Keeping a cool head

Anjung Singgah

Inside the kitchen

The dining room outside the kitchen

As usual I stood outside the counter to arrange and hand out the meals and bottled water while the other two lady volunteers were inside the kitchen filling the plates with rice and vegetables.

By 12.30 pm I had given away almost all the meals on the counter except two. I didn't think that there would be any more coming in to eat the food and we were about to start packing when a lone burly man strode in.

For the reason that I could not understand at that time when I passed him one of the two remaining meals he glared and shouted at me angrily.

Instead of reacting to his aggression I put down the meal and asked him calmly and politely if he wanted the other meal on the counter. Then when I picked up and offered the other meal he realised what was happening. Almost as fast as his sudden outburst he apologized repeatedly for his offensive behavior.

In the first place I think he got offended and became angry mistaking me for another guy cutting in from behind to grab his meal. Then when I offered to pass him the other meal it dawned on him that I was actually the helper serving him food and not what he thought was another guy grabbing his share of the food.

I wonder what would be the outcome if I had lost my cool and reacted in kind to his verbal posturing and aggression.

Eating food with happiness and gratitude

Today's menu for the homeless, the poor, the elderly, the unemployed, and any disadvantaged person in need of a free meal, and also my humble lunch pack for the day.

Simple food consisting of cooked white rice and three types of vegetables ie long bean, canned red bean and radish packed in a plastic lunch box and one bottle of drinking water. Though the unappetizing food tastes bland, for this disadvantaged group of people it is their day's nourishment and sustainment. It fills their stomachs, enables them to stay out of hunger and help them get through the day.

When I think of TV images of hungry, skin and bones refugee children in war-torn and drought-hit countries eg Africa I realise that the free food that this NGO is offering is a incomparable luxury compared to what the refugees are getting in their countries.

With this realisation in mind I ate the humble vegetarian lunch pack filled with enormous gratitude and happiness.