More from Updates Judy

Day Seven

Friday....where has the time gone?
 
This cold has interfered with what I had planned to do here in New York but I am still doing some exciting things.
 
Today started, as always,with chapel. There was no briefing today because the second floor space has been turned into a market. Woman from many countries have brought hand made items from their homeland to sell. There is everything from area rugs to earrings. This year I managed not to but anything. Pakistan has its usual wonderful dresses, pashminas and clergy stoles. There were hand sewn dolls and books for children table runners, lots of varieties of jewelery etc.
At 9:30 I returned to my room to arrange it for a meeting and we held an advocacy meeting here working on our view of the outcome document and any changes that we would like to see. One person was nodding off during the meeting showing how exhausted people are after the first week. My roommate actually returned during the meeting and went soundly to sleep on her bed for the rest  of the meeting. We did not get to the end of the document but we did make progress.
Lunch and a nap. Later I held some discussions about the document and at 4:15 I walked up to a pub to meet the SIA President  Cheri Fleming.
At 6:30 the North America /Europe Caucus met and that was kind of exciting.We were reviewing the document and a ":discussion" broke out I think on the inclusion of  "prostitution" vs sex trade. I stood up and said that if we are unable to reach consensus at our level then how do we expect the Commission to reach consensus. There was a lot of emotion in the room as several of the attendees are survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse. Canada was slammed regarding the disappearing aboriginal women especially in BC.
 
During the caucus I also spoke about the mission visit with Canada and with the US mission.
The meeting went well beyond the allotted time but some agreement was reached and we are circulating our recommendations.
 
At the meeting we also heard that the Muslim countries and some of the African countries have issued and ultimatum of sorts which would remove previously agreed upon language but we urged our negotiators to continue on with our support to work towards a progressive document.
The meeting ended after 8 so Alice and I returned to our room and ate our left overs.
So endeth the first week.
Blessings Judy

Day Eight

Wonderful....none of us needed to set an alarm, I forgot to mention that Caitlin moved into our room yesterday so now we are 3. She is the youngster at 29 while Alice and I are the old fogies.
 
However I went to bed at 11:15 Fri night so I was awake at 8 anyway. Today is take it easy day and my only "job" is to try to put our suggestions into the document. Well, I discovered that I am not as good at computers as I thought because I could not figure out how to do track changes. After two hours of trying and then a bite to eat I gave up around noon and went to sleep

After a blessed 2 hour sleep I showered etc because our honourary Canadian (from Long Island ) is coming and we are all going out for dinner when Ross, her husband, arrived. Joan had a 15 minute nap and we visited. Ross had been running and arrived about 6pm and we headed to the "Mint" and wonderful Indian food restaurant where we ate Lamb, Chicken, nan bread. rice, some kind of vegetables and yogurt with Tiramisu and cheese cake for dessert. Great food and great company makes for a wonderful evening. By the time we got back it was after 10pm, so we were not long getting ready for bed. A relatively quiet day in New York City.

Blessings Judy  

Day Nine
 
The three of us had breakfast together this morning and then the other two headed out to church and I returned to the room to work on the response to the outcome document with which I have been having great difficulty. I worked until nearly 1:00 and then went to bed for a quick nap. Alice called at 2 and we agreed to meet at the Cathedral of St John the Divine at 3 pm,  The cathedral is one of the largest buildings in the city meaning that it has a vast amount of open space in the church itself. Early in March they opened an exhibit of 2 sculptures called the phoenix. The work was designed and implemented by a Xu Bing in China as a work to join 2 new large buildings there. He made the sculptures from materials discarded when the buildings were being built. They are 2 gigantic birds which are suspended above the nave of the Cathedral. I got some good pictures but I am not sure how to attach them.

We taxied back and I prepared for the meeting of the "core group" of Soroptimist International. In the meeting we discussed process going forth into the second week as well as started the groundwork for planning CSW59 next march. It was a productive meeting with lots of good ideas flowing.

Alice went to the deli and got us some food and we sat and ate together. I have gotten to know her a lot better this year. She is a wonderful role model.

I tried to work on the outcome document some more but only made a small amount of progress.
 
Tomorrow the Anglicans are doing chapel so I'd better be on time. Tomorrow marks the beginning of our second week. It will be somewhat less frantic but with more pressure on lobbying and negotiating.
Wish us luck... not really luck but think of us.

Blessings Judy