The stories that make up the generation of a successful community organisation are not dissimilar, in that they talk of the intermeshing of diversity to create completeness, where the strengths of others shore up your weaknesses, and together, you accomplish far more than any individual can.
However, this does not mean that brutal honesty does not play its part in the mix either. Which brings me to Cynthia, without whose frank appraisals, coupled with her unqualified support and loyalty, none of the Women's Group projects envisaged would ever have gotten off the ground in the first place. You always need someone to believe in you, particularly in the beginning, when all you have is a vision and not a lot of everything else.
Within our community, we were fortunate enough to have been granted a facility, but one which was badly in need of refurbishment:
Within our community, we were fortunate enough to have been granted a facility, but one which was badly in need of refurbishment:
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| Before: Children's Room |
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| Before: Children's Playground |
I called this 'The Children's Room', as if believing could make it so, but it could just as easily been entitled 'The Store Room' or 'Dumping Ground' or, on most occasions, 'The Place where Kathryn's Kids - and Just About No-One Else's - Hang Out Every Monday'. The playground was not much better.
"So," said Cynthia to me, "You've won the election, but your main group are women whose children are grown, and those with children aren't members - or at least, not active members. So how are you going to raise funds then to refurbish 'The Children's Room'?"
The question was superlatively good, and direct, as is Cynthia's wont. However, with three children under four, and my youngest six months old, I could not hope answer it on my own; I really needed my friends. And so it was, that without my saying another thing, that Cynthia willingly bamboozled herself, through telling me what to do, into volunteering herself to unde formidable organisational skills and network of catering contacts and then, unasked, she even then talked herself into offering to open up her home to host a dinner party to a bunch of strangers. This was not a trivial event - Cynthia is enormously house-proud and dirt-averse - but I warned you, this is not an ordinary story.
All I could marvel at was how far she had come from her first-ever dinner invite to me when she stated bluntly: "You are invited. Your kids aren't". (For the record, I adore Cynthia's honesty and find it delightful).
Now wouldn't you have thought that all you need do is throw a fantastic party in a beautiful home with delicious food and sundry other enticements such as exciting raffle prizes, and everyone would come? I'm afraid not. No-one, it seemed, wanted to come to our party. In the middle of our Middle Eastern week, with D-day looming, she sat me down and said, "So who's coming?" Now, despite generating a new database of members, and sending invites to all and sundry including activating (for a time-limited period) old address books of members who had dropped out, etc., and writing up a marketing storm over an extended period of time in terms of enticing women out of their houses to our party, well, no-one it seemed really wanted to commit to hazarding an evening in our company, never mind allowing us to extract funds from them for said event. "About 10", I said. "Mmm - she said - "And including 'all of us?'"(by which she meant those stalwarts who always simply show up to work, regardless of the state of community affairs). "Ahem," I could but reply, "that IS including 'all of us'".
"So," said Cynthia to me, "You've won the election, but your main group are women whose children are grown, and those with children aren't members - or at least, not active members. So how are you going to raise funds then to refurbish 'The Children's Room'?"
The question was superlatively good, and direct, as is Cynthia's wont. However, with three children under four, and my youngest six months old, I could not hope answer it on my own; I really needed my friends. And so it was, that without my saying another thing, that Cynthia willingly bamboozled herself, through telling me what to do, into volunteering herself to unde formidable organisational skills and network of catering contacts and then, unasked, she even then talked herself into offering to open up her home to host a dinner party to a bunch of strangers. This was not a trivial event - Cynthia is enormously house-proud and dirt-averse - but I warned you, this is not an ordinary story.
All I could marvel at was how far she had come from her first-ever dinner invite to me when she stated bluntly: "You are invited. Your kids aren't". (For the record, I adore Cynthia's honesty and find it delightful).
Now wouldn't you have thought that all you need do is throw a fantastic party in a beautiful home with delicious food and sundry other enticements such as exciting raffle prizes, and everyone would come? I'm afraid not. No-one, it seemed, wanted to come to our party. In the middle of our Middle Eastern week, with D-day looming, she sat me down and said, "So who's coming?" Now, despite generating a new database of members, and sending invites to all and sundry including activating (for a time-limited period) old address books of members who had dropped out, etc., and writing up a marketing storm over an extended period of time in terms of enticing women out of their houses to our party, well, no-one it seemed really wanted to commit to hazarding an evening in our company, never mind allowing us to extract funds from them for said event. "About 10", I said. "Mmm - she said - "And including 'all of us?'"(by which she meant those stalwarts who always simply show up to work, regardless of the state of community affairs). "Ahem," I could but reply, "that IS including 'all of us'".
"Oh." Her only reply. She looked at me, I looked at her. The silence widened. "So, what are you going to do about it then?" she asked. "Well," I said, "I guess we are having a party!" "Right, then," she said, heading towards the phone, "We are having a party!" (though it must be noted the person she first phoned was the caterer to make sure he could accommodate fewer numbers as well as larger. Thank you, Phillip, for your flexibility and the heart you have for the community, and Cynthia, without whose belief and hard work and initial raising of funds I'm not sure how we would ever have started).
Recently, I wrote about the refurbishment of Baker House for the Dhahran Women's Group on their 65th birthday, which writing talked about the process of painting the mural in the Children's Room with the funds raised (and before-and-after pictures of the rest of the facility are found here too). However, what that did not at all touch upon was how touch-and-go our first, eventually successful event was. Six weeks into my/our Presidency (Angel lady, Frannie, Kanwal, Stacey, Julie, Therese, inter alios), you'd have thought we'd have known better than to go big - but how else do you start?
The word-of-mouth persuasive tactics which turned the tide, however, I have to hand over to Ilaria in particular, since she, having led a magnificent election campaign, felt obliged to follow through, and though we never let on how few were committing to the party, a simple whip-around amongst my friends had pretty much let them realise how dire the situation actually was. However, connection by connection, in dribs and drabs initially and then in sudden flurries and spurts, the numbers kept ticking up until we had a completely full house. In my 60th anniversary speech, I talked about ubuntu and wasta, about how we need other humans to become more human and about the connectedness of us all. That first event was a lesson to us all in both.
From then on, success built on success, and others became involved in the refurbishment specifically. It took 18 volunteers, starting with Seonaid and Mandy, then Celine, Nancy, Maya ... the list gets too long, to paint the Children's Room, but the pictures tell it all:
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| After: Children's Room |
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| After: Children's Room |
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| After: Children's Playground |
As to Cynthia, she has other talents too and just has to be about the most formidable cook I have ever met - outside of professional chefs. She is utterly indefatigable, just loves cooking, spends hours daily making the most amazing food. Whenever she phoned me, which was at least twice daily when she was in town, she would recite the list of dishes she was preparing and I would feel exhausted just listening to her. When my mum and aunt visited us once she had us and a few friends over for a six course meal, including two kinds of soufflé – savoury and sweet. Her secret lay in the preparation and the fact that she had two professional chefs in the kitchen as well as a helper bringing the plates in and out. We felt as if we had suddenly stumbled into the setting of Babette's Feast, and fortunate enough to be able to partake in the offerings, although thankfully spared the turtle soup.
When we first arrived in Saudi, Fem and I discovered a delightful little place downtown, sparse on expensive furnishings but replete with colour and flavour, and we fell in love with the Tom Yum Goong Soup. Here we are introducing Ammar and Hadeel (who taught us how to make khiar mahshi), to the delights of Thai soup, made utterly authentically - you know the place is authentic if most of the diners are themselves Thai:
But one day, suddenly, the restaurant shut up shop. It was devastating to us, who had grown to rely upon the soup in particular. Fortunately, however, by this stage, we were living on Saudi Aramco, and asked Cynthia for her recipe. Here it is, in her own words:
When we first arrived in Saudi, Fem and I discovered a delightful little place downtown, sparse on expensive furnishings but replete with colour and flavour, and we fell in love with the Tom Yum Goong Soup. Here we are introducing Ammar and Hadeel (who taught us how to make khiar mahshi), to the delights of Thai soup, made utterly authentically - you know the place is authentic if most of the diners are themselves Thai:
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| Our favourite Thai restaurant in Saudi, featuring Tom Yum Soup |
Tom Yum Goong Soup Recipe
6 cups chicken stock ( store bought or home made) I prefer homemade, but other will suffice.
10 lime leaves (if not available zest or grate the skin off a couple limes)
3 stalks fresh lemon grass (be sure to smash stems for ultimate flavor
1 Tablespoon Chili Oil
2 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
3 Tablespoons lime juice (preferably fresh)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 garlic cloves minced
6-8 Thai Chillies (Prik Kee Noo, however any hot red chili will do) less if you don't like the heat, you can always add less then increase to taste. If you love heat increase chillies to desired amount
1 cup whole straw mushrooms, or sliced shiitake mushrooms, or any type of mushroom you prefer
5 stalks green onions, I slice them fairly fine, however its a matter of preference
1/2 pound fresh shelled and veined shrimp or prawns
Salt to taste, depending on salt in chicken stock
Optional
1/2 pound of cubed cooked chicken
1/2 cup baby corn cut in half
sometimes I add thin fish slices.
1/3 cup fresh coriander
In a large pot combine chicken stock, lemon grass , garlic, lime leaves, bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 min or so. Remove lemon grass, turn heat to high. Add chilli's, chili oil, mushrooms. Bring to a boil and simmer 5 min. Add Fish oil, lime juice, sugar, salt if needed. Add shrimp, green onions, cook no more than 2 min. At this time add any of the optional ingredients if preferred.
I always taste as I go, if you feel you need more of anything, add it. It's all a matter of personal taste.
You can substitute Coconut milk for the Chicken stock then the soup becomes Tom Kha Goong
Also if you prefer you can use water as the base, just increase the spices, or find a pre packaged Tom Yum Paste, you will need 2 Tablespoons of paste to 1000 ml (4 cups) water.
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