Ralph and Spencer were both very fortunate to have been chosen by H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to attend The Global Youth Initiative for Disarmament and Shared Security Conference in Costa Rica. The Conference brought together youth representing the worlds religions to work together for an arms free world and a shared future. Here are some of our experiences.
Thursday, November 5th and Friday November 6th, 2009
Day 1: Depart Montreal for Costa Rica!
We were off to Costa Rica and the excitement was building. What adventures awaited us? Who would we meet? What would we learn? It all awaited us at the equator. Ralph was stuck in a meeting and ended up running late. After hoping in a taxi and arriving at the airport, he realized he had forgotten his wallet at home. After some swift taxi driving and a hefty fare, he made the departure with enough time for us to speak with his brother, Chris, a full time teacher in Jordan. After a live tour of the newly established Jordan Center, courtesy of Chris's Mac book, it was time to board the plane.
Ralph used his ingenuity on the plane and found innovative way of making new friends by exploding ceaser salad dressing not all over himself or the passenger next to him but by sending a Tsunami of sauce on a Mexican gentleman sitting directly behind him. I still have no idea how the physics of that work but something told me the gentleman had other things on his mind. After the laughter stopped Ralph smoothed things over. He gave him his salad. Ha, kidding. That being said, the food was good, and the decent was impressive. Mexico city seems to never end at night. White and yellow lights cover the landscape straight to the mountains. Even some mountains have not been able to escape this overflowing city, as the city creeps over their peaks.
Upon our arrival in Costa Rica we were treated like kings. Ricardo from the Arias Foundation greeted us, sped us past the line through customs, and chauffeured us to the hotel, it was time to end the day and get some rest.
Day 2: Exploring the Rich Coast
Costa Rica, which translates literally as "Rich Coast”, constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949. Costa Rica has consistently been among the top Latin American countries in terms of the Human Development Index. The country is ranked 5th in the world, and 1st among the Americas, in terms of the 2008 Environmental Performance Index. In 2007 the Costa Rican government announced plans for Costa Rica to become the first carbon neutral country by 2021. According to the New Economics Foundation, Costa Rica ranks first in the Happy Planet Index and is the greenest country in the world. [sources from wikipedia].
How should we spend our first day before the conference begins Spencer and I wondered at the 1st hour of Friday morning? After careful research and detailed planning in the hotel lobby, juggling between Spanish and English with the front desk clerks, we decided that the best way for us to explore this rich coast was by renting a car and driving to the Pacific Ocean. And that's how we were on our way to Jaco Beach 10 am Friday morning.
The seasons in Costa Rica are quite interesting. Winter is the green season where it usually rains every day in the evening or night and is very sunny and hot during the day. The temperatures vary between 13 and 27 deg C.
We got ourselves a Diesel Toyota Corolla, apparently all cars in Costa Rica run on Diesel. The drive was magical. Never had I expected to see such beautiful, vibrant, lush and diverse exposition of mother nature. Spencer practiced his Spanish by asking Costa Ricans on the side of the roads how to get to “Plaja Jaco”, or “Placo Jaco”, or “placa Cajo”. To his surprise people could not always interpret this mysterious lingo. To our luck there was no high way to take us from San Jose to Jaco Beach, so we had to drive through the mountains and the narrow roads through farm villages and numerous waterfalls. Up to the top of a misty mountain then again down the valley, then again up to the top of another. We were awe stuck and the only 3 words coming out were WOOW, AMAZING and I’M HUNGRY. So we stopped many many times to the side of the road to buy fresh tropical fruits and ate along the way, or should I say Spencer ate along the way while I was rally driving this stick shift Toyota across the Costa Rican Mountains.
Although the ride to the beach was a phenomenal adventure, our final destination was even better. Jaco beach is the most popular surf town in Costa Rica. Since San Jose is quite far from the beach, time had only allowed us to stay at the beach for 1 hour. Spencer went and got his Surf Board! And there he goes to ride the waves! As for me I enjoyed swimming in the crystal clear ocean watching surfers riding the waves. I even got my first surfing lesson that day!
Day 3: Good morning Mr. President
The ARMS DOWN Conference opened with an address from the President of Costa Rica, Mr. Arias. A former Nobel Peace Laureate, and one of the creators of Disarmament for Development, President Arias’s words were touching as he told a story of Budha and his experience of a world of suffering and poverty outside of his palace. President Arias related Budha’s experience to our responsibility to take action to improve our world. Later we spoke with his secretary, and arranged a short meeting with President Arias before his motorcade’s departure. During our meeting, President Arias was encouraging and interested in what we shared with him regarding The Art of Living and the opportunities for a partnership in his country to work on social projects. He advised us to set up a meeting with the Director of his Foundation to discuss the details. The president complimented us many times on how much he loved Montreal, in particular its cuisine. We are definitely men cut from the same cloth! After a quick presidential photo op we were back in the conference, focusing on the topic of the day, Nuclear weapons. What is their status in the world? What are the reprocusions of their use? Most importantly, what can we do? As we broke into our afternoon sessions, ready to learn more, my body let me know that there was a less important but much more urgent priority. The water in Costa Rica was not as friendly as I had hoped.
Day 4: Meet the Twin Bulls and explore Costa Rican Coffee
Day 4 was the 2nd day of the conference. We learnt about the 2nd Goal which is to “Stop the proliferation and misuse of conventional weapons”. I was fighting a cold that morning and did not make the entire morning session. However all the speakers were excellent in illustrating the realities that the world faces with the presence of conventional weapons all around us.
Lunch was held at the beautiful residence of Daniela Torre which is in the middle of coffee plantation fields. Her family grows their own coffee beans and uses that property as a way to attract crowds and inform them about Costa Rica’s Coffea making tradition. Fresh Strawberry juice and a pair of Bulls were waiting for us as we arrived. Apparently Bulls were the first mode of transportation in Costa Rica.
During the afternoon sessions were learnt about Lobbying and Advocacy and brainstormed with our respective teams (North America for myself and Europe for Spence
Day 5: Last Day!Suddenly the last day of the conference was upon us. The conference session opened with summaries of our plenary sessions, that detailed various strategies for making impactfull change in society. Ralph and I prepared a summary of our groups advocacy session. I told my chocolate bunny joke. You could hear a pin drop. I’m lucky the guy with the cane took the day off. Luckily the presentation went very well with great participation and interest from the audience.
The presentations for our Regional Groups Action Plans were next. The detail and professionalism of the groups was very impressive. Ralph took North American, and I’ll be talking Europe. It was a pleasure to address the entire conference especially the time I took to speak about faith.
The evening finished with a surprise trip to the National Center for Biodiversity. It was pretty late so they might have just taken us to someone’s back yard for all we know. All jokes aside it was gorgeous. Take a look at this swiss cheese plant. I always though Cheese came from milk. Who knew?
The Costa Rican Minister of Peace wrapped up the conference with a heartfelt story from his child hood and his dreams that the children of the future be as fortunate as he was. Then it was party time! We were treated to a traditional Costa Rican dance and music, followed by a performance from a Youth Symphony Orchestra. The finaly was an incredible medley of Michael Jackson hits, absolutely unreal. As the hour approached 10pm and Ralph and my stomachs had nearly digested themselves it was time for a sumptuous dinner, followed by the premier of the disarmament campaign video. And if you can believe it even more entertainment. The night ended early for some and did not end for others, regardless a night to remember for all.
Day 6 Back to Montreal
The sounds of “Where is Spencer?” echoed in the hotel lobby at 6am in the morning as the airport shuttle was getting ready to leave. Spencer decided to take a nap early in the morning but his body failed him and he slept in. Luckily he made the bus shuttle and we were all on our way back to Montreal.
We spent the last few hours in Costa Rica and Mexico with the company of two great individuals who attended the conference: Lawrence from Singapore and Areti from New Zeeland. We discussed everything from religion to human values to politics, sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to board. We were surprised by the fact that the flight clerk was looking for us and came to invite us to board the aircraft. We landed in Mexico City, again amazing view as the plane delicately lands in between the thousands of buildings.
Since the 4 of us had plenty of waiting time in Mexico City Airport, we decided to venture out and visit the area. So we did. With our hand luggage we got out of the airport and landed right into the middle of the city. We found a nice restaurant and decided to have brunch there. No one knew we were from out of town, especially that we had our luggage with us, were talking to the waiters and waitresses in broken Spanish and took photos with the owner of the restaurant who kindly prepared for Spencer and I a vegetarian plate, very rare in Mexico. Our last moments in Mexico City ended up sitting on the sidewalk of a café and talking about life.
The flight back to Montreal was smooth and quick. We watched a movie and talked about the conference and its key learnings. We got back to Montreal at 7:30pm, one hour and a half after the YES!+ course had started. Antoine was teaching and Spencer joined him the next day.
