Kids and Cake.

When we moved to Manchester, one of the things we thought about was what church we would be attending. We had friends recommend churches to us but we don't have a car so we had to consider if the travel times and service times were able to fit our kids schedules. After looking at websites (church websites are SO important, guys!) and the locations, we decided to try out a church just a few bus stops down the same street.

It's a small church, no bigger than Cairnhill Methodist. Majority of the church members were Africans and there was a smaller majority of Whites. The speaker that day was African and I found out that day that the African accent is really close to the Singaporean one which actually make me feel somewhat at home. The people are all very friendly and the kids have been enjoying Sunday School. I have also come to look forward to seeing the colourful African clothing some of the older African women wear. Last week a lady in a golden head dress and shiny green dress came up to us to say hi. As she walked back to her seat, N turned to Q and whispered: 'Princess'. 😂

I found out that they ran a toddlers group on Tuesday mornings called 'Kids and Cake' and went to visit and see what it was like. One word. AMAZING. Honestly, they weren't doing anything out of the ordinary or anything really fancy. It is basically an informal meeting organized by a couple of moms with young children to provide other moms a place to hang out, have some time to chit chat, have a cuppa and some cake. But you know what stay at home moms with young kids REALLY NEED? Just that. Just a place to come and chit chat with other adults and have some hot tea or coffee WHILE IT IS STILL HOT and some cake while the kids get to play with toys that are new to them because it doesn't belong to them. During the last half an hour of the allotted 1.5 hrs we had, we kept all the toys and sat in a circle to read a bible story and sing some songs with the kids. The kids had such a nice time they didn't want to leave! Honestly I would stay there all day if I could too 😛.

One thing that particularly stood out to me was the lack of single use plastics.

The beautiful drinks station. 

Looking at the photo you would think we were having a formal conference but we weren't! There were only 10 mummies there today and it is an informal weekly drop in meeting.. you can come whenever you like from 10.30 am and leave whenever. The coffee provided was in a reusable container with a teaspoon stuck in instead of individual packets which was really useful because I think some of us like our coffee stronger while others prefer it a little weaker. If you needed stirrers, there were teaspoons or wooden sticks for when the teaspoons ran out. To be honest I felt the proper cups made the coffee tastier and made the mommies feel more taken care of. A cake was sometimes baked by a member in the church and placed in a Tupperware container (not a single use disposable box) that would be returned to them after the session was over (or probably on Sunday when they came for service if they couldn't come back to collect it). Other weeks, we would just have some biscuits to share. Although the biscuits were not homemade and not entirely waste free, they were not individually packed (A roll of biscuits in one plastic or paper packet = less waste) and if there were any leftovers, one of the mummies just took them home with them. The kids also had biscuits and fruits for a snack and a stack of kids bowls were provided for that.

N always has at least 2 servings of fruit 😂

I asked the lady in charge what they would do for a bigger function and she said it would be about the same. A few years ago they were still using disposables and single use items but the church decided to look into proper cutlery because they realised how wasteful it was when there was an increased awareness of single use plastics and waste in the UK. The church has the luxury of having their own building and they run some conferences there so it made sense to get a dishwasher for their cups and plates. When I related this to Q he said that the University catered food for the students during their welcome week and all the utensils were also proper reusable utensils with proper plates. LOVE.

Now that Singapore is also increasing awareness of the environmental impact of the waste we generate (not just plastic) are we doing anything about it or are we just brushing it off and saying it's just one straw, one plastic fork or one paper plate? Are we mindful of the amount of trash we generate at parties and gatherings just because we don't like to wash up after ourselves? How many times have we run functions for fewer people and just pulled out our disposables? I just went for a small birthday gathering last week where there were 8 people and they used disposables. Are we allowing 'inconvenience' to be a reason we don't make more earth friendly decisions? I don't think we all have the passion to live a zero waste life but I'm very sure that a lot of us are living an overly wasteful life. With the festive season coming up and parties about to ensue, I do hope that we are all thinking about how we can do things better this year. We can be better, and we must. I also hope that with the increased efforts to save the planet, the pledges companies are signing now and the increased questioning of our environmental impact, the generation after us will grow up being more mindful about their choices and grow up with better and more environmentally sustainable habits.

In other news, this also started me on reading about zero waste families and I am looking into making my own toothpaste (to Q's dismay 😂😂😂).