The Polish Program (LSD, #2)

11. My Ever-Changing Moods

My Ever-Changing Moods

Last night, after dinner, Scarlett and I did the rounds of the neighbourhood, asking the people we knew for help and information. We preferred to buy our supplies at the shops of our Jungleland neighbours. By asking around if anyone knew a good butcher for the barbecue, we found not only a lot of goodwill but also many helping hands.

But organizing a party for 1.000 guests is more than spending money. It requires skills of planning and organizing, it requires patience and tolerance, and above all, it requires the capacity to improvise. Scarlett has it all.

I have to cook for a thousand people, but Scarlett takes care I don't have to worry about anything else. She runs around, runs errands and runs the show. She makes notes, makes phone calls and makes people do whatever is needed. And most of all, she does it with a smile and a joy that infects the entire Jungle.

At 9:00 AM, the first minivans and small lorries arrive on the square between the towers of Jungleland. Ten big barbecues on one side, on the other side large stainless steel tables to work on, a complete mobile waterfront (wash basins, taps, and three dishwashers) on the left, and several mobile electric stoves and refrigerators on the right. At 10:00 AM, all the hardware is up and running.

Jungleland is not just a collection of gangsters and junkies. Most neighbours are normal poor people. Many of them have jobs or even run their own small business. Those are the ones who come next: bakers bring bread, butchers bring meat, greengrocers bring vegetables, and Tomasz and the gang know where we can get the cheapest deals for beer, wine and soft drinks.

Barbara handles the salad department: I explain the recipe of my favourite Sweet Sampdoria pasta salad, and she explains it in Polish to the twenty-something women who had offered to help. The salad is a good choice because you can prepare it in the afternoon and keep it cool in the refrigerator (well, in 20 refrigerators). Tonight, all we have to do is serve it.

For 1.000 guests, you take 200 sweet onions, 120 red paprika-peppers, 200 small cans of sweet corn, 40 kilos of sweet peas, 20 kilos of cherry tomatoes and 2400 black olives. If you like, you can add pieces of roasted chicken, cooked ham or smoked salmon. You cut everything and mix it with 60 kilos of cooked macaroni. For the dressing, you mix 800 spoons of mayonnaise with 50 kilos of Greek yoghurt, 800 spoons of olive oil (extra virgen) and half a forest of cut leaves of fresh basil. And finally, you add 10 kilos of Parmesan cheese on top of it. Everybody loves that salad.

Scarlett had another job for the boys: she arranged 200 wide paper bags and 50 kilos of white sand. A bit of sand on the bottom of each sack made it stand open on the floor. With a tea-light, a small wax candle in an aluminium cup, you turn it into a fairy-tale illumination.

Music is no problem either: several neighbours earn pocket money with DJ-gigs and equipment. The boys of the weed plants on the 13th floor take care of electricity, Tomasz and the gang install lights and speakers, and everybody else gets infected with enthusiasm for the upcoming events.

Scarlett is full of ideas: "What do we do with tableware?"

"What do you mean?"

"Red! Do those people have to eat with their hands? Did you plan to throw a few pieces of meat into the crowd, to let them fight for it and tear it apart with their claws and teeth? We need plates and forks and spoons and knives and cups and glasses... Never mind. I have an idea. You take care of that charcoal, and I take care of the rest."

A little later, small posters hang everywhere, inviting the neighbours to the Jungleland barbecue, which starts at 18:00 and will last until 24:00. It's free, but not for nothing... There's a Climate Conference going on. We want to teach those leaders a lesson. They might learn from us how we, the animals from the jungle, take care of our own environment. We ask everyone to take hor own plate, cutlery and glass (and if you want to sit: a chair), so we save both the earth and our own money, avoiding 1.000 kilos of waste, plastic plates and other expensive disposals.