Meet Somaya
“My country is full of kind-hearted people.”
“We love life in Gaza,” Somaya says. “Even with the bad situation we have, we still love our country.”
Somaya arrived in Australia less than a year ago. She misses her home in Palestine but she feels grateful to be here. To be safe. “I am very lucky,” she says. “We lost a lot of things, so we always say: thank God for everything. We’re still alive.”
Somaya wants people to understand the rich cultural heritage of her country, and that it’s so much more than what we see on the news. “I want people to know more about Palestine,” she says. “It’s a small country with a very long history.”
But it’s the people and places of Palestine that make up the true soul of the country. “My country is full of kind-hearted people,” Somaya says. “They are very educated, very ambitious. The weather is very beautiful, and we have lots of beaches, and lots of sightseeing. There are so many amazing places there.”
In Gaza, Somaya worked in administration, and loved to learn about other cultures and languages (she speaks Arabic, English, French and a bit of Spanish!). But her true passion was cooking for her husband, three sons, and anyone else who came through her doors.
As a child, Somaya learned to cook with her mother, aunts and grandmother, at first to avoid less desirable household chores. “I preferred to be in the kitchen more than cleaning or sweeping the rest of the house,” she laughs. But eventually she fell in love with the process. “I had the curiosity to cook like them. I wanted to roll the vine leaves. I just wanted to share and taste and be in the kitchen. Cooking brings peace and calm.”
Somaya’s grandmother was such a good cook, in fact, that her family and friends had a name for the people who learned from her. “They would say we were from the ‘school of Om Sayed’ – that’s my grandma’s name who used to teach everyone her recipes. My mum, my aunts, me – we all come from that school.”
Food plays a central role in Palestinian culture, especially around special occasions when people gather around large tables to eat from shared dishes. “Palestine is very famous for our hospitality,” Somaya says. “We like to serve and make long tables of food, especially for ceremonies like Ramadan. We make lots of food, and we like to have lots of people come and enjoy. This is in our religion – feed the people, and you will get more rewards from Allah.”
Somaya loves to cook traditional Palestinian dishes like maqluba (a historical “upside down” rice dish), kibbeh (spiced ground meat fried in bulgur wheat), and stuffed vegetables and vine leaves. As for the staples that you’ll always find in her kitchen? “We can’t live without olive oil,” she says. “Plus our bread, za’atar and dukkah.”
For Somaya, the biggest joy of cooking comes from seeing people enjoy her food. “This is my happiness,” she says. “To see the smile on others’ faces when they are eating my food, asking for the recipes. These small words make me feel on top of the world.”
In her cooking classes at Free to Feed, Somaya wants to share not just her recipes, but the story of her country. The resilience, the culture, the life that is still happening in Palestine, day in, day out. Despite its hardships – including ongoing bombings and electricity shortages – Somaya remains hopeful for Gaza’s future.
Most of all, Somaya is looking forward to introducing more eager learners to the school of Om Sayed, and seeing the joy that good food can bring. “This is what I want,” she says. “To make people happy, to see happiness in their faces. And that’s it.”
This beautiful piece was written by our friend Taryn Stenvei from GOOD & PROPER.
Photo by the wonderful Duncan Wright