn’t going to work. Then Paula dropped out and they told me maybe it would work, but that they were no longer doing primary care. They had switched to doing psychological counseling and referrals for refugees with PTSD and other trauma induced mental disabilities. If you had followed my blog before, you know that almost all refugees had suffered trauma, almost all before fleeing their homes, and many of them since then, en route to Europe ( sexual assault, injuries from cruelty, near drownings, losing loved ones), and now still more trauma with the realization that they might be living in these horrible refugee camps for months to even years. In the US I screen patients for depression and sexual assault, and often make referrals to behavioral health department. Sometimes I even prescribe antidepressants. But even in rural Mendocino County where access to a psychologist or psychiatrist is not great, I would not consider myself trained to be their counselor in Spanish which I speak tolerably, or even in English. So the idea that non-Arabic and non-Farsi speaking medical professionals are doing that kind of counseling is puzzling to me. That is not something I can or should do.

So I began asking the people I know in Lesvos to tell me which medical organizations they would recommend and contacted a few. Now it looks as though I will be working with the group Kitrinos. They must have some credibility because the Greek government is allowing them to be providers inside Moría camp along with MSF, BRF (Dutch group),and KEELPNO.

If you are new to this blog, and don’t know the history, the camp is partly prison ( refugees from countries not recognized as having sufficient threat),and partly slum village inside a former Greek detention center built for 2,000 and last I heard “ housing” over 7,000. People there can come and go, they are not technically imprisoned, but until they are registered as asylum seekers, they have no real resources or ability to move freely off the Island and must wait months or years for their asylum hearings that typically take place in Athens.

This population from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Congo and many other places, have been unintentional neighbors having to share the inadequate sanitary facilities and the general squalor of the camp. Though there are many women and children there, and elders as well, I believe the largest group are young men. Think men who have been displaced from their homes by threat of violence, or actual loss of their homes and families. Some are educated and came from well off families, many others , especially those in their teenage years have lost several years now of schooling or work or building families to wars in these countries. They are restless and angry, and recently I have even heard there are factions of supporters of Assad who have also left the country because their towns are in shambles. And they come bearing grudges.

I always felt safe among the refugees before. It is especially easy to bond with people you have listened to and tried to help. They are grateful and gracious. I imagine I will feel that way again once I get there and start work in the clinic. But something tells me it could be very different this time due to the entrenchment of refugees at Moría, and the factions that may have carved deeper grooves of fear and mistrust of “others”. When every day in US politics and media we see how fearful people are of those who look or speak or think in some way unfamiliar, why would it be any better in a refugee camp?

My plan is to arrive in Greece around October 4, and spend the rest of the month working there.

I know I will take money to One Happy Family and Bashira, so if friends want to donate money again to help those in the refugee camps, I will be collecting community funds again. Once I am there I may l ow more specifically what is needed and decide to contribute to Katrinos, or even Doc Mobile, but I will wait and see until I have been there and know what’s what.

If you find articles about the refugee crisis you think are good or relevant, please send them to me via tumblr or Facebook or even email.

I will update about my work plans and will try to post a few times a week when I am working.

[rosycheekies]

My New Friend Wasn't What I Expected by Kai Bashira

[rosycheekies]

My New Friend Wasn't What I Expected by Kai Bashira

[rosycheekies]

My New Friend Wasn't What I Expected by Kai Bashira

[rosycheekies]

My New Friend Wasn't What I Expected by Kai Bashira

[chiisana-lion]

wait slight pause . ms kai bashira i literally owe you my life

[zukoscomet]

So after seeing the amazing post by @ap-kinda-lit using this generator, I just had to have a play around with it myself for my own steambabies, and honestly the results could have been pulled straight out of my own head.

Kaito “Kai”

Izumi

Bashira “Shira”

Lili

Kallik

Ilah

[dhofberg]

Where does the money go? 11/26/2027

If you have been following the blog, you have already heard some of the stories of the refugees we meet in the clinic. And a bit about the meetings I have been to for Interagency Communication. So by now you probably get it that the flow of money from the EU to the Greek government for the shelter and protection of refugees ( I have heard the number 400 million Euros), is not a stream that is easy for volunteers or refugees or most NGOs to follow.

There are Greek agencies that are set up to help refugees get registered, have health assessments, set dates for asylum interviews. But they ate woefully understaffed. The office in Lesvos that awards asylum seekers an AMKA ( like a social security number), is open a few hours of the day and can process about ten applications a day. There are between 70-150 new arrivals on Lesvos a day, so we are not even counting arrivals to other places in Greece. The medical clinic run by ERCI in Moria can see about 40 patients a day, and if you don’t yet have registration papers, you might have to wait weeks to be seen in a clinic, unless you are deemed an emergency case. Pretty much everyone who has just been through the traumas of fleeing a war torn country, paying smugglers to put them on a perilous journey across the sea, feel that they have some urgent needs. And most of them have some unrealistic expectations about what life will be like when they reach Europe.

Yesterday we finally went back to Moria camp where we had worked in January 2016. You might remember that that was immediately before the transition camp became a detention center because of the Shengen rules applied to asylum seekers when the borders in Europe were closed. We had been told we would never get in there, they no longer allow small NGOs to walk in, so I devised a plan to get in. Because I have been communicating with a dental relief program from U.K. and also a Palestinian dentist at One Happy Family to develop a small dental education program for the children at OHF, I thought she might be able to get me in to the camp the week that her team was coming to Moria to provide emergency dental care there (toothache=extraction).

It turns out the way we got in, was by walking straight in he gate, right in front of three or four Greek policeman, without hesitation, so basically got in on chutzpah. They didn’t stop Michael either who was walking right behind me, so I suppose we looked like we knew what we were doing?

One doesn’t take photographs in the camp as it can endanger refugees, and also probably the reputation of the Greek police and government. It was shocking to see that this place we felt was grim in 2016, was now holding more than three times the number of people ( between 6-7,000), built up with more ISO boxes ( container housing would be a stretch, especially compared with the ones pictured last year in Bremen), small family tents lining every pathway. Some of the areas were orderly and relatively picked up. But many were on a muddy gravely hillside, hopelessly studded with the refuse of living. The cyclone fencing is where clothes drying happens, of that I did take a few pictures.

We made our way through people living their lives in tents, some smiling kids, women carrying basins of water from the bathrooms to wash clothes. We have heard that the water only runs for certain hours, and the shower is usually cold. I can’t think why this is, there is a lot of water on this island. After a quick walk around the camp, we made our way up to the “fourth level”, where the medical clinic has an office. We were able to speak with one of the volunteers there who explained their triage and appointment process. Communication between the health care agencies is really important. We need to know, in Doc Mobiles clinic for instance, if we can refer a patient to a specialist or not. If Doc Mobile is here long enough, and makes the right connections, they might be recognized enough for KEELPNO to accept their referrals. They do accept some from ERCI, so at present, we might refer someone back to the ERCI Moria clinic to be seen and then referred to KEELPNO, who might then be able to do the needed referral. Can you imagine in an American or British health care system, you go to a doctor and they say, yeah you have terrible psoriasis, I’llrefer you to another clinic, where you might have to wait two months to get in, and then they see you and say, yeah, true you have REALLY bad psoriasis, and we will refer you to KEELPNO and they might give you an appointment with the specialist in a few more months.

I use this example, because the fellow I saw with really bad psoriasis, had arrived here a few weeks ago. But he had no medication, and though he had been seen at Moria, they gave home some ineffective low potency steroid creams, which did nothing, and he was near to be kicked out of his tent because his tent mates ( none of them his family or friends, men traveling alone are often forced to share a four person tent with men they don’t know), thought he was contagious.

Doc Mobile has limited funds, but we are seeing 40-50 patients a day and there are times when we can make something work out for a patient like this man. We bought him some of the medication he needs, and on Monday when the pharmacy opens I am hoping to find him the rest. We are trying to find contacts in Kara Tepe ( the camp for more vulnerable persons), and see if there is any way to facilitate his transfer. He needs to be able to bathe his skin regularly to keep it from becoming dangerously infected. I don’t know if we will be successful in getting him relocated, but I know he will get some help from us, and the day after I first saw him he came back to One Happy Family community center and gave me the warmest smile and thanks. There is a gesture that these people use to thank you, the hand over the heart, that is unmistakable in its meaning. And that afternoon I saw him hanging around the construction of the new greenhouse at the center, and by the end of the day he was helping the crew.

One Happy Family Community Center is run and built by and for refugees with the help of Swisscross, Israid, The Hope Project and others. Yesterday they allowed some journalists in on a Saturday afternoon to do some filming and interviewing. There was a photographer from Hamburg, Where Doc Mobile hopes to do some fundraising. I met for the first time in person, Kai Wittstock, the man who conceived and is the main director of Doc Mobile. A gentle, middle aged German guy, with no medical background ( the story of how he started docmobile included in an earlier entry),he successfully persuaded me to stay and see patients on a Saturday when I had planned to stay home to avoid the film crew. The journalist-videographer also put me at my ease when she assured me no patients would be filmed unless they agreed to be and had this explained to them through a translator. I was also interviewed by a journalist from Chicago, I have no idea what paper he works for. He said he’d send me an email letting me know what he wrote, but so far I haven’t heard from him. It will be great if this results in money for Doc Mobile, One Happy Family, Israid.

For my friends and community who have donated money for refugees, this is where it has gone so far. Doc Mobile for medicines I bought in US at Costco and brought with me . Wish I had brought more Prenatal vitamins, melatonin, throat lozenges, things that make people feel cared for when they don’t really need prescriptions. Humans For Humanity for their work bridging the gaps in feeding and clothing new arrivals before they are registered asylum seekers and for being a happy pleasant place for refugees to come and help. To the independent carpenter gang of three who built the Hope Project’s medical clinic at OHF , self funded and now on their way to Serbia to do more ad hoc construction. As more money has come in from home, by Bob’s report, I will also make some donations to OHF especially it applies to the school and dental education, and perhaps to Bashira for contraceptive information. I am honored that I was trusted with these funds, and I feel certain it will all be put to the best use for the benefit of the refugees. ( Okay, the carpenters might use it to fill their truck with petrol to get to Serbia, and maybe a few beers, but that money came out of my wallet anyway).

So that’s where your money goes, wish I could be more clear about where the 400 million Euros goes. Hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving weekend and giving thanks for the roof over your head, a warm bed, a hot shower, and your loved ones close by.