Dear friends of ‘suppe og vennskap’,
temperatures have been decreasing lately therefore, we made the first soup of the season last Wednesday. But we did not only hand out soup, bananas, coffee and juice, we also started to offer scarfs.
Doing so, we had a beautiful encounter with a young woman. Since her clothes weren’t appropriate for the weather conditions, we offered her a scarf. She was very happy and took some time to pick one out and when she was content with her choice she even hugged every one of us and thanked us. As she was about to leave, she noticed one of our volunteers shivering because of the cold and proposed that she should also take a scarf. This was a beautiful moment showing us that actually we are all the same. We are not better because we are helping them – we are all humans with the same need for warmth – emotional and thermal!
Another special thing about ‘suppe og vennskap’ is getting to know the people on the street. We approach everyone and don’t care if we already know people or not, because at the end of the day, it is not about us. But still, it is always nice to encounter someone you already know. On every soup run, we meet the same man at the same spot and have a nice little chat with him. But this week was different. After we handed him the food he took our hands and kissed them. Feeling his closeness to our group and the emotional connection between us created a memorable moment.
Usually, you do not really pay attention to people passing you on the street and especially those in need are often invisible to us. We don’t perceive them as human beings because we are so focused on ourselves, they are just objects that don’t really affect us. Everyone has their own life and we don’t really have time to actually bother. But with ‘suppe’ it is different: You become aware of your surroundings and of the people on the street. If you are on your way with the soup cart, you actively look out for people in need of a soup or a nice chat. You deliberately look at people and see them, in most cases for the first time, as people, and not just your surroundings, not just “things“. And in some moments, you even catch some gestures of philanthropy, like a woman taking care of you even though you wanted to take care of her. Or a man, reaching out to you thanking you with the only thing he has – his human kindness.
Even if you are busy the whole week, on this Wednesday evening, you forget about yourself and you forget about your problems. You forget everything and observe the world with open eyes and an open heart for the first time in a really long period. This is the real magic of ‘suppe og vennskap’.
Iris
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