Being a United Nations Tour-guide has been one of my most enriching experiences in my life and I am so grateful of my fate of being part of an amazing experience.
Thousands of people launch themselves into the United Nations every day to take a guided tour. Even though, with the fears of terrorism, the security concerns can restrain the schedule, numbers and distance of the tours, but guided tours in the United Nations headquarters continue based on the United Nations Promise of “We the peoples of the world” must remain open to the public. And the personal interaction of the guided tours is one of our best means of garnering international support, even though it is, to some extent, labor intense. To be a UN guide, you have to be well-spoken, energetic, people-person and interested in the world, as well as fluent in more than one language and college-educated. I can note with pride that people generally walk away UN-converted, if they weren’t supporters of the world body when they started.
A guide conducts roughly 800 tours in a year, each covering more than a mile of hallways and requiring a tremendous amount of personal interaction and patience towards the visitors no matter how unfriendly or rude they can be sometimes. At the end of the day, you are physically and mentally exhausted, but you have had a lot of fun. The tour takes about an hour and brings visitors to the main council chambers, exhibits on peacekeeping, decolonization and disarmament and the general assembly hall. While focusing on explanations of how and on what the UN works, the guides also highlight architecture and art along the way, such as the Belgium tapestry that contains enough thread to go around the world more than two times.
The guides have to know about the United Nations in its lock, stock and barrel, from agencies to architecture, be able to convey the information in several languages and, the more challenging of all, engage their visitors.
It is not easy to handle the widely ranging levels of public awareness, and unawares as the case may be. Talking about the visitors, I can say that some are extremely informed, sometimes highly specialized and just wants to gather information on a specific resolution or convention of the United Nations. The visitors come to the United Nations from all over the world, bringing with them an infinite number of political and cultural variations and interests. “I once had a visitor from Canada wondering how come coming from Africa my skin color is fair”. So, each group itself can include different generations and nationalities, guides not only have to adjust to their listeners on the spot, but also find ways to reach different types at the same time. We are able to do this, in part because we don’t work from memorized speeches. The guides deal with questions from the absurd to the astute. They start the day with briefings on world events and sometimes on specialized topics such as weapons of mass destruction, children and armed conflict. We are stuffed with information during the intensive two weeks training and with the daily briefings, because we have to be able to handle questions from all over the world.
So, what a great learning experience to have!!!
