7 February 2009
I realize I have not written in awhile – mostly because I have been so busy! February has proved to be a busy month. Here’s just a quick (random) update:
• Last weekend we had a lock-in at the church with our youth fellowship kids. It went great! Slept for a total of like 30 minutes. The Lock-in was on Saturday night, so on Sunday morning we woke up and cooked breakfast as a fundraiser for people at the church. That went well too.
• After said lock-in/ breakfast, we went home and slept. I slept the whole next day and through the night. Woke up with no voice at all, and feeling very sick. About Tuesday, I bought this stuff called “night nurse” which is similar to Nyquil. That seemed to do the trick – I felt much better the next day.
• Bought new running shoes because my knees had started to hurt while I was running, and it’s been awhile since I’ve bought new sneakers. Praise God – I found the perfect shoes AND they were well within budget AND my knees are feeling much better.
• I’ve started working with a new group for young women and WAVE trauma centre. They actually meet on Fridays, which is supposed to be my night off…but I feel like I’ll learn a lot from that group, and all the members are around my age, so there’s some friend potential there. And, not too long from now the Saturday night youth club will be over, so I’ll at least have that night free.
• I went to a baby shower today. I didn’t realize that baby showers aren’t really customary over here – it’s kind of an American thing. So are bridal/wedding showers. Who knew? (P.S. It was an American that organized the baby shower…that’s why they had one). Anyway, I think that was the first baby shower I’ve ever been to.
• I have discovered that a trick to keeping mice out of our flat is to keep the washing machine running. They must come in through one of the pipes. Let me tell you, our clothes have never been cleaner.
• Recently, it hit me, that the best friend I have made in Belfast is a woman in her late 70s. She is just an amazing person, and I love spending time with her. She’s in charge of the tuck shop at youth club, she comes to prayer group on Fridays, she organizes fundraisers at the church, she sings in the choir, and she is proud to still be in love with her husband. Basically I want to be her when I get older.
I think I’ve finally got my feet under me here. That expression probably doesn’t make sense, since I think I just made it up. But, I feel more like myself, like I’ve gotten my bearings. It’s nice. I don’t get as stressed about things like I was when I first got here – which isn’t really like me. But, I think because I was so unsure of myself and what I was doing, I got worked up more easily. I don’t know – just a quick analysis of myself. I guess that’s about all for now! Sorry that this entry is so disorganized.
It's just about 11am in D.C. as I'm writing this and the inauguration day activities should be in pretty full swing. I was watching the BBC coverage of the festivities earlier today. Looks cold over on the east coast!
But seriously, today is a big day for America. It's hard to ignore the enormity of a new U.S. president - especially at this time in history - being over here in Belfast. I never really understood how much American politics affected that rest of the world until I got here. I mean, what happens in the U.S. - be it a dip in the economy, a terrorist attack, a change in our leadership, etc. - ripples all over the world.
I was lying in bed the other night having trouble getting to sleep, and I though of Obama - I wondered whether or not he was sleeping well these days. There I was, lying awake because of my relatively insignificant anxieties and Obama's about to become the President of the most powerful nation on earth. If I were him, I'd curl up in a ball and say "what in the world was I thinking running for president!" The man really is taking on the weight of the world today, and is doing so with confidence and poise. You have to respect the man for that. I mean, people are expecting miracles to come from this man and here he is smiling and looking so calm. So much is going on in the world now - the violence in Gaza, the credit crunch, the massive amounts of corrupt political leaders in Africa - and people around the globe are expecting our new Mr. President to solve all of these. First of all, I need a dose of whatever he's got - i get stressed out when someone looks at me funny. Secondly, though, Barack really is just a man like the rest of us who was created by God for a purpose. He is going to need loads of prayers and support from his fellow Americans - regardless of your political leanings are. To quote one of Kevin's favorite movies, "with great power, comes great responsibility." How true that is here!
Go U.S.A! ::Waves the American flag:: (just feeling a bit patriotic
18 January 2009
So, since Kevin and I have gotten back from France, I have started running so I can participate in the Belfast Marathon – they actually split the marathon into 4-6 mile stints so you don’t actually run the whole thing. I’ve been running in this little park around the corner from our apartment.
Anyway, my motivation to go out in the cold and wet to run has been pretty low this week, especially today when the wind could only be described as biting. Anyway, I kept thinking, “why in the world am I doing this?” as I ran lap after lap around the park. I finally finished, having run a longer distance than I had before, and began a lap of walking around the park. Part way into walking, these two kids who had been playing football (soccer) stopped me. They asked if I was on some sort of Belfast running team, and I explained that I was getting ready for the Belfast Marathon. They told me that was “class” (or “really cool”) and got really excited when they heard my accent. We talked for a few minutes about America and Philadelphia and why I was in Belfast. The kids, I found out, live in our neighborhood and come to play in the park on Sundays, so they had seen me last Sunday out running too. It was a nice little connection to make on a Sunday afternoon, and made my difficult time running more than worth it. Hopefully I’ll get to chatting with these kids again and try to invite them to youth club or something.
Onto bigger news: Kevin got his hair cut! I’m sure some of you saw how long his hair had gotten since we’ve been here in pictures. It was pretty much taking over our house – I was thinking we’d soon need another bed to accommodate Kevin’s massive amounts of hair. In any case, as a fundraiser we had people vote on which haircut they’d like for Kevin to have – to keep in long or to have it cut short. Well, the short haircut won! He had it cut at youth club this past Saturday night, and the kids loved it! I’ve never seen them all sit still for so long. But, Kevin looks like a new man – he hasn’t had his hair cut short since our wedding almost a year and a half ago! I’m going to try to post pictures.
Anyway, that’s about it from Belfast now. We’re pretty much just getting into the routine again after Christmas. We’re having a lock in and a church breakfast in a couple of weeks, so that’s something that we could use some prayer for!
6 January 2009
Well, Kevin and I returned to Belfast from our holiday in France yesterday. I was surprisingly happy to come back. Of course I was sad that our vacation was over – it’s always nice to shirk responsibility for awhile and see a new place. But, when I first heard the broad Belfast accent in the ticket line at the airport in Paris, I felt a little yearning to go home. Even in a few short months, Belfast has found a special place in my heart.
Really, it’s not hard to see why: While we were standing in line to get our tickets home, we met a couple from Belfast and started chatting with them. We saw them again when we went through security. Our flight ended up being delayed for 5 hours, and while we were waiting at the gate, we ran into the man in the couple again. We complained about the inconvenience of the delay, and I innocently mentioned that Kevin and I had just spent our last Euro. The man asked if we wanted to get a cup of tea, which we refused and assured him we would be fine. A few minutes later the man was back – this time with a sandwich and two coffees. He handed them to us saying “You never know when you’ll get to eat again.” I was so touched by his kindness. I wanted to do something for him – but I knew I couldn’t. I had no money to repay him and nothing else to give to him except sincere thanks. I struggled with this for a minute, and then thought, “why am I having so much trouble accepting this kindness? I would have done the same thing and wouldn’t have expected anything in return. Why is it so hard for me then, to accept it from someone else?”
I couldn’t think of an answer, but I did begin to think of all the kindness Kevin and I had received over the past few weeks starting with quite a number of Christmas presents from people in the congregation at Fortwilliam. I mean, Christmas is a busy time of year; I was incredibly moved by how many people decided to add another couple to their present-buying list so two American volunteers knew someone was thinking about them at Christmas. Then the staff at the 174 Trust who takes such an interest in us and has just accepted us into their family so willingly. Then Leslie, the minister at our church, who invited us over at the last minute to join her and her family for Christmas dinner because we had no where else to go. And, finally, Uncle Bobby – a great man who attends a church another volunteer works at who picked us up at the airport (even after coming back and forth to the airport 3 times because of the delays) and then took us grocery shopping at 10:00pm so we would have something to eat in our house. How can I repay any of these people for what they’ve done for us? I don’t know that I can, but their thoughtfulness has really struck a cord with me. I sat in Charles de Gaulle airport thinking about these things nearly in tears, trying to concentrate to my suduku puzzle so I wouldn’t make a fool of myself. So, thank you all my friends in Belfast for making this place ‘home’, even if it is only temporary.
28 December 2008
Well, Kevin and I are in France for our winter ‘holiday’ (I said ‘vacation’ to someone recently and got this blank stare). Anyway, I am now regretting never taking a French class. I know about three phrases: “I am American, but I live in Belfast.” “The breakfast is very good.” and “I love…” I am actually not bad at reading French (which I can only attribute to my Latin and Spanish classes). But, Kevin is actually doing a really good job figuring out what to say so we can at least order food and ask for directions, etc. Plus, he’s so darn cute when he speaks French.
We’re staying in a small town North-West of Paris called Maisons-Laffitte. They have a castle, which we toured yesterday and that I have decided will be my future home. I am pretty sure I was meant to be a princess.
This morning we went to a church down the road. I am not 100% positive, but I am pretty sure the church is Anglican, so the service was in English (although I was looking forward to worshipping in French). They had communion today, and there were a couple firsts for me: 1) Today was the first time I have ever had wine (or any alcohol for that matter) in church, and 2) Today was the first wine I have tasted in France.
After the service, we met a guy from Northern Ireland (small world) named Robby. We had a brief conversation with him over a proper cup of tea and now have a prayer partner in France. Very cool. Robby explained that the church was founded because there were quite a few British military families in this area of France, and so the church was built to serve the needs of that population. I thought that was pretty neat too.
Well, we are off to see Igor in French. Hopefully we’ll catch some of the story line. Tomorrow we will hit Paris! Pictures to come ☺
13 December 2008
Be forewarned, a lot happened this week, so this blog may be long and be a little random.
My mom will appreciate this story: Today I discovered that a little friend had found his up to our third floor apartment. That’s right, we had a mouse. I was going about my business making cookies, when I opened the bottom drawer in our kitchen to get out the cookie trays and out leapt this tiny , gray (and creepy) little fella. Without thinking, I screamed at the top of my lungs and jumped on top of a chair (am I sounding like a stereotypical woman?). Kevin did not come to my rescue fast enough, so I continued to scream, probably causing my neighbors to think someone was trying to kill me and effectively distracting myself from seeing where the mouse went. In any case, Kevin eventually came into the kitchen; I told him what had happened and then sent him to Tesco (grocery store) to get mousetraps. I wore my big winter boots around the kitchen until I was sure the mouse was too scared to come out while I was in there. Kevin kept asking me “why are you so scared of mice? They’re so little, they’re not going to hurt you.” Honestly, I don’t know. I didn’t used to be. Other things don’t scare me – not spiders, or bugs, or even snakes – but mice, eww.
Tonight at youth club, a girl (I’ll call her Katie) came up to me and informed me that she was protesting. I asked Katie what she was protesting against, and she responded, disgusted “he’s going to let Catholics into a church!” The ‘he’ the girl was referring to was Chris, Fortwilliam & Macrory’s new youth and community development worker. Evidently, the kids were asking Chris whether he would let a Catholic into the youth club, and Chris told them that if a Catholic child showed up and felt safe enough to come into the youth club, he would absolutely allow them in. Well, this outraged some of the kids and they made signs and yelled stuff like “you’re a taig lover!” to Chris. Let me pause for a minute and explain something: ‘taig’ is an Irish word for ‘rat,’ and is also used as a very derogatory term to refer to Catholics. Anyway, I was not sure how to respond to Katie. I tried to play the ignorant American card and ask her why she wouldn’t want a Catholic at youth club, but she was too angry to listen to what I was saying and just continued to vent. So I let her; I just listened to her go on about how ‘pissed’ she was at Chris (her words, not mine) and how he must not be a Christian if he would allow Catholics in a Protestant club. I kept thinking, “what are you so scared of? Why would you be afraid of a child who is just like you. They’re not going to hurt you, not any more than any of the other children here.”
Fear is a funny thing. I am so scared of mice. Why? Because they’re dirty, they sometimes carry diseases, they could bite me. Have any of these things ever happened to me? No, I’ve just heard about them. And hey, my mom is scared of mice – why shouldn’t I be?Katie is afraid of Catholics coming to her youth club. Why? Because family and friends of hers may have been hurt by Catholic groups during the ‘troubles.’ Has she seen any of that in her lifetime? No. She’s scared because of what she’s heard too. Granted, being scared of loosing your life or getting seriously injured because of political differences is a lot more serious than my fear of mice, but the same concept applies: There’s no moving forward if we hold on to our fears. Sometimes we need to take chances. Kevin thinks that I should take a chance by getting gerbils to keep as pets (I am not convinced). Maybe a chance the kids at youth club can take is to at least tolerate a Catholic child or two at youth club. Maybe we’ll see that our fears really aren’t all that threatening.
Well, just in case you were wondering – Kevin and I got home from youth club tonight and found our furry friend had been caught in one of the traps. Despite the humane trap, little mousey was dead. We gave him a proper burial (okay, not really, Kevin wrapped him up in a plastic bag while I cowered on the couch hoping that none of the mouse’s relatives were going to show up for a funeral, then Kevin threw the mouse in the bin outside). Whew, what a day!
4 December 2008
What a week! So last Thursday, I hurt my back, and then I got the flu (or some sort of bug), so I stayed in bed for a couple of days. Found out really quickly that Northern Ireland and the U.S. share this similarity: their daytime TV is crappy. So, after a few hours of Judge Judy, sleeping, and drinking my weight in apple juice – I am feeling much better. I am determined not to get sick any more, since it seems like I always at least have a cold or something – so I have completely sanitized our apartment, am taking vitamins, and am washing my hands like my life depended on it.
Like many of you, people here are busy getting ready for Christmas. Lights have gone up all over the place – Belfast’s city centre looks absolutely gorgeous. I’ll try to take a picture and post it. I just found out last week that something very exciting is going to be happening at the church in a couple of weeks – we’re getting a HUGE Christmas tree to put in front of the church! Lesley, the minister here at Fortwilliam, had this dream that someday the church would put up this huge Christmas tree on the front steps and then people from the community could come for the lighting of it and sing carols and drink tea or whatever. The idea was brought up at a Covenant Counsel meeting (The Covenant Counsel is a group of people from Fortwilliam & Macrory Presbyterian Church and Holy Family Parish, a local Catholic church, that was deliberately formed to form solid, cross-community relationships between the two churches). Anyway, the counsel must have thought it was a good idea and decided not to wait, but to do the tree this year. I’m siked – I love Christmas trees and communities coming together and all that Christmas mushy stuff. So, if you’d all pray for the people planning this event and that it is truly something that can bless the community in North Belfast – we’d greatly appreciate it!
Well, I need to get going. I’ll be posting new pictures momentarily. Miss you all!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am missing you all - but don't worry, Doug is having all of the YAVs (and a few others) over on Saturday to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast. I just wanted to share an article with you that I wrote for the church's magazine. Enjoy!:
When I was a little girl, I was taught this about Thanksgiving: In a quest for religious freedom, the Pilgrims sailed from England on the Mayflower and settled at Plymouth Rock in what is now known as Massachusetts. They wore all black with white bonnets for women or black hats with buckles for men (please see pictures on the left for an example). Their first winter in Plymouth Rock was very difficult, and many people in their new settlement died. The next spring, the Pilgrims befriended friendly Native Americans who taught them how to plant and harvest corn (among other vegetables). That autumn the Pilgrims had a great harvest, so the Pilgrims and Native Americans sat down together and had a great feast to thank God for their harvest.
This story, although lovely, is hardly reflective of what truly happened or why people all over the U.S. really celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Most people in the States would say that Thanksgiving is the day where we give thanks (to God or whatever “higher power” in which you may believe) for all that we have. We tend to ignore, though, what was truly in our history – taking land from the Native Americans, brutally killing tribes of people, forcefully making them move hundreds of miles away from the homeland of their ancestors. Isn’t that a little ironic? We thank God for the bounty we are given, but conveniently forget that our “blessings” have come at a great cost to others.
Personally, I like to remember the romanticized version of the story; it brings back memories of past Thanksgivings where I would dress up as a Pilgrim girl and my brother would wear a paper head band with feathers on it and a vest made out of a paper bag and sit down to dinner as a Native American. I think it’s only human to want to remember the good and try to forget the bad. My hope is that some day reality and ideals meet; that someday my kids, or grandchildren, or even great-grandchildren, will be able to look back on Thanksgivings of the past and be thankful that there is truly reconciliation between people of different races, ethnicities, religions, political parties (God help us!), and so on. That is the prayer of this American on Thanksgiving this year.
23 November 2008
Yesterday (Saturday) was the best day I had in Northern Ireland so far. Melanie, a woman who goes to the church, took us up the Antrim coast to see the Giant’s Causeway and Carrick-a-rede. It was GORGEOUS! Melanie’s friend Heather also came along – and the four of us had a great time. I don’t think I’ve laughed as hard or as long as I did yesterday in a loooong time. Melanie and Heather were great tour guides, and just nice to be around. I really appreciated having a day where I did not have to think about anything associated with volunteering, and I came back exhausted, but refreshed and ready to tackle the ‘American’ breakfast fundraiser Kevin and I organized for this morning (I put up some pictures from the excursion on our ‘pictures’ page – so check them out!).
This morning before church we had a breakfast to raise money for The Point (that’s the church’s youth group). It was advertised as the ‘American’ Breakfast, so we tried to make it as American as possible serving chocolate chip pancakes, Aunt Jemima’s syrup (which we had to get shipped to us from a shop on eBay), brewed coffee (they more often drink this nasty Nescafe stuff over here – yuck), eggs, ‘streaky’ bacon (they eat more of a Canadian-style bacon here), and sausage. People liked the food and as far as I know no one got food poisoning, so all in all I would say the breakfast was a success! We raised at least £140 too, so that will help us pay for our retreat this coming April. Our next fundraiser will be to cut Kevin’s hair – should be fun ;-)
I think that’s all I really have to say right now. I’m trying to determine where I should go for grad school next year. I’m pretty sure that’s what I want to do once I go back to the States, but not sure where, so if you’d keep praying about that, I’d appreciate it.
16 November 2008
Highlights from this week:
Monday
- Chris (the church’s new Youth and Community development worker), Kevin, and I got to go to Clements for lunch. Clements is a coffee shop place with really good paninis and soups and stuff – its one of my favorite places to go here,
- I got my haircut. I went to a beauty school in town and the first person I see is one of the moms who attend the Parents and Toddlers group I help with on Thursdays. It was nice to see here AND I really like the hair cut!
- By chance, Megan (another YAV) was in the city centre the same time I was (also getting her hair cut), so we got some coffee and caught up.
Tuesday
- Nursery. Always a highlight – I love working in the nursery school at the Trust. One of the women working there, Anne Marie, is letting me borrow a really pretty dress (plus accessories!) for the Christmas formal I am going to in December. Now we just have to get Kevin sorted…
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Wednesday
- Afterschools. I played a game of football with a couple of boys, which was really fun, and it seemed like we bonded, even just a little.
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Thursday
- My schedule worked out really well. I was supposed to have a parents and toddlers group all morning and then go to WAVE Trauma for the afternoon, which stunk because I needed to print the church magazine and had no time to do it. However, only one parent/toddler pair showed up for the group in the morning, so I was off the hook for that, and I just got kind of an introduction at WAVE, so I only had to be there for like half an hour, giving me plenty of time to print the magazine.
- WAVE. This was my first week at WAVE trauma. It’s an organization that was started to help people who have been effected by The Troubles. I found out that I would be able to help with their weekly women’s lunch. So, I’m pretty excited about that.
Friday
-Dinner with Megan and Emily (two YAVs). Megan’s church did this 24-hour prayer thing from Friday to Saturday. Emily, Kevin and I agreed to help cover some of the early morning hours, so we were praying from about 2:30-7am on Saturday morning. It was actually really neat – they had different stations set up for adoration/praise, thanksgiving, confession, intercession, and supplication; and there were different resources at each station to help guide and enhance our prayers. I prayed for about 2 hours and didn’t even get to all the stations – it was a really great experience.
Saturday
- I had a really great conversation with one the girls at Youth Club. The kids were talking about being in the “bad book” at school, so I started asking some questions about what that meant, and how they got in the bad book, and what their punishments were and things like that. Anyway, one girl told me that she was put in the “bad book” because she had written that her teacher was (excuse the language) a “cheeky bitch.” I asked the girl why she had written this and she said that the teacher had told her that her story wasn’t good enough. I said that it must have been very frustrating to have worked hard on something and then it not be good enough – she said it was and that she told her teacher she wouldn’t do any more work for the rest of the year. We got talking about some of the girl’s feelings about school and stuff, it was really cool – another bonding experience.
Sunday ¬
- After church, one of the members of the congregation that I had not met came up to me and offered to take me and Kevin on a drive up to the North coast of Ireland to see the Giant’s Causeway and the Antrim coast and stuff, which we have not yet done but have really wanted to.
Tomorrow all of the YAVs and Doug are going on a retreat to County Fermanagh for a few days, so I’m looking forward to that. That’s all for now!
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