Befitting his status as a global leader, security for the Dalai Lama is comparable to that of a head of state. It includes dogs to sniff bags, hand wands to detect metal and mirrors to look under cars.

The 20 reporters and photographers who gathered before sunrise at an Oahu hotel (sorry, we can’t tell you where) include four people from Hiki No, the PBS Hawaii program produced by students. (Hiki No means “can do” in Hawaiian.) The kids are pretty excited about the assignment, as you can imagine.

Also here is Victor Chan, founding director and trustee for the Dalai Lama Center in Vancouver, B.C., and Agapi Stassinopoulos, who is the sister of Arianna Huffington. Agapi asked me to take a photo of her and Victor and then asked me how to send it to her sister in her iPhone — a recent gift from Arianna.

“Agapi” means “love” in Greek, Agapi tells me — commonly spelled “agape.”

—Chad Blair, with photo by Brian Tseng