cold conditions and friendship

It was much colder last night and I was glad I took a blanket with me as well as my sleeping bag. A couple from Emmaus came by to check I was not on my own but I had my friend Janet with me who stepped in at the last minutes when the planned companion was not able to do it. Although I write this as my blog and my sleep out in fact it would have been impossible to do without the support of many other people who have accompanied me as companions or have covered my work at the Peace House or have given it press coverage or have generally encouraged me. Thank you to all of you.

Friendship is worth so much. Most of the people who come here in search of sanctuary and are refused asylum - which is about 70% - are too frightened to return. If they don't have children they find themselves out on the street, forbidden to work or claim benefits. Most of them get by with the help of friends. We ran the second day of our listening project today and I was reminded of this when an Algerian friend spotted me in my tee shirt (worn over lots of layers of clothing!) and came to talk to me. The tee shirt said 'Here to Listen' and on the other side asked the question 'How has migration affected your life?'. There were 6 of us at the train station asking this question. Like the sleep out, it is part of our Peace Festival programme.

My Algerian friend had been an asylum seeker and now had a British wife and 3 year old son. He talked of the years of fear when he had been refused asylum and before he had met his wife. Every time he saw a police officer he feared he would be detained. We talked of people we knew and of those Algerians now in detention. I was very moved when he said that that all the Algerian friendship group make sure they put money into a kitty every week and once a month he arranges to visit one of the friends in detention and take them the money. We agreed that I would come with him next time he went to see Karim.

I spoke with a woman from Saudia Arabia who said she was a student in London but found Coventry much more friendly. She said that other students don't want to offer friendship outside the university so her friends there are all from her country which she is sad about.

I spoke with three friends from Warwick University who had just got back from a sponsored hitch to rasie money for Amnesty International. The challenge was to get as far as you could in 36 hours with no money. They had got to Amsterdam and back which was pretty good going.

One of the other listeners spoke with a young asylum seeker from Iran who was catching a train to Birmingham to get medical help. He was very distressed and had been harming himself by cutting his head.