On Tuesday, our women’s group met for their monthly gathering. One time before, we had made pizzas. We are lucky enough at the centre where JRS is based to have a kitchen. We are also lucky to have one of our volunteers who is a trained chef who loves to cook. He himself is an asylum seeker too.
More than 10 women found themselves in the kitchen, taking a corner in small groups to mix, kneed and shape their dough. Some added spice and raisins for the chelsea buns, others flattened out the soft bread. Then we had to wait with patience as all the baking trays were squeezed into the oven.
There was a warm glow at the end as all the chelsea buns and loaves where proudly displayed on the counter, shared out to taste and enough for everyone to take some away with them.
One participant said “I enjoyed everything! Directed by the chef, I tried to follow the recipe and learned how to mix the ingredients. It was good being all together and the whole afternoon was nice!”. Everyone is still talking and laughing about the baking we did together.