The International Conference is in progress...
Andrew & Ros travelled on the Overland train, Alison chose to fly.
Whilst staying in different places we have met pretty well each day, either to conference or to party.
Friday we met with Alison's RC Beenleigh friends for an End Polio walk from Federation Square to the Rotary Peace Park next to the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. about 500 participated, and despite Melbourne's changeable weather, it was dry.
Saturday at the Melbourne Conference & Exhibition Centre (MCEC or "Jeff's Shed") saw the opening of the House of Friendship. Huge number of stalls, complete with one about bees!
Skipped everything else to see Richmond lose at the MCG, we constituted 0.01% of the crowd (with only 1 of us cheering for that mob from SA).
Sunday at Rod Laver Arena (Rod's Shed) for the opening of the Conference was pretty special, (speakers included Jennifer Jones, Hugh Evans of Global Citizen and performance from "The Tenors") then an easy amble back to the city. By the time we decided to find a pub for tea it was persistently precipitating.
Monday, a general session again at Rod's court where we had speakers on Peace (Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist, social worker and women’s rights advocate), children's literacy, particularly the Guatemala Literacy Project that has been running for 25 yrs. This was supported by international musician Gaby Moreno, a Guatemalan singer-songwriter, producer, film composer and guitarist.
The afternoon was free game to attend the various sessions.
Grand opening in Rod's shed
Alison with RC Beenleigh friends sharing umbrellas
Ros advocating Rotaract
Peace Poles - we learnt a lot about the why and how
Alison was very excited...