After his visit to Sierra Leone, the Little Peacekeeper goes to Cambridge University in England to take a step back and engage in some intellectual reflection. Since his work takes him all over the world, he knows that understanding the context of the places he goes, to the extent possible, is really important.

After taking some time to do some research on Sudan, he caught up with a couple of students – a PhD in Land Economy and an MPhil in African Studies – for a day in the park.

The Little Peacekeeper thanks Carol Gallo for being such a great host!

As you know from the last post, the Little Peacekeeper is currently in Sierra Leone. Here, the Little Peacekeeper is learning about the traditional bondo society, a secret society for women. It is a very complex and challenging topic but there is a little bit of background here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sande_society

The Little Peacekeeper is now confronted with learning about decision of the bondo society to ban performing female genital mutilation (FGM) on children under 18. The Little Peacekeeper knows what the UN has to say about this very important topic: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?Cr1=health&NewsID=37478&Cr=women. Now, for the bondo society, the issue of abandoning FGM/FGC is a difficult one not only culturally but also economically because there are a lot of Soweis (the women performing the cutting ceremony) who need to find alternative livelihoods if the practice if abandoned.

So, on the photos you can see the Little Peacekeeper with the wood carving of the bondo devil that the Council of Soweis gave to the Little Peacekeeper. The carving on the figurine is the ban on child bondo and then the other picture show him with devil itself.

The Little Peacekeeper is now on the move from Sudan to Sierra Leone. On the picture, you can see him with a colleague taking the ferry to Freetown.

Marc got it right, the Little Peacekeeper is right in front of the truck getting ready to do some heavy lifting.

The Little Peacekeeper is still busy with logistics equipment. Do you find the Little Peacekeeper on the photo? Do you see him?

To make the UN work a lot of things have to be moved to the right place. On the picture you can see the Little Peacekeeper with some logistics equipment getting things where they need to be.

Today, 31st October the world population reaches 7 billion. So the Little Peacekeeper takes the time to check out http://7billionactions.org/