THE EDGES OF THINGS AND POCKETS OF CARE

Folkestone, Kent, September 4th 2024

Today we returned with The Community Table to @napierdropin1 which supports men seeking asylum in the UK who are temporarily housed in Napier Barracks, located just a short walk from the English Channel in Folkestone.

Setting up a large table covered in our world map, across several hours people came and went, the church hall space taking on the feeling of a large family room. Men joined the table for drawing, building, writing and conversation, alongside legal advice; local women chatted, serving lemon verbena tea and cake. Tender moments of care and community.

Several buildings were constructed along one edge of the table - a family home; a layered multi-function building; the shell of a house with land, with a “For Sale, By Me” sign. One young man patiently made a wooden jigsaw puzzle of a scene in Khartoum, one edge piece poignantly missing. Some of the men spoke of the value of being absorbed in an activity. The Community Table offered as a resource for solidarity and connection.

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Yesterday, on the other side of the Channel off the northern France coast, six children and a pregnant woman were among twelve people, mostly from Eritrea, who tragically died after a boat carrying dozens of refugees collapsed and sank, on its way to the Kent coast; others are still missing.

After the session, we walked down to the sea’s edge - beautiful but eerily calm - and took a moment to quietly pay our respects, aware that our colleagues in Calais would also be gathering to pay their respects for those who died yesterday in that same body of water, acknowledging also that these deaths were once again a terrible, preventable loss of life.