The Greatest Game There Is

Tuesday February 17^th 11:43pm

Today was spent at St. Aiden’s school, one which SMU has become very close to. For me, the morning session was a complete disaster. Put forty young boys in a room together and see what happens. We played a shoe game, they didn’t get it. We tried the human know, they all grabbed the same hand of a single boy. We tried to split them into groups for skits but no, of course half of them want to be with Fadi so he and I were forced to make a colossal group of rangy boys who could care less about what was going on. I was at my wits end when the Belfast newspaper finally arrived, an hour of so late, and wanted us to restart the workshop so they could see it. Luckily they settled for watching us sing the moose song three times in a row. It did not go swimmingly to say the least.

At lunch we had the opportunity to play with the grade ones outside and it as so much fun! While half of them ran around the yard with rainbow streamers, the other half attempted a bounce roll manoeuvre down a same hill on giant bouncy balls. (It’s something that is hard to explain but I have video that will make more sense.) The little boy who I chased around the yard for most of the break answered to Batman and I am happy to say that he remembered me today! I felt so loved.

Our afternoon session went so much better! The class was smaller and the boys were great. I got a lot of questions about Canada as well as which football team I supported. I also gave a few of them a geography lesson with regard to where Canada was in relation to Ireland and was then informed that Russia has a button that if pressed would destroy the world. Also there are vampires in Pennsylvania; I think they were confusing it with Transylvania. And of course you could immediately tell that we were in a Catholic school because they coloured everything in either green or orange.

When we were let out from the school Kim and I decided to walk into town. We made a quick stop at a weird dollar store before heading to a meeting with the British Irish Intergovernmental Secretariat-sounds impressive, I know. About half our group went and we simply spent two hours with two government officials and were allowed to ask them questions about their opinions on the current situation and peace process in Northern Ireland. It was very interesting.

Afterwards the group of us went to a pub for some supper and relaxed before heading out to watch a football match. We were all excited when we piled into a cab and headed to the field. It was further than we expected but we didn’t care. When we arrived however, there was only maybe ten other people there and it definitely was not the team we were expecting. Apparently they were playing on the other side of town and we were given directions to the wrong field. We stayed for a little long and then decided to head back into town. Of course there was no pay phone at the field so we had to borrow a cell phone. Four of us decided to stay out a bit later and walked back to residence. The walk took longer than expected because we had to stop every so often so the boys could look for food and us girls could find a washroom. At one point we ran into the train station only to be told that there was a sign on the door that said there were no washrooms inside. Jessica’s only response was “Oh we’re sorry. We aren’t Americans though, just Canadians looking for a washroom!” They thoroughly enjoyed that. In all though the day started out rough and we hit some bumps along the way it turned out pretty good in the end.

“I’m Halfway to Stardom!”

Monday February 16th, 8:33pm

So toady was day one of our conflict resolution workshops and it went fairly well. In the very beginning stages of our planning we were told that we need to be very flexible with our scheduling and that showed through today. Our fist school of the day was in the Catholic part of town and instead of performing two hour long workshops were did a two hour long workshop with the classes. I have to say I loved, loved, loved our morning class. The children were so incredibly well behaved it was amazing. We started the day off with the great big moose song, which we immediately had to stop when we realized that they weren’t doing the actions because their teacher had forgotten to give them permission to get up from their desks. This opening was followed up by two more games as well as a skit and discussion about the meaning of empathy. To make sure that the kids understood the idea of empathy, Jessica gave them the example of knowing how it felt when a friend was sad about a goldfish dying because Jessica’s hamster died the year before. While it might be a good example of empathy it did not yield the desired effect. For the next ten minutes, instead of giving examples of empathy in action, we were told storied about family pets dying. We decided for the next class the example would be forgotten gym shoes, not dead pets. However one of the boys did say that he could relate to how his friend felt when his uncle was shot because the boy’s uncle had also been shot and yet another little boy said that he could relate to his friend’s feeling of sadness after his sister was killed because he didn’t see his sister a lot and it was almost as if she were gone. These were the kinds of stories that they easily said but broke your heart and even though we had been “preparing” for moments like these you still don’t know what to do.

Since we had so much time we decided to get the kids to make their own skits about empathy too and asked if any of them liked drama. One boy, who later happened to be in my skit group, shot his hand up and said “I’m halfway to stardom”. Apparently he has been in four school board magazines for his amazing acting skills. While we worked on our skits we talked with the children and learnt their names. I was unable to pronounce the name of another boy in my group. I thought I was getting it right but he did not seem to think so. It’s funny because even simple names like Colleen and Britney sounded completely different when they said it compared to when I did and I’m not sure how many times I received the “you are butchering my name” look. My amazing group came up with the idea of showing empathy through a skit in which we are all playing on our Nintendo DS’s when all of the sudden someone’s battery dies. To express how empathy could be used in this situation, one of the girls lends him her extra charger because she knows what it feels like the have a game die on you. Apparently pokemon is still really big in Ireland because that’s what the boys wanted to incorporate into our skit but it was vetoed by the girls at the table.

I also bonded with one of the other girls by making a comment about how pretty her Hannah Montana pencil case was. I was then regaled with the tale of how she meet her because the girl’s cousin won VIP passes to see Hannah in London and she even got an autograph. I then shared my Hannah Montana linkage which comes in the form of a certain friend for whom I purchased a wig so that she could pretend to be Hannah Montana at the gym. I’m not going to name any names but you all know who I’m talking about.

At the end of the workshop we had a lunch break and then headed to our second school of the day which was over in a Protestant area of town that was greatly impacted by the conflict. This school was very different from the previous one. It didn’t feel as welcoming and our time was cut a little short. It was interesting to compare the two schools and realize that the Catholic school had a bunch of statues and crosses where as in the Protestant school I didn’t see any. The fact that the atmosphere at each school differed immensely was probably due the backgrounds of each school. The Catholic school was in an area removed from the majority of the violence while the Protestant school was located along an interface, in an area which was full with fighting. In fact we were told that many of the children at the school had parents who were either in or had spent time in jail. The other group at the school found that most of the children in their class were not responsive to their activities and appeared to be very withdrawn. You can definitely see that though the majority of the fighting has stopped, the conflict continues to take a toll on the children.

Once the workshops were finished and school was let out for the day, Kim and I decided to walk back to the downtown area to check out the tourism booth and then walk back to the dorm. It seemed like an okay idea in the beginning but I think after a few minutes we realized how tired we actually were. We have honestly been walking for the past three days and probably should haven taken a break. Instead we decided to walk for another hour and a half and with every step my legs screamed out “why the heck are you still walking?!?!” We were very relieved when we arrived home and could rest. For the rest of the evening we have just been relaxing, talking it easy after a long first day.

Bus Tour Galore!

Sunday February 15^th 10:28pm

So today was the last day of quite honestly the best weekend imaginable in Belfast. We got up early this morning, grabbed some breakfast and headed downtown for a hop on, hop off bus tour of the city. The first stop on the route was the shipyard where the Titanic was built which honestly was cool for its significance but wasn’t really anything to look at. We did however drive passed two cranes named Samson and Goliath from which should we return this time next year, we could bungee jump! The second stop was the parliament building which was phenomenal! Apparently when George Bush visited, he started laughing as he drove up to its gates because of how much bigger it was than the American White House. The grounds were so beautiful. We were also informed that Canada was the biggest donor to the parliament building when it was built. Part of its care package included all the lamp posts on the grounds as well as 366 trees- one for everyday of the year that parliament was opened, which happened to be a leap year. We got off and spent some time roaming the yard and taking photos. There was a beautiful reconciliation statue with the names of places which have undergone major conflicts written on stones. To make things even better when we arrived at parliament there was hardly anyone else there and the sun was bright and beautiful.

The next stop on the tour was Shankill Road, a protestant area where much of the conflict that occurred during “the troubles” took place. We took some time to walk down the streets and look at the murals painted on the sides of buildings. At one point we were approached by a gentleman who seemed neither happy nor upset about us being there but merely wanted to explain the meaning of a specific mural. As we continued on our walk we soon ran into part of the “peace wall” which is a wall that was erected between protestant and catholic communities. It earned its name as a peace wall because visitors have taken the opportunity to write messages of peace and hope for the future on its surface. While there were some hateful additions I decided to only take photos of the optimistic ones because they were far more frequently written than the others. And some of the messages were inspiring and it was nice to see that people from all over the world were wishing for peace in Northern Ireland. It was a very solemn place and deserved a lot of respect.

Following Shankill Road we jumped back on the bus to visit Falls Road, which is the Catholic area on the other side of the wall. There we again saw a lot of murals and it was interesting to contrast the two sides. Both used very harsh words while condemning the other and it is easy to see how the conflict could continue. One of the girls said that it takes 10 years for every one year of war for the conflict to be resolved so after a 30 year war, Ireland still has a long way to go. And it is understandable that it would take so long, horrible things were done on both sides and they are not things one can simply forget. In this area was also what’s called the international wall where murals were painted of not only local conflicts but all so international ones. It was interesting to see how locals could identify with others who were also facing conflict.

After a long afternoon of touring and visiting these sites, we headed back into town for the rest of the afternoon. There we did a bit of shopping at Trimark which is the most amazing place ever. I bought a sweater for 4 pounds that is the most comfortablest thing ever and I refuse to ever take it off. I’m being a bit overdramatic but you get the point. Then took a ride on the Belfast Wheel which is a very large Ferris wheel except you are enclosed in a capsule. The first time around was a little shady but a few more goes and we were fine, even with the natural rocking motion of the capsule.

Back at residence we mostly relaxed for a bit and then did some prep for our workshops which start tomorrow. I think we are as prepared as we can be but honestly don’t really know what we are walking into tomorrow. It will be a great learning experience. I’ll let you know how it all goes tomorrow.

PS- Even though Belfast appears to be big we somehow managed to get on the same tour as the Scottish guy we met at the restaurant a few nights earlier. Coincidence?

Valentine’s Day on the Coast!

Saturday, February 14^th 2009, 9:19pm

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!

So today was an amazing day! I woke up to find two valentine’s cards under my door: one very loving card from my dear love Kimberley and one anti-valentine’s card, at least they balanced each other out. However to share a little more love around I wore “someone’s” Build-a-Bear valentines shirt which reads, “Love is the stuff inside”. (Awww) Once we were all ready we headed down for breakfast at the meal hall. While waiting in line, the ladies who were serving us asked Jessica if she was American of Canadian which she misinterpreted as her being asked if she wanted American of Canadian bacon. It might not be funny after the fact but it definitely made our morning! Also we ran to the washroom after breakfast and found ourselves on the set of SAW 6. Now I’ve never seen the movies, only commercials but as soon as I walked into the place it screamed death!

So we hoped into a cab and headed downtown to catch our tour bus along the coastline. First stop was Carrickfergus Castle. It was very cool. We only had a few minutes to look around but a few of us ran in really quick. Next stop on the tour was Carrick-a-rede Ropebridge. Sadly the bridge is still closed for the season but again we were allowed to get out and take some pictures and stretch our legs. As we were driving along the coast we saw a lot of sheep and one key feature tended to stick out. All the sheep had spray painted butts. Blue sheep, green sheep, orange sheep too! We asked the guide the reason for this and he said it’s to tell the sheep apart. The red and blue sheep are Protestants while the orange and green sheep were Catholic sheep. Of course he was lying but we still enjoyed the story. I have decided that should I ever have a sheep I will spray paint it too. Also one thing that I noticed while on tour was how fake our houses look back home compared to the ones in Ireland. Here everything is made of bricks and stone, not flimsy plastic siding. Maybe that doesn’t make any sense, you’ll all just have to come to Ireland and experience it.

The Giant’s Causeway was up next and it was amazing!! The Causeway is below the road so we decided to take the cliff pathway down. Key note to remember when in Ireland, there are no side rails!! As we walked across the top of this gigantic cliff there stood nothing between us and certain death on the rocks below. It was kind of unsettling. Down at the bottom we found the Causeway and it was incredible. All the stones are such perfect shapes that it’s hard to believe it’s manmade. After taking a million group photos and braving our way to the top of the mound we headed back to the top of the cliff for some eats and shopping. A very interesting theory I learnt today about the Giant’s Causeway. The locals will tell you that it is in fact man made because it was built so Finn McCool could walk over to Scotland and battle his rival. While some might quickly dismiss this idea the Causeway does look like steps leading into the ocean and apparently the same rock formation can be found on the other side of the water, in Scotland. I think I will need to do some further investigation on this matter, aka visit Scotland in the near future. Instead of food, Kim and I settled on chocolate mint ice cream, which was delicious.

Another tidbit about the drive to the Causeway, there are signs everywhere warning you the rocks might tumble down the massive cliffs and pulverise your car…at any minute. Good times.

Our next stop was at the Bushmills Distillery where Kim and I got kicked out of a phone booth. It was one of those stereotypical classy red ones and we wanted to take a picture and make a call but apparently we were not allowed down that way. The last stop on our tour was a photo opt at a the ruins of Dunluce Castle. The castle has been uninhabited for a while, I suppose since that time when there was a lightning storm and the castle’s kitchen fell into the sea below. The only other stop we made was to take some photos at a very beautiful beach. The coastal drive was amazingly beautiful; the green hills, blue ocean and multicoloured sheepies.

Back in town Kim and I grabbed something to eat and then decided to walk back to the dorm instead of taking a cab. It turned out to be quite a long walk but we made it most of the way by memory from the day before. A girl even asked us for directions and we were able to direct her to our destination. How sweet are we? The whole walk we only made one wrong turn, which led us down a dark residential street, which turned out to be a dead end. And of course to make things even more like a horror film, we were being followed by two guys, who just happened to turn off in the dark woods and disappear. Creepy!!

After such a long day of adventuring and walking, a bunch of us decided to relax in the lounge and watch Ferris Buellers Day Off. I’d say it was a pretty packed day.

Friday the Thirteen: Welcome to Belfast!

Friday February 13^th, 2009 10:30pm

 

So here I am, sitting in my dorm room after my first day in Belfast. It has been a ridiculously long day which I suppose started last night. Scheduled to fly out at 11:45pm, Ben drove Kim and I to the airport for 9pm, where we met up with the rest of our group and checked in. Moments after doing so we were informed that our plane was being delayed in Montreal and would therefore be late. We figured that we could tough it out and set off about the airport in search of things to do. Thankfully Holly provided us with Rusty, a little TY doll with whom we are to take multiple pictures. Inspired by this, Kim and I set off on an adventure throughout the terminal taking pictures of both Rusty and Seamus the Husky, our official trip mascot. After completion of our mission, Kim and I returned to join the group, only to find out that our flight had again been delayed. A few hours later we were a pretty sad sight: fourteen university students sprawled out on the floor too bored to do anything but be bored. Finally, just after 2am, our plane arrived and we quickly boarded. As you could probably assume most of our flight across the ocean to our first stop in London was spent sleeping. By the time we landed in London our four hour lay-over had been reduced to a mere thirty minutes. As we began to plot out how in the heck we would actually make our connection the only logical options appeared to be:

1)      Link arms and run “Home Alone” style through the terminals

2)      Form the “Flying-V” since it’s unstoppable.

(You can’t expect great plans from fourteen sleep deprived university students.)

 

Miraculously we all managed to make it from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1, through customs and security, which included a creepy eye scan and onto our connecting flight to Belfast. And to top it all off our luggage made it too! It was pretty intense. I’m sure anyone who has flown through Heathrow can attest that the thing is a maze! We were all pretty happy to have made it and again I slept through most of the flight.

 

Belfast reminded me a lot of home, namely due to the thick fog we landed in. To get to our dorm we took taxis and my driver happened to be very friendly and pointed out numerous sights along the way. It was very surreal driving down the street while he would point out that the Protestants lived on the left side while the Catholics resided on the right. While we were informed that this situation is common in the area it was still a little weird to have someone actually designate a certain area of land as being of one denomination or the other. But again, if preparation for this trip taught me nothing else, I did learn that religion is usually simply an easy way to distinguish ones self from the “other” and in a lot of ways the conflicts that go one are not religious based. I’d love to talk about the things I have learnt about the Northern Ireland conflict but right now I am too tired to do so and honestly I only know the basics. I’m sure as this trip progresses I’ll be able to share more of what I have learned.

 

Once we arrived at the university, we were given our room keys and had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. After a few of us took a quick shower we all decided to head out on a walk towards the city center. Not quite use to the whole driving on the other side of the road situation, we were extremely careful pedestrians. We stopped at a gas station to see what weird and wonderful things we could find and low and behold there was a Tim Hortons! We walked to Queen’s University and strolled the campus, perhaps along the same corridors as Harry Potter since part of the movies had been filmed there. We pretty much spent the afternoon looking like tourist and taking pictures of everything and anything. City Hall was beautifully lit up by the time we arrived in the evening and so was the huge Ferris wheel beside it. To end the evening, we made our way to a restaurant to get something to eat. There we were seated near a group of Scottish tourist who were not only enjoying their first day in Belfast but were also celebrating one of the women’s 40^th birthday. After being invited to sing happy birthday to her we were joined by one of the tourists, Doogy, who took up the position of minister of tourism and regaled us with the reasons why we simply must visit Scotland, especially Aberdeen. After a long day of travel many of us returned to our dorm to relax and get some shuteye. Tomorrow I believe we are off to the Giant’s Causeway which I am very excited about. The weekends are our free time to explore but once Monday comes we will be starting our work with the children.

 

 

PS- On a really odd and coincidental note, we discovered that Wintersleep, a band from Halifax, was actually playing in Belfast tonight.

 

PPS- I am currently having trouble getting some photos added and it is late so I will re-attempt to do so tomorrow evening.