For five years, Chris Hennemeyer has suffered with a chronic cough. He’s been ruled out of TB by French doctors in Benin, but the cough is still present and comes and goes, especially when Chris is stressed or tired. Meanwhile, his team is beginning to burn out, and one of them confessed to having once dreamt of imprisoning refugees.
Chris Hennemeyer’s Experience in a Refugee Camp
Chris Hennemeyer, a 43-year-old single dad, is currently working in Haiti for Catholic Relief Services. But after less than a year in the country, he’s restless. He’s considering a brief stint in the Balkans, where eight tent cities have been set up to accommodate ethnic Albanian refugees.
During his time in the camp, he has encountered the many challenges and obstacles faced by the refugees. He has seen riots, frightened refugees, and a Gypsy family that was accused of Serb atrocities in their home country. The refugee camp is a complex place, and it’s easy to lose track of people’s names and faces.
In the camp, he finds that many of his neighbors are afflicted with mental illness. One such patient is a six-year-old girl named Mayan, who broke her arm while playing on a friend’s backyard trampoline. Chris’ estranged wife lives in Burundi. The children’s nanny took care of Mayan, but a public hospital cast was applied too tightly, cutting off her finger circulation. Chris arranged for a private doctor and a 15-minute call home every few days.
The conditions in the refugee camp have gotten worse for Chris. His cough has been bothering him for five years, but doctors in Benin have ruled out TB. It comes and goes when he is tired and stressed. He’s starting to get impatient with the situation, and his team has begun to burn out. One of his team members even confessed that he’d dreamed of imprisoning refugees.
Chris had a hard time understanding the plight of these people. At first, he was bitter about stealing bread from the larder. Afterward, he was nostalgic for his former life. He later ate three-foot-long dried iguana and beans that were weevil-infested.
His Nemesis
Chris Hennemeyer, a 43-year-old single dad working for Catholic Relief Services, is restless in Haiti after less than a year. He’s thinking of going to the Balkans for a brief period to work in Kosovo, where eight tent cities are being constructed as refuge for ethnic Albanians.
His Cough
Chris Hennemeyer, 43, is a single dad working in Haiti for Catholic Relief Services. He’s been there less than a year and is now restless. He’s even considering a short stint in the Balkans, where eight tent cities have been constructed for ethnic Albanians.
His Patience With the Balkans Mess
At Stenkovec 1, a Macedonian refugee camp, Chris Hennemeyer guides an elderly woman by flashlight into her tent. Thousands of refugees have poured into the camp, built on a dirt airfield near the Kosovo border. At its height, it sheltered more than 30,000 people. UNHCR officials have said it could take months before all the refugees return home.
At one of the refugee camps, refugees have been using vacated tents as toilets. At another refugee camp, rioting broke out. The refugees started hunting down a Gypsy family, claiming they committed Serb atrocities in their home country. The family sought refuge in CRS offices and Chris was able to visit them for five hours.
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