Ma's Girls

Brett Stanley once said (and I quote), "The following days are to be filled with nothing but eye opening, knowledge-filled and culturally exchanging opportunities." Well, I can tell you today that the past 48 hours have exceeded those expectations more than I (Brett, yup I quoted myself) could imagine. Highlights of the 2 first official APEC Summit days include:

The opening ceremonies of the Voices of the Future 2008 program. The agenda included several speeches, finger sandwiches and Peruvian folk dancers.



I have now been in the presence of the Peruvian President, Alan García, a total of 2 times, twice, one plus one.



Part of the amazingness that is APEC are the last minute opportunities that arise; for example, an exclusive invitation to the II APEC Business Advisory Council SME Summit. To combat the awkwardness of having 90 students cram into 4 rooms of media space, the directors of the Voices program have initiated a lottery system to select a small group of delegates to attend select meetings. Yesterday I was randomly lotteried to attend the SME Summit. Upon entering the venue (Nancy you will be happy to know) I ran into Henderson, another former Peruvian delegate that was in Dallas not far in the past. We then feasted on a 3 course Peruvian meal and later headed to the media balcony to do what media does best. We sat and listened to 4 panelists speak of the spirit of entrepreneurship, how today's market demands innovation, and the importance of export. President Alan García arrived towards the end to close the ceremonies.


In the evening we dined on aji de gallina and I was officially dubbed "educator" instead of "student". Our 90 students are divided into 21 teams (for the 21 APEC member economies) and I am now the head of Team Brunei. My responsibilities include educating...and nothing more.

The next morning (which brings me to current day) Team Brunei started at the ABAC meetings at the Los Delfines hotel (called the Dolphin hotel because of the tank of dolphins they have). We sat with 5 other teams and interviewed various ABAC officials. I was completely blown away by one specific interview with Mr. Jack Ma, founder and chief operating officer of Alibaba Group. I think we all left the meeting feeling inspired and refreshed. His optimism included, "We have to make our customers survive" (referring to SME's); "The financial crisis is not a crisis, it's a growing pain and it's opportunity" "Crisis for yesterday and opportunity for tomorrow". He really emphasized the importance of the youth generation and ending by saying, "It's our time...we are coming!"



At lunchtime Annalee, Alejandro and I were selected to attend the ABAC officials lunch and then returned for more interviews. An hour later we headed to the media center to sit in on a press conference and meet with Eurovision. And after an exhausting incredible day of being sponges we ate typical Peruvian food, drank a pisco sour, and topped it all off by the ritual everyone hangs out in Brett and Kandace's room laughing and watching ridiculous You Tube videos.

Hydrating and ready for tomorrow. Over and out. -Brett Stanley "the novelist"