Beads.

Today we got to take part in the bead exercise and I have to say it was a moving and heartwarming experience. It was incredibly fun to put together my bracelet and then share it with the members of my group. It was also such a privilege to hear the stories connected to the bracelets of my group members. The whole exercise, creating the bracelet and sharing your story, took nine hours for my group, but it was so worth it!

Below are a couple pictures of my bracelet, I don’t want to share so publicly what each of the beads stand for, but if you are interested you are more than welcome to ask me in a more private setting :)

Towards Understanding and Healing

This week we started TUH (Towards Understanding & Healing) training. We are being trained as facilitators while also experiencing how it feels to be a participant in dialogue and storytelling. The training so far has been immensely interesting and challenging. We have talked about the strengths and weaknesses of storytelling and the ethics of storytelling. We also spent part of today hearing different definitions of reconciliation and discussing our own beliefs about reconciliation.

Besides the academic side of the training there is also a very personal side to it. Our facilitators/trainers want us to experience telling our story so that we can be better facilitators. A lot of people in my class are nervous about telling their stories and so it has been a challenging and emotional two days. Tomorrow is when we will be giving a chance to tell our stories or as Maureen said, we will have a chance to jump right into the fire. The way we will tell our stories is through a bead exercise in which we will choose different beads that speak to us. These beads will be used to represent a moment or event in our lives and with these beads we will make a bracelet. After making these bracelets we will be given a chance to share with the group about our beads and what they represent for us.

I am personally excited and a little bit nervous about the exercise. I’m excited because I think it will be a great experience and will teach me about how participants feel so that I can be a better facilitator, but I’m also nervous because I don’t know what stories and experiences I want to include on my bracelet yet. Additionally, I am nervous because I know tomorrow will be difficult emotionally for the whole group. This trip has been such a roller coaster of emotions for everyone and I know that none of us expected this trip to be challenging emotionally as well as academically. However, I am willing to go through the up and down emotions because I know I am a part of something special. We have been told by so many people here that they appreciate the commitment and passion we have shown as a group and I know that all of us are leaving this trip having gone through a difficult but rewarding personal journey.

To end, I would like to finish with two quotes from today that stuck with me because I think they give you an indication of some of the ideas we have talked about today:

“My biography becomes my biology”

“We are not thinking creatures who happen to feel, we are feeling creatures who happen to think”

An eventful 24 hours

I don't know how many of you keep up on news from Northern Ireland, but I'm assuming very few of you do. :)

Last night two bombs went off in Derry, one near the tourist center and one on Strand Street both of which are not too far away from our hotel. Luckily a third party called the police to notify them about the bombs and everyone was evacuated by the time the bombs went off so no one was killed or injured.

The people who were evacuated were moved to our hotel for the night so our hotel staff was busy last night and then again this morning. When I went down to breakfast this morning there were two policemen in the lobby, one of which was, I swear, almost 7ft tall! They were there to update the evacuated residence about what they were doing and the situation in general.

Parts of the city are still closed down, but it's safe to walk around the city. The mayor of Derry stopped by the hotel during lunch today and made a point to come talk to us and assure us that everything was okay which I thought was very nice of him.

Anyway no need to worry about me! If you want any more information about the incident please check out the BBC they have a Northern Ireland news section.

Corrymeela and the ride home from Belfast

On Wednesday we traveled to Ballycastle to visit Corrymeela, an organization which works in the peace process and is a place for people to begin the reconciliation process. This was the first time during the trip that we actually got to participate in dialogue activities rather than just sit and listen to people talk about dialogue and their work with dialogue.

The view from Corrymeela

Part of the facility 

Corrymeela

We mostly played games that you would play as an icebreaker or at camp, but they all had a specific purpose in the dialogue process. For example we played four corners also know as spectrum. In this game our facilitator, Paul would make a statement and we would move to a section of the room according to our answer to the statement. One of the statements was stand on the left side of the room if you have a tattoo and stand on the right side of the room if you do not have a tattoo. Although it seemed like a pretty simple statement, after we moved he began by pointing to the people with tattoos and saying what if I took a picture of this and wrote underneath “people with tattoos”, what kind of assumptions would you make about those people? It was a great way to think about the kind of labels we attach to people and the assumptions we make about them, even if we don’t know very much about the person. It was also a good illustration of the kind of assumptions or stereotypes that we carry with us into the dialogue process and how we need to be aware of them when interacting with people.

It was definitely a learning experience! 

A picture from the ride back to Derry

Belfast Day Two

Tuesday was a difficult day for me and for the group. In the morning we heard from both an ex-republican prisoner and an ex-loyalist prisoner. While they talked to us we drove/walked through their respective neighborhoods. They were never in the bus together and only quickly shook hands when we changed neighborhoods.

The Peace Wall which separates a protestant and catholic neighborhood
It's 45.2 feet high.

For the past two weeks, I’ve felt like I had a grasp on the conflict, but after that morning, hearing about all the atrocities and seeing where they took place, I’m having a hard time understanding the kind of hate that existed in Northern Ireland that enabled people to kill so many people.

It’s hard to imagine how much anger and hatred existed and the current community is starting to see what happens when that hate is passed down to the next generation.

It was definitely a difficult and overwhelming day for all of us and a few of us even cried when we debriefed later. I think it was the first time during the trip that people started connecting emotionally to the conflict rather than just connecting to it academically. 

Day One in Belfast

Monday we traveled to Belfast and where we stayed for 2 days. We visited to see the city and heard from different speakers located in Belfast.

After getting settled into our very nice hostel, we sat down to hear from a speaker that works with a victims outreach/support group. It was good to hear about what is available for victims of the Troubles. They have support groups, training programs and programs for kids. 

The Ride to Belfast 

Our very nice hostel :)

More Murals and a Peace Bridge

Sunday was another free day so Rachel and I walked to the peace bridge, which was opened last year, and then made out way to the murals on the Waterside, which is a protestant neighborhood. The murals on the Waterside are much more focused on history and the siege rather than stories from the Troubles, which I found interesting.

The peace bridge opened last year

Protestant Mural

After visiting the Waterside we walked over to the Fountain, another majority protestant section of town. There aren’t many murals, but the curbs are painted red, white and blue for the London jack. It was interesting to see the contrast between the Bogside murals and the murals from the protestant areas and also to look for similarities between them.

Garage painted with the Londonjack 

1998 was when the Belfast Agreement was signed
and the official start to the Peace process. 

After seeing the murals Rachel and I stopped by the Sandwich Co. for lunch and then spent the rest of the day catching up on homework and research.