Our identity is not limited

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

multicultural books, Suriname, Surinamese cooking, daughters, kids, woman, mother, realize, life, youngsters, neighborhoods, inspiration, recipes, institutional discrimination, youth worker, schools, love, Maya Angelou, racism, empathy, representation, blogging, Oprah Winfrey

INTRO:

00:01

Every color is beautiful, every color is powerful, every color is worthy. They tried to bury us, they didn’t realize we were seeds, they didn’t realize we were seeds. We open doors so others can walk through them. Your legacy is every life you have ever touched. I’m Stella Saliari and this is Salt the Podcast, a series of encounters with inspiring women, they are healers, activists, mothers, educators and world changers. Together we create community, share knowledge, amplify voices, heal and break narratives by elevating a new generation.

00:59

Stella: Welcome to Salt The podcast. Our guest today is Tewatha Goorhuis-Muller. Tewatha is a youth worker, coach, the woman behind the beautiful blogs this girl’s black book, and this girl can cook. She’s a writer and expert in how the Internet influences youngsters. Tewatha is based in Haarlem, the Netherlands. She’s married to Robert Jan, and the mother of Ella and Uma. We met in 2015 when she used to be my neighbor and we quickly realized that we share the same ideas about the world. And so Tewatha became an important part in my Amsterdam life. With her work and ideas, she brings flavor into the world, she initiates change for us and raises awareness about important topics, such as the significance of multicultural children’s books and the effects of the Internet on youngsters. The things she creates are beautiful, have a look at her blogs, and you will understand what I mean. The title of today’s encounter is Our identities are not limited and is part of the overall topic, elevating a new generation that is feminist and anti-racist. We will speak about food, her blogs, writing a multicultural children’s book, female solidarity. We will find out who has been her SALT and what she has to say to the next generation. And of course, a lot more. Welcome Tewatha.

02:22

Tewatha: Thank you. I’m happy to be here.

02:25

Stella: So let’s start with a little bit more about you. Who are you? I mean, I already said a lot, but it would be great if you could also share a little bit more about yourself.

02:34

Tewatha: Yeah, I’m Tewatha and a 30 years old woman. I still don’t consider myself as a woman. But here I am born in Amsterdam in a part called Geuzenveld. I have Surinamese routes, married to Robert Jan, I almost forgot, one of the most important things in my life. I am a mother of two girls: Ella and Uma and I just recently moved to Haarlem, where I work as a youth worker for a nonprofit organization. And yeah, so I as I said, I was born and raised in Amsterdam. And I grew up in a very, how can I say. I grew up in a Surinamese, with a Surinamese mum and dad. But when you come from Suriname, you’re always mixed. So my dad is a Surinamese-Chinese and mixed with other. And my mom is Creole, and Indian. And so all these cultures came and mixed together. And I grew up in quite a liberal home. My mum was always working, and my dad was a stay-at-home dad. And they were always married. Contrary to what a lot of people always ask me, a lot of people always ask me: “Are your mom and dad still together?” Now? Well, at least now they aren’t because my dad passed away three years ago but my parents were always married. And I have two sisters, one older and one younger, and I have two older half-sisters. And when we grew up, they, as I said, they were really free in their thinking. They didn’t have any really strict rules. So I was kind of raised with the idea that anything was possible in life. In high school, I was I would say a normal student, a bit average. But I was very social. And I was always very busy with inequality in the school and in society. Looking back at it, I always had quite a heart for others or for people who struggled in life. I remember that we had big discussions with the whole class about gay rights and how the world influences or commercials influence your brain. And I was always very, yeah, strong opinionated. For a 15 year-old, I was quite opinionated. Yeah. And my parents always encouraged us, all of us three to go out and see the world. I kind of took that very literally. So I moved abroad twice to Barcelona and Buenos Aires and those two experience really made me into the woman, mother and wife that I am today.

05:50

Stella: Thank you so much. That’s a very nice introduction into who you are. As I said, you have two blogs. And obviously, I want to talk about both of them. But first I would like to talk about this girl can cook. Can you share a little bit? What is it about? What’s the history? What does it mean to you and to your audience?

06:12

Tewatha: Well, it’s actually funny, because it all started with this girl’s black book. That was my first blog and it started in 2012 when I came back from Argentina, and I was in between jobs. And I had a lot of time on my hands, it was in the middle of the crisis. And I actually, I moved to Argentina thinking that when I would come back that the situation would change and that there would be a lot of jobs, but I just had a lot of time on my hands. And I didn’t really know what to do, and I couldn’t find a proper job, so to say. And then I thought: “Okay, what am I missing? Is there maybe something that I can do, you know, maybe I can be an entrepreneur.” And then I thought when I grew up, I had a really nice childhood. But I was always missing an example, I did have Oprah Winfrey on television, I used to watch a lot of television. But when I read books, I never saw myself in those books. I grew up wishing that I was white, and that I had blond hair and blue eyes. And I didn’t see myself in the books or the cartoons or the television. So I decided to raise this girl’s black book. And that was about black people and their stories. So it was from cooking to hair products for black hair, to make up for the black skin, to pantyhose for the black skin. What does skin color even mean when you look it up, when you say I have a skin color pantyhose, often it’s not, it doesn’t even come close to what my color is. So I started to write about it. And it became a small success. I didn’t make money out of it. But it was yeah, it was really nice to do something for myself. I started this, I started another business. And from that on a few years later, me and my sister started this girl can cook. And it’s about healthy and black soul food. And we started for two reasons. And one of the reasons was that my grandma, she was 90 and we discovered that she had a lot of like authentic Surinamese recipes in her head. But every time we tried to get the recipes, she said: “You have to just feel the recipe.” You know, because the Surinamese recipes don’t come with like 100 milliliter of this and two cubes of that. It is just tasting and doing and smelling, feeling and well that wasn’t really clear to us. So in a few afternoons I really learned the tricks from her or the recipes and I wrote everything down. And then I started to make those recipes and really narrowed them down to the milliliters and that’s what we posted online. So the Pom, the one of the classic Surinamese recipes, but also how to make certain Surinamese lemonade and those kind of things. And then our dad passed away due to diabetes, and we actually found out that he had diabetes because of his lifestyle. My dad was a sweet tooth. And he if he would have changed his lifestyle into a healthier lifestyle, he probably would have lived longer. So that was very painful for us, but it was also an inspiration for us to help others to eat healthier and still enjoy this soul food. So we are trying to make soul food, which in the basis is often, yeah, fried or sweet or very salty, and very rich in carbs but we try to make it healthier. So those two are inspirations for this girl can cook. And yeah, we’re still doing that those blogs.

10:28

Stella: Yes. And it’s funny because when one of my kids had a birthday, maybe you remember, I invited, now she’s also your friend, Karyn. And when she saw you, she had never met you. But she knew you from the blog, and she was like: “Oh, my God, it’s you.” And I remember the encounter, she was so excited to meet you. And the other day, I was talking to a friend of mine. And she also follows both of your blogs. And she also told me that especially the one with the food it’s very special for her because she’s a vegetarian. And she just loves what you make there. And she follows you with a lot of passion. So you really make a difference.

And since you have a passion for food, I thought it would be nice to find out: What’s your favorite dish? And with whom would you like to share it?

11:22

Tewatha: It’s probably not the answer that a lot of people expect because this girl can Cook is for a big part. It’s vegan, and healthy. But my favorite dish is French fries. I really love patat with mayonnaise and peanut butter sauce. I love to eat it with friends, family, Ella likes it but the kids don’t love it as much as I do. When I make it at home, they are happy. But yeah, they’re not as happy as I used to be when my mom and dad said: “Oh, we’re going to eat French fries.” And my dad always used to joke: “I think this kid is made out of French fries.” Because I could eat it every day.

12:14

Stella: It would be also nice now to move to your book, because you’ve also written a book, a children’s book, can you share a little bit about the book with us and also about the publisher?

12:24

Tewatha: The publisher is called Studio Sesam, it is a Flemish publisher and they make books that are inclusive. So it’s not only about color, but it’s also about women, men, relationships or being who you want to be. So for example, I don’t know who pointed me out to the books, but I found a book and it’s called, I don’t want to go to Morocco. Yeah. And it’s about a boy who lives in Belgium. And well, a lot of Moroccans go to Morocco every summer. And the Moroccans save a lot of money to go there. And as his parents do, but they also have a life here. And I used to grow up in a Morocco neighborhood. And I remember that, that was a bit of the same for my Moroccan friends that, you know, they, during the year, they would have me as a friend and when it was a summer holiday, the whole neighborhood would be empty. And they would go to Morocco, to cousins, nephews and stuff. And they and we would miss each other. And so the book is about going to your own country while you also have a country in your own, yeah, your home where you live. It is about to having two identities. And I think that’s something that we struggle with, or kids struggle with more than we think they do. So I was really in love with that book.

And I looked the publisher up and then I saw that they had a sort of competition where you could send in a concept for a children’s book and it had to be inclusive. So it had to be about kids, so it could not be about animals and we have a pig and a cow and a dog and but we are all the same. We have all the same hearts. No, it had to be about kids with color or maybe a disability or anything. So I wrote a proposal and it was accepted out of a lot of proposals. So I remember how I got into the car and I couldn’t believe it. It was really one of my dreams come true to write a children’s book. And then I wrote a book about, actually, it’s kind of a normal family situation. So it’s about a girl who gets a younger brother, a baby brother. And then she sees that he gets all the attention, which is normal if you have a baby brother or sister. And then she does everything to get the attention and love back from her mother and dad. And then she realizes throughout the process that she doesn’t need to get the attention back in a negative way. And she realizes that her brother that her brother is an addition to the family, and it doesn’t take anything away from the family. So I love the story about realizing that you don’t have to be something else to get the love that you deserve. And it within the story. I wrote it with an Indonesian illustrator and we put into story little details of our culture. So for example, if you look at the bathroom, you see that’s my mother’s bathroom, actually. So you see the Lima coal and the Eau de Cologne which is typically what we use in the Surinamese culture. And she also had a scene in the door where she had put some Indonesian shoes. So in little details, you can see it’s not a typical white family home. And then what we also did is to look at the characters, they’re all colored, but the mom is going to work and the dad is a stay at home dad, just like my dad was. So I want to, I really love books where there is diversity, where everything works, but is not that obvious. So it’s not like I’m black, and you’re white. Sometimes it has to be that obvious but I like it more if a kid is just a kid, and it happens to be black, or red-haired, or disabled, and the story is not about the disability necessarily. I think that’s really what we need in children’s books to make it more common. And often, if you were to buy a book now, you don’t see a character that is from a Muslim culture, unless it’s about a Muslim culture. And I mean, if you would just make a story about a classroom, I think it should involve kids of all color to normalize it and to let all kids meet other colors and cultures.

 18:10

Stella: And yeah. totally. It’s really about representation. And that’s why I love these books. I actually bought many of them. And because they’re just stories, and some of the characters are Jewish, others are Muslim, others are black, there are women with hijab, there is a mosque, then you have a family where you don’t wear the shoes in the house. So yes, I find it also very, very important. I remember when I was younger, because you know, I grew up also in Germany as a Greek, in a Greek family. And there were no books about anybody that looked like me or from my culture. And there was just one book where there was like, the neighbors were Greek. And I loved that book so much, because it was like, wow, they have a Greek family in that book, you know. And yeah, I absolutely agree with you that this has to change, because it’s really about representation and about having normal stories with all kinds of characters. I will post all the information also about your book, of course later on the website so people can have a deeper look also in the publisher and of course also your blogs.

Tewa do you have a favorite quote?

19:21

Tewatha: Well, that depends on my day or my mood. This morning, I had quite a challenging morning with my youngest one. So yeah, I have several quotes but if I were to think about this morning, I would say the quote “I used to be normal but that drove me mad.” And because yeah, I think I always thought I was a bit normal until I became a mum and then found out that I could be quite mad and not mad as in like furious, but bit crazy. Another quote that I really like is, “don’t believe everything you think.” And I think  that is a really a nice quote to remember that everything that’s in your head is often it’s just a thought and it goes and comes, you don’t have to believe all the thoughts are in your head. And then last but not least, is this is a quote that I, I really carry with myself every day and it’s “Be the change you want to see in the world.” And I think that’s my favorite, and that’s really my motivation. When it came to the blog and the book and the work that I’m doing now.

20:52

Stella: What is female solidarity to you? What does it mean?

20:55

Tewatha: I think it’s being happy for other womens or for other women, sorry, when they reach something that you also want to reach and not be jealous of them, but to encourage them. And I mean, someone else’s success is not our failure, you know, or my failure. And if someone else has success, I think it’s really nice, praise them for what they reach. And it’s not if they reach something that I want to reach, I can only be happy for them and I can also reach it by being their cheerleaders and not their devils, or, you know, by taking them down online. And I think sometimes I find it really hard to criticize other women. I’m on Twitter, often. And I especially don’t criticize black women, when I see them doing something wrong, for example, I don’t criticize them, because I think for me female solidarity is to praise them when they do something good. And when they do something bad to see them as just normal human being if they are doing something really, really bad of course, you can always be critical. Or you can say something about it. Yeah, but it’s better to support them instead of taking someone down.

22:26

Stella: Yeah, yeah. It is also a lot about this instead of competing with each other to see the other woman as an inspiration. Right? And to see Yeah, I can also do it. Wow, I never thought about this. This is amazing. I will try to do the same or Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

You also have a nice quote in your house from Buddha that I read the other day when I visited you, that goes a little bit into the direction as you said, right, it’s about if you go your own way, no one can overtake you or something like this.

22:53

Tewatha: I think that’s such a nice quote. But it’s also a quote that I have to repeat to myself every day, especially in the blogging community. You see other bloggers doing the same or something, as we are doing, and growing and growing. And it’s very tricky to look at that and think, Oh, well, now they are doing something better, or they are they are not working as hard but they are getting more followers more likes. I think it’s, I always tell my sister especially not to look at other people’s likes, or their numbers or statistics, because it’s not about their statistics, it is about our statistics, and it’s about the love we put in and yeah, I think it’s very distracting the comparison to others and I think it is very unhealthy. And that’s why I think it’s also a really great idea to now and then to remove Instagram from your phone and not look on Facebook as much. Because it really works addictive. The likes, the comments, the Oh, I love this so much. And wow, what really matters is your physical life and not your online life. And I mean, if you strive for what others have you will never be happy with what you have.

24:36

Stella: Yes, yes. Thank you for your honesty on that. Yeah. You’ve already actually given us a little glimpse into how you raise your daughters. But how do you and Robert Jan like raise them? Do you have certain principles you follow? And what do you wish for them for the future?

24:55

Tewatha: I think Robert Jan, he was, I knew that he was an exceptional man. And that he would be a great husband and a really great dad. And what I really like about him is that he is a feminist as a man, and that he is really, when I see him, taking care of our daughters and teaching them things, he doesn’t think in men, or female or male, he thinks in as a person.

And he would, for example, when he speaks about love, he says, we fall in love with a person. He never says, we fall in love with a man or with a with a boy. And Ella she actually told us that she was in love with someone from her class. And then Robert Jan was guessing and then he starts with a girl from her class, you know, so he doesn’t take the ‘normal’ road. And yeah, I think we are raising them to think very liberate, and to think for themselves, to be very critical of the things in life. And I really like it that the school, they are at the Free School, and it’s a Waldorf education, where the goal from the school, the mission is to become who you really are. So what I found out is that Ella, if she doesn’t like anything, she often says: “I want you to stop. I really don’t like what you’re doing. And it’s hurting me!” She was, she’s only five. And she really knows how to express herself. She really knows her boundaries. And I think that’s so important. And not only physically but also mentally. So if you have a friend or a coworker, that is really putting you with a lot of work, and you don’t know how to stop them, you’re going to overwork and we always teach Ella to calm down, slow down and to choose happiness. So that’s yeah, we raise our daughters, I think socially aware, and always to do things for others. And they always come to my work as well. And they see what I do for work. And yeah, I think they will grow up like, yeah, who I was when I was a teenager. And I hope they will grow up like that being aware of others and social issues and never afraid to open their mouth. In situations where you should open your mouth. Don’t stay silence. Because you think your opinion is not worth it. That’s what I really wish for them and happiness, of course.

28:08

Stella: Beautiful. I cannot disagree. Yeah, I remind myself now why we are friends. I remember everything that you’ve said so far. Yeah, you’ve already mentioned your work, you are a youth worker, share a little bit about your work with us. Like what do you encounter? And what do you think is important? What should we do for this next generation, to elevate them, to equip them and to strengthen them?

28:38

Tewatha: Wow, yeah, well, that’s, it’s a lot. I am a youth worker and it’s really actually quite funny because I knew I just like how you are as a person that you can talk to people and you can all people always told me that they feel so comfortable talking to me, and that they that they always felt like they could tell all their problems. And I always said to everyone, I think it’s a nice characteristic but it’s not something you can really do anything with. No. And by accident, I found this job. And every characteristic of myself that I thought was nice, but I couldn’t do anything with comes together in this job. So listening to people and being open. I work with youngsters from 12 to 23. And I help them and I coach them on their way to becoming an adult. And it’s really different. I work with a lot of groups. I have like a girl group that is from 10 to 16 years old. Those are girls that are a bit more vulnerable either they’re diagnosed with autism, some, some have aggression problems, some are abused, they have different kinds of issues. Some are just shy.

I also have an eating club for youngsters that are a bit lonely. And you wouldn’t expect it. But a lot of youngsters, especially in the age of 16 years are really lonely, even though they have a lot of followers online, and they seem to have some friends, they are from the inside really lonely, that may be a club of youngsters, who are all a bit lonely, but all loved eat together would be a great idea. And well, that became a whole group. One of the things I do with a group is I coordinate the whole process of cooking, but I also talk to the kids during the cooking about how they’re doing, how they’re feeling. And I tend to do it in a not an aggressive way. But a really, yeah, how’s your day been? And how did you feel last week, those kind of questions so it’s more of like a therapy and cooking in an all in ones. And I do a lot of things with their environments, I organized cleanups with the kids, to keep the neighborhood clean. What you asked me about what the youngsters nowadays would need, I think it’s really important that as a society, we have more eye for each other. So for example, if you have neighbors a see the kids who are 10, or maybe younger, they’re outside on the street, really until late, I think that you should be aware of I mean, kids should be in bed at that time. It’s 11 o’clock, and a kid is still outside. For me that’s really worrying. I think the neighborhood often closes their eyes, school also closes their eyes, or they don’t have the time often to really look into the social issues that there are poverty, if there is like an older brother who’s already dealing drugs, that you can have a lot of signs where you can see that a kid could go into the wrong way. And if you don’t address those signs, then I would say before the kid is 12 it’s very, very difficult to do something about it. I really hold the government or organizations see that if you want to do something about the poverty and the crime, the injustice, you need to tackle the system much earlier and not when they’re 16. Because then it’s far too late.

33:01

Stella: And often is also a question of space, right? If they live in a very small house or even the neighborhood where you live. Like, you know, the neighborhood where you used to live also with me before, there were not so many possibilities, even for kids. And then now that it is kind of being gentrified. Suddenly they’re building playgrounds, and they’re making the street nice, and they have cafes, and things like that. But before it was not like this.

33:26

Tewatha: It really often really breaks my heart to see. So for example, I have one girl who I coach, she grows up in an apartment where they have two bedrooms, and they live with six people in two bedrooms. She went to just the neighborhood school and she got a very, very low advice. Well, I know her from my group, and I know that she’s smart, and she is independent. And so I talked to her teacher about her advice, and I asked her teacher: “Why did you give her that advice?” Because I know that her CITO test isn’t that low and then teacher: “Uh, yeah, but she comes from a background where, yeah, who is gonna support her when she goes to college?” And so she had all of those excuses. And I said: “Well, I’m her coach, you know why don’t you even give her the chance?” And it was so it was very, it was really cringe worthy actually, it wasn’t even frustrating. But it was cringe worthy to see that a lot of teachers don’t give you a chance just because where you are born. And just because your parents don’t speak the language. And so in the end, after a lot of talking, she got a higher advice. We were looking for secondary schools. So you have two schools, the one that she was supposed to go to and that one school is located next to a highway. And the school is just a concrete building, totally uninspirational building and they have a small playground, next to the highway where you can only inhale gasoline? Well, there isn’t much often arts or the development opportunities in the school aren’t really big. And we looked at another school where they have the higher education, the higher advice and that school was located near the forest, all white school, by the way, near the forest, near the dunes and the sea. And when they have the weekly sports, they always sport in nature. If you were to look at their cafeteria, it’s healthy food, it’s smoothies, it’s salads. So you really see the difference. Where if your kid gets an opportunity or not in the school environment, and if you grow up, or if you’re in a school, where only just the fresh air is so much better. I think you get more opportunities to learn better.

36:23

Stella: So I mean, what you mentioned, it’s an example of institutional discrimination, like you couldn’t give a better example, actually, a lot of people still deny it. But it’s there. And it’s very often in institutions such as the school. So yeah, Tewa, you really make the world more beautiful. I think I could talk to you for another hour.

Who has been your SALT, soul who has inspired you to become who you are?

36:54

Tewatha: One of the first people that come to my mind is my mother because she was really, for me, she is an inspiration because she’s born a social worker. Always talks, everyone. She doesn’t make a difference in people. She’s really open minded. So she’s my number one inspiration, I would say. And, yeah, also it’s cliché but as a little girl, Oprah Winfrey was really my inspiration, my Salt. And she was the only black woman I saw on television. And yeah, I really I love, love her show. I’ve been watching Oprah Winfrey, ever since I could watch TV probably. So and I got a lot of really good advice from her. I really remember that she, yeah, she was such a big inspiration for me.

38:00

Stella: And to whom do you want to pass the SALT?

38:04

Tewatha: Well, all the quotes that I’ve mentioned before, is something that I definitely would want to say to the younger generation and seeing the job that I have today. I think that even though people don’t value your talent as much as they would like, I mean, normally, people say: “Oh, you’re intelligent, you’re good at math.” But if you’re good at listening to people, or if you’re good at drawing, that really also means something. So don’t only value the normal characteristics in life that normal people say, Oh, you’re good at math, so you can be something in life? Yeah, not the mainstream talents, but also other talents if you’re good with animals that says something about you, so don’t discredit those things, because society discredits them.

39:07

Stella: Yeah. And you’re a very good example.

39:11

Tewatha: Yeah. It took me a while to get here but I think it really made my life. I took a long path, but no one’s path is straight and I’m really happy with the path that I walked.

39:27

Stella: And you’re still working like exactly as I also said at the beginning and Michelle Obama also says it right we are constantly becoming we don’t reach a point. Okay, now we finished and that is it. No, we are constantly coming.

39:40

Tewatha: Yeah, I’m not there yet. Definitely not. I’m growing every day. But I wish I would have had more confidence in myself and trusting the process that it will be okay.

39:58

Stella: Do you have a question for me?

40:01

Tewatha: I have so many questions. So I think I’m curious how if you would make, because you have a daughter and three sons, and how, if there’s a difference in how you would raise them?

40:20

Stella: That’s a good question. Because I was raised in a bit of a different way. So I have a brother and there was a difference in how we were raised. And it was difficult for me. And I’m not saying this to blame my parents or anything, because they did the best they could. And they, on the one hand, they really brought me up to be independent and emancipated. But on the other hand, there were also statements like “you are a girl, you need to clean” or “you don’t like cooking, but you’re a woman, what will your mother-in-law think” so these kind of statements. And now with my kids, I’m really trying to raise them all the same, of course, my daughter is still little. So I don’t know, maybe it will change in the future, I can imagine maybe that I will be a little bit more protective over her. But it’s not, it’s just more because of how society is. And as a woman, you know, we have a vagina, we have breasts, we are, you know, people treat us differently. So I will have different conversations with her to prepare her for certain things. But I want all of my kids to be outspoken, to stand up for themselves, for others, to believe in themselves to love themselves. And it’s really about this, that they love themselves, and that they know that they’re worth it, they have value, and that nobody can downgrade them, the things that you actually explained. So on the higher level, yeah, definitely I will raise them the same, and I will teach my boys to have respect. And if a woman says no, it means no, for instance. And yes, so there are certain things where I will have to have different conversations with them. But overall, I don’t make a difference between my daughter and my sons. No, not at all. And it’s a lot about the respect and the love and yeah.

42:11

Tewatha: What I expected from you. No, no, no big surprise.

42:17

Stella: Thank you, Tewatha. It was so nice speaking to you. And it’s funny because I will you know, always at the end of my podcast, I always honor a woman. So today I want to honor Maya Angelou and you know, she had a huge impact on Oprah. She was actually Oprah’s mentor. So it really fits in the way, we didn’t plan it. So I want to honor her because I just love Maya Angelou. She has been also to me such a great inspiration because she had 1000 lives. And that also fits into what we said today. I mean, she was a poet, she was an actress, a singer. She was the first black female cable car conductor in San Francisco, and if you read her book, and you see how she pushed to become this cable carpet conductor because it wasn’t easy. And her mother believed in her and she just did it. It’s just amazing. And she was a single mother. She spoke six languages, wrote two cookbooks, seven autobiographies, 30 books. She was a professor and she lived in the US obviously, she lived in Cairo. She lived in Ghana. I mean, there’s so much about her and how he was she’s just incredible. And I recommend reading her life story, and her poems and anything you can get from her. Because she really taught the world that you can be many things and that you can do many things well, and she showed us that we are constantly becoming what we discussed today, she touched lives. And to me, she left an incredible legacy behind and I want to read out one of her quotes that I love a lot.

She said: “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive. And to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style.”

And this is how I want us to finish today and to take her advice, literally actually, because that’s what we should do. So thank you so much Tewatha for taking the time to speak to us, to share your wisdom and I will upload all your information and literature on my website. So also thank you to everyone for listening. Please visit my website www.salt-thepodcast.com and follow us on Instagram @salt_thepodcast. Feel free to contact me if you have questions, if you want to speak on my show or comment.  I love to hear from you.

OUTRO:

Something that is loved is never lost. I’m Stella Saliari and this is Salt the Podcast