Maria
 F/46 vegetarian Faroe Islands Other
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About Me: What can I say? I am passionate about life, reasonably well educated and well read, and have an opinion about virtually everything - don´t say you weren´t warned! I like reading and writing, am creative and quick witted, have a good sense of humour and enjoy a challenge. As a foreigner in this country, I am used to being part of a minority. I belong to a Catholic community which is made up of about 130 (yes, one hundred and thirty) members of 23 different nationalities in a population of almost 49,000, in a country where the official church is Lutheran. I live in a community of six women of four different nationalities and diverse backgrounds and ranging in age from 38 -85. My work (evenly divided between children and adults) brings me into contact with people of every possible walk of life: Catholic, atheist, agnostic, other Christian denominations, other religions - and political and social backgrounds of every kind. I enjoy meeting with and learning from people from different walks of life.
I am the only vegetarian in my community and in my work place; the result of an encounter in July 2002 with a searching atheist who is also a vegetarain. His questioning helped me to see the link between the developement of unborn children and the intelligence and capacity of animals to feel pain. I decided I could not continue to speak out against torture, the death penalty and abortion, yet remain indifferent to the suffering of animals in so many avoidable circumstances, creatures also gifted with the breath of life. Neither could I continue eating meat knowing that the grain being used to feed animals in order to produce meat for human beings could go directly towards feeding many desperately poor and hungry people - to their advantage and with far less damaging consequences for our health, animal welfare and the environment. At that point, I wrote out a four page reflection, handed it to my sisters in community and told them I intended becoming a vegetarian before going away to work in another location for four months. I figured they would have time to get used to the idea while I was away! No one has joined me yet (I live in hope), but they enjoy my vegetarian dishes :)
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