During the simulation I was part of the country of Gilbia. Our task was to find a way to successfully end the persecution of the refugees and get them out of Gilboa. They were hurting our economy and depleting our supplies. My individual goal was to try to talk the United States into giving us money so we could keep the refugees to end their persecution as well as rebuild our economy. Our group was definitely prepared. It helped to have Abby because she had already done a simulation and knew how things worked. We definitely accomplished what we wanted because we got the United States to give us money and Budan to claim responsibility for the persecution. I enjoyed that we all got to act as our own country and had to argue and make compromises to reach our end goals. It showed us exactly how the real UN solves global issues. The only thing I really struggled with was having a voice within my country. The girls in my group took over and did not really listen to what I had to say. We still accomplished what needed to get done but I feel like we could have finished the compromise faster if I would have been able to talk more. I think if we got to pick our groups everyone would have a better chance of getting their voice heard and making a bigger impact. If we were with our friends we would feel more like a sovereign country. I learned that you have to make sacrifices to make your situation better. A country will not get exactly what they want. For example, as Gilbia we did not get to kick out all the rubies, we had to take one third of them in order to satisfy the agreement. I also learned agreements take a lot of time. You can’t just expect a ten minute conversation to end all arguments.
