By: Chihchun Yuan On Feb.12, in the city center of Mytilene, Lesvos island, there was a social gathering to remember the Syrian civilians who lost their lives in a recent bombing. In the past weeks, Turkish sanctioned airstrikes have killed and injured hundreds of civilians in Afrian Syria, the home of a Kurdish minority group. … More No one is an Island
By: Zaid Muhamad It was time for my trip to the sauna in one of Europe’s best hotels, Moria, which is a well-known hotel for tourists who use the crowded boats to get into the EU. I was one of these tourists. A year after leaving Syria my wife and I felt that we missed … More Moria’s 5-Star Review
By: Aaron Kaufmann Occasionally when I fly to Lesbos, I travel through Thessaloniki. The airport there is not a particularly interesting place. Thessaloniki International Airport is situated outside of town with not much to see other than the somewhat barren landscape. One time, as I wandered around the small terminal in search of an outlet to … More Alexander’s Great Lie
By: Rûnbîr Serkepkanî They do not make coffee with cardamom here in Greece. No one makes coffee like your mother. It’s been five years since you last drank your mother’s coffee with cardamom. Borders have prevented her from filling your soul with the wonderful scent of cardamom every morning. You were born in Kuwait. … More Your Longing hands
By: Rûnbîr Serkepkanî I want to write about my last Sunday with Michael Himlie—my dear teammate who is now leaving us to join another CPT team. We walked from our apartment all the way to the castle. That is where the Muslim quarter of Mytilene used to be. When the Greek government took over the … More The Man who Barked Racism
By: Michael Himlie As a Christian Peacemaker Team member (CPT’er) on Lesvos, I worked on the Night Watch, monitoring vessels in the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, and awaiting refugees to arrive on Greek shore in the night. While the other Night Watch volunteers are just as intimately focused on the care, rights, and … More Into the Night Sea
By: Michael Himlie “Moria is like a prison” stated a Kurdish refugee at a demonstration outside the camp. This is a phrase said by nearly every refugee I meet and talk with on Lesvos. “Moria is like a prison” I hear again as I walk alongside the four meter tall fence lined with razor wire, riot … More “Moria is Like a Prison”
On the 2nd of July the team on Lesbos began accompanying and advocating with Arash Hampay, a young man from Iran who has been on a hunger strike since the 28th of June trying to bring awareness to the plight of the refugees facing deportation and incarceration in Moria, including Arash’s brother. Because Arash is allowed … More Hungering for Justice
Compiled by: Annelies Klinefelter The camps near Mytilene (in the south of Lesbos) are filling up because of the steady influx of people — between 50-100 a day. Because of this a camp was opened in the north where mostly the refugees have been arriving. In an effort to counteract this influx the authorities arrange weekly … More Poems from the Brink of Despair
By: Rûnbîr Serkepkanî Sina does not believe in the standardized definition of things. His mind does not comprehend standardized frameworks. He understands life as flowing — flowing into dreams, trees, animals and seas. He is passionate about planting. Outside his family’s house he has sown dozens of flowers, herbs and other plants in little pots. Once … More The Tree with the Ten Fruits
Christian Peacemaker Teams - Lesvos 