Mexico city, my second International AIDS conference to attend but I would surely say with a total different flavor. Being part of the OIYP HIV/AIDS program in Mexico is giving me the opportunity to approach the conference as part of a team made of 15 action partners representing many different countries, backgrounds and languages. I was excited about being here in Mexico with such team and now I am even more excited as days pass by. I have been – and still – learning about different countries and fields of work and also what I really love is that I am getting to learn more and more Spanish everyday.
After yesterday’s trip to the pyramids and trying so many Mexican food, today, Wed. the 30th of July, We started our real preparations for the conference. We started today 
around 9 am with a simple game to get to know each other as action partners and also to get to know other Oxfam staff members and volunteers. Amy who was with us from the very beginning, even months before we are here now, started with the introductions and all the group started discussing our expectations from the conference then we moved to discussing different communication strategies that we are going to use during the conference. We discussed ways of communicating between ourselves and also communicating what’s happening here to everyone especially other action partners from all over the globe.
After a short break with some sunny weather in the open outside the hotel we moved right away to putting some ground rules for us during our pre-conference meetings and during the conference itself. After which Allan started facilitating a session about sharing experiences between action partners who are attending and also Oxfam staff. We did some interviews during which I was interviewing and being interviewed by Jarita. During those interviews it quite interesting not just knowing what we are working and what motivates us but also some of our personal experiences, feelings we might have gone through in our work and what we are really passionate about. After finished our interviews we started reporting back after the whole group came together. Allan leaded the discussion into a really fruitful and inspiring one to me personally It was really inspiring to me those discussions and it went beyond just sharing experiences to thinking what we should really tackle in our communities and how we can possibly do so.
After that we went to have lunch in a place called “suborns” – if I am spelling it right – t
o experience more of the spicy Mexican food and more of the Spanish menus that we get lost in every time till one of our Spanish speaking guarding angels helps us. I ordered the special dish of the day because the menu said it’s special but I wasn’t really even able to pronounce it, though it was actually really delicious and again.. spicy!
After lunch Kate introduced us to the three Oxfam’s campaigns which were “Universal access, Female condoms and Report cards”. We discussed each one in details regarding issues related to each one, our needs and demands. Then we discussed what Oxfam at large will be doing in the conference and how we – as action partners – can actively participate. After which Allan introduced us briefly what Oxfam is actually and what are the strategic plans that Oxfam is targeting, and from this point we moved to another fruitful discussion about the campaigns and how we can relate ourselves, our work and our communities to it. We discussed so many issues that I might not recall all of it now but I can still feel the buzz I had in my head because of how wonderful those discussions were that it really tickles your mind. Some of the topics we discussed were female condoms, microbicides, diversities and how to manage to work with them but also how to make use of them. We were also discussing how we all
should believe in what we are doing and always keep our aim in front of us and never really forget about our work and turn into corporate people doing some development “business”. Generally, If I wanted to put a name to the discussions that Allan facilitated I would say, it was “a call to think outside the box”!
Finally, again with our wonderful Amy, we discussed things that we need for our booth and different ideas of what we can do there. We had a schedule of who is going to wake everyone up and thank god my day was already today.. cause for some reason I am always late.
What a long day! I was really tired, so damn tired! But like everyone else, I didn’t actually stop thinking of how to make the best of what we have. Because by the end of this day, I was starting to feel that we are doing this for ourselves and for what we stand for and believe in. I was telling myself, yes we can makes things happen and hopefully we will!
Oh, almost forgot… We did go out after that! We had another great dinner, we met Gail (a 2004 Action Partner and M&M) and a couple of us sat together and had a nice relaxing conversation. And just for the record, whenever you hear that mexico is evil and dangerous and don’t walk alone in the street… It’s just a lie!
-- Ramy
around 9 am with a simple game to get to know each other as action partners and also to get to know other Oxfam staff members and volunteers. Amy who was with us from the very beginning, even months before we are here now, started with the introductions and all the group started discussing our expectations from the conference then we moved to discussing different communication strategies that we are going to use during the conference. We discussed ways of communicating between ourselves and also communicating what’s happening here to everyone especially other action partners from all over the globe.After a short break with some sunny weather in the open outside the hotel we moved right away to putting some ground rules for us during our pre-conference meetings and during the conference itself. After which Allan started facilitating a session about sharing experiences between action partners who are attending and also Oxfam staff. We did some interviews during which I was interviewing and being interviewed by Jarita. During those interviews it quite interesting not just knowing what we are working and what motivates us but also some of our personal experiences, feelings we might have gone through in our work and what we are really passionate about. After finished our interviews we started reporting back after the whole group came together. Allan leaded the discussion into a really fruitful and inspiring one to me personally It was really inspiring to me those discussions and it went beyond just sharing experiences to thinking what we should really tackle in our communities and how we can possibly do so.
After that we went to have lunch in a place called “suborns” – if I am spelling it right – t
o experience more of the spicy Mexican food and more of the Spanish menus that we get lost in every time till one of our Spanish speaking guarding angels helps us. I ordered the special dish of the day because the menu said it’s special but I wasn’t really even able to pronounce it, though it was actually really delicious and again.. spicy!After lunch Kate introduced us to the three Oxfam’s campaigns which were “Universal access, Female condoms and Report cards”. We discussed each one in details regarding issues related to each one, our needs and demands. Then we discussed what Oxfam at large will be doing in the conference and how we – as action partners – can actively participate. After which Allan introduced us briefly what Oxfam is actually and what are the strategic plans that Oxfam is targeting, and from this point we moved to another fruitful discussion about the campaigns and how we can relate ourselves, our work and our communities to it. We discussed so many issues that I might not recall all of it now but I can still feel the buzz I had in my head because of how wonderful those discussions were that it really tickles your mind. Some of the topics we discussed were female condoms, microbicides, diversities and how to manage to work with them but also how to make use of them. We were also discussing how we all
should believe in what we are doing and always keep our aim in front of us and never really forget about our work and turn into corporate people doing some development “business”. Generally, If I wanted to put a name to the discussions that Allan facilitated I would say, it was “a call to think outside the box”!Finally, again with our wonderful Amy, we discussed things that we need for our booth and different ideas of what we can do there. We had a schedule of who is going to wake everyone up and thank god my day was already today.. cause for some reason I am always late.
What a long day! I was really tired, so damn tired! But like everyone else, I didn’t actually stop thinking of how to make the best of what we have. Because by the end of this day, I was starting to feel that we are doing this for ourselves and for what we stand for and believe in. I was telling myself, yes we can makes things happen and hopefully we will!
Oh, almost forgot… We did go out after that! We had another great dinner, we met Gail (a 2004 Action Partner and M&M) and a couple of us sat together and had a nice relaxing conversation. And just for the record, whenever you hear that mexico is evil and dangerous and don’t walk alone in the street… It’s just a lie!
-- Ramy
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