Unge på flugt

Unge på flugt. That is the title of what happened this weekend. The danish Red Cross came and put on a role playing game for our students. A translation could be "Young on the run." They put the students in 'families' and had to act as muslim refugees from Somalia. Then the next 24 hours was a gruelling time of running, hiding, getting 'arrested' and finally reaching Denmark. It started out with them going to the 'passport office' to fill out all the right paper work to be able to leave the country. They had to deal with the stress of getting denied and dealing with people who don't really care about their situation. Then they had to walk 5 km in the snow to try to get to the refugee camp. On the way they passed a checkpoint where the soldiers rifled through all their stuff, threw it on the ground, 'confiscated' valuables, and stole thier money. Then they walked more and were picked up by a 'boat' (it was really our bus) to take them across the sea. They had to lay down on the seats so no one could see them from outside. Then when they got to 'NoHope' the refugee camp, they had to sit on the cold floor in the garage and not talk for 3 hours. If they needed the washroom, they had to have a guard follow them. There each family only got one bag of rice and one cocktail weiner between them. And since they are 'muslim' they couldn't eat the pork wiener. Some converted on the spot. They got first aid supplies, but it was baby clothes and one shoe, things they couldn't use, because the first aid got robbed before it reached them. But finally they were allowed all the rice they could eat. Then the camp got attacked and they had to run to flee. One family got offered a ride, but when they couldn't pay all the driver wanted, they were dropped back off where they were picked up. Then I got to be in the van when the students were 'hunted.' The were making their way to Denmark along the road, and we would drive up and down with big flashlights trying to find them to arrest them. We were yelling out the windows for them and telling them to show themselves. This really got their adrenaline pumping and some have some funny stories of leaping over streams and not knowing how they could have ever jumped that far. After another 5 km, they were picked up by another transport and taken to Denmark where a family hid them in their basement. They had all just fallen to sleep when the cops came in and arrested them. They brought them over to the station, took their fingerprints and were kept there. Then after a few hours sleep, they were interviewed and told who recieved assylum and who didn't. Not everyone did after all that. It was a really cool game. There were only 9 Red Cross people with many different costumes to play all the roles. It looked like so much fun. I was talking to the main guy, and he said I could join in the future if I would like. I am so up for that! It sounds like a blast! One cool thing about the weekend is the testimony of the students. The Red Cross people kept saying how nice the students were and how good attitudes they had and had no problems. I guess we've taught them something this year!