CONNECT Humanitarian Affairs Asia initiates Angel Kitchen
4 1 2 3
MISSION POSSIBLE Cooking for the Children Last January 20, 2013, Humanitarian Affairs had its first Angels’ Kitchen activity with MERCY Home Pattaya. The mission set for the day was to cook up a meal good for 60 people. The menu that the team prepared included rice, fried chicken wings, stir-‐fried vegetables and tomato omelette. With Head Chefs Tina, Bianca and Jennifer on the lead, the team was took on the challenge of preparing big, hearty feast for the little ones.
A Trip to the Market
“If
you want to know a country [and its culture], go to the market first,” said Tina. Humanitarian Affairs’ Taiwanese intern shared with us her thoughts on her experience at the Naklua wet market, the oldest wet market in Pattaya which has been around for more than a hundred years. The team went to the wet market to buy ingredients for their first Angel Kitchen activity with MERCY Home Pattaya. From this short shopping trip, Tina described Thailand to be abundant in seafood and,
popularly known to foreigners, have affordable prices for quality goods. Looking around, one could tell that Thailand was also blessed to be rich in agriculture. Shopping at the wet market was a welcome change from their usual grocery shopping in local supermarkets such as Big C and Foodland. They were greeted by rows and rows of the freshest vegetables, seafood and meat they had ever seen. The quality of the produce and meats were remarkably better than in the supermarket although prices were much
lower. Soon after this first visit, the interns concluded that they would be back to look for their grocery needs in this market. While at the market, the interns scouted for the ingredients they needed to cook for their dishes. They checked tomatoes and vegetables for bruises, each egg for any crack, and meat for freshness. Before any purchases were made, they made sure that they would be leaving the market with only the freshest ingredients for their friends at MERCY Home Pattaya.
6 7 8 5
Different Strokes for Different Folks
What do you get when you put together a team
A Big Feast
The interns arrived at the Our Father’s Home of Mercy Home Pattaya in the mid-‐afternoon. They came at just the right time before most of the children got back from an activity in their school. Upon arriving at the centre, the interns immediately laid out all of their ingredients; eighty pieces of tomatoes, 10 dozens of eggs, and 120 pieces of chicken wings were some of them.
of interns coming from different cultural backgrounds? Well, you’ll get nothing short of the ordinary when you are with such a lively bunch. “My normal is not normal” is a phrase that the first of batch of interns playful use among them. They say it whenever they find out that a common practice in their country is uncommon, strange even, in the view of their other fellow interns. Tina and Jay always wash the shells of the eggs before cracking them open. Ruth cuts a carrot from top to bottom while it’s on its end. Lui crushes garlic with a mortar and pestle before peeling off the skin. Even if one person says it is normal to do all or some of these things, others might still find them strange. Nevertheless, these differences have been a cause of intrigue and amusement for this cross-‐cultural encounter.
The interns worked together to set up a big feast for the children. Everyone did their part in the cooking and cleaning to get the job done before the children’s dinnertime. Some took charge of the cutting and preparation of the vegetables while others took to the stoves to do the cooking. It was definitely a challenge to cook for 60 people. The interns have never cooked for so many at one time. All the while the
preparations were going on, they were fussing over so many things: would there be enough chicken for the children? How much seasoning and oyster sauce should go with the stir-‐ fry vegetables? Are we making the children wait too long?
94 0 1 2 3
Curious Kids “Khao Pad? Fried rice?” asked some of the children. They wondered whether their friends were cooking fried rice for them. The children were very curious about the sudden activity in their centre’s kitchen. They kept going back and forth to the outdoor kitchen to figure out what was really going on. It was surprising for the children to see the friends they made last week. “They are the people who went to feed the sheep with us last time,” said one of the children as she recalled their petting zoo experience in the previous week. Sharon, one of the coordinators at the centre, explained that the activity was also something new
Once
the dishes were done, the food was distributed to the 29 children and four staff members of the centre. Each plate had a serving of 2 pieces of fried chicken wings, rice, stir-‐fried vegetables, and tofu and tomato omelette. A few minutes into dinnertime, the interns started hearing the children repeatedly say “yami!” Ruth, a Filipino intern, checked on the children to find out what the commotion was all about by asking Sharon
for the children. When volunteers from outside MERCY Home Pattaya provide food for the children, they usually bring in the already cooked meals from their homes. Humanitarian Affairs’ Angel Kitchen activity was the first time the centre had seen
volunteers cook within the vicinity of the centre. Curiousity got the best of the children as they poured into the dining area one by one. They watched their guests prepare their meal for the evening as they waited altogether for dinner to be served.
“Yummy Food!”
to translate for her. She then learned that they children were actually saying “yummy” and “aroy” to express that they
found the meal to be delicious. Steven, another one of the staff members commended the team for their work. He said, “it was delicious! Both thumbs up!” The team felt a sense of achievement after seeing the children finish their meals and seeing some even coming back for seconds!
5 6 7
Mission Accomplished
“Right after I cooked, I felt full already. Usually when you cook for others, you feel full for the people,” said Filipino intern Bianca. Bianca was happy to have gone through the entire experience of cooking for the children of the centre. Although the task was tiring, she didn’t feel tired at the end of it all because she could feel the energy of the children affecting her. She also felt the teamwork amongst all the interns. For Bianca, she could tell that everyone had a part in the entire activity to truly come up with a big and delicious feast for the children. Jay, an intern from South Korea, shared with us that it was her
first time to give a hand in cooking. She assisted by helping out in chopping the vegetables and preparing the chicken wings for frying. More than learning how to cook, Jay considered the Angel Kitchen activity as a venue to learn about handling stressful situations. With a big task before them, she became more familiar with how her fellow interns worked under pressure. It was an experience that taught her about how different people play out their characters and personalities in their own ways. It was a successful mission for Filipino intern Lui in terms of team and personal achievements. It gave her a sense of achievement to help out the team by overcoming her fear of knives. Setting aside her
Dr. Sujit Singh Gill This Angel Kitchen Program was made possible through a kind donation from Dr. Sujit Singh Gill who is a Vascular Surgeon from Singapore. Humanitarian Affairs Asia appreciates the kind support of Dr. Sujit Singh.
fears, she knew that her efforts paid of after having chopped garlic, cabbages and carrots for the stir-‐fried vegetables that the children loved. The interns were reminded by what Senior Director Solomon Lam has told them about the activity: “It’s not the food, but the thought and care you put into your cooking.” With this, the day finished with everyone’s tummies and hearts full after serving the 29 little angels of MERCY Home Pattaya.
Connecting People with Communities in Need