JACKSON, WY— It’s hard for Kali Pratt to define her experience in Greece in word, but the one she lands on is “intense.”
“It’s a weird juxtaposition between a horrible situation, and living your life in the best way possible,” Pratt said. “It’s hard to balance the context of it all.”
Pratt spent her summer of 2018 in two separate refugee camps on Lesbos Island in Greece. She was there as a Luke Stalker Global Fellow, funded by the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole. The fellowship is in memory of Luke Stalker, who died in 2013 and believed that pursuing cross-cultural connections can help create a better, more peaceful world.
Indeed, Pratt said she witnessed a lot of hope in Greece. But she also saw at least as much heartbreak. It was an emotional roller coaster, she said.
“There wasn’t a day you didn’t see something heartbreaking. But there was also a lot of joy, and a lot of uplifting moments.”
Pratt split her time between Kara Tepe, a refugee camp for families and “vulnerable” people (“vulnerable according to the Greek government, Pratt explained), and Camp Moria. Both are “temporary” resettlement camps for displaced refugees from conflict-torn countries. The problem, Pratt said, is that it can take forever to leave. In Pratt’s entire time there—from June until September—she only saw two men actually progress in the complicated and political refugee resettlement web. One was a man with whom she had worked fairly closely, and become close. He received an official ID in September, and is now able to move to the Netherlands.
“It took him two years. He waited his time, and made it through,” Pratt said. “To see him move onto that next phase is really, really exciting. He’s taking that next step and getting the opportunity to try again … at least the process is kind of moving for someone.”
Pratt learned “millions of tiny lessons” along the way that she will carry with her the rest of her life. She learned how to battle with internal voices and self-doubt. Most importantly, she learned how to improvise and adapt.
“Improvisation is the most valuable asset you can have,” Pratt said. “Just knowing it’s gonna be OK. It might not work out the way you want it to, but it’s gonna be OK.”
Still, those lessons were hard-won. Living in a refugee camp was “really, really difficult.” Pratt worked primarily with unaccompanied minors, and recalls a particularly overcrowded area of one of Camp Moria called “Section B.”
“The self harm and violence we saw in there was so heartbreaking,” Pratt said. “I’ve never seen such sad eyes. Such despair.”
Indeed, Moria had garnered international attention for its extreme conditions. The New York Times reports that approximately 9,000 people live “in a space designed for just 3,100.” Aid groups have decried the whole camp a mental health crisis.
“The overcrowding is so extreme that asylum seekers spend as much as 12 hours a day waiting in line for food that is sometimes moldy,” NYT reports. “Last week, there were about 80 people for each shower, and around 70 per toilet, with aid workers complaining about raw sewage leaking into tents where children are living. Sexual assaults, knife attacks and suicide attempts are common.”
Moria really helped put 21-year-old Pratt’s adolescence into perspective. “I was horrible!” Pratt said about her teenaged-self. “So entitled.”
But stories like that of the man Pratt helped to get his ID gave her hope—the “emotional integrity” she saw in the camps’ residents is something Pratt will carry with her for the rest of her life. They also gave her direction. Pratt left Lesbos Island with a renewed sense of purpose, and clearer understanding of her future. She’s studying Law, diversity and justice at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, and Pratt says she plans to try to get a job with a resettlement agency in Seattle.
“I have learned a lot about myself, the goals I hold and the professional life I want to lead,” Pratt said.
It’s an entirely different thing, Pratt said, to read about something on the news and to see it first-hand. “I think it’s really important for young people of today to get out there and actually experience what’s going on.”
And thanks to the Luke Stalker Global Fellowship, they can. Fellowship applications are being accepted now through January 3. The fellowship is offered to people between the ages of 17-26 (must be at least 18 at the time of travel) who are currently studying at an accredited U.S. college or university, or interested in participating in an established program abroad. Learn more at CFJacksonHole.org.
