Charity Event with Jordan Scholarship Fund

On April 22nd, an outdoor charity event was scheduled to take place at the Japanese Garden in Amman, but due to the unexpected change of weather, the event took place at Chanoyu Arabia’s Tea Room.

It was an unprecedented number of guests to visit the room at the same time, but surely was a great pleasure to everyone.

A lovely mix of Jordanian students and Japanese professionals.

It was great seeing the guests feel comfortable as they were waiting for their tea session.

The Jordan Scholarship Fund is run by Japanese volunteers working in Jordan, who want to support Jordanian university students.

At the end of each session, the guests get to inspect closely the Natsume (tea caddy) and the Chashaku (bamboo scoop).

People enjoyed the warmth of the indoors, while it was cold and rainy outside.

Students from three different universities attended the event.

The main sweet was butter cookies with three flavours, the green was matcha, the beige was kinako (soy bean flour), and the grey had a black seed known as Nigella Sativa. The secondary sweet was Wasanbon that is basically Japanese sugar, moulded into shapes.

The Hanto (Assistant Host), helped in delivering the prepared tea and taking away the finished ones.

The Jordan Scholarship Fund group prepared some Japanese food for the guests.

While the host prepares tea at a normal pace for certain guests, the Hanto delivers the other guests, tea made by another assistant in the Mizuya (back room), so they wont have to wait for a long time.

Managing the flow so that the last guest has his tea, before the first one gets bored is very important.

All guests await the host to purify the Natsume for the second time, so they get to pass it around and look at it closely, along with the Chashaku.

The host makes sure the Natsume is clean from inside as well.

Sitting Seiza (sitting on the mat properly) is never an easy thing to do for an extended period of time, especially after the invention of chairs. 🙂

Thanks to everyone who came and supported this event.
Thanks to Jordan Scholarship Fund for asking Chanoyu Arabia to be part of this great event.
And thanks to our great T-sensei for documenting such wonderful gathering, and giving us the chance to share with other people, our joyous events.