Pacific Youth Festival - Papeete

The little town of Papeete woke up to over a 1000 young people from 25 countries and territories in the Pacific. These energetic lads around the Pacific met for the 1st time to celebrate the Pacific Youth Festival which was the first of it's kind.

July 17th - 22nd was the date we all meet in Papeete, Tahiti. This beautiful sleeping town was filled with excited youths who wanted to tell their friends from around the Pacific what they are doing in their country.

The festival consists of workshops, meetings and cultural events. Having 25 different countries to show their culture was just amazing. But having Papua New Guinea to add to the richness with traditional displays of the 19 provinces just shows how rich in culture Papua New Guinea stood out.

The main focus of the Festival was to draw-up the Pacific Youth Charter which I will write about next. But the festival also is a time were young people are to make connections, create a network and learn from the experiences provided by their peers in another country. There was time also for picnic and sometime for a night disco where everyone can join.

Papua New Guinea contributed alot to the festival. Chief Ombudsman, Ila Geno was a guest speaker on corruption and Dame Kidu was also another guest speaker on HIV/AIDS in the Pacific. Every young person there had to facilitate a workshop and also is required to take part in the cultural performances.

But no matter where you go.....you will always miss PNG and I missed PNG so much I could not believe it. I guess it was the lack of rice in our food that makes me want to get back to PNG as soon as possible. Tahiti is a good place to visit, but I must say it's too expensive to live there.

Iaorana!!