Open Minds and Open Hearts

I had the pleasure of traveling recently. If anyone knows me the one thing I am successful at when traveling is finding good food. Yes, I do like to see ancient ruins and stand in buildings that are a part of history, but what I like most is meeting the people and trying the food. You will not see me on a main street eating in a tourist area. I will most likely be found walking down a small random side street, compelled to stop and try something new.

You may ask what does food and people have to do with conflict resolution. . . .the answer is EVERYTHING!!! I traveled with my mother recently who loves to stare at the beauty of nature, museums and historical buildings for hours. Well, my short attention span does not allow for me to do that. I like walking around random streets, watching the people, seeing new places, and most of all slipping into a restaurant on a small street and talking to the people. I will walk for hours looking around until I feel at that moment I am in the right place. This led me to a small Cape Verdean/Angolan restaurant in Porto, Portugal. At the time the restaurant was mostly empty and I walked in with my broken Portuguese asking if they were serving food. Luckily they were, and I had some of the best food I had in Portugal. But what was more important was that I spent hours talking to one of the owner’s friends. Though the owner and I could not communicate well verbally her sweet disposition drew me to her quickly. She is one of those women with such a warm energy surrounding 

her that I immediately tried to get her to adopt me as a daughter. I was successful!

That night we went back to her place for music and dancing, and she once again greeted me with love. As we sat, my mother and I watched her hold a random customer’s sleeping child for an hour as though it was her own. The following day I came to say goodbye and gave her a huge hug and we exchanged our information. She glanced around the bar looking for a gift, and handed me a bottle of wine as a present. In our last embrace she cried. Why am I telling you this long story? Because I think we too often miss our chances to connect with other people. We are so stuck in our own world that we don’t realize that we are visiting places where there are wonderful people all around us. Had we chosen to stick to the path that most tourists travel we would not have a sense of who was around us.

Too often people become “others” to us. We don’t see them as within our group, therefore they become somehow in our minds less than we are. This is a long-standing problem in international conflicts. Many conflicts happen because groups dehumanize another group of people. And once a person no longer seems human the capacity to cause that person great harm is unleashed. But it is within us is the ability to have personal connections.  To take interest in a stranger or someone we see as “other” allows us to break these barriers. And then we can re-humanize a person, letting them be a complex person with many layers, not just apart of a group. Identifying with a social group is important to all of us. It is apart of what makes us feel protected. There is not a problem with that, but when we see another group as less than ours, the problems begin. We are all different, but we have more in common than many people think. People like Eva, the restaurant owner, remind me that some people still exist with a genuine sweetness that melts your heart. And once again, through the gift of food, another friendship (well, really I found a new mother) begins. Stop missing out on everyone around you and try to open your heart through the gift of food!

In honor of my recent travels and the lovely people of Barcelona and Porto, Portugal that try some Caldo de Peixe (Cape Veredean style). A simple but delicious fish soup! Recipe is at the bottom.

DOCUMENTARY: Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies A People

How many different groups of people are villainized through the media? Sometimes we don't realize the influence images we see can have on the way we think of “others.” This specific documentary shows how the the image of Arabs have been portrayed in the media overtime. Think about how there are so many groups the media exploits and the negative images that are portrayed that subconsciously stay with us.
 

Caldo de Peixe (fish soup)

Ingredients:
6 white potatoes
3 sweet potatoes
l bunch fresh parsley
l green pepper
l red pepper
3 medium onions
2 medium tomatoes
4 scallions
3 lbs. fresh, whole, cleaned saltwater fish (examples: tautog, cod, bluefish or sea bass).

Cooking Instructions:
In a large kettle, gently saute chopped onions, tomatoes, scallions and green and red peppers in oil. Next, add fish cut into small pieces and water. Cover and bring to a gentle boil. Add peeled potatoes and chopped parsley to kettle. Reduce heat and simmer. A little may be added to make a thicker broth. 

(recipe found at http://www.healthy-life.narod.ru/wor_ek38.htm) 

Here is a second option for Caldo de Peixe recipe as the first one is simple, but the second one sounds a bit more delicious.

Ingredients:

Fish, moray grouper,
 1 onion
 2 peeled tomatoes  
 2 garlic  cloves 
 1 laurel leaf
 1 sage 
   paprika at will  
   flour 
1/2 kg  manioca 
 1 kg potatoes
 1 kg American potatoes  
1/2 kg yam
1/2 kg green bananas 
1/2 kg pumpkin
   oil at will  

Preparation:
 
Let the fish flavor together with garlic, oil, salt and laurel. Put the sliced onion, garlic, laurel,

 paprika, peeled tomatoes, sage and olive oil in a big pot. Let it brown and add chopped 

potatoes, bananas, manioca, yam (something like a potato) and pumpkin. Let it flavour and 
let it boil. When all is almost boiled, add the fish.When it is ready,  taste the broth: if it is too 

weak, then add a spoonful of flour, in order to make it thicker. You must mix it with a wooden 

spoon, so as not  to let the soup adhere. The caldo de peixe may be served with some rice, 
or with polenta, this is the way I like most.

(recipe from http://www.caboverde.com/rubrique/gastro-e.htm)