Calstock Refugee Day 2017

What a day and  how to choose just one photo! Well and a few extras but even that was hard!  All the rest here! It was a long, hot, hard event for the volunteers - but the refugees had a blast! I'm not sure who had it worse, the women in the kitchen or Nellie of The Woods and Vegan Jo outside face painting! We set up at 12, I took down water toys, shells, seaside drapes and a puppet theatre with puppets and set it up outside under an awning. Being mindful of H&S also put down huge interlocking mats! Then it was photo duty and kitchen help and teasmade for the other volunteers! Oh and supplier of water for a hot looking dog! There was a bit of a crisis over a lost child and a boy who suffered an allergic reaction to chickpeas. He has been hospitalised before and had liquid antihistamine which his mum forgot! He couldn't take my tablets so all I could do was fetch the fan from the kitchen and ice. The paramedics came and after a while the swelling came down and after that he was back playing!!! 
I couldn't believe the men and boys playing football on the back field - many were fasting as it is Ramadan, how they had the energy to play football given that and the heat is beyond me!
Before the refugees arrived I'd spotted a strange craft and naval people on the pontoon. I thought maybe it was a vintage craft acting as ferry for the vintage fair at Cotehele - so went and asked them. They were highly amused! It was in fact a long craft and not vintage and not acting as a ferry! They said they were on a Jolly! Just  as I'd finished taking photos I realised what they had all been looking downriver at - a drone they were operating! Luckily they left before the refugees arrived as they may have made some of them anxious - their past is traumatic to say the least.
The event ran from 2 to 5 - but after clearing up it was 7.30 when I arrived home. The women in the kitchen were not happy - one complained to me about them being left to tidy up, which was unfair as after tidying up our areas and the hall we all came to help them. But it was a hot tiring day and there were not as many volunteers as usual. 
Well  I should have had a restful evening - but no! Ebay Man had contacted me to say Party Girls parents coop had mites! They only have one chicken after the fox attack and I had suggested she came to our coop but they have been busy and are now away. So round I went with  dog cage, powder and meds. The poor hen came running out of her huge run to greet me - can you believe after a fox attack they still let her roam free?!!! Well I picked herup, gave her a slice of melon, cut away her poo encrusted feathers round her rear end, and then put up the cage and helped ( and directed!) Ebay Man to move the run and place the cage inside. Which is when I noticed the mites crawling all over me!!! They don't usually live on the chickens so the coop  really must be infected with them. 
So having left her all settled, I went up the allotment, gave the girls corn very quickly and didn't touch any of them! I watered my plot and when they were all in the coop ran on to close it and ran off again! Then home to shower the mites away and wash my clothes. Finally I could rest! I'm doing "nuffink" tomorrow - except look through and processing  over 278 photos!!!