Volunteer Supervisors en masse
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.
Today was our second day of training for the XVI International AIDS Conference being hosted here in Toronto. If you haven’t yet heard, I’ll be working as a volunteer, supervising a team of workers. There are about 1900 volunteers involved in this conference. Mine is a team of 17. The total number of delegates is expected to reach 25,500 people – making it the largest conference ever on this very important subject.
This morning, we were escorted through the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and shown the various areas (the speakers’ area, the media centre, the various seminar rooms and auditoria, the lounge for people living with HIV/AIDS, etc. It was very exciting, although I still find it hard to believe that it is actually going to happen.
I’ve met some really very cool people here – the organizers from Switzerland and Germany (apparently Canada doesn’t have a group capable of organizing a conference of this scale) as well as the other volunteer supervisors. These organizers have shown incredible patience and endurance, plainly working very long hours and putting up with some very stupid/angry people (who make me embarrassed that they’re Canadian). But so far the Europeans have maintained their sense of humour. But they do look very tired.
No comments:
Post a Comment