Celebration Station

 What a busy workweek it has been!  So glad that it is finally Friday!  Not too much to report, just keeping myself busy!  I have been working feverously on our 30^th anniversary celebration.  Making brochures, fliers, and other marketing material; by working with the anniversary special events planner.  I have also been busy sending out applications and requests for fundraising grants.  Julien and Kate, the 2 new interns keep recommending places I should visit…I want to see it all!  Norina, another of the interns, is celebrating her birthday next weekend and invited me to go home with her and come to her party, depending on what I have planned I might take her up on the offer!  The president and the International Executive Council of Defence for Children’s International were here for a conference so I got to meet them, which was really exciting! 

This week is the Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child!!!  Basically, 20 years ago the United Nations adopted a set of rules and regulations that protects children; rights such as:

The right to food

The right to not have to work

The right to an identity

Etc.

This relates directly to the work DCI does in relation to Juvenile Justice. 

Thursday I was asked to be at work at 8:15 am to prepare brochures before the event for the 20^th anniversary.  Later in the morning I got a pass and went to some of the events.  It was so interesting!  I was planning on leaving early (since I got to work), and as I packing up my things my boss asked me to stay late and attend the reception at the event.  I headed over to the NIIG building after work to attend the celebration.  It was really neat!  There were so many people from all over the world and different types of organizations.  I met dignitaries, leaders of NGOs, representatives, scholars, experts on human rights, etc.  It was a very fancy reception with cocktails and wine and appetizers.  (The plates had holders for wine glasses, it was really COOL!)  After the reception and several speeches (in French, so I didn’t understand much) I mingled.  I met various people from national sections of DCI and spoke for a while with 2 interesting gentlemen from the Sierra Leone ministry of foreign affairs.

After the event I came back home, late, and a bunch of us hung out in Le Cenacle hallway.  At about 10 pm one of my friends who works at the front desk, Ruvy, took me and Alison and Kelly to a cool bar downtown called LA lounge.  It was a really relaxing chill lounge bar with drinks for 5 Swiss Francs (the cheapest drinks we have found) and they were good!!  The security guard was really funny and kept looking out for us and told us that if anyone bothers us he will kick them out.  He also brought us platefuls of gummy worms!  We had a lot of fun and then took the bus home.

Kelly and Me at LA downtown! 

This morning we had out second class.  Some of the other students and I were talking about activities for this afternoon and this weekend.  It is supposed to rain and most of the places we want to visit have such an incredible view it is a shame to go when it is not clear.  If it does not rain I may go to Lucerne or Montreux where there is the Chateau de Chillon.  If it does rain I am thinking of going to Gruyere, the cheese capital of Switzerland!  Apparently you can see how cheese is made, and there is a chocolate factory not far from it!  Sunday I am hoping to go hiking with my friend Stephen!  I also am hoping to eventually make it to Annecy or Lyon, France, both places not far from Geneva, and Ireland!  Off to lunch!! Have a good weekend!!!