The Equestrian-- Africa Section Remembered

by George Kassis

In early 1981, I joined the UNICEF Sana'a Office. Three years later, I was assigned to New Delhi, packed up the house and sent the container full of belongings on its way there. Turns out that the UNICEF New Delhi Office national staff had gone on strike protesting the number of international staff posted there, when there were plenty of competent Indians who could do the job. My appointment was put on hold. In between postings and given the raging famine in the Horn of Africa, I was temporarily posted to New York to backstop the UNICEF emergency operations in Ethiopia .

The situation in Africa was not getting any better. Richard Jolly, Manou Assadi and Fouad Kronfol called a meeting to announce UNICEF’s decision to substantially expand UNICEF operations in Africa and the decision to establish three new Programme Officer posts in the Africa Section in PDFS at NYHQ. I was sitting next to Manou Assadi who passed me a note asking if I wanted to be assigned to one of the three posts. I figured I better talk to Jill before such a consequential decision for the family and replied maybe. Manou scribbled back saying “maybe means no; I need a yes or no answer right now”. I swallowed hard and scribbled back yes. Right after the meeting I called Jill to inform her. She slammed the phone in my face: how could I unilaterally take such a life-changing decision without consulting with her first. She has forgiven me since.

An open office space with some 15 people in it was a revolutionary concept in UNICEF those days. Fouad had championed the idea and pushed forward with it. He felt it brought the team together and improved efficiency; it did not take long for me to adjust. Any time I needed to consult with Fouad or a colleague, I simply looked over to see if they were free and walked over. A few staff members resisted initially, but eventually adapted.

One day Fouad asks me if I would like to go to Las Vegas for a conference on world hunger. Las Vegas, I asked? Fouad explained that the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West in Las Vegas had called Jim Grant to ask for a guest speaker for the full day workshop the school was organizing on world hunger. I said sure. Fouad said “just keep it to yourself, I don’t want a debate as to who will go and why”, and handed me a folder with the invitation letter advising that they would provide me with a rent-a-car to get there from the airport, etc.

I went down to the Travel Office, gave them the papers which advised that I should travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico airport to pick up the rental car and drive to the school. A sister-in-law and her family live in Albuquerque so it would be a chance to meet them as well. One way or the other, I will end up in Las Vegas – the instructions were in the folder.

On the assigned day, I fly out to Albuquerque, go to the car rental office, and find a large Buick waiting for me. I get in and begin reading the instructions. First, I look for Inter-State Route 25 which I must follow for quite a while. It is colder than I anticipated and soon it starts snowing heavily. Pretty soon I am slipping and sliding in thick snow – no all-wheel-drive in those days. The windshield wipers are not working properly so I must stop every five to ten minutes to get rid of the accumulated snow and drive on slowly again… It takes me 3 hours to get there and finally when I do, to discover that Las Vegas, New Mexico is about 700 miles east of Las Vegas, Nevada!

Las Vegas, New Mexico has a population of 13,000 and the town shuts down at 5 pm. Its one call to fame are its hot water springs. The Armand Hammer College is an old hot water spa converted into a school. I was snowbound there for three days before being able to drive and fly back.

That said, the three days were a unique opportunity to have amazing dialogues and discussions with hand-picked brilliant students from around the world.

To this day I do not know if Fouad was aware he was sending me to another Las Vegas.

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