by Janelle Weiner
-USA-

One of my favorite mothering “manuals” is a book called “So That’s What They’re For: Breastfeeding Basics.” I was raised in a culture that prefers to see a baby with a bottle over a baby at the breast, where women who breastfeed in public are sometimes labeled “lactivists,” and where the boob is rated R for sexual content rather than E for every baby. So when I was pregnant with my first child, this book, with its semi-corny title, introduced me to an area of my body that was biologically mine but whose function was shrouded in mystery – or, under a blanket.

I decided to breastfeed my baby because my mother breastfed my two sisters and me. But without the 275 pages of information and encouragement in “So That’s What They’re For,” and the help of the midwives at the “Baby Friendly” Cambridge Birth Center, where my first son was born, initiating and sticking with nursing would have been a lot more difficult. Over 20,000 hospitals worldwide have earned a “Baby Friendly” designation because of their supportive breastfeeding policies. Only 94 of them are in the U.S.A.

by Charukesi Ramadurai
- India -

High in the north Indian state of Kashmir sits Ladakh, held by many as the last bastion of Himalayan Buddhism. Since Tibet is out of bounds for most tourists, Ladakh now attracts travelers and spiritual seekers who come for glimpses of a traditional Buddhist way of life; even seasoned travelers go so far as to describe it as the last Shangri La.

• Buddhists in Ladakh are often seen spinning a prayer wheel, a practice believed to bring wisdom and good karma or merit. All photographs © Charukesi Ramadurai. •

It is true that Kashmir is a war-torn region, however, the turmoil does not touch Ladakh, a good 280 miles from the capital city of Srinagar. Nor are there any foreign invaders intent upon destroying Buddhism to establish their own faith.

Today, the (perceived) threat to Ladakhi Buddhism is from a different kind of invasion - globalization - brought by travelers and their notions of modernity that invariably spread along with them. And with this comes concerns about the erosion of a faith and way of life that is centuries old.

by Alice Speri
-Haiti-

Eleven-year-old Carmen Suze quarreled with a classmate and ended up in jail. Barely audible, she explains that her friend had lifted her skirt and had been the first to throw a rock. The plastic butterfly hairclips holding her braids together make her look even younger. Suze says that she did not realize how badly she had hit her back. Her father had offered the girl’s parents some money to take her to a hospital, but they did not. Her classmate died eight days later.

Suze is the youngest of 58 minors currently incarcerated in Port-au-Prince’s penitentiaries - held next to adult inmates, with no trial, and in degrading conditions.

by Danielle Johnson
-USA-

Danielle Johnson, The WIP’s Community Outreach & Development Coordinator, is currently working in Alabama as a Bird Rehabilitation Technician for the International Bird Rescue Research Center. –Ed.

During my time with wildlife rehabilitation in Louisiana and Alabama, I have come in contact with many species of birds - pelicans, herons, loons, and gulls. Some birds came in oiled, some had been caught in the booms, some exposed to dispersants, and others captured for unknown health issues. I have had the opportunity to assist in every step of bird rehabilitation - intake evaluations, washing with Dawn detergent, feeding, siphoning dirty pools, administering medication, drawing blood, releasing into the wild, and euthanasia.

It was explained on my first day that it is better to euthanize a bird not healthy enough to tolerate treatment than to release it, knowing it could suffer and die in the wild. The process of capture and rehabilitation is stressful on the already weakened birds. This “mercy” was a comforting way to cope with euthanasia. It worked for a while. I was aware of the various birds that were put down for open lesions on their carpals, hawk pox, gunshot wounds, and the intestinal deterioration caused when birds ingest oil.

by Emily Wilson
-USA-

I admire boldness. So Katrina Rodabaugh’s The Dresses / Objects Project, a multi-disciplinary installation combining a dizzying array of artistic forms appealed to me. Through poetry, dance, fashion, photography and letterpress, Rodabaugh embraces a broad swath of disciplines and takes on a wide range of ideas. She uses women’s clothing to explore gender and femininity, the line between art and what is generally considered women’s crafts, and how context affects the way we view things.

Rodabaugh’s The Dresses / Objects Project was inspired by Gertrude Stein’s book of experimental poetry, Tender Buttons, published in 1914. Rodabaugh, a poet and an artist, loves the way Stein played with language, focusing on the sound of the words. She finds poems like A Petticoat modern and moving almost 100 years later:

A light white, a disgrace, an ink spot, a rosy charm.

by Pushpa Iyer
-USA-

Dr. Pushpa Iyer was in Sierra Leone leading a two-week course for fourteen Monterey Institute of International Studies and Middlebury College students. In this series of articles and student blogs, Dr. Iyer and her students reflect on the challenges to building peace in this war-ravaged country. -Ed.

Two bandaged stubs where his hands should be. While I contemplate how to greet him without a handshake, he gives me a bear hug. Completely taken aback and ashamed at my lack of response, I finally give him a smile as he welcomes me to sit down next to him. I am meeting with Ngwaja, a Sierra Leonean whose limbs were chopped off by the rebels in the country’s decade long war - a war that was undoubtedly one of the most brutal and violent in recent history.

by Victoria Aitken
-UK-

The Sinai desert has a new underground radio station - the only one to escape a ban on live radio transmissions - and it is breaking records for a radio station of its size. Radio Sharm’s secret location in the Sinai desert and its Disc Jockey’s code names like “The Mad Monk,” “The Girl with No Name,” and “Little Miss Slumdog” add mystique and character to Sharm el-Sheikh’s only live radio station.

I visited this holiday location on the Red Sea famous for its picturesque beaches, coral reefs, and year-round sunny weather; and discovered Radio Sharm. Who has ever heard of a secret radio station in the desert? Just the inhospitable location was intriguing enough to want to discover more about the radio station.

by Lesley D. Biswas
-India-

Anjali Das, an elderly woman, sits in her bright yellow Bou cart at a strategic road crossing in Salt Lake City, Kolkata. She is selling hand packed edibles, spices, jute handicrafts, dry fruit, and colorful dry flowers. She earns a little over $3 a day; yet despite her meager income, she is still smiling.

“Now my husband respects me and I have a say in the family’s decision making process,” says Das, her newfound confidence shining through her weary eyes. Previously Das was dependent on her husband to provide for her and was regularly scorned for being unemployed.

by Deepa Krishnan
-India-

Journalist Deepa Krishnan traveled to Uganda as part of The Africa Reporting Project, an Initiative of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. –Ed.

There is hardly a day when Chance Christine wakes up at leisure. Sometimes it is her crying babies. Sometimes it is her backyard chickens, clucking for their morning feed.

Most times, it is both. Holding her fourteen-month-old she unlatches the door of her chicken coop to survey the birds. Amid the fluttering, she spreads the feed into a thin wooden trough. The birds noisily rush to the feed, forgetting about their eggs. Christine picks the brown eggs, holds each one to her ear, and shakes it. She quickly counts her eggs and fills her blue bowl.

It is a typical day for Chance Christine. It has been for some time, and this could well be a charmed life. Just a few years ago she was barely making ends meet by selling porridge on a roadside in Buhoma, a rural town in Uganda. Now, thanks to the chickens, she has a reasonably comfortable life - a nice house with a backyard where her children can play, and land to plant banana trees.