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WILKES-BARRE — She traded her ticket for shamanism training in Bali for a month-long trip to volunteer in Greece helping refugees.

Demetra Szatkowski, 23, of Dallas, left the U.S. on Nov. 18 and will return Dec. 18. Her experience helping refugees from Syria and other countries has left an indelible impression.

Demetra said she doesn’t watch the nightly news — she found out about the refugee crisis mostly from stories offered by Humans of New York, a blog created in 2010 by best-selling author Brandon Stanton, photographer, interviewer and author of the recent New York Times bestseller “Humans of New York: Stories.”

They brought me to tears, and there were a few days straight where all I could do was research what was going on,” she said. “I couldn’t understand that this was actually happening and that people weren’t helping. I wanted to come, but thought maybe I’d wait until next year.”

Then Demetra sold her yoga studio in the Back Mountain and thought a lot about cultural appropriation and racism. She had a trip booked for shamanism training in Bali for the end of November.

“I didn’t want to do that anymore,” she said. “Long story short, I switched the ticket to a month-long ticket to Greece instead.”

Demetra is not just volunteering to help refugees when they arrive from Syria and other countries — she is writing a blog where she offers opinions on the situation.

Here are a few examples of Demetra’s writings:

• “In America, people are glued to the television and are arguing on Facebook, sharing mostly uneducated viewpoints based on fear. In Greece, they know exactly what is happening because they are here. They think the refugee crisis is a problem, but they do not blame the refugees. As someone explained to me tonight, the refugees are educated people. They are doctors, lawyers, dentists. The journey across the sea costs a lot of money. And when they get here, most of them have nothing left.”

• It’s so interesting that in America, everyone is all of a sudden concerned about helping the homeless, helping our veterans. Some have used this crisis as a chance to shout, ‘Why are we not taking care of our own first? Let’s help our own.’ Look, obviously, ‘our own’ need help. But most of the people complaining weren’t doing much to help them last week, if they even are now. And I think it is wrong to stop helping others so we can only help our own, as if being Americans makes our lives so much more important.”

• “The mood amongst the volunteers is mostly relaxed and happy. These are good people. They know what needs to be done and they want to do whatever they can to help. Some have taken time off from school, from work, from families. That’s another thing that’s been interesting to me — everybody’s reaction to me being here. ‘Wow, you’re so brave, that’s so amazing,’ they say. The praise is nice, but it always takes me aback a bit. I’m being a human. People are suffering. To the people here, it’s just what you do. There isn’t really another option.”

From the day she arrived, Demetra has had trouble processing the experience emotionally.

“It is a total information overload inside my head,” she said. “Story after story after story. I swing between extremes — from feeling totally full and happy and hopeful, to feeling my eyes tear up and having to stop myself from panicking.”

Demetra talked of the first boats she saw, maybe 60 boats with about 3,000 people. She said the numbers are hard to process because the communication isn’t coordinated.

Demetra worked long hours handing out tickets and information at a camp called Oxy. Here is her description of the scene:

“Basically, refugees get off the boats, soaking wet and freezing, and are transported a short distance to Oxy. There, they get a food ticket, a bus ticket, dry clothes, a blanket and information. After that, they go to another camp. Buses only run during the day, so if people come at night, they need to spend the night.

“So many nationalities — Afghani, Iraqi, Syrian, Iranian, Moroccan, Pakistani — it goes on. They need to be separated into Syrian and non-Syrian, because of paperwork. That’s my job.”

Demetra deals with the language barrier all the time as she tries to determine how many are in a family, how many children, as she passes out bus tickets and maps.

It gets confusing, she said. The goal is to keep families together.

“My mind is so occupied that only for a split second does it hit me — do I allow my eyes to tear up before a new problem arises and I stop my own emotions to fix it?” she asked herself. “It happens when I see one mother alone with four little children. It happens when I see two parents with six children. It happens when I see men totally alone. And I stop thinking and I move on.”

Demetra has encountered personal moments that tug at her heartstrings.

A man from Iraq holding his baby took a map from her and listened as she tried to explain it to him. The man’s baby kept reaching for her and laughing and pulling her hair.

“I try to play with the baby while still explaining the map in broken English,” Demetra said. “The baby yanks my hair as hard as possible. I hold the baby’s hand. The man reaches for me and gestures to his friend and wants to take our photo. The baby pulls my hair again. It’s time for the picture.”

It’s moments like this that convince Demetra she’s doing what she should be doing — helping fellow human beings.

“The woman I locked eyes with. The boy I hugged. The child I held. The gorgeous, unexpected blue eyes on some of the Syrians. The cold wet clothes. Hundreds of people on hard wooden floors. Pictures and moments flashing through my head nonstop,” she said.

Demetra has gained a genuine appreciation for the refugees and what they are going through.

“The thing that kills me the most is how hopeful these people are,” she said. “They have made it across the sea, risking their lives for some sort of freedom. Often, they want to send things to people back home and show them that they made it. And they are so excited and so grateful for everything.”

Then Demetra talked about the reality of the journey yet to be made by the refugees — a journey, she said, that could get difficult.

“They still have to take the bus and wait and sleep in a dirty camp to get registered and then take a bus and a boat to Athens and then wait for maybe months and make their way to another country who has their borders open if that still exists and face extreme hatred and discrimination and what I want to know is how?” Demetra wrote. “Thousands of people and where will they go? This woman with four little children, this woman who felt so unsafe that she felt it safer to risk all of their lives in a plastic boat across the sea, how will she do it? How will she live?”

Demetra deals with these questions, these doubts, all the time.

More from her blog:

“How could I tell these three boys from Afghanistan, telling me that they are civil engineers, that their coming here is good for Europe, too, because young boys can work hard. These faces full of hope, how could I tell them, ‘Actually no, sorry, a lot of people I know are scared of young Muslim boys because they think they want to blow us all up.’ Being one-on-one with these people makes that seem unbelievably ridiculous.

“These people that wait patiently in line for their turn. These people that are so grateful and just repeat ‘thank you, thank you’ because of some information and some rice. These people that let me hold their children. These people that laugh and smile so instantly. How could I ever say people don’t like you — people don’t want you in their countries.”

Demetra said the refugees are people “like you and me — people with hopes and dreams and a life to live. People who are forced to be stronger than we would ever want to have to be. They are not just refugees. They aren’t some group that is so different that they are impossible to understand. Different cultures, different language, doesn’t matter. They’re people.”

Demetra has always felt safe in Greece, working among the thousands of refugees.

“Every single person I met has been extremely respectful of me, my personal space and requesting to take up some of my time,” she said. “The fact that it’s dangerous where they live doesn’t make them dangerous.”

Demetra said people are people and, when you treat them with kindness and respect, they treat you with the same. It does require a certain understanding. The volunteers she has been working with have an understanding of people, constantly evaluating and searching for the best phrasing to make people feel the most comfortable.

“As a Greek woman said to me the other day after I said I didn’t speak much Greek: ‘It’s OK. Don’t have to speak same language. Speak language of the heart.”

That’s how Demetra left it, by saying, “Speak the language of the heart.”

Demetra has gotten a lot of posts about “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” sales. She put it all in perspective.

“Tons of people arrived freezing and soaking wet last night and we were out of most clothes to give them,” she blogged. “Definitely didn’t have any shoes.

“Maybe use the discounts and your extra cash to consider donating something to help other people. Currently, this whole island is desperately in need of men’s and women’s shoes, men’s sweatpants (easier fit), women’s coats, kids’ coats, sleeping bags and blankets.

“Seriously, while you sleep warm in your bed, thousands of people are sleeping cold and wet in tents in the only clothes they have, clothes they have often been wearing for a few weeks straight.”

Demetra Szatkowski
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Demetra-Szatkowski.jpg.optimal.jpgDemetra Szatkowski Submitted photo

Inside a refugee tent in Greece where Demetra Szatkowski is volunteering.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Demetra2.jpg.optimal.jpgInside a refugee tent in Greece where Demetra Szatkowski is volunteering. Submitted photo

Supplies pile up at one of the refugee centers in Greece where Demetra Szatkowski is volunteering.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Demetra3.jpg.optimal.jpgSupplies pile up at one of the refugee centers in Greece where Demetra Szatkowski is volunteering. Submitted photo

Demetra Szatkowski with a Syrian family at one of the refugee centers in Greece.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Demetra-with-a-family.jpg.optimal.jpgDemetra Szatkowski with a Syrian family at one of the refugee centers in Greece. Submitted photo

By Bill O’Boyle

[email protected]

How to help

• Demetra Szatkowski, of Dallas, is currently in Greece helping refugees who land there from many countries.

• Send donations to Hellenic Postal Office Kalloni, c/o Captain’s Table/Starfish, Kalloni, 81107, Lesvos, Greece.

• Needed items include trousers for all ages, socks, underwear, sleeping bags, blankets, tarps, rain ponchos, winter coats, tents and shoes for men and women.

• Demetra is the daughter of Karen Pyros-Szatkowski, of Shavertown, and Richard Szatkowski, of Harding. She has a brother, Damon, 21, and a sister, Talia, 19.

Reach Bill O’Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.