Americans for UNFPA Student Award Winner – Bridging the Divide

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading Fatima’s blog and enjoyed the glimpse into UNFPA’s work to improve the health and rights of women in Uganda and Rwanda.  As Fatima showcased, UNFPA’s in-country work is largely dependent on the local needs and really calls on community involvement to build programs that succeed.

As the Americans for UNFPA staff delegate, I had the pleasure of traveling with Fatima and delegates from across the United States. 

Fatima, 2008 Student Award Winner, had a powerful impact on the other delegates, and even more so, on the many women we had the privilege of visiting.  She was able to draw connections, beyond the surface, with many of the women we met – as a Muslim, Somali-American, and student.

Our leadership delegations consisted of eight women, and one man, ranging from age 18 to  60+.  Each delegate brought a unique perspective from corporate executives to an oilfield engineer.

Fatima’s blog offers a sampling of the insightful comments she shared with her fellow delegates daily.  Unlikely many delegates, her college research afforded her the opportunity to visit UNFPA funded fistula programs earlier this year in Eritrea.  From that trip, she was able to share with us an in-depth perspective on fistula – a problem affecting so many women in Africa.

Fatima’s age and position as “Student Award Winner” particularly offered significant hope to the young women we met.  The youth population in Uganda/Rwanda is nearly double that of the U.S. [25% percent of Uganda’s total population is currently between the ages of  15–24 living; compared to 20% in Rwanda and only 12% in the U.S.]

What that means is that, literally, everywhere we went we met young people who were impacted by the work of UNFPA.  From job training programs for women who have been trafficked to HIV prevention and reproductive health services, I was overcome by the young and hopeful faces we encountered. 

And, for our team of delegates, Fatima was able to connect to these young people in a unique and profound way. 

One situation in particular comes to mind.  When we visited the REACH program in rural Uganda we went to a school with about 700 students, many of whom were also Muslim.  They were immediately drawn to Fatima, I think because she didn’t seem as “foreign” as the rest of us.  At the end of our visit, she was asked by the headmaster to share some words of advice with the students.  Needless to say, she was able to connect with the girls, I think because in her they could see a role model.  In sharing her personal story with them, she was able to inspire.  And her insights about the importance of education and stopping FGC (female genital cutting), certainly hit home with both the delegates and students.

I hope that the many readers of both Fatima’s blog and Marie Claire continue to stay involved with Americans for UNFPA.  And for those of you who've caught her travel bug: our upcoming delegations are to Laos in October and Nepal in March 2009.  And for U.S. College students, keep an eye out for news about the 2009 Student Award—applications will be available in December. 

For me, this trip has brought to life the obstacles and challenges facing women in Africa, and given me a deeper understanding of the programs available to tackle these problems.  By sharing this experience with Fatima, I very much hope that readers of her blog understand the importance of US support for the work of UNFPA.

Thanks for traveling along with us.  And, thanks to Fatima for sharing her wisdom with the delegates and with the many young people we met along the way!

Abby Miller

Development Manager 

Gorillas in the forest

We arrived at the Gorilla Nest lodge last night and I had no idea what to expect. I'm not much of a nature girl, so I was imagining all sorts of scary situations- especially involving bugs and huge, furry animals jumping on me while I slept. Fortunately, the lodge was extremely beautiful and prevented animals and insects from coming into where we slept.

The Volcanoes National Park is a two hour drive from Kigali, in the northwest region of Rwanda. I have always been skeptical of safari or nature trips in Africa, just because I felt that the continent was being reduced to seeing animals. However on the trip up to see the gorillas, I realized that eco-tourism is a serious industry in some countries. During our hiking orientation, the guide encouraged us to hire a porter to carry backpacks up the mountain so that we could be providing jobs. Interestingly, he discouraged us from giving money or anything to the kids who would be assembled at the starting point. He explained that this would only promote begging behavior in the children and if they were successful in getting gifts from tourists, they would stop going to school.

The hike up the mountain was really steep at the start, but the guide broke up the difficultly by pointing out flowers and other vegetation. It's a one hour trek up to the forest and it took us another 30 minutes to find the gorilla family we were assigned. I was surprised at how close we could get to the gorillas! Each group is only allowed one hour to view the gorillas and in this time we saw a silverback, a baby gorilla, and a possibly pregnant gorilla. The guides and trekkers in the forest encouraged us to take "snaps" ( pictures) and video, but towards the end I realized just watching the gorillas was a true gift. Even though the hike was physically difficult, I left the forest with a renewed respect for nature.

For many of us, gorillas represent wisdom and knowledge and I kept thinking this was rooted in their eyes. Despite the fact that gorillas only live 35-45 years, I felt like they were witnesses to humanity. During the genocide, many Rwandans spoke of fleeing into the bushes and the entire hike I kept envisioning the forest as a refuge and I wondered how much the gorillas has witnessed. The painful legacy of the genocide is deeply embedded in every part of Rwanda, even in the homes of the gorillas.

Guilt and Reconciliation

This afternoon we visited the Rwandan Genocide Museum in Kigali. I have struggled to understand the point of constructing museums in honor of massive extermination campaigns. However, the most important aspect of my two hours in the Genocide Museum was witnessing the busloads of Rwandan high-school and university students visiting the museum. Often in developing countries, museums and other historic parks are tourist and foreign visitor hotspots but today, Rwandans of all generations solemnly walked through the memorial.

Walking through the perfectly arranged memorial with the machetes and victim's skulls and clothes from mass graves was incredibly difficult to process. On hand, it's crucial for today's Rwandans to confront the events of 1994 and previous with honesty and respect. But on the other hand, it was extremely uncomfortable to see the products of violence that was completely and conveniently ignored by the rest of the world. Furthermore, some nations were actively training and financing the architects of the genocide and the militia that killed up to one million people. One million people- what does that even mean? One the way out of the museum, one quote let me register what I had just seen. " The interhamwe ( militia responsible for the slaughter of the Tutsi minority) did not kill a million Tutsis, they killed one another, then another, then another"…

I have told many readers I come from a big family- 8 immediate siblings and a huge extended family. Virtually no Tutsi family was left without many family members dead or tortured with living as raped victims or the guilt of surviving. About 25,000 Rwandans are buried at the genocide museum and when I read the names of those buried, I was horrified to realize that every victim was part of a group of 10-12 family. As I walked away, I was disoriented and remembered the hundreds of wedding pictures, vacation snapshots and birthday celebration pictures of the victims featured inside the memorial. Most Americans can look in their family albums and relate because these are universal moments of joy. In each face, I could see my family's faces.

Around the corner from the memorial is the hotel that is featured in Hotel Rwanda, Hotel Des Mille Collines French for "Hotel of the 1000 Hills." For many of us, this blockbuster film was our first engagement with the genocide. As we drove past it, I kept transplanting myself to this scene 14 years earlier and could imagine the roadblocks and the killer mobs. When violent crimes or deaths occur in our homes, we tend to move out because we are not able to live in the same house. Nearly every home in Rwanda was affected by violence- 99% of Rwandans witnessed violence or murder. They don't have the choice to leave because there is nowhere to run to…

Many of us on the delegation felt guilt and anger about how America did not intervene to stop the killing. Even though it is far too late to take anything 'back', we can help Rwanda recover by supporting UN and grassroots programs aimed at unity, peace and reconciliation.

Critical Care Nurse's Journey to Cambodia

Dana Wright from Amherst, New York traveled to Cambodia with Americans for UNFPA in January of 2006. This is her story:

I have retired from hospital critical care nursing and have turned my focus to the health and education needs of women and girls worldwide. So when the invitation to travel to Cambodia came across my desk from Americans for UNFPA and the Foundation for Global Leadership I jumped at the chance to see for myself the plight of women there.

Cambodia is still recovering from the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, which killed some 4 million people from 1975 to 1979. Especially hard hit during that time were the professionals in all disciplines in the educated, literate class, sending the country back 100 years in my opinion. Now the country struggles to come into the 21st Century and needs help from the international community. UNFPA, and other UN agencies, give financial support and provide technical expertise to government agencies and the many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) on the ground.

I was part of a small delegation of supporters of Americans for UNFPA traveling to Cambodia to learn more about UNFPA's programs to provide women's health care - including family planning and HIV prevention - and promote gender equality by improving education for girls, increasing their enrollment and decreasing their drop out rates.

Dana Wright traveled to Cambodia and shares her story. Now you can make a difference by donating to Americans for UNFPA. Your support funds critical programs for women, including family planning and HIV prevention.

UNFPA has been working in Cambodia for 12 years and despite continued progress, the country continues to face many challenges in poverty, health and education. For nine days we visited various UNFPA-funded NGOs doing heroic work in the slums, meeting the needs of people who lack both education and work skills. We visited projects that offer general education, vocational skills and health services to commercial sex workers and street children.

We visited a clinic, open to all, which offers HIV/AIDS testing and counseling where trained young people teach safe sexual practices to their peers to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies. When we arrived, the teens were even having a dance lesson.

The Secretary of State for Health, Professor Huot Eng, told us of the difficulty of meeting so many health needs - especially the high rate of maternal and infant mortality during childbirth - with limited resources. Maternal mortality is estimated at 437 per 100,000 lives births (compared to eight in the United States). Deliveries typically happen at home with traditional birth attendants and hospitals are shunned by most people as unfriendly. We asked Professor Huot what he considered his most pressing priority and he told us trained OB/GYN nurses.

Professor Huot told us he was grateful for partnership with UNFPA, especially in gathering accurate census data that all branches of the government can use. (How can you evaluate your maternal health programs if you don't know how many women you have or how many die in childbirth?) The 1998 census was the first for Cambodia in three decades.

Eighty percent of the population (14 million) live in the rural areas with no electricity, paved roads, sewage treatment or running water. Access to trained nurses is limited. Since most girls drop out after primary school a pre-nursing student is scarce, indeed. The expense of tuition as well as board at a school in a city is beyond the means of most rural girls. Low pay and exposure to blood (HIV) also makes long-term commitment to nursing a problem in Cambodia.

An hour drive from the majestic temples of Angkor along a bumpy, dirt road is a tiny farming village where UNFPA funds a program where whole families come to dance and play a reproductive health quiz show. The teens answered questions about HIV/AIDS without embarrassment as their parents and grandparents looked on. UNFPA's Cambodia Goodwill Ambassador, Dr. Chea Samnang - an actor and singer, came along to this party with us and held the teens spellbound with a pep talk about being safe and staying in school.

Before our trip ended, we watched the sunset from the top of Angkor Wat and prayed for a more peaceful and progressive future for this beautiful country and its people.

If you are interested in traveling with Americans for UNFPA, please send us an e-mail at info@americansforunfpa.org.

Rwanda and Uganda from a Donor's Perspective

Jim Cowan from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania joined a trip organized by Americans for UNFPA to Rwanda and Uganda last summer to meet the people involved in UNFPA programs. This is his story:

On this trip to Uganda and Rwanda we visited health facilities supported by UNFPA and listened to women talking about their lives. They spoke with an intimacy, honesty and openness that ordinary tourists would never get to see, and they told us things that ordinary tourists would never get to hear.

The women that I talked with were living in cultures where large families are expected, and access to all forms of health care, including reproductive health care, is limited. They told their stories in a simple, direct fashion, and on more than one occasion I found it hard to even listen, let alone talk later about what I'd heard. Even now it's hard to write it down.

I met sex workers who sold themselves nightly for "50 cents with a condom, $2 without," a woman who was taken aside by the Rwandan interahamwe during the genocide of 1994, thrown on the ground with one leg tied to one tree and the other leg to another tree, raped repeatedly and left for dead, a women who was thrown out of her home by her husband when she confronted him about keeping his positive HIV status a secret and who had no choice but to turn to prostitution to support herself and her three children.

I also met strong, charismatic, educated women working effectively to change traditional views on family size, on the education of women, on female circumcision, and to make health knowledge and health care available to even the poorest people. Meeting these often poor and often uneducated women in rural health centers, in the offices of their women's associations, at a widow's agricultural association, and in hospitals and orphanages, also showed me their determination to make their lives better. Even more humbling was their desire to improve the lives of others they could touch.

It was very clear that modest but consistent funding transformed these women's lives. They went from a feeling that theirs was a waste of life and waste of the human spirit, into a life where there was some hope. The source of the hope was very practical: immunizations, prenatal care, childbirth services, family planning services, nutrition counseling, adult education - women who could read using their spare time to teach women who had never gone to school. The hope held by all these women was that they could be healthy, could earn a living, could plan their families, and most important of all, they could hope to be in control of their own lives.

I was reminded of Loren Eiseley's story, "The Star Thrower." Eiseley is walking on a beach after a storm where thousands of starfish are stranded on the beach, dying. Eiseley walks along, picking up starfish after starfish, throwing them one by one back into the sea. A man asks him what he's doing and what difference it makes, pointing to the starfish in Eiseley's hand. Eiseley throws the starfish back into the waves so it can live, and says, "It makes a difference to that one."

The biggest problem in Africa is the grinding poverty I saw almost everywhere. It's too large a problem for any one person to solve, and too large for all of us to solve in the very near future. But on this trip I learned that there are unlimited opportunities to help people and that there are countless people who desperately want to be helped.

Americans for UNFPA is truly helping some of the poorest, most defenseless women in the world. That help always makes a difference. Help always makes a difference to someone.

If you are interested in traveling with Americans for UNFPA, contact us at info@americansforunfpa.org.

Safe Motherhood and Education in the rural region of Upaipur

Joie Lemaitre Guest Blogs for Americans for UNFPA

It's Wed. afternoon and we arrived in Udaipur late yesterday afternoon. Udaipur is in the state of Rajasthan and is a high desert area, very hilly, rugged and spectacularly beautiful. We are staying in an 18th century fortress that was bought by an Indian woman in the 1980's and she renovated the palace using local workers, local materials, and Rahjastani artwork and crafts. Marble is quarried here...white, black and green. I have a green marble soaking tub in my room...totally decadent and beautiful. The beds are on platforms on the ground, the floors are marble, and I think the slippers I have been given are hemp. Talk about feeling like an Indian princess. Now I just need to put on my new Indian tunic, pants and shawl and the feeling is complete. It's called Devi Garh in Udaipur, Rajasthan, check it out if you like.

We spent the day today touring the area and visiting a regional clinic...much cleaner and nicer than the govt. run hospital in Delhi. There is progress here in the rural areas and more and more women are using the clinic to deliver their babies. A couple of women who had complications when they had their children came and spoke about how the clinic saved their lives. As other neighboring women hear that the clinic cares for the healthiest outcome, they are more willing to have their babies outside the homes. The idea is very foreign and scary for some, so the word of mouth is helpful.

The Rajasthani people are beautiful...the men wear the colorful turbans and have wise weathered faces and the women wear beautiful saris' and enormous earrings in their noses...so nose rings, I guess, but they are like chandelier earrings. The villages are quite basic...the house, barn, children and livestock all living under the same roof. I am still so struck on how so little has changed for centuries in many parts of the world...and the rest of us move at light speed, comparatively speaking. They are gentle and dignified people. Although their history is one of a warrior people, as this would be the doorway to India from the north.
We had such a fabulous time at a regional education center for women today. The married women are learning crafts to raise money for their families 'cause once they are married they can no longer go to school. There were also many school girls there who are learning about how HIV/AIDS is spread, how to be advocates for themselves. They are urged to continue in school. The girls were about 15, 16 years old and spoke of their desire to go on to college and become teachers, and doctors and engineers.

Three of our delegates were dressed in honorary sari's (including me) to the delight of the girls and women. They were all laughing and clapping as their teacher wound the Sari material around our bodies and then veiled us. The women had made the sari's to sell, so I bought the one they put on me, which is hot PINK! We felt like rock stars...everyone wanted to shake our hands and touch us, etc. They don't get many foreigners in their rural villages, so we were quite the show.
Tomorrow and Friday we have more UNFPA site visits...schools, clinics, hospitals and then back to Delhi on Saturday. Hopefully my flight will leave on time on Sunday AM, but this time of year it's very "foggy" ie. smoggy in Delhi, so often flights are delayed for several hours.

I've learned a lot, have been reinvigorated by this trip and the work that's being done to better the lives of women and children by UNFPA...the word needs to get out there. And, hopefully our next president no matter who it is will finally release the millions of dollars that have been withheld by Bush. It's interesting to note that Congress votes the funds to support the work of UNFPA every year and even increased the funding this year, it's just Bush's administration that holds it back.

signing out from a hilltop in Udaipur...the sun is beginning to set over these spectacular hills.
Joie

Improving Access, Improving Care for Women in Delhi

Joie Lemaitre Guest Blogs for Americans for UNFPA

It's early AM, we leave for Udaipur today in the state of Rajasthan. I hear it's a very colorful area, we'll see what that means exactly. I do know that Madonna has been there with her family and entourage absorbing the music and culture in that area. That story and the cricket news is big here. I'm sure you all have been following the big cricket controversy as well, :).

Yesterday we began the official part of the delegation which was eye opening and really interesting. Our day started with an overview of UNFPA's programs here in India....all programs under their auspices relate to maternal and child health, family planning education, HIV/AIDS education as well as working with the govt. of India in helping to promote laws that will better the lives of women and give them more autonomy and control over their bodies and their lives. I am again so impressed, as I was in Cambodia, with the passion and the love the staff here give to their jobs. The issues they face here are daunting, but they are realistic and know improving access, improving care all takes time....and money.

The single biggest issue right now in India as far as maternal health and family planning are concerned is the skewed male/female sex ratio...the gap between boy and girl live births has increased drastically over the last 20 years. What is counter intuitive is that the drop in female births is due not to lack of education but due primarily to a financially secure and well educated middle class. It's not the rural woman who throttles and kills her girl child that is the primary issue, though that's certainly a concern. It's the middle class couple who through modern technology decide to abort female fetus's...obviously to the detriment of the woman, her child and Indian society.

Despite education and despite financial security, if a couple now has only one or two children they make sex-selection decisions based on deep rooted cultural beliefs. The boy child is still valued for these reasons 1) passing on the family name 2) land and property rights 3) care of parents in old age, though girls do this more and more 4) they are the only ones with the ability to perform last rites.

Now, this is primarily limited to Hindus and northern Indian, but Hindus make up over 90% of the population. The one exception are the Sikhs, which are a branch of Hinduism which broke away from the main religion several hundred years ago. The did not believe in the caste system and they also believe more fully in the equal rights of the sexes and value both boy and girl children. Sikhs making up a number of immigrants to the U.S have a strong and very progressive belief system.

Anyway it is now illegal in India to use ultrasound or sonograms for the purpose of sex selection. The Govt. run hospital we visited yesterday has a huge sign making it very clear that they do not perform sex selection abortions. The hospital offers free contraceptives, surgery such as tubal ligation and vasectomy's, free delivery and maternal care and post natal care, as well as early stage abortions which are legal in India. The facility is old, unclean, and outdated in technology and equipment (unlike the private hospitals which are state of the art). However, the staff are dedicated and caring and very hard working.

In the afternoon we visited Shakti Shaleni, which is a woman's shelter. Most of the women were young, between the ages of 17 and 26. There were a couple of girls who had been rescued from the sex slave trade, but most were victims of "dowry" violence. This, too, is a big problem in India. A groom's family can demand more property or money indefinitely, even after the marriage. If a bride's parents can't pay up, the new bride is often rejected by the family and her new husband. It's too shameful for the bride's family to take her back, so she either puts up with abuse from her husband and his family or through the help of NGOs and UNFPA sponsored programs can find the help she needs to leave the situation. These young women are very courageous and their stories are so amazing. I am again in awe of the strength of people. These young women...oh they touch your heart. Our daughters are so lucky to have the opportunities they have, and they choices they have.

Last year a law was passed outlawing "dowry" law, but very few people will take these things to court, at least yet.

Gosh, that's probably way more information than you want, but it's good for me to get this down on paper. And, this just scratches the surface.

I am excited about seeing Udaipur and continue to see the programs offered by UNFPA in this region.

Extreme Poverty

Joie Lemaitre Guest Blogs for Americans for UNFPA

Just popping off another note to you all. It makes me feel connected in some way and the images here are so profound and foreign.

Someone once said to me that India will feel more foreign to you than any other place on earth, but having been to Cambodia and Turkey, I didn't put much stock in that. Well, it's not the "foreign" aspect so much, but the dehumanization that happens here.

I will never forget the young woman holding a baby tapping on our car window while we were stuck in traffic, pantomiming that she needed food (hand to mouth) and the baby mimicking the same gesture. It's impossible to react to one person because once you do you will have 10 or 20 more surround your car demanding a handout. It's truly the most dehumanizing experience. It's very difficult for me to ignore another human being, but you must.

I saw poverty, and extreme poverty in Cambodia, but there was a dignity and honor the Cambodians have that is not as visible here. In fact, outside of the newer downtown area of Delhi, all that you see in this country between Delhi and Agra is crumbling facades, piles of debris, corrugated roofed-cinder block buildings with nothing appealing about them and masses of humanity seeking out a living with little life or hope on their faces or in their eyes. And the holy cows are just as bleak and depressing. They may be free to roam, but roaming in the streets picking through garbage is not much of a life. I don't think I saw one smile on a face yesterday as we drove back from Agra (either human or bovine).

One of the more fascinating places I visited in Agra (aside from the monuments) was a crematorium. All Hindus and Buddhists are cremated, so it's a very busy place. Only male members of the departed’s circle of family and friends are allowed to view the burning. Katie (one of the delegates) and I were the only two women allowed in with our guide. It all takes place outside along the river. The bodies are placed on brick platforms and then the male family members place a pyre of branches around the body. A priest lights the pyre and the family and friends will stay for about a half hour and say prayers or chant. It takes a body 3 days to burn. At that point male family members return and take some of the ashes (the rest are dumped in the river by crematorium workers) and then will sprinkle the ashes at the holy places in the Ganges River. The holiest of these is Varanasi. Again, the women (not even the wife or mother or sisters, etc.) are allowed to participate in this ritual either.

I'd write about the daunting information we have received about the sex slave trade here in India, particularly Calcutta, but I feel like my letter is filled with such depressing information already, so I'll stop. As much as we may have our own battles to fight in the U.S. and other places in the western world, we are so damn fortunate.

I'm off....a day in Delhi as a tourist with the delegation and then site visits with UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund begin tomorrow. My friend Anika who is the president of Americans for UNFPA arrived yesterday, so we had dinner together last night and caught up on news, it was great to see her.

My love to all of you ....will hopefully be able to write some more hopeful news about progress in this country once I'm with the UN guides.

Warmly Greeted with a Marigold Necklace

Joie Lemaitre Guest Blogs for Americans for UNFPA

I am a woman and a mother of two daughters, grateful for the control we have over our lives, our choices, and our health. We raised 2 daughters here in Concord, MA, and they are now launched and on their own, working and living in NYC.

I am a former teacher, a career volunteer, and an artist. My areas of interest and expertise have always been with children and families, as well as the arts. I spent 5 years working for an organization called M.O.M.S. which was affiliated with our local hospital. The organization matched an experienced mother with a new mother as a mentor and support system. In a world where many new mothers lack a family support system close by, this was a valuable resource for the community.

I am now a practicing artist and career volunteer. I was fortunate enough to join Americans for UNFPA in January 07 as a delegate to Cambodia and in January 08 as a delegate in India. This blog relfects my in the moment reactions and insights to what I saw in India.


I have arrived safe and sound in Delhi. It was a 24 hour trip with a stopover in London for a few hours, but I am here and my internal clock tells me I missed a day somewhere over Europe.

The flight was fine... no individual TV sets even in business class and old reruns of The Tim Allen show on the one TV and very "B" Bollywood movies. But, it was one of the smoothest flights I've ever had.

I arrived in Delhi about 11 PM on Jan. 1st to a sea of faces waiting for loved ones as I came through customs. There is always that moment of slight panic that no one will be there to greet you in a strange country, and I still had no currency for India, as apparently Rupees can not be had until you get to India....considered an illegal currency elsewhere, fascinating.

After a few moments I spotted Rajen my contact here in India. He greeted me with a marigold necklace and a hand embroidered shawl and a big smile. I felt like visiting royalty. And, then his driver whisked me off to the Imperial Hotel in Delhi. The traffic is busy even at midnight and horns are constantly beeping. In fact, most trucks have signs on the back that say Please Honk. The roads are good around Delhi, a city of 15 million people. As it was dark and a bit foggy I coudn't see much, but as we entered the grounds of the Imperial Hotel I knew I was in an oasis of calm. It's a grand British colonial hotel...the entrance is lined with Royal palm trees and lots of twinkling bright lights. It was built in 1936 about 11 years before the end of British Colonial rule, and has all the fixings of that era...marble floors, Victorian chandeliers, teak woods, palms in pots, very elegant and genteel. They still serve high tea in the atrium in the late afternoon.

I collapsed into bed around 1 AM Delhi time on January 2nd. I believe I am 10 and a half hours ahead of the east coast when we switched to daylight savings time. In the summer it's 9 and a half hours.

I have not yet met up with any other members of the delegation, but I understand there are about 6 of us here, including two women who were on the Cambodia trip with me. I have the day to myself so may explore the area around the hotel. I am advised that I should not walk too far alone, but the area around here is certainly safe.

Tomorrow a small group of us leave for Agra which is about a 4 hour drive from Delhi to see the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. We'll spend a couple of days there and then return to Delhi for the official beginning of the UNFPA delegation on January 5th.

Happy New Year to all.