Spanakopita – great spinach recipe

Global Youth Village Director Mary Helmig loves to cook.  One of her favorite recipes for a lunch or dinner party is Spanakopita.  This spinach, feta, and filo pie, sometimes known as “Greek comfort food”  is easy to make and enjoyed by all.  Her favorite recipe comes from the Moosewood cookbook by Molly Katzen.  Gather with friends and enjoy.

In case you want to impress your friends with your great ability to actually say the name of the dish you are offering them, listen to  the  Wiktionary pronounciation of “spanakopita”.

GYV participants enjoy lunch in the dining room

The Global Youth Village menu is predominately vegetarian with tasty international foods. Spanokopita shows up on the dining menu from time to time and is a great favorite. Sharing recipes from your family and culture is an easy way to find common ground and promote understanding. At GYV many a friendship has started with, “Hey, this spanokopita is good...do you like it?”

One of the aims of our international summer camp is to foster tolerance and understanding and to promote  personal development by encouraging young people to interact respectfully in a challenging and stimulating environment with others from a diverse mix of cultures.

Contact us to learn more about next year’s programs.

Gado-Gado Indonesian dish

Sixteen Indonesian students will be joining the Global Youth Village this summer as part of the Indonesian-U.S. Youth Leadership Exchange (IULX). Guess what we will be serving for dinner one evening during Session A?  GADO-GADO!

Mmmm…delicious

Try this outstanding vegetarian Indonesian dish made with authentic spices, eggs and vegetables. Our Indonesian youth who were here for summer camp at the Global Youth Village in previous years loved sharing their customs and traditions with other participants.  Making gado gado is the perfect way to promote intercultural communication and religious tolerance through delicious food and shared traditions.

Indonesia has the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, and GYV promotes peace and reconciliation among the world’s diverse religions.  To learn more about the leadership training and intercultural summer experiences at the Global Youth Village, check out our summer programs page for 2011.

Ingredients:

Blanched/steamed vegetables
long green beans, cut into 4-5 cm long
Chinese cabbage, shredded
Bean sprouts

Fresh Vegetables

Lettuce
Tomato, wedged
Cucumber, sliced

Other Complements

Boiled/steamed potatoes, sliced
Boiled eggs, wedged
Fried/baked tempe
Fried/baked tofu
Lontong (rice cake with log shape), cut into 1 cm thick
Ready-to-use fried shallot
Melinjo nuts crackers
Brown rice crackers

Gado-gado sauce

10 cloves garlic, stir fried/fried/roasted
300 g roasted/fried peanuts (In this case, I used 1 cup of organic crunchy peanut butter)
1000 ml coconut milk
10 red chilies, discard the seed and stir fried/fried
1 tsp terasi substitute (dried miso paste or dry vegetarian soup stock)
1 block of coconut sugar (about 62.5 grams)
2-3 tbsp rice flour dissolve in a small amount of water

Sambal

20 chilies, boiled /steamed
1/2 tsp sugar
Sea salt as desired

METHOD:

Gado-Gado Sauce

1. Process garlic, peanuts/peanut butter, a half part of coconut milk, red chilies, terasi, coconut sugar in a food processor or blender.
2. In a sauce pot, combine processed mixture with the rest of coconut milk, stir and turn on the stove at low-medium heat. Stir occasionally.
3. Cook sauce until boiled, the volume reduced and the sauce surface looks a bit oily. Add rice flour mixture. Keep stirring until bubbling about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Sambal

Combine all ingredients and process in a food processor/blender or you can grind them with mortar and pestle.

Serving

Place lettuce, slices of lontong and boiled potatoes, blanched vegetables, wedges of boiled egg, slices of fried tempe and tofu, and wedges of tomato, slices of cucumber. Pour the warm sauce over, garnish with fried shallot, crushed brown rice crackers and emping nuts crackers. Put sambal on the side as people have different preferences when it comes to spiciness. You can omit the sambal if you don’t like the spicy sauce.

Tips

- If the sauce is too thick, add a small amount of water.
- Always try the sauce before you remove it from the heat so you can add salt or coconut sugar to match your taste buds.
- Serve gado-gado sauce while it is still warm. Warm up the sauce if it is cold.
- If you still have leftover sauce, keep it in a jar and refrigerate/freeze. You may use for other dipping purposes.

Heading to Stanford…

Name: Shannon Eddy

Nationality: American

GYV Staff/ Participant during: 2007-2009

Education: Scarborough High School Graduate & rising freshman at Stanford University

Occupation: None yet!

Most Interesting Country Visited: Peru

Favorite GYV Memory: More than anything I remember the personal relationships that GYV created- the whispered conversations about life at home way past lights out in the cabins, swapped language lessons over a picnic table, teaching new friends to swim, talking about a dialogue session long after it was over, and most of all the certainty that you’ve made a bunch friends for life that you can count on for anything within a couple of weeks. Pickup games and dialogue sessions were highlights of my day. Being able to see everyone’s culture and talents shine through at sharing night was always fun, and the food and conversations at the dining tables was incredible- I even smile when I remember walking up “The Hill” to get there! And despite how sad it was, the last night spent trading hugs after the moving candle ceremony always had a huge impact on me when I realized how close we had all become.

Volunteer/Civic Engagement Activities since Global Youth Village:  Throughout high school I volunteered with a law office that helped low-income refugees and immigrants. So the lawyers would have a basic outline of the cases, I interviewed people who needed help with issues like deportation, applying for a green card, bringing family to the US from war zones or refugee camps, and discrimination. My training at GYV absolutely helped me communicate with all of the people from different cultures, especially when I had to get detailed accounts of sensitive problems and histories. After I graduated, my friend and I took a year off before college to volunteer around the world. In Costa Rica, we taught at an elementary school for three months. In Peru, we participated in hands-on conservation and research in the jungle.

Biography: I have lived all 19 years of my life at the same house in costal Maine. I work in the summers at a tiny market that sells everything you would expect if you’d heard any stereotypes about Maine, including lobsters, clams, blueberries, and whoopie pies. Growing up in Maine was great, but in high school I realized that I wanted to learn more about the world and the people in it- something particularly difficult to do in what is in many ways the least diverse state in the nation. I found GYV and attended the regular program and I loved it so much that the same year, a week after the program ended, I flew back for the first Iraqi-American exchange program. I became very involved in learning about the Middle East and studied Arabic and attended the Iraqi program for three years, making incredible friends and learning new things every single time. During high school I was very involved in refugee advocacy and environmental volunteering, and I spent a lot of time writing. After I graduated, I took a gap year that included three months living with a family and volunteering in Costa Rica; one month in Peru with a conservation program; and a month in Ireland working on an organic farm. From language blunders to sneaking into ancient ruins and learning traditional Irish songs by heart, some of the most incredible I’ve experiences I’ve had have been on my gap year (and I encourage all high school students to consider taking one!) However, nothing will ever compare to the memories and friends I made during my summers at GYV. I’ll be at home until September, when I leave for Stanford University where I hope to study international relations, environmental sciences, and writing.

The Difference Between Debate and Dialogue

In your dialogue workshop at GYV, you will learn about the differences between debate and dialogue. Many people don’t recognize that there is a difference, but the following points illustrate that there is a big difference!

Debate vs. Dialogue

assuming there is a right answer                            assuming many people have pieces of the answer

combative                                                                                       collaborative

about winning                                                              about exploring common ground

listening to find flaws, make counter arguments                listening to understand, find meaning

defending assumptions as truth                                               revealing assumptions for re-examination

critiquing the other sides position                                           re-examine all positions

defending own views                                                  acknowledging other views can expand one’s own

seeking a conclusion that ratifies your own position           discovering new options

Obviously, dialogue is more open and builds a foundation for greater understanding!

Catching up with Roger Falcon

Name: Roger Falcon

Nationality:  American/French

GYV Staff/ Participant during:  84-87

Education: Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy, the Fletcher School, Tufts University, Certificat d’etudes politiques, IEP Paris, BA, Oberlin College

Occupation: Chief of Staff, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Most Interesting Country Visited: Going to a Mayan village in the middle of the Mexican rainforest and meeting the chief who is trying to hold onto tradition as the world changes rapidly around him was unforgettable.

Favorite GYV Memory: Gathering in a circle at the end of each summer, holding a candle and singing “Let There Be Peace on Earth” as we committed to keep the Legacy spirit inside of us.

Volunteer/Civic Engagement Activities since Global Youth Village:

• Founding board member, Sovereign Arts, a non-profit dedicated to Native American rights and culture.
• Founding board member, A3D, a non-profit promoting exchange with Senegal and multi-cultural awareness on Boston’s north shore.
• Launched a Boston chapter of Nonviolent Peaceforce, which sends trained peacekeepers into zones of conflict such as Sri Lanka.
• Was active in the “Maison pour un developpement solidaire” in Paris, which promotes diversity and international exchange.
• Have sung in various choral ensembles and played handbells.

Biography:

My current position at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is very exciting. LEAP is an organization of current and former members of law enforcement, as well as civilian supporters, who are calling for an end to the drug war and the racial discrimination, violence and corruption it causes across the globe. Putting in place a system of legalized regulation would allow for better control and for more resources to be made available to treat addiction.

After graduate school, I lead the creation of ArtCorps, which sends volunteer artists from around the world to Central America to spread environmental, public health and human rights messages. The best part was getting to know the artists and spending time in Guatemala, an amazingly diverse country (62 indigenous languages currently spoken!), where I met fabulously warm people.

I also co-taught a course on human rights and worked for the Reebok Human Rights Award, which until a couple of years ago honored four activists age 30 and under each year for their cutting edge work.

During graduate school, I spent a year in an intensive program called Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship, studying corruption and the different ways it impedes political development. My thesis compared challenges and potential strategies in Mexico, China, Russia and the US.

After college, I spent three years in Prague. I lived with a Czech family, sang in several choirs, went to many concerts, and immersed myself in the country, still coming out of the fear of the Cold War. At first, I taught ESL at a university. I then had the inspiring, amazing opportunity to intern for President Václav Havel. Havel would not want to be considered a hero, but he is certainly one of mine. He brings together the arts and activism in a way that I have aspired to ever since.

Prior to graduate school, I spent a year and a half in Paris studying and, most importantly, meeting my wife, Helene, who is an artist, a polarity therapist and an art therapist working with kids. We live happily in Medford, near Boston, Massachusetts.

I would love to hear from friends – and friends-to-be – from Legacy. Please write!

Back from Cameroon…

Anna Stormzand S’01 is back in the United States after some time in Cameroon. Here is an excerpt from her experiences in 2010…

In August, we had a very successful girls’ summer camp with over 100 girls that attended!  After the camp, I had three months left and spent a lot of my time continuing to work with the youth club in the surrounding smaller villages and finishing up with the health project in the health centers.  The rainy season started late and therefore went late into 2010.  I had to travel to the capitol, Yaounde, twice (a two day voyage) at the very tail-end of the rainy season on very muddy, rutted roads that I thought I would never get through!  They were memorable trips to say the least!  I worked with the neighborhood girls’ group and girls’ soccer team right up until my departure date.  I had a wonderful send-off party with colleagues and friends one week before I left my town and got to say bye and thank you to everyone. While I knew it was time to move onto something new, I will really miss many aspects of life in Cameroon, starting first with the girls from these groups and my neighbors and friends.  They all made the experience so rich and have enhanced my life in many ways.  I will not miss the dust, heat, corruption and bad roads that come with being a Peace Corps Volunteer but all the wonderful people there and hope to return very soon.  I am currently spending my time presenting on Peace Corps and Cameroon to school classes and other local organizations and I am really enjoying discussing my experiences there with others.

Anna has decided to attend graduate school starting next August to get a Masters in Public Health focusing on Health Education and Behavior/Communication. Good luck Anna!

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