Cooking in Marrakech
Our eclectic group consisted of people from Norway, the Netherlands, and America. And, we met in Marrakech, Morocco, to learn how to cook authentic Moroccan food. Our teachers, Jmar and Aisha, gave us each recipes, written in our native languages. I was in charge of peeling and cutting tomatoes in half and removing the seeds. I’ve cut thousands of tomatoes in half before, but have never removed seeds because I relish eating the whole tomato. Just never dawned on me to remove seeds.
I began the process, while watching the other cookery students clean sardines, fry egg plant, and food process cucumbers. Then Aisha, one of the teachers, gently picked up one of the sliced tomatoes, cut it through the middle of the fruit and thumbed out the seeds. I was slicing the fruit from stem to end, which made it a bit more difficult to remove seeds. So, I copied Aisha. This effortless change of rotating the tomato before slicing it in half made a huge difference for removing seeds.
We all want to change for the better, and quite often, the effective change is very very simple. No drama, no fuss. Aisha didn’t get after me. She didn’t act as though I should not be a part of the class. She didn’t even demand I do it her way. She just showed me how she did it and went back to her work.
Teaching can be done without voicing one word. Learning can be done by following examples, quietly.
The cookery class was a successful experience. The new foods were tasty and the new friendships were fantastic.
Tagged: cooking moroccan, traveling marrachech
Healing Science Today 
Hi Cheryl,
I enjoy reading your posts. This reminds me of Doreen Blumhardt, when she spent more time in bed at age 93, she had the bed turned around to look out the big windows through the living room. The view was stunning over looking the harbor in Wellington. It had never occurred to her before to turn the bed towards the view. She said, “I was blind, but now I see.”
Good comparison Holly. The alleys were so narrow and people were so close together that until we walked up onto a roof and looked out over the city it was when I felt like I could see. So interesting, what a different perspective can give us.
[…] For 4 days my daughter and I had been wandering through a maze of narrow brick alleys while struggling to avoid getting in the way of passing natives, mules pulling carts, vintage bicycles operated by skilled riders, and 80 cc motorcycles spewing out thick exhaust. We listened to the calls to prayer amplified over the city, smiled at the city cats, and were intrigued by the history and culture. […]