Friday began so innocently.  Waking at 6:30 by my friend's side to a graceful sunrise on the Hudson River.  Coffee.  The paper.  A loving embrace.  Arriving for the last day of Earth Summit II on time via taxi.  It would simply be a day of winding down working groups, saying our goodbyes and wrapping up the general proceedings, I thought.  Little did I know I would be facing a huge challenge as the only representative from the USA involved in the youth caucus.

At the end of the day, which proceeded without much hoopla, I was suddenly "volunteered" to co-facilitate a meeting of all the youth in attendance at the summit to evaluate the week and determine the future of the International Youth Caucus.  At that point, I realized I was in some trouble: most of the youth had been working hard all week, with little sleep, and I knew it was more of a time to party than to convene the most important planning session of the whole summit.  Se la vi.

I was paired with a nice young woman from southern Africa.  She represented the South and I the North, for the sake of balance.  We awkwardly introduced ourselves just as the meeting was starting and exchanged greetings in a whisper.   I think I muttered something like "What the hell are we going to do!"   She related.  The group of 50 youth leaders representing 30 countries sat in a circle of chairs lining the large room.  A lone bag of salt-n-vinegar potato chips sat on the back table, half eaten.