Stranger On The Street: Overwhelming Odds

Palm Oil Dept: Now, an innovative multimedia project has opened a window into the lives of young refugees who have overcome overwhelming odds to start afresh in a new homeland, according to Montreal Gazette. "Anything from cassava leaves to pickled duck eggs, mate and palm oil, red bean ice cream, fresh tilapia or fufu flowers, a gold mine for the homesick, the hungry or the curious," writes Marie-Fran oise Ilunga Sitman in Mapping Memories, a 160-page book, DVD and website launched yesterday at Concordia University and when you pass a stranger on the street, little do you guess what tragedies or joys that person might have experienced in an earlier life, far from Canada. Harrowing, tender and heartwarming, the tales range from a young Rwandan woman's efforts to uncover family secrets about the genocide that carried away most of her relatives to a Congolese immigrant's joy in discovering familiar ingredients at a Vietnamese grocery store that carries specialty foods from around the globe. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.