Adventure of every shape and size

The days here have been continuously diverse and overflowing with people and experiences.

Here are some snippets.

I went to the Giant's causeway; the main tourist draw on the coast. To summarize; crazy rock formations the locals blame giants for. In the photo I am laying on the giants boot. The other attraction is a rope bridge to a little Island that the fisherman used to cast their nets. Its amazing what tourists will pay money to do, walk across a sturdy, 50 ft bridge. So I did it and took a photo.

I worked with two groups this last week vastly different and equally exhausting.

The first were two schools from Belfast, one catholic and one protestant. The purpose was cross community connections. We did team building exercises, and group discussions, where they explored stereo types and were able to ask questions of each other. It was fascinating to here what they assumed about each other and their thoughts on the current political things. Most worked hard to be politically correct but eventually were more honest. We ate meals with them, played games and had a talent show. Only on the last day did they begin to mix on their own. It was eye opening to hear things like how they felt the peace walls were necessary to stay happy, or how terrified to see the other sides flag. As the token American, I spent many meals and walks explaining how very few, if any Americans live like MTV shows, to the hopeful young girls.

The second group was women and children refugees from Zimbabwe, Sudan, Somalia, kamaroon and the Irish women and children that also live in the government housing with them. The women come here to have a break from life and create connections with each other. So the task for myself and the 4 other volunteers was entertaining and keeping the 40 kids alive. These kids are not used to having supervision, rules or someone paying attention to them. I thought often of my friend Danielle, in Portland, who lives and works with refugees and I have decided I will nominate her for saint hood. It has been a long time since I have been that exhausted. From 8am to 12:30am, Friday- Sunday we herded chaos with games, cookies, music and whatever else we could think of. It was of course rewarding as well to love on these kids and their moms. There were interactions throughout that made every hair pulling ( literally and figuratively ) moment worth it. I was able to rock beautiful black babies while listening to their moms sing their native dancing, and calling songs, and the Irish women sing their folk melodies in turn.

Another time, I was sitting with the two most difficult little boys who refused to tell me their names, and only knew profanity and how to hit each other but by the end I was able to coax them into making mother day's cards.

I am continuing to spend time with the volunteers. It has been great getting to know them and do fun activities together; like mock speed dating, going to karaoke, doing dishes or cooking meals. We all went on a day outing and besides a windy viewing spot ( photo above) we went to a farm where lambs were being born!!! It was amazing to see all the day/ hour old lambs.

The people and life stories here are plentiful, which as you all know, is just my cup of tea.