A Day at the Summit

Gallery • 18 Photos

Over 1,000 Youth Delegates, 30 Nobel Peace Prize Winners, 11 students from Rhinebeck, and 4 hectic days of peace-building and laureate-spotting, sight-seeing and taco-eating: this was the 17th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Mérida, Mexico.

Last month I traveled to Mexico with the Rhinebeck delegation. Our days at the conference exploded with activity. We were moving, learning, participating from dawn to dusk. 

At the end of each long day, I intended to write a journal entry – to package all the electric excitement of the Summit into a neat set of descriptions. But I was tired. And, as Poet Laureate John Glasworthy once said, “dreaming is the poetry of Life, and we must be forgiven if we indulge in it a little.” In other words, I forgive me: I fell asleep and never wrote a single journal entry until now.

This is my best reconstruction of a day at the Summit:

7 AM: Wake up as a bed-headed teenager. Leave the hotel room as a put-together businesswoman.

In case you’re wondering, the Rhinebeck delegation’s “look” landed somewhere between a crew of mature trend-setters and a troupe of juvenile realtors. I think we managed to pull it off, but you can be the judge of that – look to the photo gallery above for a glimpse of our bold fashion statements.

7:30 AM: Head to the hotel lobby for breakfast with the summit squad. 

Breakfast is a cultural fusion, including waffles with syrup and tortilla chips with bean dip. 

8:15 AM: Stagger to the conference center in the brutal heat. 

The conference center is only five minutes from the hotel, but the walk feels much longer; it’s already 85 degrees outside!

8:20 AM: Discover that pens can be weapons.

At the entrance of the conference center, the detector finds a suspicious pen in Jonah’s bag. Security confiscates it, leaving him pen-less and confused. In the following days, several other Rhinebeck delegates fell victim to this puzzling pen-napping.

8:30 AM: Borrow translator devices.

Throughout the day, we listen to leaders and laureates from around the globe speak in their native languages. Human translators repeat the speeches in English, while we tune in on translator devices. 

9:00 AM: Hear from a Panel of Nobel Laureates.

The topic of the plenary session today is Global Demographics, People on the Move. Laureate Rigoberta Menchu, a human rights activist, discusses the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, emphasizing the impact of U.S. policy on Mexican families.

1:30 PM: Scramble for lunch. 

Everyone rushes to the lunch room as the line extends out the door. At lunch chaperone Ms. Green and I puzzle over the dessert option. We conjecture that it could be pieces of coconut frozen in a substance that tastes like caramel. 

I’ve since googled this mysterious dessert, but it appears to have eluded the internet. If you have any information about the snack in question, please contact me immediately, as I am still confused and curious.

3:30 PM: Bear witness to Shirin Ebadi’s mental and physical agility.

Delegate extrordinaire Helen Fleming and I rush to a workshop led by Iranian political activist and Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi. We arrive only a couple minutes after the doors open, but the room is already full. We sit on the floor and listen to Ebadi tell her story. 

She became the first female president of the Tehran city court, only to be demoted to a secretarial position during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. But in 1992, after years of struggle, she reclaimed her law license and dedicated her efforts to defending dissidents who protested the Iranian government. Ebadi became one of the most successful lawyers in Iran.

To explain her progression from failure to success, she stands up and asks to borrow someone’s backpack. She places the backpack on the floor in front of her, steps back, then hops over the it with impressive agility. She took one step back and two steps forward.

5:30 PM: Prepare for an evening of blister-less bliss.

We head back to the hotel for a brief break, and I swap painful high heels for comfortable sneakers.

6:30 PM: Meet up and walk to the Plaza Grande in the center of Mérida.

As we walk, we pass vibrantly-colored, immaculate adobe buildings and faded, dilapidated storefronts.

7:00 PM: Explore the Crafts Bazaar Garcia Rejon.

The bazaar is an loose array of vendor stands, selling everything from crocheted tank tops to bee pollen. Mr. Moor buys a bag of pollen to eat and acts like this is a completely normal thing to do. He explains that bee pollen is, in fact, renowned for its healing properties and that some of the best bee pollen is produced in Mexico. 

8:00 PM: Eat at La Chaya Maya, a famous traditional Mayan restaurant in Mérida.

I order poc chuc for the third time. On the first night of the trip John, the group’s champion Spanish speaker, informed me that “poc chuc” was some kind of pork. I was intrigued. Over the next few days, I embarked on an epic quest to try poc chuc at as many different restaurants as possible. Honestly, I was never disappointed. I give poc chuc five stars.

9:30 PM: Stumble across a concert on our way back to the hotel.

Loud, exuberant music fills the air as we near the center of town. For a few minutes we hang on the fringes of a crowd who has gathered to listen to the free concert. 

10:00 PM: Gather in Helen and Elise’s room.

The Spanish version of The Chronicles Narnia plays in the background as we chat about the day.

11:00 PM: Return to my room and watch Brooklyn 99.

To my dismay, I discover that The Office, a staple in my media diet, is not available on Netflix in Mexico. I settle for Brooklyn 99, a show that isn’t available in the U.S.

In retrospect, perhaps I should have written this diary instead of perusing Netflix. Still, I’m glad that I had this opportunity to reflect now – to reconstruct this diary a month later.

Last night I had another opportunity to reflect. At a meeting with the delegation, we discussed our plan to present to the Rhinebeck community what we learned at the Summit. In the coming months, we hope to share more than just one delegate’s journal of one day. We hope to share the message of peace.