Strand: Service

I wanted to experience generosity and wanted to feel how it is like to serve others. At Karma Kitchen, I was able to interact with many strangers and understand what it’s like to work in a restaurant. I worked as a table cleaner for 5 hours, which allowed me to place myself into the shoe of a table cleaner, who works at a restaurant I would visit. This experience made me very happy about myself. I met new people and made some friends in the process.

LO1: During the process, I built communication skills and also learned how to start a conversation with a stranger. Earlier, it wasn’t very easy for me to talk with a person, whom I haven’t met before. This experience allowed me to grow as a person, and step outside of my comfort zone.

LO2: It was a big challenge for me to clean all the tables in a time period, which was very little for me, as I wasn’t very experienced in this work. I had to be attentive, and also had to make sure that the tables are cleaned properly so that the next person can enjoy their meal.

LO5: This experience helped me understand the benefits of working in a team, through which I also realized the importance of working in a team. I understood that a person cannot do all of the work by himself/herself. I was working with 2 other table cleaners. We divided our work in a way that would help everyone. Apart from table cleaning, there were other departments such as decoration, kitchen, waiters, dishwashing. Looking at this setup, I realized how collaboration with other people allows smoothing a task.

LO6: I was part of a group that was helping in reducing world hunger. After the restaurant was closed, the leftover food was distributed amongst the underprivileged people. This made me feel grateful and respectful of all the resources I have without having to do much effort. I also became mindful to not waste food, because there are many needy people who are not as privileged as I am. A part of my work was to separate wet waste and dry waste. This contributes to easier recycling of the materials, and not using unnecessary resources