We weren’t trying to curry favour, but they were rooting for us anyway

On Saturday morning, after parkrun, we made our second visit to the Hounslow Jamia Mosque to help Ruby work on the Peace Garden.

Ruby, our task owner, grew up at the mosque, which she says her grandfather helped build. As a young girl, she was brought up in it, worshipping and volunteering here.

Since her husband died two years ago, she volunteers her time working on the gardens. It started as a wish to plant an apple tree in memory of her late husband, and blossomed into something much bigger.

It became clear to Ruby that she would need help, since she has some physical limitations and limited volunteers, so she contacted the council. A woman named Michelle at Hounslow Council said she might know of some resources and sent through some links. One of those was to GoodGym. “I immediately got everything filled in,” Ruby said. “I’d never heard of GoodGym before, but I immediately got you in.”

A first visit to the mosque was set up as a Community Mission for a Monday night, and we got stuck in. Ruby explained that the garden hadn’t had significant work done in 20 years and that she had a vision for it, but couldn’t physically manage much of the work herself. After an hour or so we realised we would need to come back, so we organised a future mission on a weekend when there would be more light and more people would be available.

“I think you all are absolutely marvellous, and the mosque is so thankful"

Ruby offered us tea and biscuits, and the Imam promised us lunch on our return. We assured her it wasn’t necessary, but she couldn’t be dissuaded. “I think you all are absolutely marvellous, and the mosque is so thankful,” she said over a huge meal of vegetable curry and rice, scotch eggs, lamb curry, chicken curry, juices, and pudding which we were encouraged to take with us when we finally had to go after a long lunch talking with Ruby and her colleague Mohammed about the potential for other ways GoodGym could get involved with volunteering through the mosque.

We explained that for many of us, it was our first visit to a mosque and were offered a tour on our return. “It’s nice that we can learn from each other and share the experience together. The garden has been brought back by you guys more than anyone else. We would love to have your input on the garden,” Ruby said.