My days in in the Global Sumud Flotilla
My name is Juan Garay. I am the co-chair of the Sustainable Health Equity Movement. At 62 years old, I traded my office for my eco-village project, Valyter, in Cantabria, seeking a life of self-sufficiency and respect for the environment, but that same vocation for service is what has brought me here today, aboard the Gaucho—the boat that is now leading me to Gaza.
We have been sailing for three weeks, and exhaustion is a shadow that never leaves us. This last night has been, without a doubt, the longest, most tense, and hardest of all. We stayed awake, our morale shaken, expecting an interception at any moment. The reality hit us hard: between 20 and 30 boats from our Global Sumud flotilla have been boarded or detained. What breaks my heart most as a physician and as a companion is the silence; we know nothing about roughly 180 people, including the cardiologist Inés Madrazo, who was sailing on the small sailboat Batolo. Although news is arriving that some might be in the process of being released, the uncertainty weighs heavier than the salt on our skin.
Aboard the Gaucho, I share space with brave souls from Lebanon, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Poland, and Germany. Beside me is the journalist Alba Hijazi, whose determination reminds me why we are here. The boat is old, and the work is relentless: navigating, repairing, and, in my case, attending to the constant medical needs that arise after nearly three weeks at sea. We are not alone in this odyssey; seeing the vessels from Open Arms and Greenpeace nearby gives us the breath of life we lack.
They call us activists, but I prefer to say that we are "messengers of peace" or even "smugglers of peace." Right now, we are sailing through Greek territorial waters, where the situation is, for the moment, more stable. As we set course for Crete, I cannot help but compare our journey to that of Ulysses arriving in Ithaca. In a couple of hours, we will meet to decide our next move in the face of forces that have proven to be totally unpredictable. Our greatest hope does not lie in governments, which have failed us so often, but in the mobilization of citizens. The risk of confrontation is high. In fact, it is becoming harder and harder, with the brutality of Israel rampant in the Mediterranean Sea and their threats to hit harder at us remaining as we sail for Gaza and the world. However, our spirit remains strong.
