Pre-conference close

Today was the last day of the pre-conference workshops. In the morning, I attended a workshop on working with governments (see pic above). The discussion was handled by Jack Byrne from New Zealand. We, the attendees, made up a small group of people interested in deepening links with government agencies back at our home countries. One of the larger-than-life participants was Roger (in black with a flower in her hair). Roger or Rog as she is fondly called is a proud fa-fa-fine.



During the morning break, I made sure to take a pic with Jolerina, from Namibia (see pic above). Jolerina was one of the people I went to the book launch with the night before and we just really hit it off well. She told me that Filipino soap operas are very popular in certain parts of Africa and she knew some soap operas that I did not even watch back home. It was pretty surreal and heart-warming at the same time. That Africans can appreciate our TV creations is something to be truly proud of.



After lunch, while on my way to the closing plenary room, one of the translators approached me to tell me that she liked my dress. It was a really sweet moment. I asked her if she knew transpeople in Barcelona and she said that it was her first time to meet some and that she was very impressed by all of them. For the workshops, we have 5 rooms. Each room is assigned two translators who take turns in the 2-hour workshop. We do appreciate how patient they were with all of us and how much they helped us each day. I just had to take a picture with them (see above).



During the break, Liza from Colombia who I have been having mini-conversations with since the pre-conference started and I finally got a chance to have our picture taken together--something that we have always mentioned that we wanted to do but never got around to doing so until today (see picture above).



In the afternoon we had the closing plenary (see above). People were very optimistic, energetic and livened up. Everyone was happy that the pre-conference went smoothly with no incident. Everyone was helpful, respectful and did their part to follow the house rules and keep the schedule on time.



At dinner, I had a chance to take a picture with (from L to R) Carla LaGata of TGEU, Lizethe from Spain (who we all call Señora Lizethe), a new girl from Kenya who had just arrived and a sistergirl from Australia who also just came in today. Now that the pre-conference is over, I am actually looking forward to two days of the main conference which will start tomorrow in downtown Barcelona. Stay tuned for that!