Lessons Learned From Pie Reconstruction

Since, I am a task-oriented person, I chose to volunteer at St. John’s Soup Kitchen.  I want to learn to be in an environment with little predetermined structure. Friday, I attempted to pump myself up with Ace of Base’s “It’s a Beautiful Life” on the bus. However, the Swedish pop band’s magic failed. As the bus ride continued, I started to get clammy hands, and excessive armpit sweat.

After being at the soup kitchen for five minutes, I was nicknamed “pipsqueak,” had an apron tossed at me, presented a closet to lock up my stuff in, and told to go the bathroom to put my hairnet on. This was a bit of different training and orientation than I am used to. Most other jobs that I have had required a day or at least a fire safety video before I was deemed suitable to be in the working environment.

When I came out of the bathroom, the volunteer coordinator was gone, and I had no idea what I was doing. I thought about maybe just taking my hairnet off again, and then putting it on again just so it looked like I was busy. The coordinator found me fumbling, and I was put on deserts with another volunteer. My job was to take three mutilated pies, cut them up, and puzzle together presentable pieces for patrons at the soup kitchen. I was complemented quite a few times for my pie sculpting, but the whole fact that I was doing this was interesting to me. A soup kitchen was thinking about the presentation of their food. We weren’t adding decorative parsley, but I was spending my time on task that many might unnecessary.

The soup kitchen uses all the resources they have, but will not use it, if it wouldn’t be something they themselves would find presentable to eat. In one respect, I like this philosophy. It says were equal, none of us are above each other. Why should patrons of the soup kitchen eat something I myself wouldn’t eat? On the other hand, there is a side of me saying food is food. If it’s a mutilated pie, it is still pie. Patrons of the Soup Kitchen are hungry so use it. A definite advantage to the soup kitchen’s mentality is that it creates an atmosphere of respect. The Soup Kitchen does not treat patrons as a sub-class of humans who deserve less than affluent persons, and the patrons of the soup kitchen are polite and respectful of the environment. This shows how our approaches to development send underlying messages. As workers in development, I think that we should be cognisant and aware of this.

I was on the line during the lunch hour handing out bread, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Some people talked, others didn’t. I heard about one woman’s granddaughter and another man’s plans for the day. There was one man who came up and pointed to a bun. When he walked away, he said “Merci.” As he walked away, I responded in French, and he turned around. We chatted for two seconds and went about our tasks. It became apparent what little gestures can do to foster a cooperative respectful environment. I don’t want to make it seem like I have rose-colour glasses on, and think that we can solve all the world’s problems by little gestures. However, I do think that in these hands-on aspects of development, small gestures and pie reconstruction projects encourage certain types of behaviour from everyone. Most of the patrons at the Soup Kitchen cleared their own dishes. Almost everyone said please and thank you to me. The French man said goodbye to me when he left. I suggest that one of the reasons why patrons do this is because the soup kitchen makes the extra effort.
I think this can be applied on my placement abroad. Learning a bit of Swahili or understanding the religious message of Reach Out Mbuya better could help me make the small gestures that might matter. In the soup kitchen, it is talking in French and pie reconstruction, but I am not sure what these little things might be when I am in Mbuya.

Needless to say, I survived my first day at the soup kitchen, and I hope to learn more at my time there.