KC’s Deputy Headboy Attends UN Conference in Geneva
Brandon Allwood
September 12th, 2006. Amidst a sunset in the backdrop, and a windy atmosphere, I boarded a British Airways flight destined for London's Gatwick International
Airport. Proudly attired in my white shirt, its brilliance amplified by the stately Kingston College tie, I sat in my business class seat--The KC tie got my chaperone and me those upgrades--and waited for the fasten seatbelt signs to come on.
The Boeing 797 taxied down the tarmac, and soon reached the 38,000 ft cruising altitude. As I took a last look at my homeland, my mind went ahead, and I started preparing myself for the monumental task I had ahead, representing the Children of Jamaica at a United Nations conference. The Day of General Discussion on Child Rights was to be held in Geneva, Switzerland.
Now, prior to my 8 Gibson year at KC, I thought Geneva was a brand. Not an actual place. When I learnt that it was an actual place, situated right in the heart of
Europe, in exquisite Switzerland. I promised myself that I would go there one day.
We landed at London's Gatwick airport--a familiar place (although I'd never been there before)--and waited 7 hours for our Geneva transfer. Excitement was on the forefront of my mind. Kind people, Swiss Alps: all the pretty things I'd seen in the hotel's brochure.
Exhausted from the mind-boggling time difference, my chaperone and I jumped in a cab headed for the Hotel Hermitage. When we came up to the hotel, the cab driver shouted the fare. "Cinquante-neuf, Cinqunate-nuef." I studied French up until fourth form and "Cinquante-neuf" translated to 59. He couldn't possibly be talking about the fare. My chaperone and I only had about 30 Swiss Francs--if that much—between us. There was no place at the arrival concourse to purchase Swiss currency. Luckily, we saw a sign in the taxi that told us that the cabbie was part of a tourist organization. Phew! So we did the conversions and gave the man the US equivalent.
"NO! 'ZIS IS GENEVÈ! NO U.S., NO EURO! SWISS FRANC ONLY." The cabby then proceeded to 'trace' us in the streets of Switzerland. Having learnt my fair share of
French from Mme. Hall, and Mme Douglas, I could understand bits and pieces of what he was saying, and it wasn't at all nice. After about two minutes of it, I decided that we had had enough, went to the back of the car, took out our luggage, thanked the man, and proceeded into our hotel. My chaperone changed some US dollars, and paid the taxi.
Our trip entailed us changing hotels every night during our one week stay, struggling to accommodate ourselves to the time change, the food, the rude people, and the transport system.
My most memorable moment during the preparatory forums was when one of the facilitators asked me if I had made a mistake on the registration form, as I had
indicated that I was still in high school, but my schools' name was Kingston College. Later on that day, when I began to speak and make my contributions, the
lady came back to me and asked if I was sure that KC was a high school. After explaining to her, thrice, that it was and how our education system worked, she
was amazed, and said she wanted the address as she was seriously considering sending her daughter there. SAME WAY SO!
The conference turned out to be one of the best that the UN Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child had seen in some time. (NB.14 out of the
23 points that were presented at the conference were mine; of course, I'm not tooting my own horn) On the day of our departure, nothing but more cass cass. Our flight from Geneva to Gatwick was cancelled, and we had no British visas, and our per diem was
completely exhausted. Our eventual route was from Geneva to Heathrow, and then to Gatwick by the London Express, and from there to Kingston. We eventually
made the flight, almost literally holding the aircraft door as they were closing it.
Nine hours and 43 minutes, a smooth flight, three meals, two movies, and a few spats of turbulence later, we landed at the Norman Manley International Airport.
Glad to be home.
