HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL This manual does remind us of story once told by the ‘World Neighbors’ of a stone soup and we are tempted to share it here just to convey to the users the effect we hope this material will generate.
A traveler was walking down the road when he came upon a lively market. He had walked for many hours that day and was quite hungry, so he asked one of the villagers at the market for help finding something to eat. The man replied that he himself did not have enough to feed his own family and was unable to help the stranger. After several others responded in the same manner, the traveler almost gave up hope. But then he spotted a smooth, rounded stone a little bit larger than a ripe mango, and suddenly had an idea. The traveler picked up the rock and announced to the men and women at the market that he possessed a magic cooking stone.
A small crowd surrounded the stranger, waiting to hear more. Once the traveler won the attention of the villagers, he explained that with this magic stone, he could make enough soup to feed the entire village. He only needed someone to loan a pot and some water, and he would demonstrate. Immediately one of the women who lived nearby offered to bring everyone to her home in order to see this miracle for themselves. The crowd followed the woman and the traveler to the house, where a pot of water was already bubbling on the fire in preparation for dinner. The traveler ceremoniously placed the stone in the water and smiled confidently at the skeptical group. “You know,” said the traveler, “stone soup is very good all by itself, but if you really want to make it right, you should add a few carrots to the pot. It’s too bad that we don’t have any carrots.” A man in the crowd stepped forward with a bunch of carrots that he had bought at the market and added them to the pot. A woman then suggested that if carrots would make the soup better, surely an onion or two could not hurt. She generously donated a couple of onions from her basket to be chopped and added to the meal. Each time something was added, another person from the group would contribute a new ingredient until the pot was full of sweet vegetables, 13