Conference in Lima

I enjoyed the conference on child labour on Tuesday, if enjoy is the right word. It's hard to believe that I'm here in Peru and going to a conference on such a topic. Also sad that such things are necessary in the 21st century. But unfortunately it is so.

Peruvian conferences are much the same as ones back home. I was able to follow most of the speakers, especially the ones who used powerpoint, but most of the rest were comprehensible. The most diffiult was the government minister, who spoke last. She spoke well but incredibly fast, as if she wanted to get it all out before she forgot what she had to say. She got a round of applause for her efforts as did they all.

They didn't take any questions fromn the floor which I found a bit strange. Not that I was about to make a contribution, but I think it would have added something with some audience participation.

It took place in El Colegio de Abagados de Lima, which is basically a law school where th teach all their lawyers to be good lawyers and not screw the public etc. Its where my friend Fernando trained to be a lawyer, and he turned out a fine wee lawyer; least I think so. It was in a theatre with all mod cons. The only problem was the number of phones going off. One every 5 minutes. Some people just went ahead and took theircalls, including Pedro who was sitting beside me and told me one of his calls was from his girlfriend.

It was a great experience and I'm really pleased to have had the opportunity to attend and see how much they are doing here to change things. Also glad to have done a wee bit myself. Every little helps. Even if its just to raise awareness through my blog here and on facebook.

There's plenty of information in my last blog, including short youtube videos of kids in peru and elsewhere going about there work. Please take a look.

I don't have time to edit this so excuse any mistakes.Of which there may be one or two.