Reporters on the Job

• A Far, Far World: Correspondent Kelly Hearn spent three days in an open cargo boat to get to the villages deep in the Peruvian rainforest. Kelly's Indian guide landed some space for Kelly and himself in a supply boat that carried rice, potatoes, and soda to villages once dependent on fishing and hunting. "I was told I was the first reporter from a foreign newspaper to ever be in some of the places we went to," Kelly says. "I was struck by the extreme poverty and listlessness of life, but also by villagers' resilience, the kind of which we don't always see in the developed world. I asked a middle-aged woman about village life. She ticked off problems: lack of fish, electricity, clean water, etc. Then I asked, "Are you happy?" "Yes," she said, thinking for a second. I then asked if they had a suicide problem in their culture. "No, no, no," she said, as though I'd asked her if she were from another planet. They are survivors."

• The View From Haifa: When Rafael Frenkel was in Haifa, Israel on Friday, it struck him that people of all faiths were worried for their safety in the latest conflict. "Though Haifa was hit a few times during the last Palestinian intifada, the vast majority of casualties during that conflict were borne by Israeli Jews, he says. "[Now], however, Arab Muslims and Christians are also in the line of fire, and were also heavily critical of Hizbullah. Arabs I spoke to there referred to Israel as 'our' country, or spoke of 'us' under attack. The feeling of solidarity with Jewish Israelis is not often what reporters encounter among Israeli Arabs."

Amelia Newcomb
Deputy world editor