Ireland, June 2010

I always wanted to go to Ireland. I have Irish friends. I find all of them a bit eccentric. Funny. Warm. I like the fact that most things good about the "English" are actually Irish. The Beatles for a start. Elvis Costello. Guinness.

So I was there, in Dublin. Checked into a nice hotel, near Grafton Street (one of the main pedestrian shopping streets in Dublin), opposite St. Stephen's Green (more on this below). I arrived on a Sunday, around lunch time, only to find that the room was not ready. A blessing in disguise. I went out and explored St. Stephen's Green, a gorgeous park. Around it was work by local artists, some great paintings, but expensive.

The meeting started - it was on asking tobacco questions in surveys. This was organized by the CDC folk, Atlanta - in Dublin for some reason. Breakfast was brilliant, so was the room. I ended up watching a number of World Cup games on the telly, as well as the Irish Derby.

I managed to go out on the last day, and see a bit of the town. I did, actually, sneak out to the nearby pubs (zillions of them, many with the Guinness logo) almost every day at the end of the meeting, to have a couple of pints of Guinness. It was expensive, almost 5 Euros, but it was worth it.

The meeting finished early on the last day, so I did 4 hours of walking round the city. It was late and most places were closed for the day (although it was daylight until 10 p.m.), but I did get to see the Guinness Storehouse, the Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, Temple Bar, Trinity College, and other locations. And the icing on the cake was seeing Phil Lynott's statue, which was apparently very close to the hotel, off Grafton Street. For those of you who do not know Phil Lynott - he was the lead singer of Thin Lizzy, also a poet, and a composer, the first black rockstar/singer from Ireland. Great bass player too. I stood a few meters from his statue, and took pictures. And as always, I sang with my toes, feet, ankles, knees. I sang "Don't believe a word", I think- slow version.

This is the city of writers and thinkers - Shaw, Joyce, Wilde, Yeats, Behan, Beckett. As I was leaving, I thought I need to come back - and this time, not only for Dublin: for Ireland.

Phil Lynott's statue, off Grafton Street. The life-size statue. I would have thought that there would be others looking at this, but there was no one else. I forgot that it has been more than 20 years since Lynott died. The new generation barely knows him, I suppose. Nevertheless, I did not see the man while he was alive, but it was nice to pay my respects to the man, albeit for a few minutes.

St. Stephen's Green. Goes back to the 17th century. I spent time here thanks to the hotel, where my room was not ready upon arrival. I sat, watched, admired. I even talked to one of those eccentric types, with whom I was sharing a seat.

Christ Church Cathedral, built circa 1030.

Haiti, June 2010

Bangladesh, June 2010

I have no pictures from Dhaka, but fresh memories. I returned today.

I saw next to nothing. It was a short (4 day) trip. I was picked up at the airport. Stayed in the hotel the whole time, and was then taken to the airport. And I still have things to say.

Not much to say about the airport, upon arrival. Then the driver showed up, as I went through customs. Hotel's driver. Passing through people all wanting to help (!), we got to the car, and off we were on the road to the hotel. Pan Pacific.

The hotel is 14 kilometers from the airport. We took it in 1 hour and 35 minutes. I have never seen such traffic. Never imagined that all the cars blowing their horns for 1 hour and 35 minutes non-stop could be so disturbing. We would move for one minute, and then stop for 5 minutes. Young boys and men were moving with the cars, selling popcorn, water and other stuff. Hundreds of them. I started to think that it was the same person.

What do you do when you are in a non-moving car for more than an hour? You watch the outside. Brazilian flags were everywhere - just as I was thinking that Bangladesh has a special relationship with Brazil, I remembered that the World Cup was on, and that this was all about soccer. Then I learned that a few days ago, during the Argentina-Nigeria game, there was a power cut, and people in their thousands had taken to the streets in protest. And the government had to issue a warning to all factories of the city to not to work during matches and therefore save energy. And all this, from a country which is probably 200th in the FIFA rankings.

I also saw the Bangladeshi enjoying one of their (favorite) pastimes. Get on the roof of a building. Watch the traffic, smoke, chat. If you are a woman, dance. It was weird, and just as I was thinking that it was a coincidence, I saw it again. I was in the hotel, it was pouring outside. Opposite the hotel, on the roof, a well dressed woman was dancing in the rain. I wondered why.

And before I knew it, I was on another plane, heading back to the US.

Egypt, May 2005

My first time in Egpyt, already started with losing my luggage at the airport, and not getting any compensation from Air France, just the opposite of the nice treatment we got from British Airways when we lost our luggage while travelling to Tbilisi.

This was yet another MICS3 workshop, organized outside of Cairo, in a Hilton golf resort, probably closer to the pyramids than to the city centre. The workshop lived up to the reputation of workshops in this region: populism all around, an irritation toward us, by many at least, great food, many issues in survey implementation. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable, and the start of many things to learn.

It was my first time over at the pyramids, of course, where we went with CC and RR from Macro. It was great to be at the pyramids, yet frustrating. I could not get the local tourist hunters to believe that I was not an Arab and had absolutely no idea what they were talking about in Arabic, because of my looks of course. I ended up having strong exchanges with a few of them, and not only because of the whiole Arabic thing, but also because of the heat, the dust, the obvious rip-offs, and a complete disrespect of personal space. The pyramids were brilliant of course, and I even managed to get into one and climb a bit inside to reach one of the tombs. It proved to be a bit too difficult. And I actually thought while it was great to see these monsters at last, I would not come here again. What needed to be seen was seen.

The Nile was great, and had become (at least the part in Cairo) a commercial river. We went on one of those restaurant boats, with belly dancing, the revolving dancers, and very poor quality food, for a very high price. We did enjoy it somehow, as it was a great way to strike a chord with the participants.

Thailand, May 2005

This was my third time in Bangkok. May 2005.This time for the MICS workshop, with TC, AA, MM and others. I have been thee many times since, but this city never stops to fascinate me. All the touristic stuff is fine - it is so different than anything else in southern Europe or the Middle East, that you will take an inetrest. But for me, it is also the daily routines of ordinary people, and how things so ordinary for the Thai can be so fascinating for other cultures.

The night market, a cold beer while relaxing in one of the 5-star hotels on the river, the golden Buddha and all that.

One of the millions of little Buddha statues in Bangkok. This picture was intended for that, but also captured the traffic.

And one of the many other statues in the city.

Shopping malls, packed with people.


Back to teaching - well, in UNICEF terminology, facilitation. This is from the first MICS3 workshop in Bangkok, with a huge number of participants, in Holiday Inn. That is where I had spent a three-day holiday a few years back, with D.

Georgia, April 2005

This was yet another very special trip. The first ever MICS3 workshop.

We had a strong team: TC, TW, EL from HQ, AA from Macro, GS and MS from the Regional Office, KS from Emory. It was the first ever MICS activity of dear friend GS. He was nervous, but so was I: this was the beginning of the MICS3 movie!

I travelled with TW, on British Airways, and we both lost our luggage. As it would happen a few more times in 2005 alone, I had to deliver my first day presentations with jeans on. It was thanks to the disciplined (perhaps serious is a better word) attitude of the CEECIS crowd that the workshop went well - otherwise it was destined to be a disaster: No translated materials, poor simultaneous translation, questionnaires which still begged improvement and the like...

And then there was the alcohol. GS took us practically everywhere in the city, where there was vodka. Almost every night, it was a great restaurant, singing, dancing and lots of booze. Still have the video clips.

From the airport to the hotel, all the buildings were painted, and some more painting was still in progress. Why, one wondered - is it the National "Paint-Your-House" Day? Nope, it was just that Bush was coming to Tbilisi next week. Georgians were getting ready. It did not make sense. No, it made a lot of sense.

We also did a great excursion - churches, old houses, great scenery, the Turkish hamam...
Georgians were very interesting. Huge similarities with our culture, yet so different. Religion seemed to play a part, perhaps as the breeding ground of "now that the Russians are out, let's play our game". It was fascinating to see their alphabet, learn that they are one of the oldest cultures in the region, and so influential in some ways, yet a tiny population, and with a name that most Americans would look for in Atlanta. We finished the workshop, and I stayed on for a couple of more days, for discussions with the Georgians on their MICS.

A country that I would always want to go back.

Day off, feels like we went to all the old churches in Georgia. This was a couple of hours from Tbilisi, and all the memories of Orthodox churches from my childhood came back.

Turtle Lake, just outside Tbilisi.

The Turkish hamam in Tbilisi.

Jamaica, March 2005

On the way back from Guyana, I stopped over in Kingston, Jamaica, for discussions with the Statistical Office on the Jamaica MICS survey. It was a relatively short visit, and I did not get to see or do much. However, a couple of days was enough to sense the underlying violence in this society.

Simple: The UNICEF driver took me to the hotel. It was a Sunday. I was expected not to wonder around in the city on my own, and was advised not to leave the street that the hotel was on, which happened to be a couple of blocks, very close to the UNICEF office. Nevertheless, I wondered out - just wanted to see where the UNICEF office was.

The minute I left the hotel premises, someone approached to sell marijuana. It took me a good 5 minutes to get him off my back, and just as I was thinking that I was now okay, another one approached. I came up with the ecuse that I did not have Jamaican money, but he said I could pay him later, since he knew that I was staying in that hotel (!).

I stayed in Kingston for a couple of days and then left for New York City. I was told of the violence that is everywhere in the city, that UNICEF colleagues and other internationals practically live within the confines of a few streets. Otherwise, too dangerous.

The highlight was of course, Mr. Marley's house, which had been turned into a museum. It was a great place. The tour ended with a film. I played "Redemption Song" with my knees, my elbows, my feet and my toes. Then I left Jamaica.

Singing on the street: Sunday - singing and dancing as well.

Bob Marley's house, now turned into a museum.

Me and Bob.

Guyana, March 2005

An interesting trip that I will always remember well. I went to Guyana for the global pilot survey of the third round of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, together with a couple of friends from the office (MN, ND). In Linden Town, we trained interviewers - joining us was LS, Guyana MICS Coordinator, and occasionally DA from the UNICEF Country Office.

Guyana somehow sounded like a place in Africa (the Guinea connotations), but here I was, for the first time in South America.

For two weeks we stayed in Linden - in a "hotel". Downstairs was a bakery/restaurant, and upstairs where we slept, the smell in the rooms was just unbearable. Nextdoor was a Chinese or Korean restaurant - for some reason (!) there were dozens of dogs in the backyard of the restaurant, barking all night and driving MN crazy. It was hot, humid, rainy- now I understood what "tropical rain" meant.

Nevertheless, it was a great experience, I met great people. Interviewers were very nice, so were some of the professionals we worked with. Food: Not really. Now I knew that Caribbean cuisine did not really agree with me.

I know I will remain fascinated by the Guyanese culture: A blend of many cultures - Indian, Indigenous, and others. Yet another country that some other culture was always prepared to invade, and did so. Particularly interesting was attitudes and behaviours concerning sex, marriage, parenthood. Get this: An interviewer had three children, was in a visiting union. I asked her if there were plans to "get married", to explain that this would have been the case in the culture where I come from, and she said that her older son was actually asking her to marry the father, but that she wanted to be sure that the marriage would work, before she committed to it. She wanted to be sure - after three births. And all the time, she was assuring me that all her children were from the same father.

Then, I and a couple of other facilitators were taken out of the training venue, when they were covering the topic sexual behavior. They were embarassed to have males around as they discussed sex. This, in a country where sex starts early on, multiple partners are common, so are consensual and visiting unions. Culture is funny. And profoundly interesting.

During the third week, I met SR, an old mate of mine from the LSE, circa 1988-89. He is from Belize, but was working there at CARICOM, at the time. We went out one night. There we were: A Cypriot and a Belizean, who met in England years ago, out in Georgetown, Guyana, at a Chinese restaurant. What was that term? Globalization?

This guy was selling underwear - on the street. Women were coming out of their houses and buying knickers and bra from him. In doing so, they would be discussing sizes, styles. He was selling underwear as if he was selling potatoes.

Watching anthropometric measurements at one of the quarters of Linden Town. Note the architecture, very common in Guyana: "Houses on legs".

One of the kids who were brought to our training venue for interviewers to practice anthropometric measurements. Beautiful people.

"Green" was shouting in one's face. Now I knew what "tropical" meant.

On the way from Linden Town to Georgetown: One of the many man-made lakes, where people go to swim. No, Guyana does no have beaches with golden sand - it is all rocky (and probably cold), so residents come to these man-made lakes to swim.

We stopped on the way from Linden Town to Georgetown one day, to have a few minutes rest, and found this place to buy some drinks. Note the name: "Pretty Woman". The fascination with beauty was everywhere.

Linden Town, main street. This was taken from the balcony of where we stayed.