Saturday, November 13, 2010

Learning not from books but from serving...

After Hallowe'en in Derry, we had to start packing and leave the next morning for Corrymeela. My housemate, Megan, was going to Corrymeela too so it was nice to have someone else to travel with. We got a later start than anticipated but it worked out in the end. Upon arriving in Ballycastle we were a bit lost on what to do because Corrymeela is like a 30-45 min walk from the town and with 2 suitcases and a book bag each...we really didn't want to walk---and of course it was raining. Thankfully Aileen, our supervisor, pulled up and helped us load our luggage into her car.

We drove to Corry and got a quick welcome and intro to how our day would go. They were already in staff meetings and we would join in for the last 20 min. and get introduced to the whole staff at once! Yay!  Ha, it was actually quite nice. They even had little cupcakes for us :)  The rest of the day is kind of a blur now but I know we were able to move our stuff in and unpack a bit before dinner. We had another session in Coventry (the building the volunteers stay in) that evening and was very interesting.

I guess an intro about Corrymeela would be nice. Well after studying in Derry for 8 weeks, we were to spend the last 4 weeks in volunteer placements at local agencies. I was very grateful to be placed at Corry because they don't normally take two volunteers.  I wanted to volunteer here at Corry because I'd only ever hear great things from previous groups about it and those who did volunteer loved it. Then when we came here our first week I fell in love with it. It is in a beautiful setting that is so serene and calming which just adds to the atmosphere they are trying to achieve in creating a setting that is beneficial to facilitating communication between people and groups that need or desire it. Originally it was set up as a Christian  reconciliation center focused on dialogue between all peoples. It still holds true to those traditions as well as encouraging learning and growth about others and Christ.

We do live in a Community, meaning we live in a building separate from the guests which is in the main house with the meeting rooms, offices, kitchen, etc.  Coventry is what our building is called. Here we live with 10 long term volunteers LTVs who are here for 1 year, 1 resource couple (from the US!) who support the volunteers, Aileen and her partner are here as well as one mid-term volunteer who has been here from Sept-Dec. We also have short term vol's who just come up for a week or most likely a weekend to help out that stay here too. Anyway that's the basis for our community, we have a few more members too. Living in a community is a new experience for me. At first I didn't know if I would like it but it's not too bad. Most people are respectful and it helps having 1-2 cleaning days a week, haha. We share all the food unless marked and all the food comes from the kitchen so just basically ask for what u want. We share most all lunch and dinners together. Share living spaces, kitchen, front room/lounge, 4 ppl per/bathroom, Megan and I share a room, computer lounge, tv room, laundry facilities. Basically everything we need we share. It's a nice place very comfy. Just a short walk to the main building called the House.

Anyway this all connects with the very interesting evening session we had upon arriving. What I thought was a simple name/introducing game turned to be a little heated at the end. After all the LTVs went around and introduced themselves we noted that one of the guys was from Ohio so Megan and I both mentioned we were from Ohio too. Well this offended someone. The LTV is from Cameroon and judged us Americans by inferring that he should know Ohio is in the States as well as where it is. Now we did not know what we were walking in to here. Thankfully it was handled very gracefully by our faithful leader, Paul who calmly began asking questions in uncovering why this upset our fellow LTV. We were able to eventually open it up as a group and discuss why we had connected it with the other LTV from Ohio and not all Americans mean to be rude and ignorant of others. But to be honest, I had no idea where Cameroon was. I knew he was African but I know that's a continent so I can't mention it because I was afraid then he would hate me more as an American for being naive and not knowing geography... Yeah eventually I looked at a map and answered my own question. It's actually close to Ghana where another LTV is from! So like a said, interesting first day. Oh and to end it all we had Philippino dinner served by the LTV from the Philippines which was delicious and then he gave us a presentation about the Philippines too.

We have begun to get into the swing of things around here, Monday staff day/training/community, Tue-Thur rotation, Friday community/all site clean up day/begin new rotation-Sunday, and start all over again! We work 2 rota's on then one off. This weekend is my second time off. I thankfully had the first week off, which worked out well since I was ill with hives and a cough. Next week I work in different areas then the rest of the Bluffton group is up for the weekend. The following week I have off but will be going to Derry on Tue for the Mayor's performance of our Irish dance and Tin Whistle then I will work the following weekend which will be our last. We leave here the following Monday spend a few days in Derry then off to travel Europe! Then home for Christmas! Time sure flys...

Anyway here are some pictures/video I took today on my short walk around here. Enjoy.

Looking out to Rathlin Island

Walking toward Ballycastle

That's the town!

Looking back toward Corrymeela, the mountains in the distance are Scotland

Me!







See I'm all in one piece! haha


Best Wishes!


2 comments:

  1. Wow...your all caught up on your blog! You've got some really nice pictures above but, I can't find the video you mentioned. Where is it??

    One of the blogs below about the different phrases was interesting. How long did it take to learn the correct use of some of their words and I gotta ask...how many times have you or the group mada a mistake in how certain words are used? I'm betting a few! Be safe and glad to see you are in one piece!

    Dad

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  2. Thanks! I haven't uploaded the video yet b/c I was having difficulties with it. I'll try in a minute.

    Yeah it took a while to get used to some of them. The easiest was aye and pound instead of dollars. I don't know that we really misused many words but just continued to use the American terms so then we stuck out like sore thumbs. We have finally all gotten used to using chips instead of fries as well. Also learned they have a different word for cookies, not just bicuts but also buns. We made some similar to no bakes yesterday and they called them buns.

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