by Natalia Rankine-Galloway (Morocco) | Feb 19, 2013 | Motherhood, Religion, Safety, Tunisia, USA, World Motherhood
Natalia and her son in Tunis.
As I sat in the Embassy listening to the rocks and chants hitting the wall outside, I couldn’t help but feel as though my maternal instincts had failed me. Why didn’t I know to leave? Why did I stand on the second floor, flippantly observing the gathering crowds, and assume it would just be your standard protest? Shouldn’t I have had some sixth sense, some feeling in my gut that things were going to go from bad to worse?
I knew that the baby was far from danger, picked up by family friends from his daycare miles from the Embassy. The staff had in fact been quite at a loss to understand why I couldn’t pick him up at 2pm. “Protests you say?”
The events of September 14th at the U.S Embassy in Tunis took many people by surprise. Not least of which the Tunisians who were even more taken aback when the order was given to evacuate all non-essential Embassy personnel and all families. (more…)
Natalia was born a stone's throw from the Queen's racetrack in Ascot, UK and has been trying to get a ticket to the races and a fabulous hat to go with it ever since. She was born to a Peruvian mother and an Irish father who kept her on her toes, moving her to Spain, Ireland and back to the UK before settling her in New York for the length of middle and high school. She is still uncertain of what she did to deserve that.
She fled to Boston for college and then Washington, D.C. to marry her wonderful husband, who she met in her freshman year at college. As a military man, he was able to keep her in the migratory lifestyle to which she had become accustomed. Within 5 months of marriage, they were off to Japan where they stayed for a wonderful 2 and one half years before coming home to roost. Baby Xavier was born in New York in 2011 and has not slept since.
A joy and an inspiration, it was Xavier who moved Natalia to entrepreneurship and the launch of CultureBaby. She has loved forging her own path and is excited for the next step for her family and CultureBaby.
Natalia believes in the potential for peace that all children carry within them and the importance of raising them as global citizens. She loves language, history, art and culture as well as Vietnamese Pho, Argentinian Malbec, English winters, Spanish summers and Japanese department stores...and she still hopes one day to catch the number 9 race with Queen Liz.
You can find her personal blog, The Culture Mum Chronicles.
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by Melanie Oda (Japan) | Dec 17, 2012 | Childhood, Cultural Differences, Education, Eye on Culture, Family, Holiday, International, Japan, Living Abroad, Religion, Traditions, World Events, Younger Children
Christians are a minority in Japan, comprising only 1% of the population. Well, actually I’d say anyone who is “serious” about their religion is a minority here.
The Japanese, in general, have a very laid back approach to it, adding and subtracting as they see fit, often participating in a mish-mash of rites from various beliefs that can be quite surprising to the outsider.
It is often said that Japanese are born Shinto, marry as Christians, and die as Buddhists. This is referring to the popularity of the “100 Day Ceremony” held at the Shinto shrine when a baby has attained that landmark, the Christian-esque chapel weddings that are popular with young couples, and the Buddhist funerals most families choose to have.
I guess you could say they like to cover their bases in Japan.
As a result, Japan often seems to have trouble understanding why the rest of the world gets so worked up about Christmas. I wouldn’t consider myself devout, by any means, but I have found myself in an uncomfortable position many times when it is expected that I should just be okay with praying at a Shinto shrine or throwing money into the collection box at a temple. Usually, I just stand respectfully by and draw as little attention to my non-praying heathen outsiderness as possible.
The kids, though, are often forced to participate. (more…)
If you ask Melanie Oda where she is from, she will answer "Georgia." (Unless you ask her in Japanese. Then she will say "America.") It sounds nice, and it's a one-word answer, which is what most people expect. The truth is more complex. She moved around several small towns in the south growing up. Such is life when your father is a Southern Baptist preacher of the hellfire and brimstone variety.
She came to Japan in 2000 as an assistant language teacher, and has never managed to leave. She currently resides in Yokohama, on the outskirts of Tokyo (but please don't tell anyone she described it that way! Citizens of Yokohama have a lot of pride). No one is more surprised to find her here, married to a Japanese man and with two bilingual children (aged four and seven), than herself. And possibly her mother.
You can read more about her misadventures in Asia on her blog, HamakkoMommy.
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by World Moms Blog | Dec 15, 2012 | International, Religion, Saturday Sidebar, World Moms Blog
This week’s Saturday Sidebar Question comes from World Moms Blog writer Purnima. She asked our writers,
“What would you do today if the world ended tomorrow?”
Check out what some of our World Moms had to say…
Polish Mom Photographer skype’ing with her family in Poland.
Polish Mom Photographer of California, USA writes:
“I would bake a cheesecake for myself and an apple pie for my husband. Then I would call on skype my closest family in Poland. We would turn our cameras on and we would sit, and talk until the world would end.”
Jennifer Burden of New Jersey, USA writes:
“My husband, my kids and I would probably be working to the very last moment to prepare a time capsule to let those who come after us know what happened and what life was like on earth when the humans were here. And we’d probably all eat a lot of ice cream along the way!”
Kirsten Doyle of Ontario, Canada writes:
“I would Skype with my mom and some other loved ones. Then I would go for a good long run. After that I would soak in a hot bubble bath drinking wine and finishing whatever book I happened to be reading. The kids would be allowed to stay up late and we would all hang out on my bed playing.”
(more…)
World Moms Blog is an award winning website which writes from over 30 countries on the topics of motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. Over 70 international contributors share their stories from around the globe, bonded by the common thread of motherhood and wanting a better world for their children.
World Moms Blog was listed by Forbes Woman as one of the "Best 100 Websites for Women 2012 & 2013" and also called a "must read" by the NY Times Motherlode in 2013. Our Senior Editor in India, Purnima Ramakrishnan, was awarded the BlogHer International Activist Award in 2013.
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by Carol (Canada) | Oct 8, 2012 | Canada, Child Care, Religion, Younger Children
“Canada severs ties with Iran…
…Iranian diplomats are no longer welcome in Canada…
…Will this lead to war? Prime Minister Harper is quoted as saying…”
I’m listening to the radio as I drive from work to my son’s daycare, and it’s full of the news about Canada and Iran. Canada has withdrawn their diplomats, kicked out the Iranian diplomats, and we’re basically on the brink of war with this Middle Eastern nation. And as I drive, I think about the warm, gentle, loving people who care for my son each day.
All of them are from Iran.
There are a lot of Iranian expats in Vancouver, and I wonder what they think of this news. Are they worried for their family back in Iran? No doubt. Are they upset with Canada for causing such problems? Are they fretting about how hard this will make it for them to go home? Or are they supportive of Canada’s decision?
It must be hard to live in a country that is on the brink of war with your own.
But then, many Iranians are living in Canada for a reason. The Islamist government, political turmoil…? Most of what I know about Iran I know from reading Persepolis, so I’m sure my perceptions are out of date. I know that they don’t call themselves Iranians – they call themselves Persians, so that’s what we call them, too.
Which makes it easy to forget that they are even from Iran. (more…)
Carol from If By Yes has lived in four different Canadian provinces as well as the Caribbean. Now she lives in Vancouver, working a full time job at a vet clinic, training dogs on the side, and raising her son and daughter to be good citizens of the world.
Carol is known for wearing inside-out underwear, microwaving yoghurt, killing house plants, over-thinking the mundane, and pointing out grammatical errors in "Twilight". When not trying to wrestle her son down for a nap, Carol loves to read and write.
Carol can also be found on her blog, If By Yes, and on Twitter @IfByYesTweets
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by Purnima Ramakrishnan | Sep 11, 2012 | Family, Human Rights, India, Inspirational, International, Parenting, Purnima, Religion, Social Good, Spirituality, The Alchemist, United Nations, World Voice
I came to Sahaj Marg before I was born. Well, as confusing as that statement may seem like, it is not. It has been the most startling revelation I have had over the past few years since I became a mother. When did I know my son? Of course, before he was born; when he was within me, a tiny cell; and I dare say, even before that, when conception was yet to take place.I always knew I would be a mother some day and be as loving and sacrificial and benevolent as my mother is. I knew my baby back then, I just had not met him. Similarly, I have not yet met God, but I am coming closer to doing so every day. Sahaj Marg, or “the natural path,” says God is within you; seek him there. And the only way you can do that is in silence. So, sit in silence, call it meditation if you want, feel that Godliness within you, hug it as close as possible and revel in it. It is very simple.
All wonderful things in life are very simple. I will not say if they are difficult or easy. Motherhood is simple and natural, though someone like me cannot claim it to be ‘easy’. But I am forever learning and rejoicing in my new found experiences and motherhood milestones. (more…)
by Roxanne (USA) | May 23, 2012 | Childhood, Culture, Education, Family, Life Lesson, Motherhood, Parenting, Religion, Unintentionally Brilliant, USA, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood
One of the great things about being a part of a community like World Moms Blog, is the diversity. Every day (okay, once or twice a week when I can finally catch up) readers are given treasured glimpses into a culture much different from their own. I read stories from all over the world, learning about the traditions these mothers have taken from their own heritage and brought into the lives of their children.
I’m left to wonder: what have I brought from my heritage to share with my own child? (more…)
Roxanne is a single mother to a 9-year-old superhero (who was born 7 weeks premature), living in the biggest little city and blogging all about her journey at Unintentionally Brilliant. She works as a Program Coordinator for the NevadaTeach program at the University of Nevada, Reno. Roxanne has a B.A. in English from Sierra Nevada College. She has about 5 novels in progress and dreams about completing one before her son goes to high school.
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