1st July 2016 Minsk, Belarus
I’d like to talk today about my visit to Belovezhskaya Puscha and Brest Fortress a couple of weeks ago. I went down on Friday by car arriving at the park in the early evening to be greeted by two women in traditional dress with salted bread and flowers, which is really nice. And then on […]
8th June 2016 Minsk, Belarus
I wanted to talk to you today about a great event that we had yesterday which was Queen Birthday Party for children. It’s an idea that I had in March when I was finishing my Russian lesson. And at the school where I learned Russian at the weekend they mostly teach English to children here, […]
24th March 2016 Minsk, Belarus
It has been just over eight weeks since my arrival and about six weeks since my last blog – perhaps that’s a sign of how busy a time it has been. I’ve met Ministers, opposition leaders, civil society representatives, journalists, been to Vilnius for a conference, talked to students, listened to businesspeople, and of course, […]
5th February 2016 Minsk, Belarus
Twenty years ago, on a posting to Ukraine, Belarus was this distant mysterious country lying to the north. My chief knowledge about Belarus was that it was badly affected by Chernobyl as the winds were blowing north at the time of the disaster. As I prepared to come here, I talked to people about Belarus […]