Chapter Thirteen – “My friend, my friend look there!”

After yesterday’s somewhat sweet soup, we set about making as savoury a soup as we could today, settling on mushroom and lentil. It was a sleepy morning in the OH and the kitchen was quieter than usual, until Ibrahim arrived and we forced him to join us in playing word games whilst the soup simmered away. Cut to an hour or two later and Keenda’s beaming face, once again sipping her soup and asking “again, again like this?” again. It’s becoming increasingly tempting to make lentil soup everyday just for her, especially because she offers to wash up, stood at the kitchen table with a bowl of soapy water, every time she’s enjoyed the soup. To go with soup we made some super simple rosemary flatbread chips which Salim closely guarded, sneaking extras into his bowl when he thought we weren’t looking. Once we’d clocked his trick, he swiftly changed tack, opting for, “my friend, my friend look there!” Or, (our personal favourite) “my friend, my friend a mouse!” as he pointed across the room and grabbed another chip.

This week, almost everyone in the OH seems to have been struck down by some form of cold and/or flu, which could explain this morning’s quiet start. Desperate to stay healthy, we’ve employed every measure there is (on WebMD at least) including chia seeds in juice, gargling salt water, mountain tea with honey and copious amounts of garlic. This is why there are ten cloves of garlic in today’s recipes, as opposed to the usual four. Though we are still resisting the yoghurt garlic drink that Nour and Mohamad swear by. 

This evening, we went to support Nour who was speaking at an event held by Safe Passage and the Canadian Embassy at the Greek Film Archives. After watching a documentary about LGBTI refugees in Canada, there was a panel discussion with the head of Asylum Services in Greece and other official bodies (who were introduced in Greek, so we aren’t entirely sure who they were). Part way through the discussion, a masked and hooded group of about twenty burst through the doors at the back of auditorium. Shouting, they ran to the front where they starting pulling things out of their bags to throw at the panel. They then threw pieces of paper up into the air and ran out, shouting some more. As this all happened in Greek, we didn’t understand until it was explained to us afterwards that they were actually an anarchist group, protesting against the deportation of Mohammed A. who has been refused asylum in Greece. After a few minutes, an announcement was made in Greek, the panel returned to the front and the conference continued with Nour’s speech about his experiences in Syria, Turkey and Greece. 

As we ran back to the OH after the conference, falafel in hand to prep us for the night shift ahead, we were caught in a freak and MASSIVE thunderstorm, arriving at the house drenched and dripping head to toe. We spent the night sat in front of the electric heater, singing Bieber with Reggs and teaching Mariam the lyrics to ‘Someone Like You’.

 Again, Again Like This Mushroom and Lentil Soup 

• Olive oil
• 1.75kg mushrooms, any kind you like, roughly chopped
• 1.5kg green lentils
• 4 potatoes, skin on, chopped 
• 1 head garlic (or more, if you need it)
• 4 onions
• 3 stock cubes and plenty of water
• Cumin, turmeric, ground coriander salt and pepper 
• A small bunch parsley
• Cream (left over from yesterday’s soup, approx 500ml)

1. Sweat onions and garlic in olive oil
2. Add herbs and spices (not fresh parsley)
3. Add mushrooms and potatoes
4. Add stock and water to cover
5. Add lentils 
6. Bring to the boil then leave to simmer for about 40 mins
7. Realise the soup is too thin. Add more lentils (not exceeding amount stated above)
8. Blitz, add cream, stir in some parsley
9. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve with flatbreads, cut into 8ths and baked with Ekkie, salt, pepper and olive oil for 15 mins (flipping half way through)



This afternoon was spent around the table with Tess, a Bristol-based puppeteer, making newspaper and masking-tape puppets with the children. They loved it, and so did we.