Amazingly, I did still get to a lot of conference sessions. As I'd said earlier, I developed bronchitis during my holiday, so I was sick in bed for one day of conference, but I still got to see a lot of great sessions on a plethora of different issues.
With my passion for the developing world, especially reproductive health in those countries, I sought out sessions that were specifically to do with caring for women where resources are scant; The Millennium Development Goals; and how to deal with traditional practices which are harmful to reproductive health (ie. female genital mutilation, early marriage & myths about HIV & AIDS).
It was an amazing conference. I saw people from all over Africa, as well as the Middle East, Asia, India, South America, as well as the obvious countries like the UK, US and Canada. Apparently over 8000 delegates were registered, and the Cape Town International Convention Centre was a superb venue from which to host such a massive congress.
Obviously in the realm of reproductive health, we touch on some pretty sensitive issues. And with people from areas of the world where certain topics would never be discussed (even to the point of death or at least jail if they do so), it was interesting to see the conversations that came out of such sessions. I admit that sometimes in our developed world we can look at issues through our own little lense of what happens in our developed nation, without realising that this is a life and death issue in the developing world. It was fascinating to see the differences between western and eastern viewpoints on certain topics!
One of the major perks of the conference was the fact they had free wi-fi for all the conference delegates - which meant I could use Skype to call home whenever I had a break. For free!
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