Yesterday, 30 girls and their teachers from Singapore arrived at Karma Kitchen without any idea of what to expect. This was one of the few "mystery sessions" on their itinerary as part of a learning expedition on social impact. While we thought we'd arrive early "before it typically gets crowded", it looked like so many people had the same idea and we were off to a very FULL karma kitchen day with one of the smallest teams of KK volunteers.

Straightaway we saw people springing into action to just fill in the gaps - Audrey orchestrating the flow with loves and smiles and somehow making sure everything just worked(!), Birju, Anne-Marie, and Vishesh holding space at various tables inspiring the girls with their stories, Richard and Anne bringing their wisdom and smiles at the community table, and Harpreet and the KK volunteers doing all the invisible work behind the kitchen! Even our co-facilitator Wilson jumped in and was later found in the back kitchen bringing out plates of food for everyone!

The girls (and teachers) were buzzing all day about the KK experience and all agreed it was the highlight of the day :)

Some nuggets from their reflections -

During their nightly devotions (this is a methodist school), one girl shared that she finally understood what it felt like to be blessed and to bless others, and was moved to tears when she saw her friends eating their table's left-overs so as not to waste the food and give more work to the volunteers.

Another girl shared how cynical she was becoming of the world, and KK "restored her faith in humanity". Many agreed it was such a happy place, and how it attracts people like that. Others were discussing whether something like that would work in Singapore - one suggested they could start with ONE TABLE in their school :)

The teachers themselves also started thinking differently about how they'd run their school's 130th anniversary celebrations next year, including not setting a prices for what they were planning to sell, to re-imagining the entire project as one that is community and volunteer-driven, rather than something they mandate the school prefects to organize.

So many of them also quoted snippets from Birju, Vishesh, and Anne-Marie who were holding space at the tables (and even the sidewalk!) - going around I heard quotes like "children are all born generous", to "be the change you want to see in the world"

We ended the night with the reading from Albert Einsten's piece "Is the Universe friendly?", and finally one of the girls ended the group reflections with something profound -

Whether the universe is friendly or unfriendly, it is up to us :)