The journey of a blue balloon
Ηis anxiety was growing from minute to minute. It was not just the fact that he failed in his mission. There were also dangers around him that could end his life at any time. The beautiful blue balloon was wandering around Idomeni refugee camp with great care, but he couldn’t determine his fate. Just like the refugees that he was passing by. The decisions of others on the chessboard of the refugee crisis, were controlling their fortunes and they were just trying to survive. He was listening them talking about their future inside their tents. For the borders that maybe will opened again, for the activists who were promising them so much, for the government camps that were not the best places for them and their children, for the choice to use traffickers to illegally cross the border on purpose to reach their final destination, for the dangers that were beginning to increase in Idomeni.
The wind kept pushing the beautiful blue balloon wherever he wanted. He was trying to change his course between the tents, looking for a way to accomplish his destination. Looking for a way to survive. Everywhere around there were rubbish, stones, glasses, and other sharp objects that could pierce it.
As he was trying to escape, he remembered the conversations with his comrades at the factory. “We’re balloons and our goal is to give joy to the children”. And the beautiful blue balloon, wanted to make a child happy inside the Idomeni camp. That was the thing that he was looking for, through the tents, over the rubbish, passing from Camp A to Camp C. Near to a woman’s laundry, in front of an open tent that the housewife had left open for ventilation.
The balloon, for a moment, disappeared behind a tent. I thought that I was not going to see him trying again. That he gave up. That he was left desperate on the first sharp object he encountered and burst. He gave up his goal. To make a child, happy. That he resigned. He stayed behind that tent, for quite some time. And suddenly, a little refugee with his sister popped up behind the tent with the beautiful blue balloon in his hands. He was holding it very carefully. Almost adorably. And the balloon, seemed that he was smiling happily…
