num_pages: 274
description: In the fall of 2015 Steven Heighton made an overnight decision to travel to the frontlines of the Syrian refugee crisis in Greece and enlist as a volunteer. He arrived on the isle of Lesvos with a duffel bag and a dubious grasp of Greek his mother's native tongue and worked on the landing beaches and in OXY--a jerrybuilt ad hoc transit camp providing simple meals dry clothes and a brief rest to refugees after their crossing from Turkey. In a town deserted by the tourists that had been its lifeblood Heighton--alongside the exhausted locals and underequipped international aid workers--found himself thrown into emergency roles for which he was woefully unqualified. From the brief reprieves of volunteer-refugee soccer matches to the riots of Camp Moria Reaching Mithymna is a gripping firsthand account of the crisis and an engaged exploration of the borders that divide us and the ties that bind.
language: None
title: Reaching Mithymna
publisher: Biblioasis