June 2007: J8 Summit with UNICEF

A lot has happened since you last heard from me. I was chosen to go as a Unicef HIV/AIDS junior ambassador to the J8 Summit in Germany this year.

The G8 Summit  (not J8) is kind a gathering of some of the world's most important leaders from eight of the most powerful countries. Every year, people from all over get together and express to these powerful leaders the problems going on in their countries.

The J8 is similar, but with young people. There were people from all over the world -- Chinese, Russians, South Africans, Ethiopians, Tanzanians, you name it! All of us stayed together on a big boat parked in the harbor. The accommodations I did not like. To live on top of water?! It was actually a big old ship with huge windows that used to sail around the world many many years ago.

I enjoyed being in a new country, but everything at the J8 was very.... Well, some of you might understand, but you see when you come from the township or the ghetto you are not used to these conferences where you are sitting down all day in fancy rooms with people standing in front of projectors. People talking about numbers like 5.6 million this and 20 percent that and using these big words.

So,  at moments I felt a bit lost. Especially because I am so used to just standing up and expressing myself from my experience. So it was very new to hear people talking about Africa and AIDS in this way. I did learn a lot about it and other stuff like climate change and poverty and unemployment. But all from charts and things like that. It can get very boring.

 It also made me think that these presentations could never work or have impact in the townships. I mean I think that they can have an  impact in maybe rich kids who know how to use computers, and that know those big words and can talk in percentages. But, I don't think its useful to come to a poor area and talk about "rates" of climate change. Some people in townships don't even have TV, don't even know what is climate change.

But I feel that from the experience, I have learned a lot. You know, I adapt very quickly and so I  actually learned to  capture what they were saying and learned many many things. It was really a great opportunity.