Gotta love the democratic process

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So, they seem to have abandoned even pretending they have wireless network set up. It looks like I´m going to have to keep putting my entries on a USB drive and transfering to one of the public-use computers here (circa 1995), which means that I probably won´t be able to upload any more pictures for a while. I wrote this entry yesterday morning but didn´t get a chance to upload it until now. Warning: it´s a longie!

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The conference has been really enjoyable so far, despite the lack of internet access. It’s difficult to find the time to write blog entries because we have tasks to complete in groups over most of our breaks. Normally I am a super multitasker when I’m actually IN meetings, but it takes all my energy to concentrate on what’s being said during the simultaneous translation so I have not been able to do other work while we are in a large group. I guess I haven’t told you about the simultaneous translation yet. That’s probably a good place to begin for today.

So, as expected, essentially everyone here except me is fluent in Spanish, even if it is not their first language. Fortunately, the working languages of the Interamericas Region are officially Spanish and English, so they are obligated to provide translation services for those that need it (i.e….. me.) Well, not just me. I say “essentially everyone” because the delegate from Belize speaks English as her first language and doesn’t speak Spanish (though she does speak Creole) so I’m not the only cause of the financial drain, but it’s close. Now I know how Québec feels. Mind you, I certainly don’t feel any sense of entitlement to translation services but BOY is it great to have them! Anytime I am working in a small group, relying on the goodness of some moderately bilingual person to keep me up to speed, I feel somewhat disconnected from the complete conversation and am less likely to contribute my own input. However when professional translation is present, I am 100% aware of all that is going on and when I speak, everyone can understand me without issue.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing simultaneous translation, but it is a glorious, glorious thing. I have no idea how they do it, but somehow they are able to listen to what’s being said and concurrently stream the equivalent in English, complete with intonation changes, expression, etc. So while everyone is speaking in rapid-fire Spanish I have a lovely voice whispering a perfect translation in my ear in real time. Now, there are a few challenges these translators face which you might not immediately realize. First of all, sentence structure in English and Spanish is not exactly equivalent. It’s not like they are simply changing each words spoken in Spanish to the same thing in English equivalent, like deciphering a code or something. They have to listen to the whole idea and then relay that using the proper English expression. Plus, they are some how able to listen, remember, and speak all at the same time. This can’t be easy. They must have an amazing memory because once when I was in a smaller group my buddy, Will the Professional Translator (LOVE him!) offered to translate for me. When people were speaking he just streamed English translation into the headset for me, but when I was speaking he would translate out loud for the whole group after I had said each sentence. At first I started out with short sentences, or broke my thoughts up into little choppy ideas so that it would be easier for him, but he had no problem following so I started to make my sentences longer, and longer. He could remember long thoughts, and even big lists of things. Amazing! Finally, the job really must be exhausting. I find it quite tiring just focusing on the voice in my ear from 8:30am-8:00pm every day—while they have to be completely on their game the whole time and speaking for hours and hours on end.

Well, sometimes it’s not QUITE simultaneous. The meetings have just started (I’m trying to type this when there are moments of breaks as people make their way up to the front for presentations), and someone just told a joke. It was funny, and I laughed… 30 seconds after everyone else. Well, that’s pretty standard and everyone is used to it by now so I don’t really care. It’s not different than how I was always the only one that ever laughed in lecture at UVic in a class of 150. (Haha, they’re showing a video of yestereday’s activities right now and they’re playing MJ as the background music. That’s all that’s on the radio here right now).

(Another random side note: there was some dead air so they asked me on the spot to do an activity or song for the group. I did the Beaver Song. Classic)

Alright, well, perhaps this will be less of a retrospective entry and more of a real-time description of what’s going on. I think that might give you a good idea of what a day at these conferences is like, anyways.

Right now we are in the midst of the process to approve the recommendations that this body, the Interamericas Youth Forum, will propose to the Interamericas Regional Conference with the hopes that they will pass them into resolutions in 2010. This is a lengthy process, one that, unfortunately, I’m only just fully getting the hang of right now. I wish I had my head around things a bit earlier because I would have submitted two recommendations which I think had more teeth than the one I seconded. Anyways, the process goes like this. Last night, we had about three hours to write out our recommendations, complete with preamble, get them seconded by another national delegation, and then submit them to the recommendations committee. They were then supposed to work into the night to consolidate them and merge any recommendations that were similar. This morning, each country that submitted a recommendation had a few minutes to explain their recommendation, then we received written copies of the recommendations. The problem for me was that we didn’t get the written copies until AFTER the presentations were made (they were all in Spanish) so I couldn’t make notes in English on what each one was and what my issues with them were. We were given a 30 minutes “break” to discuss with the countries that proposed the recommendations any concerns we had, but I had to spend the whole time getting the translations from my friend from Nicaragua, Keisey (see picture of him in the last entry, titled “this one’s for you, Kevin”). We didn’t get through them all in time (there are 24 recommendations. Ohhhh well. Anyhoo, now we are adding amendments, voting on ammendments, voting on amendments of ammendments, then voting in recommendations. I certainly don’t agree with the value of a lot of these, but that’s OK. The Interamericas Region is a lot more about the countries south of the US than it is about Canada, so if they want to recommend these things then who am I to stand in their way? It’s not that I don’t agree with the principle of them, it’s just that I don’t think this is the proper way to encourage some of these reforms. For example, one of them said something to the effect of “encourage the sharing of information through communication media.” Well, yes of course I agree that that should be done, but that’s not much of a recommendation. There’s no sense of who should do it, how it should be done, etc. Oh well. On the plus side, all this voting and discussions in between votes is giving me time to write this entry!

Which, by the way, is probably quite boring to most of you. This has turned half into a record of my trip for myself—certainly it’s not that interesting to a wider audience. Meh, too bad for you!

As I’m sure you could expect, I’m having a pretty fun time hanging out with such an international crowd. Last night we had a dance, which was pretty funny. It’s been awhile since I danced without any alcohol in my system, and I was really not used to the type of music that’s popular down here. They call it “reggae-ton,” which is basically dance music with a laid-back reggae beat. I felt like I was dancing in slow motion. I’m not good at, like, grooving side-to-side to fill the extra time between beats. Then there’s the salsa and that kind of dancing, which EVERYONE knows how to do down here. They all just glide across the floor with ease. I attempted to learn from a Columbian, but while everyone said I did really well I’m pretty sure I looked awful. I basically just started flailing my legs around in an attempt to avoid being caught flat footed. But they were all very kind. Many of them said things like “dancing is about feeling the music and having fun, not about looking pretty” (they weren’t implying I wasn’t looking pretty, by the way, they were just encouraging me to chill out =) In fact, at the end of the night the words “who says Canadians can’t dance?” were heard… It was a good time, though I’m covered with what I hope are mosquito bites right now. Good thing I brought topical anesthetic. It’s pretty funny looking around the forum this morning because many people have arms covered in some kind of bright white calamine lotion which shows up strongly against their dark skin.

Hmm…. What else can I talk about? Dinner last night was pretty awesome. The food here has generally been great, and I can’t believe how much I’m eating at every single meal. I’m going to need on a serious exercise program when I get home. Last night they served a huge Costa Rican spread. When they slopped everything on my overflowing I plate I looked at it and thought it was enough food for five people, but somehow that plate was clean a short time later… There was a tasty rice dish, some nicely seasoned refried beans, flour tortillas and corn taco chips, some kind of amazing shredded beef in tomato sauce, DELICIOUS salad/salsa made of tomatoes, onions cilantro, etc, and… probably some other stuff. For dessert there was a sort of Costa Rican rice krispie square, made of coconut and sugar instead of rice and marshmallows. Yum!

I should probably bring this to a close. I’m supposed to concurrently updating my Scouts Canada blog, but it has been sorely suffering. Even though I finally did write an update, I forgot to send it to Scouts Canada last night in the couple of minutes when I had internet access. Whoops. Anyways, I should write another entry for them right now while there is a lull in the conference. They’re just preparing for the closing ceremonies so I have a couple minutes of time (this is the end of the youth forum, but I am staying three more days for a second seminar on the Scouts of the World Award).

Hasta luego!

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