JAN, ESSAN AND A LIFE-CHANGING GATHERING
Taking a moment … to reflect on this moment via this blurry little selfie shot! Five years ago, I re-connected with Jan and Essan, two wonderful guys who, like many Hazaras, were forced to flee persecution in Afghanistan. They had sought asylum in Australia as unaccompanied minors and, a few years before this photo was taken, were being kept in Melbourne Immigrant Transit Accommodation (a detention centre not far from the centre of Metropolitan Melbourne) for processing and assessment. At the time, one of the few uncensored avenues I knew of to connect with and show my support for people seeking asylum was to visit the detention centre, and it was there that the three of us soon struck up a friendship.
What amazed me most was just how much like me and my friends Jan and Essan were: fun, cheeky, irreverent. I remember how bizarre and macabre it used to feel, after an afternoon of hanging out, mucking around and having fun playing table tennis or cards or just chatting, to be the one that got to get up, walk away and go home. How could it be that the person who hadn’t had to fight for their freedom, got to go home, whilst the ones that had the courage to put absolutely everything on the line for their freedom, remained behind bars!? How random freedom really was! By a lottery of fortune, I had been born in a country in which I had never had to endure life-threatening persecution. Freedom was a fluke, not guaranteed in any way, bestowed on us by fortune, just as the lack of it is bestowed on so many people in the same situation as Jan and Essan.
On this particular day (fast-forward a couple of years), I caught up with Jan and Essan following their release into the community. I remember asking them a question that would come to change my life:
“How should we celebrate your freedom?”
“Let us feed you”, they replied. They whisked me away...
They whisked me away shopping to Dandenong (here we are in the Afghan supermarket) and as we explored the market and caught up, I remember marvelling at them choosing (and sometimes arguing over) all the specialty spices and ingredients. They urged me to arrange a group of friends to gather at a house with a barbecue that night for a traditional Afghan BBQ (!!). I didn’t have to ask people twice.
So many beautiful memories from that night - too many to recount here! What shines brightest of all was just how wonderfully kind, enthusiastic, proud and hospitable Jan and Essan were, sharing their delicious food and stories, mingling with my friends, who just minutes before, had been complete strangers. I remember how gob-smackingly lucky my friends and I felt to be in their, and each other’s, company that night. Whilst we were supposed to help, I’m pretty sure everyone was so eager to savour the mesmerising sights, sounds, tastes, smells of the evening that Jan and Essan ended up doing all the cooking and my friends and I sat around asking a thousand questions and being useless.
That night, lying in bed, marinating in the flavours, scents and stories of the evening, an idea was born. We were just ordinary folk, in an ordinary house, standing around an ordinary BBQ. What was extraordinary - irreplaceable, astounding, breathtaking - was what these two young men had brought to the night: their skills and tales, passed down through families, across borders, against all odds. They showed maturity beyond their years to be the custodians of this incredible wisdom.
We didn’t have the words or means to properly say thank you to Jan and Essan that night. But what if we could? What if there was a way to have such mind-blowing, transformative, enlightening experiences, and for guests to be able to properly reflect their gratitude back to participants through the dignity of employment? Free to Feed was born.
Having started with a gathering, Free to Feed continues to be all about gathering. Not just the physical act of getting together. Gathering as exploring, collaborating, experimenting, connecting, creating, learning, wondering, discovering. This summer, I invite you to gather your friends and family and join Nige in our latest All Together Now offering. Like Jan and Essan did all those years ago, Nige will transport you to another world and another time. It’s an unforgettable journey, a life-changing gathering.
Humble but powerful beginnings. Gathered around an Afghan BBQ with Jan and Essan.
– LORETTA BOLOTIN, FREE TO FEED FOUNDER & CEO