For me, this meant getting picked up at 11 AM the morning of the 9th by John, the manager of The Base, and one of my bosses here and taken on a tour of Lisburn and the area. The first couple hours were pretty much spent in a get to know each other routine, including a short meeting with David, the minister of Harmony Hill. Then, at about 4 PM the fun began. Wednesday afternoons are the drop-in day for the first years, and several were already there by the time I left my meeting with David and walked downstairs to The Base. I tried to get involved somewhat, and think I did a fairly good job, but there were six of them, and I found myself vaguely intimidated by their energy and their accents. They're a great group though, and by the time the drop in was shutting down a little over an hour later they brought me in on their mischeif making, forcing me to play along (and I do mean forced, I resisted, I tried to fight for you John, I promise, but they overpowered me) as they locked John in a closet, then hid around the room before one of them let him out. It may sound a bit mean spirited, but it was quite a large space, and it was done in fun.
The next day continued my session with John, introducing me a bit more to the daily procedure of running The Base until it was time for the third years to come in for their drop-in time. Three boys showed up for this session, and we ended up playing a game of football (soccer) in the hall, the three boys against a rotating squad of three adults (we're older and slower, so we had a fourth player sitting on the sideline to sub in when needed). I won't say I performed with disinction, but at least I didn't embarass myself, despite trying to play in jeans and boots...and being from the U.S.
Friday was a bit crazy, John took me on a walk around Lambeg, showing me some of the things we'll look for and some of the areas we'll go when we do our Street Reach work, during which we walk around and visit the various youth hang-outs and hide-aways. That night at the drop-in was especially nuts, as we were expecting a quiet evening, so John had called and told some of the volunteers not to come in, but we ended up getting about a dozen come in at once and they were rowdy, a few things were broken, but nothing really major (one chair, but they're in the process of being replaced, so it could have been worse). After this, Andy and I ventured into Belfast to meet up with the rest of the group, since it was one of the girl's birthdays and everyone else had been out to dinner. We met them near the restaraunt just after they had finished, and roamed around city center for a bit, which was good fun, saw a few street musicians who were decent, and it was a pleasant enough night until I was hit in the shoulder by an egg...which thankfully didn't break, but rather ricocheted off me, hit another YAV in the stomach, and then fell and broke on the ground.
Saturday I was off, so I wandered around Lisburne a bit, the weather was very nice.
Sunday was a bit mad, with church in the morning feeding into my first session with the Sunday School class I'll be working with, followed by a training session for the Lisburn Inter-church Sunday School (the LD Sunday School some of you have heard about), followed that still by the evening service and youth fellowship that night. Sundays will frequently be 11 hour days for me, but so far the teens seem fantastic.
Monday we had a meeting to check in with Doug, then I did some shopping, bought a couple new sweaters and a shirt a Primark, a super inexpensive clothing store which has enjoyed immense popularity with several generations of YAVs for very good reason--think Target, but cheaper and working with fair-trade.
Today was quiet, a meeting with a local youth worker (works local, is from Germany) in the morning, and worked from home for the afternoon.
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