Community Benefit Dinner

Friday night my organization held a benefit dinner on the first floor of our Centre. This involved a lot of grunted attempts to get our oversized sofa, tables, and random furniture out through a small door (think giant Alice and Wonderland trying to get in the entrance after drinking her potion) so that our medium-sized room could accommodate tables and chairs for about 60 people.

I spent the afternoon decorating for the event. While setting up, a woman from CBC radio did some interviews for a segment next Saturday. She tried to get “background sound” for a minute (which was easy because all the christmas lights were super tangled and I kept banging them against the table.) I put up white and assorted lights, hung strings of colorful flags, and kept up all the tapestries in our centre. It felt a lot like our community -warm, loud, and upbeat. 

I was also decorating while a new family was having a meeting with our translator and my coworker. While they were solemnly discussing their upcoming hearing, I was stepping over them on the edge of the couch adding a background soundtrack of “AHHH!” and “...SORRY!” when my lights lasso wouldn't get over the pipe.

Our dinner was cooked by several of our residents to represent the cultures of our community. There were 8 dishes which were brought out separately throughout the night. Each of the cooks spoke when their dish came out -introducing themselves, explaining what type of food they made, and telling how they prepared it. It was sweet watching some prepare their speeches beforehand (“Katie! Can I practice in front of you!”). 

Having each person present their cooking to the crowd seemed to be really empowering. Each took pride in what they made, laughed in front of the people, and even added some lighthearted remarks (one of our Kurdish members listed off the ingredients in his dish, finishing with “and my heart!”). The attendees would clap at their words and praise them for their food, while the blushing residents would run away playfully.

I worked on waitstaff alongside some of my coworkers and a few teenagers from our community. I'm sure all of you know how smooth and elegant I am (my blog's name is Kathryn Helen, for crying out loud), so this was no problem whatsoever.

Okay. Stop laughing.

I may not be the number-one-absolute-most-proper person. And yes, my mom's response in dropping me off at high school would always be “Have a good day! BE GRACEFUL!”. But I was excited to fulfill a lifelong dream of being a waitress (I saw a girl pretending to be one on Barney when I was 5, and her pink apron was a selling point). But, realistically, I was still nervous that I would knock over someone's water and, in trying to clean up, elbow an old woman in the face, and then in rushing to help her somehow set the whole place on fire. But I hope you're happy to hear that everyone made it out alive.

At the end of the dinner, we poured more drinks and had a live band play. The group is a 5-person band and are refugee claimants in our community. They were actually the most popular Romani band in Europe before fleeing, and their music is incredible. During some of the songs, an elderly women even stood up and did a little jig at her table while everyone else sat. Listening to the band's upbeat melodies, heartfelt singing, intricate harmonies, and mid-song laughter was one of my happiest moments of being in Toronto so far. 

Here's to you.