Thanks to Cora Weiss and the Hague Appeal for Peace, Global Kids was introduced to Peace Boat in the spring of 2003, and we began making plans to join their summer voyage in August 2003. Nine Global Kids Leaders were selected to attend the trip: Rhia, Jonathan, Michael, and Conrad from Canarsie High School in Brooklyn; Melissa from Grace Dodge High School in the Bronx; Estephanie and Gary from the GK Citywide Leadership program; and Carolina and Abdoul from International High School in Queens. Global Kids Trainers David Velasquez, Patricia Krueger and Amita Swadhin attended as well.
The Peace Boat schedule was packed each day. Certain activities were held every day, while others were organized by the Peace Boat staff as a one-time event. The Japanese Peace Boat passengers also organized activities (such as juggling, ping pong and DJ’ing), and these were all open to any passenger on the ship to join in their free time. You can read in the following pages about each day’s specific highlights and activities, including our daily agenda and excerpts from GK Leaders’ journals.