What a weekend! After several weeks of preparations, coming and going to the neighborhood, receiving materials and spreading the word to the four winds of the call, the weekend of June 30th to July 1st, we finally started our workshops to build mobile kitchens and decorate the canopy that would give us shade in our summer kitchens.

From very early on, the Eugenio Maria De Hostos Public School (thanks infinitely to Aurelio, its director, for opening the doors of the centre to us and for his kindness) was full of activity: those from Enorme Studio organised the building materials and tools and distributed the tasks among the many volunteer hands that came to help; the girls from the Mico collective gathered the little ones to propose activities that kept them entertained throughout the day (and in which they discovered, for example, that the world can be seen in different colours depending on the glasses with which you look at it or that with fruit you can make incredible constructions); Óscar de La Máquina de Fotos documented with his lens every step we took so that not a single detail was lost and the boys from La Mina recorded everything in the video “Taller Construcción de Cocinas Móviles”, which you can see in the Video Library.

Besides fixing screws, cutting slats, painting the kitchens and decorating the awning, we also enjoyed eating in the company of the local people who came to the workshops. One day we shared tuppers and various snacks, which each person brought from home, and the next day, our super cook Suri, prepared a delicious meal for all those present. There, between gazpachos and salads, and while we rested a little from the hustle and bustle of the workshops, the neighbours shared their stories of the neighbourhood.

The result? A colourful awning and mobile kitchens that – it’s wrong to say – looked beautiful.