Glasgow: Covid Testing, Polar Bears Wearing PFDs, and World Sisters

After a good night's sleep after an expedition of train travel yesterday, today has been an awesome welcome to Glasgow. My day started at Martin and Susan's home (homestay) with a cuppa tea and toast with orange marmalade. Then I navigated how to take a lateral flow covid test and reporting results to the UK National Health Service. Then a walk through Queen's Park to meet find my American climate change colleagues at a community garden and then to a cafe.

The afternoon was spent getting through the numerous checkpoints to enter the United Nations COP26. I lost count of how many times I was asked for my passport along with my covid test results and the very important official UN delegate letter. Once inside the Blue Zone, much exploration ensued. These photos below capture a few moments of the day.

Daily do it yourself home covid testing for all involved with the COP26

Took two tries to do it right the this morning. Thankfully the gal from the Maldives from yesterday's train expedition had a couple tests to share with the rest of us gals before splitting ways last night. Then we could get out and about town this morning without having to go find tests early this morning. Later today I was given enough tests to test daily throughout the entire time I'm here.

Queen's Park

Queen's Park

Top of the hill in Queen's park looking north.

Train station organic herb bed on the southside of Glasgow.

Art in the Blue Zone: lifesize polar bears wearing PFDs on tiny ice berg.

Penguin being hung... (artwork in the Blue Zone)

"We've already waited too long, to deal with this climate crisis and we can't wait any longer. We see it with our own eyes we feel it, we know it in our bones, and it's time to act." - President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

Women climate leaders from Indonesia and me, Sarah

First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon - I couldn't hear what she was saying, yet I got to see her speak. The audio projection is done through headphones so you can't hear unless you can borrow a set during a talk during one of the pavilion talks in the huge trade show size conference room.

Found a fellow sister Girl Guide, Germaine Umuraza from Rwanda. She is the Director of the World Association for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts Climate Programme. We spent a few hours together walking far across the city back to Central Station. The walk was long as we

couldn't easily access the nearby train station due to a couple miles of police guarding the roads where President Biden's entourage was traveling. This walk time gave us time to chat about new curriculum being piloted for young women in African countries to learn how to do 'take action' climate projects similar to the work I do with the Youth Water Leadership Program. It was interesting to discuss how to teach young women their voices are important in countries where women have been severely oppressed for so long. I look forward to sharing more experiences with Germaine in the coming days (and hopefully into the future for a long time to come).

In the room where it happens... this is the arena that is set up with the negotiation tables and microphones as you would expect for world leaders to sit around and negotiate. Yet, nothing was happening there today as the world leaders were somewhere else with much more security. I'm not important enough to get into those spaces this time.... ;-)

After finding my friends from Boulder, Colorado at a pub I found this sign... not sure where it was pointing to, yet it made for a good chuckle at the close of the day.

Follow Sarah's entire COP26 experience at www.WildRoseEducation.com/UNCOP