Baobab refugee camp

Saturday was the 100th birthday of my aunt Elma Udall, who passed away just a couple of months ago. She never married, and she lived all over the world, working at various US embassies throughout her career. She was a favorite aunt to many of her numerous nieces and nephews, including me. It was decidedly her time to go, as her health had been on the decline for quite a while, but she had a long and full life. For decades I have called her on Dec 23rd to wish her a happy birthday, and I miss having that chance this year. I'm glad that she's in a better place.

It was not much of a P-day, but awesome nonetheless! We left home about 10:30am to go to the Institute and meet the APs, Anziani Vance and Campbell, at 11:15am to put the boxes of backpacks into their van, so they could drive it over to the Baobab refugee camp. We expected to have a bit of waiting time, but they arrived early, which ended up being good. All of the boxes fit into the van, with only two trips up and down the elevator, and there was even room for us to ride along with them instead of taking the subway. It turned out to be difficult to find the place, which is right near the Tiburtina train station, but you can't really see the camp from the street. Fortunately, between TomTom and Google Maps, we made it there about noon, which was our target time. 

Along the way, we were chatting with the APs. Both are from Utah (Brigham City and Layton), and I mentioned that we have a nephew, Patrick Parker (my sister Marilyn's son), who teaches math at a high school near Brigham City. Anziano Vance perked right up and said "No way -- Patrick Parker!? He was my AP Calculus teacher and my favorite teacher ever!" Small world. Here are some photos:

Anziano Vance, former AP Calc student of Patrick Parker

The Whitings and the APs

We also made a small video to send to Patrick, and I called him in the evening to let him know. Patrick was delighted, and he gave me several things to kid Anziano Vance about.

The day was sunny and quite warm compared to the recent past, with temperatures nearly 60F. I had anticipated freezing during the day and dressed accordingly, but it was pretty comfortable out. We unloaded the boxes and waited for the others to arrive.

The first to show up were Anziano and Sorella Herway, the LDS Charities missionary couple for all of Italy. They were the ones to get us the funding for this activity, and they know the Baobab folks who run the camp. It's all volunteers from the community: the Herways love working with them because all funds go to the refugees, none to overhead. You really can't tell from the (rather isolated) street that the camp is nearby; you have to walk a couple hundred yards to get there. Anziano Herway had them bring out four shopping carts to wheel in our boxes, which got put into a locked shed to wait until after lunch. Sister Herway and my wife stayed outside on the street to direct others of our group where to go as they arrived, which took a while due to slowdowns on the subway system and being difficult to figure out how to get there from the station.

Sister Herway

The camp consists of a bunch of small tents where the refugees sleep, mostly adult men from Africa, outside a big abandoned building. There are about 100 of them there right now, many of whom hope to leave quickly for Germany or France, where the economy and job availability are better. The small minority of kids and women mostly go to InterSOS, which is much safer for them. LDS Charities helped provide some of the tents, including a huge white tent where they can eat and have other activities. When the Herways got here early in the year, the meals were outside, which was obviously difficult when it was cold and/or raining.

One of our local church Public Affairs folks, Brother Persico, showed up and did some interviews for an article he hopes to write for the Liahona magazine, possibly including some photos and videos that I took. You can see all the photos/videos from the day here, more than 100 of them.

Volunteers from the community started showing up, carrying in food and drinks for lunch. It was obvious many of them had been there before, as they knew both the refugees and the Baobab directors. We went into the lunch tent to eat after all the refugees had already been served, including some whom we had met the other night at InterSOS. The food was good and plentiful, with lots of pasta. I sat next to a young man from Senegal, who spoke mostly French and his native African dialect, but we were able to communicate a little bit in English. Some of our GANS kids helped serve, and other mingled with the refugees. The Ganziani also showed up to help, which was good since Claudia brought a non-member friend along to help out.

Claudia with friends from the InterSOS facility

These people, who have almost nothing, were happy and smiling. At one point a group of them started chanting and dancing, led by a nun; see the video here. After everyone had eaten their full, the directors cleared out the main tent and got all the refugees into a line outside to get our backpacks. We carried the boxes in and then had our GANS and the Ganziani hand out the backpacks, wishing them all a Merry Christmas. The refugees were let in a few at a time, and the volunteers gave them a fun cheer as they went by, as well as high fives and slaps on the shoulder.

 

You can watch short videos of the refugees entering the tent and getting their backpack here and here. Here are some photos of the process:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The refugees were very happy to see what was inside the backpacks, and they kept saying thanks. Photos are below, and here is a brief video.

 

 

Overall, it was a wonderful experience. I'd love to help out there somehow in the future. Afterwards, we all took the subway back downtown to the Institute, where my wife put out sandwich fixings and Ugo made Italian hot chocolate, which is thick and creamy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By about 6pm, everyone headed out. I ran over the Termini station to get a separate data-only SIM card for my phone. I use a mission SIM card, which has a 2GB/month limit, and that's not quite enough. So, for only 10 euro/month, I was able to get a Vodafone SIM with 10 GB/month -- very nice! Our Moto G5 Plus phones are dual-SIM, so I will use the mission SIM for calls and texts, and the Vodafone SIM for data. Now I don't have to worry about going over. It's also nice to learn how dual-SIM phones actually work in practice. It turns out that the 4G connection on our phones gets over 50 Mbps download and almost that much upload Saturday was not much of a P-day, but it was wonderful speed in our apartment, which is much faster than our DSL internet!

We got home in time to buy some bread at Conad, since the next two days are not shopping days for us, and my wife bought small gifts at Conad and the Chinese store for the missionaries we work with. It was a wonderful day, but we are exhausted!