Today was the final day of programs at GYI. We woke up and hopped on a bus right away to head to the DuPont Pioneer building. After breakfast we went into the auditorium for another amazing speech from Dr. Akinwumi Adesina and the former president of Ghana.
After that we headed into our conference rooms and met our experts that we were presenting to. We then went over the presenting procedure, how many questions we will have, and how long our presentations should be. I then presented my essay on China’s rice yields approaching a plateau.
After my presentation I answered some questions on my project and our group worked towards making a brief description of our our research to find a common goal in fighting world hunger and social injustices. Next we received our certificates of achievement and had lunch.
After lunch we attended presentations on the information gathered from the Bourlaug Ruan internships. And headed back to the hotel after catching some pictures.
Then the night was ours! The Canada crew headed out on the town to do a little touring. We went to a store called Raygun and got to see where they made all their shirts. We all bought some cool stuff to take home. Later we went to a restaurant called Zombie Burger! At zombie burger we all ordered some pretty crazy dishes.
That’s all folks! GYI is done and I’m flying home tomorrow!
Ohmygoodness! What a day! Today we started off bright and early with breakfast at the Marriott. The food for the days breakfast was Nigerian to appreciate the former President of Nigeria for visiting the world food prize. The breakfast keynote was the CEO of John Deere! This was super exciting for someone who was raised with equipment in a wonderful John Deere green.
After breakfast we walked over to the YMCA for a Land O’Lakes Immerging leaders panel. The panel went over an over seas internship in efforts to be hunger fighters! After the panel we went downstairs and packaged bags to send to Puerto Rico. Our goal was to package 25 000 bags in an hour in a half. We ended up surpassing this goal, only quitting when there were no more bags left to fill!
After the bag packaging we went back to the Marriott for lunch. The laureate luncheon was in honour of Dr. Akinwumi Adesia. Where he said a great speech about how he came to be this years laureate.
After the luncheon we broke out into groups for the afternoon sessions. We were organized by a coloured sticker on our name tag. I had a yellow sticker so I went to Hawkeye Breeders. This is an artificial insemination farm. The business began after WWII and has adopted many new technologies since opening. The business doesn’t own any of the bulls that they collect from, instead they take others bulls and collect from them. On the farm we got a tour of both the barns and the processing building. The building had 53 cryogenic tubs to house the collections. In the processing building they have a new technology that can measure the motility, size, and abnormalities with almost 100% accuracy in less than 10 seconds. “This machine can replace 12 men on the job” said our tour guide. In the barn we got to see a natural collection and to meet a variety of breeds that they currently house.
Our tour guide explained how the European Union barn operates and the procedures of the barn. Including testing for over 20 diseases every two weeks. We did not have the opportunity to tour this barn because of all the regulations but it was interesting hearing how strict the European Union is on cattle production.
After the tour of Hawkeye Breeders we headed back to the hotel for a brief free time and then left for our hunger banquet. At the beginning of the banquet we picked our class out of a bag. 80% of the members was low class, including myself and my teacher. For this meal each person was given a character and a brief biography. If we were women we had to eat last. And because I was low class I was given a handful of rice.
After the hunger banquet we went back to the hotel for bagged diners and the day was then done. Super excited and nervous for tomorrow! Adios GYI!
So we had a great morning this morning. We kicked it off with eating an amazing breakfast followed by a keynote speech from Lazarus Lynch. Lazarus gave us an insight into his experience with GYI, 4-H, and his many travels to different countries in efforts to solve world hunger and food insecurities.
After the keynote we broke into groups and split from our mentors. The mentors went to the Marriott while we stayed at the hotel we are staying in and split into two groups of students (the alphas and the betas). The students engaged in a cultural assimilation activity where we had a given culture and had to guess what the other groups culture was. I was in the trading society group and we had cards that we had to trade and the goal was to get a run of 7 cards of the same colour. We also spoke in another language called “ba fa” and we basically used the begging letter of each word and a vowel sound for counting and describing colours. This activity was really entertaining! Especially when the alpha team was English speaking and were super confused when we traded cards with them (or just stole them).
After this activity we hopped on a bus and headed to our Symposium Soy luncheon. The foods in this luncheon all contained soybeans in them somewhere! It was really interesting and really good food! Our keynote for the luncheon was Dr. Rajiv J. Shaw, the president of the Rockefeller foundation!
After lunch we moved downstairs and listened to a panel discussion on getting technology to smallholder farms, a speech from the CEO of syngenta, and two more panel discussions; trends in agribusiness and research, and the role of agriculture and the U.S. dairy industry in fostering global economic development. These we all very informative and relatable to everyday life from back in Saskatchewan to those from Beijing. Some quotes that resonated with me are “Every plant breeder has to be an optimist”, “consumers want transparency”, and “We can be eating calories and still be malnourished”.
After this we walked over to the world food prize building. Once we got there we had a speech from Mark Green, who works for the United States Aid for International Development. He worked towards preventing more and more people from contacting Aids over seas. We then ate dinner and after that we watched the Nobel food prize 2017 laureate award ceremony! The award was given to Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina and he donated his $250 000 to preventing world hunger in Africa!
After the ceremony we headed back to the hotel and the day was done. One of my highlights of the day was meeting a man working on breeding funguses in Africa to prevent people from dying from eating maize with a viral fungus on it. The virus is undetected by the technologies in Africa, due to lack of technology. But now that the day is over I’m just so much more excited for tomorrow! Peace out GYI, for now!
Holy has this been a trip already! It was an early rise this morning to get to the airport. 3am, everyone’s favourite. I get to the airport and meet up with Ms. Cooper! We are both rocking a tired face and our Ag More Than Ever tees. We get through security and meet up with a friend at the airport on his travel to Arizona
The day continues and we get to the Toronto! All of the Saskatchewan delegates had a pretty good nap on the flight over. I wake up feeling fully replenished and have a great view of Toronto and the CN tower from the plane!
After we landed in Toronto we got through customs and arrive at our gate. We are ready for liftoff to head to Minneapolis! I was treated nicely on all flights but enjoyed this one the most because of all the snacks! Thanks to the flight attendant who prevented the oncoming hangry-ness the other passengers were going to unwillingly witness.
Once we arrived in Minneapolis we got food and waited around a bit for the connecting flight. And we were off again!
Finally! Des Moines! My new home for the next few days! I met a few people on the way over from the southern states who were also attending the conference. We got settled in and headed to the social room for food and to kick off GYI.
The social was great! I met many people from all over! Got some photos taken in a photo booth with the delegates, played giant Jenga, and heard so many great stories about the other delegates essays; and what an average day in their life is!
Although the day was full of excitement and it has only just began, I am exhausted. So see ya tomorrow Des Moines!
In my last post, I predicted that Jack would live with his grandparents and Ma would stay in a mental health Facility. I was close to the actual ending of the book. When Ma attempted suicide she stayed in the Clinic and Jack stayed with his grandma and steppa (step-grandpa). The actual ending of the book resulted in Jack and Ma living in an apartment together with at home care. Jack and Ma also revisited the room and Jack described it as a crater “A hole where something happened”. I do think this was an effective way to end the novel. One thing I would change would be to hear Ma’s actual name.
The language in this book gave a terrifying situation a childish tone. When Jack said goodbye to all of the items that he had treated as his friends it gave him closure from a dark time in his life. With the book being told from Jack’s views we can see his innocence and allow for him to sugar coat the scary situation that he and his mother are in. I think that the author decided to write the book like this because then when Jack is back into the world learning about all of the new things we can see his lust to stay in captivity.
The most confusing aspect of the book was in the beginning with Jack speaking to all the things in his room. I found it difficult to understand for quite some time. Another thing I found difficult to understand was when Jack was breastfeeding. Jack just described it as “having some” witch took me quite sometime to understand. This affected how I read the book because I would commonly reread these parts of the book.
I rate this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. I would highly recommend. This book is a difficult read but it is a very emotional and terrifying novel. It constantly had my attention and it gave me a new way to look at our world and environment.
Watch the ROOM movie trailers here
*WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS!*
The character I chose to analyze is Jack’s mom. I chose her because she is a strong, level-headed person who is facing extreme struggles within the walls of Room. Her main motivation is Jack. Jack motivates Ma to get everything that needs done completed such as the laundry, and . He also motivates her to stay active, nourished, and clean. Ma has been trapped in the room for over eight years because when she was 19, “Old Nick” tricked her into believing that he had a sick dog to lure her into his truck and kidnap her. Since her kidnapping, her main goal has been to get out of the room. She attempts to achieve her goal subtlety by using the lamp and sending Morse code messages almost every night, screaming on days her kidnapper is gone and trying to dig a hole out through the floor. Ma also uses harsh actions to attempt to escape by throwing heavy items at Old Nick, smashing a toilet lid on his head, and holding a knife to his neck.
Ma faces many conflicts when trying to escape the room. One of her conflicts is that she wants to use Jack as part of her plan to escape but does not want to put Jack into danger. Ma struggles for quite sometime as to how to successfully escape the room with both her and Jack. This is a very emotional straining situation for Jack’s mom. She also struggles with the consequences of attempting to escape and failing. Her and Jack have been deprived of food and power for quite some time. If they were to try something at a large scale and fail, there would be much larger consequences. These conflicts are both internal and external; hopefully she will come to a solution to these problems.
I predict that Jack’s mother is going to find a way to escape the room with Jack without putting him into a large amount of danger. The book needs to expand out of the walls of the room for a more complex plot. I think the next few parts of the book are going to be the escape from the room and challenges that they face in the outside. I predict that the book will end with Ma and Jack being spilt by social services and Jack living with his grandparents with Ma in a mental hospital.
I personally relate to Ma because of her care for children and her unspoken innocence. Ma and Jack have a nice bond and they tend to make the best out of a bad situation. I also try to make the best of every situation and with my experience in camp counselling and being a 4-H leader I have grown a love for children. I also like the mom’s fiery attitude and perseverance.
The extensive novel I chose to read was ROOM by Emma Donoghue. This novel appealed to me because it is told through the eyes of a five year old. The boy’s confinement in his room relates to how he sees the rest of the world which I find quite interesting. I have read books similar to this, like Impulse by Ellen Hopkins. Both of these books include confinement and many other issues in society like rape, violence, and poor mental health. I believe that this book is going to cause some tears but will be an overall good read.
This novel doesn’t contain chapters, but has five parts. They are titled Presents, Unlying, Dying, After, and Living. The title Presents is represented in this part explicitly. In the first few pages, we come to find that it is Jack’s birthday and he receives a present from his mother of a drawing of Jack sleeping. Next, I came to learn of Sunday treat, this is when Jack and his mother receive the necessary supplies to get them through the week. To many people it is just a round of groceries, but to Jack it is like Christmas morning. The third explicit representation of present, is Jack’s late birthday present of an remote-control jeep gifted to him by “Old Nick” the kidnapper and rapist.
In the first paragraph, I found that many objects are personified in a way that Jack can relate to them and treat them as his friends. We also see Jack’s innocence and how he is blind to many struggles his mother went through. Jack does not understand many things and this is mainly because of his confinement and because he was told that the room is all that is real. He understands heaven and other Christian beliefs. He also believes that everything he sees on TV that isn’t in the room is fake. This plays more to his innocence and his mother uses this belief to protect Jack from feeling depressed or lonely.
In the beginning chapters we hear of the relationship between Jack’s mom and “Old Nick”. This is a significant relationship because Old Nick is the mother’s rapist and kidnapper. But Jack sees him as more of a gift-giver. Jack’s mom refuses to talk about Old Nick many times but still seems to connect with him a little when he comes in the night. I think this is significant because Jack’s mom is gaining the trust of her rapist, and i think that this will lead to something much larger later on. A question I still have about Old Nick and Jack’s mom is; how can Jack’s mom not be hostile toward Old Nick? She has a lot of courage for holding conversations with him.
Rumpel Writes 