At twenty years old, Agata, my host in Cambrils, might seem like the average university student. She studies incessantly, having chosen Biochemistry to be her major, and when she can take a break, she enjoys going out for a beer with her boyfriend, Alex.
But while many people spend their holidays in places like Ibiza, Agata usually goes to Saharan Algeria with her mother, Misi, to help out a refugee family from Western Morocco. This annual 'holiday' has Agata and Misi living in harsh conditions while they help to support a family that has long been accustomed to life in the Sahara Desert. Agata's family helps out further by paying to have a daughter from the refugee family come once a year to visit them in Cambrils. Over the years, they have become close friends.
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| A typical house |
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| The fishing port |
Agata's father, Ilde, is a private Mathematics teacher, and her mother is a social worker. We talked quite a lot about the lack of social justice that so often leads to conflict, and about the complicated situation in Palestine.
Meanwhile, both Agata and Misi feel that what they do for the family in the Algerian desert is little more than a patchup job that does nothing to solve the problem. But any act to alleviate suffering is the right act, and would that more people had the compassion and sense of social justice this family has.
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| A traditional dining room |
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| The amiable citizen who invited us in to see his traditional dining room |
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| Alex and Agata add a little life to the wall where Cambrils' leading citizens were hanged after the town had offered armed resistance against Napolean's troops |
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| Agata's parents, Misi and Ilde |
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| Alex, who is also a man with a social conscience, and Agata |
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