So I've just found out yesterday for sure that I am, indeed, going to Singapore for the Youth Forum. I found this out when I was forwarded an Agenda for the meetings in which I am scheduled to facilitate a workshop with the Youth representatives, and to take notes (I think? It said "rapporteur") during another one. Apparently this had all been discussed at a meeting a few days earlier, and I was just late to find out. Oops. It's been QUITE a long time since I've facilitated anything, I guess the last thing would be a Pro Tem meeting, and this is with people from a completely different cultural background, so it will be fun to say the least. I am also going to have the opportunity to meet with the IPPF member association in Malaysia (I forget what it's called, but it's basically just a sexual health/rights clinic and education place I think similar to Planned Parenthood) and present my work to their youth volunteers and facilitate a workshop with them to get their feedback on it so I'll have some "practice," but the whole point is that they will feel like they have some ownership of the document, that it is their needs being addressed, and I can't imagine the things that I've missed as someone from outside their culture.  So basically it's going to be a lot like "I am CLEARLY foreign, so please help me make this your document by telling me your challenges, needs, and desires."

I am really interested to hear what they say. I found out today how conservative Malaysia is. Apparently they censor all of the sex scenes and kiss scenes out of movies that play in the theatres. They also censor all the words that even sound like sexual words. Like "Asset" because it sounds like "Ass."  It doesn't sound like they censor any sort of violence or anything, so it's a hell of a country to try to be promoting sex education in! But it is also not as black and white as that. I was reading documents that were saying that a lot of sex education with member associations and youth happened through partnerships with churches. So maybe through speaking with these volunteers ( I don't really like calling them youth because I am also considered youth, so they are very much my peers?) I can understand the situation a bit better. 

U got it, u got it bad, when you're on the phone, hang up and you call right back. U got it, U got it bad when you miss a day without your friend and your whole life's off traaaccckkkk

Sorry. Usher moment. I've been listening to this song on repeat for like an hour. And really, can you blame me?

I am also going to be attending the Regional Council meeting which is very interesting for me because there are only 6 regional offices for Planned Parenthood, and this is the council for this region, so it's pretty high up in the organization. I mean, if I said this to anyone I worked with they would laugh at me and be like "it's actually very boring," but, borrowing Ilana's words, it makes me feel like a real person!

A short note: I won't be calling as much until I get my internet set up. Turns out I can't call everyone like I did when I was at home even though it is super cheap for calling the US. OOPS. So, please feel free to call me at reasonable, or at least close to reasonable, hours of the day, because I won't be calling you for a little bit but I would still like to hear your voices.

Love love love love

Clara