Halloween

Halloween is an interesting holiday here.

There are a fair number of Christians who consider the holiday pagan and demonic, and thus want nothing to do with it. True, there are people in the U.S. who think that way as well, but there seem to be more of them here.

At the same time, however, the city of Belfast holds a pretty substantial concert/festival at the docks near city center. I didn't go because I had to work, but a few of the other YAVs went, and it was quite the show.

Trick or Treating does happen, but on a smaller scale than in the U.S., and money is a common substitute for candy. According to the experience of Amy and Madeline, the kids aren't at all hesitant to ask for cash either. We didn't get any here, but that might also be because I live in a high rise apartment block with controlled access.

The big thing that kids do here for Halloween is run around shooting off fireworks. I don't mean just little crackers, some of these are big, legit fireworks that people are setting off, and have been setting off for the past month. On Halloween night they were all around the building, some of which were quite nice to watch from the living room, but it was a bit unnerving having them surround you.

Riding my bike home from work that evening was also scary, since I could hear them all around me, and I'd heard stories of people throwing them from cars, so I felt like quite the target, but I made it home fine.

Coming out fine was actually a bit of a theme for the day. For the past several Saturdays, and finishing tomorrow, The Base has hosted a peer leadership program for some of the local youth, run by two other youth organizations which means that the youth taking it can get a certification towards their OCN (Open College Network, don't ask me to explain, I don't understand it myself, just that being certified/getting a certification is a good thing, I think). Anyway, it was, as per usual, raining that day. What was unusual was that we got what I like to call "Virginia Rain"--hard, big, fast drops coming in a downpour for a few minutes and then passing.

The problem with that is that while much rain is received here, it tends to be much more spread out. So the drainage system didn't so much work out well for us at The Base that day--the drain was clogged, and we almost flooded.

Yeah, the water is even with the weather strip there, part of the door is actually submerged. John and I had to clear some of the water with buckets before someone else could reach deep enough to find and remove the block. (Actually, eventually he had to go home to get chimney sweeping rods (which are slightly bendy) and used those to clear the drain, after which the water dropped the rest of the way, but John and I had already cleared 3 to 4 inches with the buckets.

In other recent events, we went to Planet Fun with some of the third years from The Base. Planet Fun is a travelling amusement park, with rides and games similar to what you might find at the Dogwood Festival in Charlottesville, or just about any county fair, the difference being that some of them were inside (the ever present rain).

Another odd thing is that there is a Halloween break from school here. Given, it isn't really Halloween, it's their half term break, and it just happens to generally coincide Halloween, but it has meant that I've been able to catch up on a few things in the past week, enabling me to FINALLY post another update.

There will be more coming later, mostly about the YAV retreat earlier this week, but for now I'm taking a break from writing. Oh, I've also uploaded a TON of pictures to facebook, going back into mid-September, so you can go there for a look back at what I've been doing, and even a sneak peak of what will be coming soon to here.

Chaos

I've been something of a sham about posting, I've been working on a couple posts that will come up later, including more historical background of the area, but I'm not happy with those at the moment, so they will get more work. In the meantime, a bit from me.

The question I am most often asked (possibly even the phrase I most often hear) is "How are you settling in?" It's a question frequently asked of all of us here, and seems to come both from genuine concern, and possibly from people simply not having a better way to start conversation. Normally, I give some short, pleasant, non-committal answer, assuming the question is given in the same sense as the "How're yous" two university students might exchange as they pass each other on campus. Neither really wants an extended answer, and both need to keep moving towards class anyway.

I sometimes wonder, though, if people are genuine in their interest, and actually do want more than a three word answer ("Fine, thank you"). This concern, as well as a growing awareness of the danger and seduction of three word phrases, and the realization that I haven't updated in a month leads to this post.

First, pictures--some are up on facebook, some need to be posted, and at some point I plan to post pictures here, or at least link to them, but that is a task for another time. I'm finally settling into a routine, getting familiar with the bus and rail system to the point that I sometimes (sometimes) don't even have to check the time tables.

Second, I'm finally beginning to get close to some people here and adapt to the quirks. There have been some hilarious mix ups with words here committed by some of the other yavs, but the one that gets me the most is the group prayer before we open The Base for the Friday drop in, where someone almost always prays for craic (pronounced crack). It's an Irish word, though it is used by both communities here, and roughly means "fun," though its usage is a bit more complicated than that.

My fundraising is going well, especially since I just received a substantial grant from the Presbytery of the James, which is a great relief, and hopefully they will continue their generosity in the future if I go to Seminary. I'm working on several applications, though I've become busier than I expected, especially since I've ended up spending a fair amount of time dealing with my computer, which has decided to act up a bit.

And now I've lost the inspiration that began this post, so I'm going to take a break from trying to be self reflective.

Some Background-Part Two: Irish Independence

While Pro-British media at the time portrayed the leaders of the Easter Uprising as villains, not particularly loved by the Irish, this appears to have not been the case, or at least to have not been as sweeping a statement as the British would have liked. It seems likely that the British response to the uprising was a factor in the strengthening of Sinn Fein and it's landslide victory in the 1918 Parliamentary elections, following which the Sinn Fein MPs (Members of Parliament) decided not to take their seats in the UK Parliment in Westminster, but instead gathered in Dublin and, in 1919 declared independence.

Some Background-Part One

Now that I've gotten slightly more settled in, and am beginning to adapt to my daily routine I've decided to give you a bit of background. Before I begin, I want to emphasize that this is in no way comprehensive or complete, and while I am trying to be objective, this is still based on my own subjective opinion.

First, for all the people who think this is a purely religious conflict, it isn't. Catholic and Protestant are short hand labels for two communities that differ on ethnic and political lines as well as religious ones; a more accurate set of labels would be Nationalist and Unionist; in basic terms, Catholics/Nationalists want Northern Ireland to be part of The Republic of Ireland, and not the UK. Protestants/Unionists want to remain part of the UK--this is the basic political divide.

As far as the ethnic divide, Catholic/Nationalists are native Irish, while Protestants/Unionists are mostly of English and Scottish descent, though in many cases their families have been living here for generations.

In terms of the recent violence here, it seems to go back to the early 20th century, when the concept of Irish Home Rule gained traction in the British Parliment. In response, some members of the Protestant/Unionist population took up arms AGAINST independence, forming the Ulster Volunteers. During the First World War, many members of the Ulster Volunteers joined the British military and fought on the continent.

In response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers, Irish nationalists formed the Irish Volunteers, who, in 1916 joined with several other nationalists groups to form the Irish Republican Army and launched the Easter Uprising against the UK. This uprising was quickly put down and it's leaders executed, but it introduced (or re-introduced) violence into the political atmosphere, and (depending on who you ask), many thought the executed leaders were heroes and martyrs.

Part Two will follow with Irish Independence, and possibly the beginnings of the modern conflict.

Second Week

It's now been two full weeks since we landed in Belfast, and a lot has happened. We spent the first week together as a group with Doug, our site coordinator. Then, starting last Wednesday we started work with our sites.

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.

First Few Days

So I've been in country for a few days now, and have settled in enough that I can take some time to write a bit.

So, to start, we left Newark Airport at about 9 PM, and arrived in Belfast around 8 AM local time (3 AM EDT), which was nice, since it meant we were about an hour early. We pretty much breezed through customs, one of the agents seemed to be taking longer and we thought he was grilling people, but they said he was just being really friendly and offering advice on places to go and the like. Even better, all of our luggage made it with us so Andy's black-cloud of travel seems to have dispersed.

After that we split into two cars, well, one car and one minibus, went to our various apartments/houses to unload/rest for a few hours. Then Doug picked us back up for lunch at his house, after which we went and walked around Stormont, the North Irish Parliament Building.

Yesterday we started going around to the various sites, starting with mine, where we all met David (the minister), John, the manager of The Base is incredibly nice, and though I was warned his accent was incredibly thick, I didn't have too much trouble with it. That might, however be purely because he was trying to slow down and "speak like an American," in which case, I'm in trouble. Regardless, both of them seem fantastic, and I think I'll have a great time working there.

We then came back to Andy and my apartment for lunch, and went back out for a few more sites in the afternoon. The highlight of the day, however, was when Andy managed to blow out all the lights in our apartment by touching the shade of his overhead light. We didn't have the proper fuse to replace it, so we survived off natural light and lamps, with two carefully positioned flashlights allowing for showers this morning.

Today, we went around to a few more sites, and then we climbed up Scrabo Hill and Scrabo Tower (from which we could see Scotland!) It was quite scenic, pictures will be up on facebook soon, but I don't have the energy to deal with that tonight. Tomorrow we have a few more sites to visit, followed by dinner at Doug's. I have a schedule for the rest of our orientation time, but right now I'm just focusing on getting picked up in the morning and staying with the group. The past few days have been intense, but I think I'm beginning to settle. For instance I'm able to remember that I'll be picked up at 10:30 for church on Sunday, and Wednesday is our first day at our sites.

Arrival

We made it, we're all safe and well. I'm too tired to do anymore today, but I'll have more when I can.