Foi um fim de semana fantastica!

Foi um fim de semana que eu vou lembrar sempre.

Foi um fim de semana para todos... amigos juntos.

Foi um fim de semana muito especial pra mim.

On Saturday morning I wasn’t sure quite what to expect. Would they show up? Would they like the conference? Would it have as much impact on them as my first conference did for me so many years ago?

Our chair, Jeanne, arrived from South Africa on Wednesday night and we spent all day Thursday and Friday preparing. We had some challenges. The t-shirts were done wrong. The OC was a little bit lost with what they needed to do. We were running all over Maputo getting last minute things.



When we arrived at the hotel on Saturday morning there were already a group of members there waiting for us with big smiles on their faces. By the time we were ready to start, almost everyone had arrived (a big achievement for Mozambicans!) The LCs had prepared their roll calls. They were there, they were excited and they were ready.



The members of the LC had only met each other once or twice and the new members of the two LCs had never met before. During the opening ceremony we had ISCTEM on one side and UEM on the other. By the end of the morning, they were talking and laughing as if they had known each other for years.



They participated a lot in the sessions and asked a lot of good questions. They wanted to understand and to know more. While the new members were getting some training, the EBs went off with Daudo to discuss Gen 2010, a new initiative from AIESEC International. Francisco, the LCP, came back so excited! “We are Gen 2010” he said “we have so much to do!” Then in the afternoon Daudo took them to sit around the pool and just share their experiences as leaders so far and how they were feeling. I asked some of them later how it went and they said that they really enjoyed it and really appreciated the chance to share their thoughts with everyone else.



On Saturday afternoon we had two excellent externals come present. One spoke about the seven habits of effective people. This was completely new for the members and they loved it! Then we had Fernando Mendes, the AIESECer who tried to expand to Mozambique in 1999, come and talk to the members. I actually understood most of his speech and it was really amazing. He talked about what it really meant to be an AIESECer and I think even the facis left feeling inspired.



On Saturday night we had a Global Village where the members showed off the different regions of Mozambique and they dressed up in traditional clothes. It was a lot of fun and the first time for the members to interact in a truly social environment without sessions and content to worry about. Everyone was dancing Marrabenta and chatting and having a really good time.



On Sunday we worked in our functional teams and mapped out the projects and activities we would be starting in the coming months. After Daudo presented the projects, he asked the members what they thought, and they were all really excited and liked the ideas.

We also had Cindy, the Africa Director from AIESEC International, join us on Sunday and share some of her experiences. I think she and Jeanne really helped to make the members feel like they were part of a global organization. All the facis also had a chance to share their experiences and I talked a lot about Brazil and Kenya. The members asked me some really good questions as well, like how I have benefited personally from my experiences and what my biggest challenges have been. I remember participating in sessions like this when I was a new member, so it was really nice to be on the other side.

In the afternoon we did goal setting. In Canada, a lot of members don’t take this session very seriously because we spend our whole lives setting goals at school. Here it is something very new and they were really focused on filling out their forms and mapping out their futures.

During the closing everyone was sad that the conference was coming to and end. They were all frantically writing sugar cubes and dancing as many roll calls as we could queue up. Everyone was talking group pictures and it really struck me that people who had been complete strangers just a day before were now best friends. The members said they really learned a lot and enjoyed the weekend. They left the conference feeling motivated and empowered to achieve.



When Cindy arrived at the conference, she said “wow, this feels so AIESEC!” Considering that just 6 months ago, AIESEC didn’t exist here and now we had 40 people participating in the first National Conference, I think today we can be very happy :)