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. 

Spellbound by County Donegal

Today I went on a day trip into Donegal with Rachel, Emily and Leann. I’ve wanted to go into Donegal since I got to Northern Ireland, and the women at the information center suggested Buncrana since it was only a 35 minute bus ride away and cheap. We took the bus at 10am this morning and upon arrival at Buncrana we went in search of the Buncrana Castle (we didn’t know this existed until we saw it on the tourist information in town) only to find out that it was more of a keep and we were walking in the wrong direction. However, we finally got going in the right direction and enjoyed a beautiful walk by a small river on our way to the keep. The keep was definitely a little bit of a letdown, but the scenery was so beautiful it didn’t matter.

The walk to the keep

After checking out the keep we went into town to find a taxi to take us to Fort Dunree, a women in a local store called the taxi for us and we were picked up ten minutes later by William. It was a pleasant drive to Fort Dunree and the trip there and back only cost us €15, which split between the four of us was a steal!

Fort Dunree was by far my favorite part of the day. The fort itself is impressive, but the views around the fort will take your breath away. The fort looks out over Lough Swilly which opens up into the Atlantic Ocean. We walked around the grounds for awhile and found a spot with amazing views. I couldn’t stop taking pictures! I wanted to remember every moment. It was definitely another moment when I realized how happy I am to be able to participate in this trip.

Fort Dunree

A view from our walk

I really can’t say enough about Ireland, I absolutely love this country and all it has to offer. I already can’t wait to come back and explore more on my own.

I'm obsessed with this picture
and I am also becoming more and more impressed
 by my ability to take awesome pictures haha :)

Observing to learn

I’ve finally had time to write again! We had our class exam this week so we’ve been studying since this weekend for the test that was on Wednesday. It took me two hours to take the test (some people took 3 ½ hours!), but I finished it and felt good about it. J Wednesday night we celebrated Ian’s birthday so we went out to dinner and then a big group went out later to a local club called Metro. I was really exhausted so I didn’t end up going out, but I hung out with them before they left.

Since we finished out exam we will no longer have any formal class, for the next week we will be “participatory observers” as our professors put it. We are learning by observing. To start off this observation we had four speakers today. All of the speakers were people who are involved in the peace process and in community building. It was really fascinating to hear their stories. One man talked about being in the midst of Bloody Sunday, and one of the younger women talked about how her dad had always searched the car before they went out as a family to look for bombs. He worked at the local prison and was therefore targeted by the IRA for his work. It was amazing to hear what they had all experienced and how that lead to them being involved in the peace process. Two of the speakers work with youth to reduce sectarianism and violence, one worked in interface communities (communities were catholic and protestant neighborhood bump up against each other) and the last speaker worked with the parade commission. There are 3,800 parades in Northern Ireland every year and each parade must be registered and the police and commission must check to make sure the rout and the purpose isn’t too contentious. All of their stories were engaging and fun to listen too. I have yet to meet anyone here who doesn’t have an interesting story to tell.  

The next week is devoted to “participatory observation” and then after that we start our training with the Junction. We will be learning about how to facilitate dialogue and will receive a certificate of completion at the end of our training. I am excited to see what goes into professional facilitation and to get some experience facilitating, it will also look great on my resume! J

Painting a picture: The Bog Side Mural Walk

Today began like every other day with class in the morning followed by lunch. Today’s class focused on the communication side of the course. The class I’m taking here is both a political science class and a communications class. The political science part of the class helps fill us in on the history of the conflict and also the politics surrounding the reconciliation process, where as the communications side of the class aims to teach us about the elements of dialogue and how symbols and language play into the reconciliation process. I enjoyed the class today because I don’t have any background in communications so it was interesting to learn about the conflict from a different academic perspective.

After lunch (meat and potatoes again haha) Catherine, Anna, Rachel and I decided to do the mural walk in the Bog Side, which is a Catholic/Nationalist neighborhood. Murals have played a large part in the public portrayal of a group’s suffering. Both the protestant/loyalist side and the catholic/nationalist side use murals to depict their beliefs, seminal events in their history and prominent figures in their community. I enjoyed looking at all the murals and learning about their significance. It was so interesting for me to see how prominent a role art has played in this conflict.

people fighting in the street.

Participants in a hunger strike

Tonight is another low key night for me. I’m going to be working on the journals we have to write for class and studying for our test on Wednesday. Please feel free to message me on facebook, comment here, or email me if you have any questions about the conflict in general or about anything I’ve written about so far. 

A depiction of the Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland

A Day of Rest

Today has been my first relaxing day since the start of the trip. A rest day was definitely in order: after falling asleep at 8:30pm last night, waking up and then falling asleep for good at 10:30pm I got a total of 11 hours of sleep and it was just what I needed.

I’ve spent most of the day so far doing homework and relaxing, I’m heading out to Weatherspoon later to have something to eat and continue studying with some friends because we have a test on Wedesday, a Professor Kelleher test - for those of you who have taken one before you know what I’m talking about.

Later tonight we’re thinking about seeing Sherlock Holmes 2 at the local Cinema, they have a student rate (£4) which even after conversion is cheaper than seeing a movie in the US.  That is something I love about being here, you can get a student rate on almost anything which helps keep the cost of staying here low. The first day we were here we got into the Tower Museum for only £2.38 which is around $3 or $4, super cheap! I wish the US had more student rates, I think it’s a great way to encourage students to participate and explore. 

Why you should always get to know locals:

Today was another busy day! We got an early breakfast and then walked over to the train station to leave for Portrush. Portrush is north of Derry and as one local put it is where only “the hearty survive”. It was very cold and windy and the people we talked to seemed surprised that we were even there (it’s definitely not a tourist season). After we got to Portrush we went to catch the bus to go to Giant’s Causeway, however we found out that the bus to Giant’s Causeway doesn’t run on Saturdays. We had just given up hope when Catherine started talking to a older women at the bus stop whose name was Wilma. She told us to call her friend Steve who has a taxi service and could drive us to the Causeway. Ian called him on a pay phone only to find out that he only had a car that fit 4 (there were 6 of us) so he told us to call his friend Sean who has a taxi bus that could fit all of us. Sean was able to pick us up 10 minutes later and we were off to Giant’s Causeway all because we struck up a conversation with Wilma! Needless to say Wilma got the person of the day award.

A picture from the train ride.

Anyway after about a 20 minute ride we arrived at Giant’s Causeway. There was another 20 minute walk down to the actually Causeway, but it went by quickly because the views were so amazing! The Giant’s Causeway has hexagonal shaped rocks which were formed by lava and salt flows. It is a world heritage site and is also considered by some to be the 8^th wonder of the world. It was so great to walk around the Causeway and take pictures, it was crazy windy and cold, but so worth it.

Giant's Causeway

Giant's Causeway

After visiting the Causeway for a couple hours we went to the Dunluce castle to take a couple quick pictures and then went back to Portrush for lunch. After lunch we walked around for about 45 minutes and then caught the train home.

All in all the day was amazing. For a little while before I came here I had a hard time justifying paying so much money to go to Ireland for a month, but after three full days here, I’ve seen and done so many things that make it completely worth it and I can’t wait to see what the next three weeks bring!

Day Two: The Wall

It is almost the end of day two and it has also been insanely busy! We had class again from 9:30am-1pm followed by lunch (I'm pretty sure I'm going to be eating meat and potatoes everyday). After lunch Anna and Ian and I decided to explore the wall of Derry. Derry is the only city in the UK which is completely walled.  There is a lot of history behind it and there are great views of the city outside the wall. We also stopped into a protestant church just within the walls called St. Columbs. The church was build in the 1600s and is very beautiful. Some of the stained glass dated back to the 1800s while other windows were made with modern stained glass because a car bomb in the 90s blew out some of the windows of the church. We had a good conversation with the man at the front desk of the church he gave us a little history about the church and we got to talk for a little about the Troubles. 

After we left the church we finished up walking the wall and then went to the information center to figure out our trip for tomorrow. We are planning to travel up to Portrush to visit the town and the Giants Causeway. The woman at the information center, Jane, has been so helpful to everyone in our group, she knows that we're staying for the month so she promised she would keep us in mind and if she thought of any cool trips she would contact us.

Currently we are back at Weatherspoon, having dinner and catching up on emails and stuff. I think tonight will be a low key night for me because I haven't had a chance to rest since I got here! I've had such a great time getting to know the city and the people, even if I have been exhausted!

I wanted to finish up the post with a few pictures from the wall, I'll have more on facebook so make sure to look at that too! 

Welcome to Northern Ireland!

Well I’m here in Northern Ireland! 

Not going to lie the travel to Northern Ireland was difficult what with a 9 hour flight to London another 1 hour flight to Belfast and then a 1 ½ hour bus ride to Derry, however it was worth it because I’m in Northern Ireland! J The city we’re staying, Derry, is a nice small city, almost everything is within walking distance so we don’t have to worry about transportation too much. 

The Bog (a majority catholic neighborhood) 

Yesterday was our first full day here and it was busy! We had breakfast at 9:00am followed by class from 9:30-1pm. I’m not going to lie, it was a little brutal to have class for that long after sitting for most of the day before hand. I just wanted to get out into the city! After class we had lunch at 1pm and then we had the afternoon free. I went with a few people to the information center to find out about different places to visit and things to do in Derry. After we finished at the information center we went to the Tower Museum which chronicles the history of Derry. It was a very interesting exhibit, but we only made it through the first floor because there was so much information! We got a good student rate on admission so I think we’re planning on going back sometime next week. They had a lot of good information on the Troubles and the partition of Northern Ireland which is very helpful for our class. After the visit to the Museum I went back to the hotel to take a little nap before we went out to dinner. We went to this place called Weatherspoon which is kind of like an Applebee’s, but the food was cheep (only £3.89 for a sandwich and fries) so we will probably be back there a lot because we want to stay cheap. 

After dinner we went back to our room for a little and then headed out to a local pub to listen to some live Irish music. The pub was just what you think an Irish pub should look like and I had a blast! We met a couple guys from Australia and a couple people who live in Derry. I had a really fun time, but I'm a little tired today because we stayed out until 12:30am and since I'm still adjusting to the time change I ended up waking up at 6am this morning. 

The Guild Hall Tower