Malaysian offers refugees a taste of home

Nov 20, 2015

LESBOS, Greece: A boat is sinking in the waves tossed by northern winds on the Aegean Sea, 50 metres from Rayyan Haries’ base of operations on the north shore of Lesbos island.

While volunteer lifeguards swim out to the floundering vessel packed with more than 100 refugees, the 25-year-old Malaysian volunteer is scrambling to boil 30 litres of water under the early morning sun. The first taste of Europe, for those lucky enough to land near him after crossing the Aegean in boats organized by smugglers in Turkey, is hot tea, sweet enough to resemble the tea they drank in their homes before they fled.

“The Syrians tell me how,” he says, recounting his lessons in how much sugar to add to his enormous batches of black tea.

“I flew all the way from Malaysia to open a kitchen here for the refugees,” Haries tells Mashable when able to steal a second away. “These people have gone through the extreme. You know, it doesn’t take much to feed a person, I just want to cook for people.”

Haries operates a modest makeshift kitchen in Skala Sikaminea, a small coastal village on Lesbos island that receives upwards of 2,000 refugees a day. Volunteers under his command — though he shies away from being seen as any form  of boss — ensure everyone is treated with respect and dignity. Haries says he wants to begin cooking Middle Eastern food. “It may not be as good as they make it back home,” he laughs, “but I want to remind people of back home in a good way.”

Haries’ enthusiasm for cooking is infectious, his altruism unwavering. His sweaters are loud, colourful woolen garments that match in eccentricity the animal-themed hats he often wears to lighten the mood. His soup-of-the-day is served in styrofoam tumblers and includes local vegetables and spices he brought from his home in Kuala Lumpur. Bringing a smile, along with some hot tea and soup, has become his simple daily mission.

“I need more cumin!” he shouts out above the chaos as traumatized refugees arrive on the beach. Volunteers from around the world frantically tend to dazed families, wrapping them in emergency blankets. In Arabic, mothers scream out for their children — the first to be given and grabbed off the boats — terrified they will disappear in the confusion. Everyone is cold, their clothes saturated and stuck against shivering skin.

“You know, food is hope,” Haries says, “and even after all of this (the boat journey), wherever the refugees go, Sweden, Germany, that final destination is so far from here. It’s so hard, and you want to keep that hope for better going.”

Food is his passion — one honed from a mother who always allowed him to help out in the kitchen.

“I’m just here to cook for people, to see hot, steamy, delicious, nutritious food being dished out everyday, that’s all I want to do,” he continues.

However, funding the kitchen, the only one of its kind on the Grecian island, is a struggle. Haries wakes daily around 5 a.m. to maintain his full-time job as a digital strategist, before opening the shoreline kitchen by 10 a.m. On good days, he shuts down by midnight. “And people always assume big-sized people are lazy,” he says with a playful smile. Haries is already well known in the village for his impressive commitment to his cause and the wider refugee crisis.

When asked what brought him to Lesbos, Haries tells of relinquished plans to study Italian cooking in Rome and tears up recalling the moment he saw Aylan Kurdi’s photo in the news, the Syrian toddler whose small body washed up on a Turkish  shore in September. “He was the size of my nephew. He could have been my nephew,” he says.

He wrote a Facebook post proposing his plans to open a kitchen for refugees, fundraised 1,000 euros, got an airline sponsorship and set up camp, all in less than three weeks.

Since then, he’s seen the horrors of the Aegean first hand, and it’s saddening, he admits. But being a witness to the Greek tragedy that plays out daily on Lesbos spurs him on. The short, yet deadly passage across the Aegean Sea claims the lives of refugees regularly, seeing a recent spike since winter weather is setting in. Twenty-nine perished last Wednesday when multiple boats capsized off the island, with dozens still missing and bodies washing ashore

“We’re not talking about numbers, we’re not talking about benefits, we’re talking about another human being, who looks like you, who has the same heart, the same red blood, trying to make it to safety,” he says.

On slower days, Haries ferries home-made brownies through the cafes that stay open late to cater to the constant stream of volunteers maintaining a presence in the small fishing village at the crux of Europe’s refugee crisis. This year, Lesbos island alone has received  more than 200,000 refugees passing through after fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond.

“You know, there is something about food that is comforting,” Haries said. “Food is always hope and I just want to give hope to people. That’s the most important thing in life.” -- mashable. com