Perhaps the most inspiring participant was the girl from Tuvalu. Tuvalu completely fascinates me. The country is made up of four reef islands and five atolls and has a total land coverage of 10 sq miles. It is the fourth smallest country in the world (before the Vatican City, Monaco, and Nauru) and fewer than 12,000 people, the third smallest population of any country in the world (before the Vatican city and Nauru). In addition to being really really small, Tuvalu has very low elevation. The highest point is 16 feet, making it extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels. It is for this reason that I first learned about Tuvalu in 2007 while I was working as an intern at the UN in New York.
I was covering the Commission on Sustainable Development and for two weeks the US and China had been bickering over carbon emissions and the meetings had come to a complete standstill. On the last day delegates from the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) were given the opportunity to speak. Most of the delegates gave long speeches detailing the various threats to their islands and asked for help in a way that suggested that they knew that they would not receive any. Then the delegate from Tuvalu stood up. Now keep in mind that the people from Tuvalu are traditionally worriers. They are very large and they are very intimidating. It is no surprise therefore that most armies in the world (including the United States) consider their soldiers with Pacific Island heritage the most valuable and the most courageous. So this huge guy from Tuvulu stands up and very slowly walks to the front of the room. He takes his time to make sure everyone is paying attention to him. Once he is situated he looks out at the room and says in a very calm very reserved manner: "I have just one question. Where are you planning to move my countrymen when you drown my country?" And he turned and walked off the stage. This guy was a total rock star! And ever since then I have been totally rooting for Tuvalu!
As a complete aside, I think it is a really interesting twist of fate that the only reason Tuvalu can afford a UN delegation is because they were able to lease their area code (900) and sell their internet domain name (.tv) for $50 million.
So I was really curious to hear what the government of Tuvalu was doing to help protect their own environment. I was not disappointed. One of the girls who was my age talked about the times when she was a child when she would watch elders from her village eat turtles straight from the shell. She told how at a young age she made a promise to herself that she would protect the sea turtles no matter what it took. After attending University in New Zealand she returned to Tuvalu and now works with the government to develop community outreach programs to teach villagers about the ecological value of sea turtles and the importance of protecting the marine environment. She has been extremely instrumental in establishing several community-based marine protected areas throughout Tuvalu and she is committed to continue her work until turtles are no longer consumed in her country. This girl's passion was completely contagious and she captivated the attention of everyone in the room when she told her story - in much the same way that the Tuvalu delegate had in New York.
Anyhow after a week of learning about everyone's experiences and making more poster boards than I ever thought possible (the class was very hands on), it was time to explore Fiji! There are only two flights per week from Fiji to Samoa and so I was "forced" to stay in Fiji through Tuesday. Needless to say very little arm twisting was required. My friend from American Samoa flew out and we drove down the coral coast from Suva to Nandi before hopping aboard a boat for a remote island in the Yasawas. But I'm going to hold off on stories until I get pictures uploaded....
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