Sunday 5 October

It’s Sunday 5 October 2003. I’m in my room at the Pinara Hotel, Bishkek where I arrived this morning with my sister Sophie, photographer Kalpesh Lathigra, and Robert Nesbit, a BBC news reporter.

I had tried to do a bit of reading about Kyrgyzstan on the plane. Didn't know anything about the country when I agreed to come here and, in fact, that was one of the attractions. This is the land of the Kyrgyz. Kyrgyzstan borders Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and China. Very mountainous. The Kyrgyz people were originally nomadic and, like all these post Soviet countries, are now struggling to come to terms with a post-Soviet capitalist economy.

We meet Smaranda, our UNICEF contact in Kyrgyzstan, who's been posted here for the past four months. I had met her before in Romania, her country of origin, during a previous UNICEF visit. She's a warm, open woman. I was so happy to see her.

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