Stop #1: Geneva, Switzerland ~ March 31-April 14, 2005

Our trek around the world began with Geneva, not just geographically, but conceptually. For some years, Jan has been working with the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group, a network of people around the world who document human rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners in China and who interface with the UN. Because of this work, we were encouraged to attend the UN Commission on Human Rights annual meetings in Geneva. We also wanted to 'stop by' North America. Once you're buying those two tickets from Bangkok, its the same price as an around-the-world'er so we went with it.

We'll give you our observations from working 'on the inside' at the UN in our next post, but for now...

Geneva: a city that grabs your attention and your pocketbook

We arrived mid-morning, mid-week, mid-meetings, and went straight to the hotel that another member of the Working Group had arranged for us. Although modest by Geneva standards, the one night we stayed gobbled up more than we spent on accommodations for the whole rest of the trip. Fortunately, 4 other folk were sharing a borrowed apartment downtown so they squished over and let us in too.

















The UN kept us busy, plunging us both into virgin territory: the white-collar routine.

But on the weekend we played tourist and explored Geneva - as cheaply as we could. Our travel article Geneva: City of Living History covers the highlights. Here are some select pictures, there's more where they came from on our Geneva Photo Archive link.

































Words of peace from various religious texts at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum. The museum highly impressed us. Its designer is so good that he could make even shoe polish riveting! Our article goes on and on about it, so have a look.




























We met Than (middle back), a warm-hearted dynamo originally from northeast Thailand, en route from Bangkok to Geneva. She married a sweet French man 18 years ago and they live a hybrid European-Thai life in France, just over the border from Switzerland. Here's the four of us plus Than's two nieces now studying in France. Than's motto: "I'm a little woman who can do anything!" We learned from Than literally how they prepare a tasty snack of dried dirt in Thailand's northeast.

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