CLOUDS - PART TWO

Dunkirk, April 30, 2025

Today the weather was hot. The humanitarian area outside Dunkirk felt harsh and sparse - fewer NGO’s and the ground arid, desert like, more like the height of summer. Everything felt displaced.

In this off-road area there had been earlier tensions but now there was an atmosphere of waiting - much as we have experienced before in this setting. Waiting to see the doctors @medecinsdumonde, waiting for food, waiting to cross the Channel, waiting for a place of safety…

We learnt that hundreds of people have crossed in small boats this week in calmer seas, while those visiting the doctor largely presented with skin complaints from failed attempts, as well as foot injuries from walking.

Today we experimented with a bright new cloud tablecloth which we laid on the ground above the large world map. We wanted to bring clouds again, reflecting the sky onto the earth’s surface, creating a visual dialogue.

Conversations were possible and included journeys, complicated plans aborted, the pain in displacement. Amid frustration and exhaustion, we witnessed genuine care between people - friendships, sometimes formed in other places or countries, during other extended periods of waiting.

We met men, women and children from a larger range of countries than usual - including Guinea, Niger, Somalia, Yemen, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sudan… One young man spoke of his enjoyment at looking together at the world postcards. There was shared curiosity, a little bit of space for imagination, discovering, wondering.

A group of children - parents close by - played both on the world map and inside the van - relishing the time and space for drawing, building, playing, joint attention.

Finally, the clouds, lifted off the ground and onto the side of the psychosocial activities van, offered a fresh shift in atmosphere and perspective in this off road waiting area.

Words by Bobby Lloyd, Miriam Usiskin, Johannes Maertens.