After a quick visit to NYHQ where I had substantive discussions with Karin Sham Poo, Ellen Yaffe and others (Carol Bellamy was away) I flew to Geneva for briefing with Phillip O'Brien the RD and his staff on the details of the mission and to make the necessary arrangements for travel. This photo taken from the plane shows the Swiss Alps as we were nearing Geneva airport.
My first trip was to Bucharest,Romania where I met Karin Hulshof UNICEF Area Representative and her team. We discussed her responsibilities as she also covered activities in Moldova. This was a two country area office where each team was essentially autonomous, but with much exchanges and coordination.
The most imposing structure in Bucharest is certainly what is now called the People's Palace. It was built by Nichola Ceaucescu and was his pride and joy. It is considered the second largest building in the world (after the US Pentagon).
An interesting building in Bucharest showing a classical mid-European architecture A few such picturesque buildings are still around.
An unusual but attractive church in Bucharest.
Next stop was in Chisinau, Moldova the other UNICEF office in the area which was headed by Giovanna Barberis. I liked very much this small provincial looking town with special characteristics like this lovely church . From my hotel room I could hear in the evenings the women street sweepers gathering fallen leaves with large brooms...the swish, swish sound reminded me of Hanoi, Viet Nam in the 1980's where we witnessed the same ritual.
One realizes that practical modernity transcends all borders...a McDo restaurant in Chisinau.
More typical of Soviet era architecture is this grand Moldovan government building in front of which is a triumphal arch.
Moving to the Balkan Area office I was given a special treat driving with Steve Allen , Area Representative, to the province of Kosovo then under UN administration. Here in Pristina we visited the UNICEF warehouse and met with the staff.
A residential street in one of Pristina's better neighborhoods. I was struck by the large number of TV disks sticking out of all the apartments in this building block.
My next visit took me to Skopje in Macedonia.This small and less developed country was a contrast in style and architecture. In 1964 I had visited former Yugoslavia with two friends but we were unable to enter Skopje as the whole city was closed off after the extensive earthquake that demolished most of it.Here is a local mosque which must have been entirely rebuilt.
In Skopje, a typical street scene.
My visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia, was a wrenching experience as I was shown the devastation that this beautiful city had experienced during the civil war. My recollection of it was from 1964, together with the neighbouring town of Mostar and its iconic bridge and from images of the Olympic Games that were held there. The photo shows one of the residential buildings in town, and yes there was snow all over !!
I was invited to attend the Regional Management Team meeting in Istambul, Turkey, where I met the Representatives and Assistant Representatives of all the offices in the CIS/CEE region. I was also happy to be joining two old colleagues, David Haxton and Jack Ling who attended part of the meetings.This is Taksim Square, the heart and soul of Istambul, where our hotel was located.
One cannot talk about Istambul without mentioning its most beautiful Blue Mosque, one of the best known structures in the Islamic world.
At the RMT I was introduced to Boris Tolstopiatov, the Area Representative in the Causasus office. Together we flew to Tbilisi, Georgia, where the area office is located that also covered Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The church shown here is on a hilltop in Tbilisi and is famous for being the burial place for the most eminent Georgian personalities. The story is that Joseph Stalin, a favorite son of Georgia, ordered that his mother be buried there ! Incidentally I was driven to the town of Gory where Stalin was born and where I visited his parent's house as well as his armored special train in which he travelled all over Russia.
Our next stop was Baku, Azerbaijan, but I have no pictures from there. On the other hand the trip from Tbilisi to Baku was most unusual..we were to fly on the WFP-run shuttle plane, which got cancelled at the last minute, so Boris organized an overnight train called the "American Express" which took us sixteen hours, but was quite comfortable with excellent services and food.
The next stop was in Yerevan, Armenia, where we are seen in a typical restaurant which had excellent food and charming hostesses, one of which is in this photo.
In Baku the most memorable incident was that Boris took me to the fish market where we each bought one kilo of fresh caviar for US$ 100 only.The best bargain possible! The trip from Baku to Yerevan was an adventure as we drove north towards Tbilisi (since one could not cross the closed border between Azerbaijana and Armenia) and just as we entered Georgian borders our experienced UNICEF drivers took a short cut across out of the way roads westward right into Armenia, and then south towards Yerevan.Here is the famous Hotel Armenia where we stayed. It is quite impressive.
On a Sunday Boris and I drove to the town of Echmiadzin which is the seat of some of the most famous Armenian church structures. We were fortunate to attend a singing mass in the main Orthodox church and heard some of the most fantastic voices, both male and female, that I have known in operatic solos and choirs.
Also in Echmiadzin is this enormous structure that was built especially for the visit to Armenia of the Pope.
I left the Caucasus and flew to Almaty, Kazakhstan, where the CARK area office was located. This photo shows the city's main square and Parliament building covered in snow.
Ashkabad and the country is a very special case where a vain dictator who is famous for building a golden statue of himself in the city center.
The story is that he believed that in that situation he would have the sun rotate around him. The photo shows one of the imposing mosques in the city.
The Ashkabad Assistant Representative organized for me to be driven by car towards Uzbekistan so as to be able to visit the historic town of Bukhara on the way. The drive was long and tiring to the border where we were to be met by another UNICEF vehicle from Tashkent.. due to some misunderstanding we missed the rendezvous which took a lot of doing to reconnect...
This is the main square in Bukhara, one of the most important stops on the famous Silk Road of antiquity.
My UNICEF driver insisted to take this photo of me seated under this tree which it is claimed is over 400 years old.
Tashkent the capital of Uzbekistan is mostly a modern city with very few remenants of its historic past as an important seat of Islamic culture, and a vital stop on the Silk Road. Here is one of the few remaining mosques in Tashkent.
On the recommendation of the Ashkabad Assistant Representative, she booked me into this very original but with modern amenities hotel, Lyabi House in Bukhara. It was a most pleasant stay indeed.
Another view of the most important mosque in the city of Tashkent.
The UNICEF team of the Tashkent sub-office is pictured here at a reception. The Assistant Representative was Brenda Vigo.
The UNICEF team was adament at dressing me up in the native costume which apparently marks a person of eminence.
From Tashkent I flew to Alamaty where the office organized another overland trip to Bishkek in Kyrgystan. Here is a photo of the impressive Alatau mountain range taken enroute.
The main government building in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan,with the statue of Lenin in the big square.
No Soviet main city would be complete without its grand style Opera House..here is the one in Bishkek.
On the flight from Bishkek to Dushambe, Tajikistan, one is treated to the views of the impressive Pamir mountain range. One of the poorest of the "Stans", Tajikistan has enormous potential for winter sports tourism, but needs to develop its infrastructure which is next to basic.
A very attractive building caught my eye as we toured the city of Dushanbe, which I was told was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs official guest house for dignatories.The green colors were quite a change from the usual drab official buildings in most cities.
The UNICEF Assistant Representative, Yukie Mkuo and her staff gathered for a group photo outside their office. The local team was treated to a surprise when in our group meeting I introduced myself in Russian and then continued to speak in Farsi, before turning to English. Tajikistan is the only country among the Stans where Farsi is the lingua franca.
From Dushambe I flew back to Almaty which was the hub during my visit to the CARK countries. Interesting..the day of my departure I was taken to the airport at 5 am for an early flight, but this got delayed for more than eight hours because the President was hosting a meeting of the Heads of State of all the ex-Soviet Republics and the airport was closed until all 15 VIPs flew off that day...it was funny to see the fleet of planes all parked on the tarmac with a different country marking on each.
In Almaty here is a view of the main cathedral.
Here is a group photo of the CARK area office staff with Phillipe Heffinck the UNICEF area Representative in the middle. The largest office in the region, it had been the main UNICEF presence from the early days of cooperation. Almaty was also an important transporatation hub for connections to the other countries. The government however was in the process of moving the capital further north into the country to the city of Astana, which was much less served in services.
A very impressive war memorial in the city of Almaty. For old timers it is good to remind that one of the most important meetings on health was convened in the city in 1976, then called Alma Ata, which adopted by WHO/UNICEF Primary Health Care as our main programme policy in this sector.
I then flew to Kiev, Ukraine, a very attractive city where UNICEF had a sub-office headed by Victor Karpenko a local NO programme person.Here is a photo of the UNICEF team in their office premises.
One of the many orthodox churches in Kiev. Its architecture interested me.
From Kiev I flew to Moscow to visit the area office there. It was my second time in the capital of Russia, having visited in 1973 when it was still the USSR. What an incredible change was in store for me ! Here is the famous GUM department store which was earlier completely void of items and in a very dilapidated state with a few Baboushkas peddling unattractive items. Now, it can rival the Galeries Lafayette, or Harrods with the latest high end items from all over the world.
This is the façade of the iconic Bolshoi Theater taken at night from the window of my hotel across the street. The interior has not changed much since 1973 when we attended a world premiere of Anna Karenina, danced by the incomprable Maya Plessetskaya.
The Royal, now Presidential, loge in the Bolshoi Theater. I was fortunate to be invited by Rosemary McCreery, UNICEF Area Representative, to another ballet at this prestigeous performing arts building.I noticed that the old curtain with the hammer and sickle emblem had not been changed.
I had requested the office to book me into the Metropole Hotel during my visit.Although much more expensive it was the hotel with most classic décor and old fashioned furnishings, but with a modern high end service and amenities. Here we see the luxurious dining area of the hotel.
Another reputed hostelery is the huge Rossiya Hotel in which we stayed during our first visit to Moscow in 1973. It was at the time billed as the largest hotel in the world with something like 6,000 rooms.I was told it had run down quite a bit.
From Moscow I flew to Minsk, Belarus, a city completely rebuilt after the second World War. Although there is nothing of the original city in place the newly constructed buildings are replicas of the old ones and one gets a good idea of what the city looked like. It is quite attractive I thought. Here is the Monument to Russians killed in Afghanistan.
The small UNICEF staff in Minsk, all of whom were nationals.
An attractive church with vividly colored façade.
The Moscow Area Office staff with Rosemary McCreery at its head in their premises. The office covered Russia as well as Ukraine and Belarus at the time. Eventually the UNICEF presence in Moscow was stopped I think in 2012.
My official travels ended back in Geneva where I discussed my findings and finalized the report to the Regional Office. This photo wasa taken from my room at the Cornavin Hotel in down town Geneva, where I usually stayed every time I visited. It had added a couple of floors to the structure which afforded a nice view on the Cathedral and the mountains in the background.
Coda. After concluding my report I was invited to attend another Regional Management Team meeting in Florence, Italy where the findings were discussed with the whole group of Representatives and Assistant Representatives.
Unfortunately I have no photos of that part of my trip.
Thanks Fouad. Fascinating assignment
ReplyDeleteBeautiful journey dear Fouad. Thnak you for taking us along :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Fouad. What an interesting tour!
ReplyDeleteFascinating and interesting account of a remarkable experience.. the pictures are great too! Fouad, thanks for sharing .
ReplyDeleteSree