The Red Cross

The Red Cross seems to be a key institution in Spanish life. As the boats full of refugees from Africa turn up on the Spanish coastline it's Red Cross volunteers who help them ashore. Old people, alone in their homes, are tended by the Red Cross and, if I need an ambulance at 2am in the morning in Pinoso, it will be faster to call on the Red Cross than to dial 112 and wait for an ambulance to come out from Elda.

Today the local branch of the Red Cross had organised a day with a theme of Living Together, they hoped to have representation from lots of the communities living here in Spain and there were Ecuadorians, Peruvians and Senegalese stalls set up in the local municipal gardens but it was all a bit desultory and down beat.