Day 6

Today was a mixed bag in terms of sessions, but a fantastic day in terms of conversations with other delegates.
The most interesting panel I went to was the very last one, called "Gender and Poverty: Women's Tribunals on Poverty and Climate Change." The speakers from Nigeria and Botswana were AWESOME. They were articulate and concise, which is frustratingly absent from many of the panels. They were also brilliant. Something in the speech by the woman from Botswana really struck me in a cliche way, but it was still great. She talked about how people used to fish in a river but could no longer fish because lodge-owners took the land for tourism. It reminded me of the saying about giving a man a fish versus teaching him to fish. In this case, people knew how to fish but couldn't. Teaching them to fish would be redundant, and giving them a fish would help for a while, but they really just needed access to the river.
Today was also the panel hosted by the Ecumenical Women young adult delegations, which was sweet. A woman from Uganda told an interesting story in a panel on women organizing post-conflict. She said that when women from around the country first came together, they were really suspicious of each other. But then they realized that they faced similar challenges as women, and their solidarity around those issues allowed them to come together. I also liked the argument made in a panel on Human Trafficking that we should criminalize demand (i.e. mean who pay for sex) rather than demand (i.e. prostitutes).
I've really enjoyed hearing other delegates' reactions to panels (and their reflections on things completely unrelated to panels). I think we're all realizing how much we're going to miss this group when we leave--everybody is thoughtful and hilarious and brings a different perspective. I missed Yale a lot the first day I was here (and was sad to miss the last few feb clubs), but now I'm realizing how refreshing and wonderful it has been to get outside the Yale bubble and spend time with this great group.
We are meeting the presiding bishop tomorrow! For an absolutely hilarious story about an encounter with said presiding bishop in the elevator, see my roommate's blog: http://www.epiphanyyouthdirector.blogspot.com/
No really, you should read it.
good night,
Brede