Jason and Niki's Detours

CMO Executive Summit

2011-04-06T18:00:00.000-05:00

On April 4th I hopped on a train to the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Chicago to volunteer for an invitation only CMO Executive Summit. It was my first time in a top end luxury hotel. The first thing I saw when I entered my room on the 44th floor was a couple of skyscrapers and a lakefront view. At the conference itself most of my time was spent attending sessions. The speakers were great and I learned a lot about how CMOs interact with one another. Many larger brands were represented there such as Google, Adobe, Bloomberg and Harley Davidson to name a few. It was a quick but valuable experience.

Jason

Peacebuilding in Yambio, Sudan

2010-10-02T12:56:00.000-05:00

On Thursday September 2^nd we were sitting in the middle of our bi-monthly general office meeting at ARLPI when my programme coordinator leans over and whispers to me, “are you ok with going to Sudan next week?” It quickly became clear that the follow-up conference to Dungu (June 2010) and Kisangani (February 2010) conferences was about to start and as not enough ARLPI religious leaders where able to go, they had decided to send me. The purpose of the conference is for religious leaders to come together from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Uganda to construct a peace building strategy and position. We would be leaving Monday morning.

Then came the quick scramble to get together a visa application including passport photos. Seeing as I don't work Fridays Geoffrey, our driver, came to pick up my passport early Friday morning to be taken to the Sudan consulate here in Gulu, and I didn't see it again until an hour before we left. As usual I had to get out a map to figure out exactly where Yambio, Sudan is, at which point I realized that Yambio was right in the centre of the current LRA occupied areas of Sudan on the board with the DRC and CAR. Hum... No one seemed to think there were any real security issues and so I followed their instincts. Although I was flying by the seat of my pants I knew I was being offered a great opportunity.

At five Sheik Musa Khalil (ARLPI's Muslim representative and the head of the Muslim community here in Gulu), myself, Geoffrey (ARLPI's driver) and one of project officers left in the ARPLI truck for Arua where we would stay for night before flying out the next morning. We arrived at 9:30pm in Arua, dropped off Sheik at his friend’s house, at which point the argument about where I should stay began. The two guys wanted to put me in a nicer hotel where I would be comfortable and safe, I on the other hand didn't want to be left alone in a new city. We ended up compromising by finding two hotels next to each other, one which was clean and had a self contained room and the other which was a disaster but cheap. You can guess who took which one.

In the morning we rose and left for the airstrip. About an hour after the scheduled departure time our chartered flight arrived. The Sheik and I boarded the small 15 passenger plane and off we went down the dirt runway. For the hour and fifteen minute flight we flew over the dense equitoria forest of the DRC and Sudan, it quickly became obvious to me how easy it would be to hide and sustain a rebel force in such a landscape. While we got an exit stamp in Arua, when we arrived in Yambio we simply walked off the plane and into the waiting car that took us to the Catholic conference centre, no security or immigration. The centre itself was a very simple but comfortable environment, after some time I was given a room that included a bed with a decent holeless net (not something to downplay the importance of), a folding chair and a bathroom. There was no running water so it was sponge baths and bucket flushing for the week. The conference staff were very friendly and accommodating. I went in search of a conference program and Sudanese phone-card in order to communicate to those back home. Upon looking through the schedule I quickly realized that we would not be returning home on Thursday, in fact it would be no earlier than Saturday. My first thought: at least I have enough malaria pills with me, underwear are washable.

Tuesday we were taken on a bus tour through Yambio, a town smaller then Gulu, but definitely an urban centre. We stopped briefly to speak with a group of internally displaced persons (IDPs) that had fled only two days before from LRA attacks about four miles out of town. That was the first time that the fact that I was now in an ongoing violent conflict context hit me, something that was evidenced again and again through out the week. On our return some of the religious leaders brought the IDP group a big sack of millet flour. An appropriate gesture I thought as it seemed wrong to be having a conference on how to handle the LRA situation with IDPs starving practically on our door step. Wednesday through Friday were the core days of the conference which were spent in a lot of dialogue, debate, and group discussion. Saturday morning we were driven to the airstrip at which point we still didn't know where the plane was dropping us off. I arrived home at 12:00 midnight after taking a car, plane, bus, boda, and collective taxi. I arrived home exhausted, sick, and feeling about ten years wiser in the world of peacebuilding and so so grateful that I'd made the trip.

My role in the conference quickly multiplied from that of doing documentation work for ARLPI and supporting the Sheik. It quickly became evident that my organizational and documentation skills would most likely come in handy. I quickly got pulled in to work closely with the funders from Pax Christi and CRS in tasks like producing the summary for the following day from the previous day, and writing the declaration and implementation plan which was a new and interesting experience for me.

I choose not to speak up in the general assembly meetings as I didn't think it was appropriate, but in the smaller group discussions I found my voice and opinions were often welcome since there were only two of us representing Uganda and ARLPI. ARLPI is perceived as the most experienced group and is truly sought after for its advice. On the one hand I'm tentative about speaking on behalf of an organization I've only worked with for three months, on the other hand I feel like they have so much experience it has to be passed on and as the documentation officer it's my role. I also found that my experience and knowledge of different conflict contexts came in handy. A particularly area of interest is the area of community protection from a non-violent standpoint. They had never heard of groups like the Non-Violent Peace Force or CPT and although those groups may never come or might not find the context appropriate for their work or simply might not have the resources, and they can't prevent deaths from occurring, they definitely won't come if not invited. I tried hard to invite them to think creatively about solutions, seeing as they were very stuck on supporting community defense units.

I remember one of my professors being very skeptical (though he did say he was growing less so) about the amount of influence a civil society group could have during the height of a conflict in terms of moving track 1 negotiations forward. In the Ugandan context I’m completely convinced that civil society is the only reason that negotiations moved forward in 2005/2006. The peace process had very little to do with the UN or foreign governments initially, though they played key roles through out the talks. It was fascinating for me to be part of a process from which new negotiations may or may not be a fruit. The conference concluded that negotiations are the most preferable option in reaching for sustainable peace. This means that many of the actions included in the implementation plan are aimed at initiating negotiations. I’ve gone from the classroom where we were following news clippings and trying to guess at which stage of the negotiations track Israel/Palestine were on, to being in the middle of an active group trying desperately to figure out how to move forward. This week I was faced head on the challenge that a crisis conflict reality brings. From the first day it looked like it might be almost impossible to get 35 religious leaders to agree on a pathway forward, never mind convincing the government representatives, UNMIN representatives, SPLA representatives and others of our position and that was just during one week! Now they have the great challenge of going out and convincing four governments (five if you count the US) to cooperate on a particular pathway. It’s easy to see how a “ripe moment” could easily be passed by in the multiplicity of voices. Yet, if all voices are not listened to and included in the conversation there is a much smaller likelihood of reaching sustainable peace. I’m now sure that any peace process, by the time the paper is signed (not even including implementation) at least 10000 people have been involved in some way. I knew through the study of theory and examples that peace processes were complex, but this week just took that complexity to a new level!

I feel honored to have participated in the week and am currently enjoying seeing implementation steps slowly being taken forward.

Murchison/Kabalega Falls National Park

2010-09-16T12:39:00.000-05:00

Brent, Andrew, Geraldine and myself spent two days in Murchison Falls National Park. Nothing went as planned, but we forgot all of that when we toured the park. It was an amazing place. Here are some pictures of the park. Jason

BOSCO Uganda

2010-08-04T03:49:00.004-05:00

While I am here in Northern Uganda I have been volunteering for BOSCO Uganda. BOSCO stands for Battery Operated Systems for Community Outreach. It is a young organization started on the premise that communication through the internet in rural Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps can help in peace building and development here in Northern Uganda. There is a feeling of isolation in the IDP camps and BOSCO wants to "break the silence."

When BOSCO begins training trainers in the communities they have to start from the basics. To many people here, a computer is a "mystery box," but after training they see it as a communication tool. For the community it is cheaper than cell phones and because of the internet there are many other advantages, such as online newspapers, wikipedia, google search and social networking.

Right now the amount of computers does not meet the demand so BOSCO is hoping to expand. While I am there I am helping to develop and implement a Monitoring and Evaluation system, extend the training manual and help with the training of trainers. It is exciting to be a part of a young and growing organization that opens up the world of possibilities in the rural areas. You can visit boscouganda.com for more information.

School District Song and Dance Competition

2010-08-01T04:04:00.004-05:00

The first weekend I was here Niki, Karin and myself hopped on the back of three boda boda's and headed to a nearby school. At the school was a yearly primary school song and dance competition.

"Boda" or "boda boda" is the Acholi word for motorcycle or motorcycle taxi. Aside from walking, it is our most common mode of transportation here in Gulu. There is no seat back on these motorbikes, nor do we wear helmets (even though the driver does when the police are near). In North America we often hold on to the person in front of us; here, that is inappropriate. My initial fear was of falling backwards, but after a few rides I realized that the drivers are fairly reliable. To go to town from our place on a boda boda it costs 1,000 Ugandan Shillings, which is equivalent to about 50 cents US.

The primary school song and dance competition was a great cultural introduction for me. We saw both a classical choir performance and then a traditional song and dance performance. For the first part, the district choirs came and sang the same song about East Africa. According to Karin it was the most organized activity she had seen in Gulu so far. The spectators, not including ourselves, were very well dressed including some of the young children who wore full suits. The primary school performers were of many different ages. Niki figured that many of the students were unable to attend school during the war and are now trying to catch up.

The traditional dance followed a pattern but told different stories. The dance always began with a problem. The problem usually had to do with drinking or stealing and a broken relationship. Through a process the conflict was solved and at the end of the dance the music became very lively and then there would be ululation to show that everyone was happy again. The songs were sung in Acholi and we had to ask afterwards what happened.

Images of settling in Gulu

2010-07-25T10:06:00.002-05:00

This is the day after we arrived in Kampala. Oola (in the middle) is our classmate from Gulu. He met us briefly in Kampala before heading to his placement in South Africa. We were reluctant to let him go after such a short visit. He was a fabulous guide, taking us around Kampala to collect some necessities (cell phones and Ugandan shillings).

This is on the bus ride up to Gulu. The most exciting part of the trip was coming across a group of around 30 monkeys all over the road...of course the driver didn't slow down at all.

This is the evening we arrived to find our house completely empty, including no electricity. This is the electrician out trying to hook up our house at around 9:00pm. Our headlamps came in handy.

We now have electricity probably around 2/3s of the time. By the time we get home in the evening and begin dinner it's often getting dark out. When the electricity is out in the evening this is what we look like cooking. It's a one burner gas stove in the middle of our kitchen floor. Karin is cooking using our kerosene lantern in this photo.

This is part of the left over of what used to be an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp not far from Gulu. Most people have either chosen or been forced to return to their lands at this point. Currently land is one of the most contentious issues here in Northern Uganda.

"Nonprofit is a tax status, not a business plan"

2010-07-24T22:36:00.006-05:00

"Nonprofit is a tax status, not a business plan." (Board Relations) This is what I appreciated during the first month of my Master's degree at the Mendoza College of Business; an emphasis on effective business practice. For our professors it was critical that we learn how to succeed in a competitive business environment so that we can better fulfill our mission. We learned how to address problems in society by utilizing business research and skill sets.

It was a privilege to learn from both fellow students and professors. On our last day of classes I was blown away by the presentations made in class and I wish someone had recorded them. Every day I learned something new about my classmates and as time went on I became more and more impressed by everyone's accomplishments and skills. It was an intense month and many of us were separated from family, but we developed new friendships in the process.

On Tuesday I leave for Uganda. I look forward to meeting Niki at the airport on Wednesday. It is strange to think that this will be the fourth country we lived in during our first five years of marriage.

At home in Gulu

2010-07-10T10:46:00.002-05:00

Hello from Gulu, Uganda! This land of red soil and bustling life will be my home now until Dec. 16. I’m on my field experience period as a part of my Masters Degree at Notre Dame in International Peace Studies. Having completed one year of classroom study this is the perfect time to get a chance to participate in ongoing peace work and reflect on how it conflicts and agrees with the theories we’ve been studying. We spend four days a week working with an organization and the last day working on our own research. Three of my classmates are here with me: Karin from the US who is working with Human Rights Focus, Christina from Germany who is working for Caritas, and Ahmad from Iraq who is working for TASO. My other classmates have been spread throughout the world in Cape Town, South Africa, Jerusalem and Mindinao, Philippines. A few have remained in the US to work on a Thesis.

I arrived in Kampala on June 29th after a very long almost 48 hours of travel. I’m now very well reacquainted with both the Heathrow and Amsterdam airports. Karin and Christina met me in Amsterdam so that we could travel the rest of the way together. We spent a day and a half in Kampala before jumping on the “post bus” for Gulu. The most exciting part of the six hour ride was coming across a whole group of monkeys (we think Baboons) on the road.

We arrived safely to a few surprises. The house the university rented for us is beautiful. However we were surprised to find it completely empty! The landlord managed to get beds, including mosquito nets in it before night fall. We were outside with our headlamps that first night helping the electricians hook up the electricity to the house. Slowly slowly we’ve been making it feel like home. Everything we bring home has to come on a boda boda (motorcycle taxi). We are a half hour walk outside of downtown Gulu and so our surroundings feel truly rural.
For those need a quick reminder on the conflict of Northern Uganda here’s a very quick one, for those who know the conflict feel free to skip this paragraph. Note that this is very very simplified version and the actors and issues are far more complex. Uganda gained its independence in 1962 after being an English Protectorate. Many know of the horrible period of Idi Amin. However, here in the North the most recent conflict began when the current President, Musevini, took over power. Around the same period Joseph Kony start the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). There is a long history of economic and resource disparity between the north and south of Uganda, they are also made up of different ethnic groups and difference traditional governance structures. For the last 20 years the people of Northern Uganda have experience atrocities from both government and the LRA. At one point the government forced the whole population into IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps, which also became an easy target for the LRA. Internationally the LRA is known for their wide usage of child soldiers through abduction, which resulted in the phenomena of night commuters, children coming in and of town every night. In 2006 the LRA and the Government finally agreed to sit down for peace talks. In 2008 when the final comprehensive agreement was completed and ready for signing Kony walked away from the table. Musevini again responded with military force. Currently the LRA is active in the DRC and the Central African Republic, but not here in Northern Uganda. The government has forcefully dismantled the IDP camps and many ex-LRA soldiers are working at reintegration after receiving amnesty. It is currently a society struggling to rebuild after been devastated by a multi-decade conflict that may or may not be done.

I’m working with the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI), particularly with documentation and research. Feel free to browse their website: http://www.arlpi.org/ I’m very excited to be with them as they are one of the few groups who works both at the grassroots and at the political level. I’ll write more about their work and my work with them as I begin the work more in depth.

Overall life is slower here. Everything is just a little bit harder to do. This morning we washed our clothes in the tub. The people are lovely and very helpful. We’ve been making great fools of ourselves as we move through the market testing out our Acholi, the local language. Many people understand English, but are delighted when you give Acholi a try.

I believe this update is long enough for now. I’ll write again soon.

Peace be with you.

Looking Ahead

2010-04-18T09:45:00.007-05:00

Ok, so it's been a while since I've posted something on the blog and I've been inspired to write again, after all it seems like Niki and I continue to have significant detours in our life.

A lot has happened since October 30th that will determine the next year for Niki and I. For one, after having some time to reflect, and a bit of luck getting in, I have decided to take on a Master's in Nonprofit Administration here at Notre Dame http://business.nd.edu/mna/. The program is part in-class part correspondence which works out nicely, but more about that later. For the summer I have four weeks of in-class intensive courses and in the fall and winter I can take between one and three courses by correspondence and the electives may be in-class through a related program if I choose. Then the following summer I have additional in-class work and before I graduate I need to complete a project which I can't start until I have most of my coursework done. The program is set up to allow people to stay in their jobs if they wish and can be done in as little as 14 months or up to 5 years always coming back for the summer. I will try to complete it closer to the 14 months so that Niki and I can be done at roughly the same time. Courses are taught by Notre Dame's business faculty which is exciting and I expect the coursework will be equally exciting. I have already begun to study for the summer as I will have to have a lot of my reading done before classes begin as I will have tests on the first day.

In the fall Niki and I will undergo another move (which is why part correspondence works out nicely), this time to a village, country and continent neither of us has ever been to, Gulu, Uganda.

I can't tell you much about Uganda yet other than a few basics. We will be able to get by with English in Gulu but there will also be a tribal language spoken called Acholi. The temperature doesn't change much all year and stays in the high twenties and there will be a lot of local tropical fruit available. I envision myself sitting outside a cafe reading my textbooks while drinking some fresh mango juice and then taking a study break to go play soccer with a small group of people, but I can only speculate at this point. Niki will be working with a group called Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative http://www.arlpi.org/ which as I understand it is a group of religious leaders from various religious backgrounds working together for peace. Northern Uganda has recently stabilized after the long-term LRA conflict and if you are interested in learning about it Niki recommends the following as a short link for a brief history of the area http://www.c-r.org/our-work/accord/northern-uganda/index.php I guess I envision her work to be slightly more stressful than mine, but she will enjoy it. We will be living with a few other Kroc students who will be doing similar peace-related work in the area. We will be there until mid-December after which we plan to spend a month traveling with family to Kenya and Tanzania.

There is only one month left before we leave our apartment here on campus. We will be making a trip to Canada to see family and friends and at the end of June Niki will fly to Uganda whereas I will come back to Notre Dame to begin classes and then fly from Chicago to Uganda.

This semester has been busy for both of us. Niki is engulfed in her studies and I have balanced my time mostly volunteering at Ten Thousand Villages through an Internship and working part time here on campus.

So our year ahead will be transformative for sure and hopefully prepare us for whatever comes next.

Notre Dame Chorale Tour

2009-10-30T20:20:00.002-05:00

Here is the schedule for my choir's winter performances.

Nov. 13: Fall Concert at Notre Dame

Dec. 4: Messiah Performance with Orchestra at Notre Dame

Dec. 9: Notre Dame

Jan. 3: Pittsburg

Jan. 4: Washington, D.C.

Jan. 5: New Jersey

Jan. 6: New York City (free day)

Jan. 7: Boston

Jan. 8: Albany

Jan. 9: Cleveland

http://performingarts.nd.edu/index.php?page=detail&event=926

http://www.nd.edu/~chorale/

The last website needs some updates, but you can get an idea about the choir.

Jason

A distinct season in South Bend

2009-10-23T19:00:00.005-05:00

Although I have not taken too many pictures yet of the colors here in South Bend and the surrounding area, it is clear that the fall season is rich. No snow yet ;)

Day in Chicago

2009-10-23T18:46:00.006-05:00

After an eventful trip to Chicago by train we headed for the Chicago Aquarium. I had been there before with Brent and Charles some time ago. It was nice to see a large collection of aquatic life and Niki suggested that we see the dolphin show twice. We also browsed some shops and had deep dish pizza for Dinner. Before we left to catch the train again we had to stop at the lego store, just for fun.

North American Corrymeela Volunteers Reunion 2009

2009-09-30T09:56:00.003-05:00

Last weekend Niki and I drove for 4 and a half hours to visit our Corrymeela friend Marian in Fairfield Ohio. Last year Marian made it all the way to Winnipeg to visit us; this year it was our turn to make the journey. Marian's boyfriend Jimmy was in town as well so we met and got to know him as well. Unfortunately Marian fell sick with food poisoning and was sick Friday evening and most of Saturday, but we made the best of it. Some of the things we did included Settlers of Catan, going to an international grocery store and tourist attraction called Jungle Jim's, fish and chips at an Irish Pub, Cincinnati's Art Museum, a conference call with Katharina (our German volunteer) and watching "Earth." It has been two years since we left Corrymeela, there has been continent reunions so far, maybe we can start to plan for a five year world reunion in 2012.

Notre Dame 33, Michigan State 30

2009-09-20T13:39:00.005-05:00

Niki and I attended our first Notre Dame Football game yesterday along with our friend, and one of Niki's colleagues, Nuwan. There are seven home games this year and this was the second. It was quite the cultural experience as we found out, full of interesting traditions. We sat in the student section which was probably the most lively section. There was no choice but to stand the entire game because everyone else was standing.

Depending on what was going on in the game we would perform a different combination of noise, body movements and claps led by the Notre Dame marching band and cheerleaders. For instance, when Michigan State had the ball and they were on the third down everyone would jingle their keys in hopes that the sound would intimidate them. When Notre Dame scored a touch down, groups of 6 or so people would lift a lightweight spectator and push them up into the air the number of times according to how many points Notre Dame has. So when Notre Dame reached 33 points the person would be pushed up 33 times. Unfortunately Notre Dame's main quarterback, a Clausen, was injured early in the game, but they managed to win in a very intense last minute where Notre Dame intercepted the ball from what could have been a Michigan State touch down. We will probably never watch a college football game the same way again.

Upcoming Events

2009-09-17T15:45:00.003-05:00

Here are a few upcoming things happening in our lives that are a bit out of the ordinary.
Sept. 19 Niki and Jason watch Notre Dame vs. Michigan State at Notre Dame's football stadium.

Sept. 22- Oct 2 Jason volunteers with Habitat for Humanity during their blitz weeks.

Sept. 25-27 Niki, Jason and Marian have a North American Corrymeela Volunteer Reunion in Ohio.

Sept. 29 Jason learns the ropes at Ten Thousand Villages volunteer training session.

Oct. 17-25 Niki enjoys Fall Break

Nov. 13, Dec. 4, 5, 9 Jason performs with the Notre Dame Chorale

Class of 2011

2009-09-06T13:09:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note that Niki's class and a brief description of everyone can be found at http://kroc.nd.edu/people/students/masters/2011

A look at campus

2009-08-17T19:27:00.010-05:00

The path through the trees is a part of the walk/bike ride to campus from our apartment.

At the end of the grassy

part of the next picture is the athletic center where we will go for a daily swim. The next picture is the golden dome with is the main building on campus. Next, is the back of the Basilica. The lake is one of two on campus with trails around them. The colosseum shaped building is the Notre Dame Football Stadium. Students can have season tickets at a discounted rate. The tall glass in the archway looks into one of the many dining halls on campus. The mural with Jesus at the top is one of the largest libraries in North America where it holds over 300 million books. The red brick apartment building is ours with our car parked in its spot. And finally, the Hesburgh College building which is home to the Kroc Institute where Niki will be studying. There is much more on campus including an Art Museum, Post Office, Police Station and a lot of new construction projects. The campus is just over 1200 acres and is technically its own city.

New Home

2009-08-12T21:56:00.005-05:00

After many hours of driving, a fairly painless border crossing, and a night camping in Wisconsin we managed to arrive at our new apartment in South Bend. We're excited to set up our new place and see what Notre Dame University and South Bend have to offer us. Everyone seems to be very friendly and welcoming.

Farewell Tour

2009-08-09T15:33:00.003-05:00

Niki and I spent the last week on a farewell tour, making our way to Hague, Canmore, Calgary and back again stopping in Saskatoon and Regina to say our goodbye's. Our cat, Bailey, spent the whole time adjusting to life on our Aunt and Uncle's farm, which will be her new home from now on. Our home is beginning to feel empty as we pack and clean before our trip.

Onward forward to Indiana

2009-08-06T12:59:00.003-05:00

The next stage of our lives starts in precisely 6 days and an exciting stage it should be. As is true for most moves, we are largely traveling into the unknown. The first few weeks will be full of discovery.

I start orientation to the Masters program on the 16th. Jason will be filling out work permit forms during the first few days and then enjoying a holiday while waiting for the paperwork to come through. Mean while we'll discover what South Bend and Notre Dame have to offer, looking for furniture etc...

Things I'm looking forward to:

Discovering who else is in my program (it's very international)
Studying on a beautiful campus
Having experienced advisors
Building a new community

Our address for the next year is:

Apt. 227C E. Cripe St.

South Bend, IN

46637

USA

We'd love to hear from you as the year moves forward. Blessings to everyone.

In peace,

Gjoa Haven

2008-10-12T23:23:00.002-05:00

It's not everyday that someone knocks on your door and tries to sell you a polar bear tooth. But that's exactly what happened to me today; and after two weeks of being up here it almost seemed normal, or should I say, I wasn't surprised. Yes, I'm in Canada, but it doesn't feel like it.
Gjoa Haven is very far north. I am up here working for three weeks helping to build an extended care center. Slowly the people of the north are adapting to "southern" culture through new developments such as these. But thankfully there are still strong currents of inuit culture and practices imbedded in their day to day lives. It is not uncommon for some of my colleagues to skip work because the weather is perfect for sealing or hunting, or to speak in their own language with one another. They are a day to day people, attune with the moment and their surroundings; they are smart, artistic, friendly and peaceable.

Our First Home!

2007-11-21T17:07:00.000-06:00

This is our new home!!!!!!!!!! It's an aweful picture but for now it's the only one we've got. Yesterday we took the huge step into the unknown world of home owners, quite scary really. Ok, here's the description of our wee home.

It's just two blocks away from Grant Park mall, in a perfect location for me to bus to school. It's close to shopping, my pottery and more importantly, Nathan (just a 10 minute walk). It's 725 sq foot with a half finished basement. Definitely enough room to have anyone visit us who wants to. It's got a big enough backyard for us to put in a garden, which we're excited about. We're very excited and look forward to showing it off to people. We'll be moving in on January 2, just in time for me to start school the next day.

Times to Remember

2007-10-16T11:36:00.000-05:00

Niki and I made it through Canadian security with a smile from the customs officer and a "welcome home." Our journey through Spain, Italy and Germany has been a memorable one.

The pilgrimage to Santiago was full of friendly people, spectacular scenery and cheap everything. It was a good way to relax from a busy year. Our only task and distraction was walking on average 26km a day, and for Kari, Niki and Nathan this meant either bad knees or sore feet, but overall it was a great holiday.

If Spain was a good holiday, then Italy was a good study tour. We camped out in Roma most of the time seeing many of the sites such as the Forum, the Collosseum, the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's and St. Paul's Bassillicas. We also took a day tour to Pompei and Napoli.

Germany for me was a place like home. The woodwork, the flower pots and the cute decor reminded us of many Mennonite homes. I enjoyed looking at German board games in the shop and visiting Michael Sattler's old monastary in the hills of the Blackforest.

While we were in Germany we visited Rina and Alan, teammembers from Corrymeela, and stayed with Rina's family. It is always good to see people in their own contexts after getting to know them.

Finally we took a flight through England making a quick visit with Rachel Woods who we got to know at Camp Valaqua and then back on a 9 hour flight to Calgary.

In Calgary we have been reconnecting with people and sorting out our next detours in life while relaxing at the same time. We still plan to move to Winnipeg in January and be in Saskatchewan for about a month before that.

Journeying Onwards

2007-09-06T10:45:00.000-05:00

The last months have been busy and transitional. We have made many new friends through the summer program, but also have had to say many goodbyes. We will miss the people and the place and will remember stories of our time in years to come.

Currently we are on one last series of detours before heading home. August 28th was a particularly significant day because it marked our 2nd anniversary and our official leaving of Corrymeela. After leaving Corrymeela we spent a week travelling Ireland with Nathan and Kari starting from the North and finishing in the South. For Niki and I it was a time to see counties Cork and Kerry for the first time. We all spent a day walking, biking, and for Kari and Niki, horse-back riding. Right now we are in Spain in San tiago de Compostella getting in the mood for a week long walking pilgrimage. It is an ancient pilgrimage to the supposed tomb of saint James. Already we have seen many pilgrims with wooden walking sticks and clam shells.

Following the pilgrimage Kari and Nathan will head back to Canada while Niki and I head on to Rome and about a week later to Germany, London and finally Calgary.

Summer Stories

2007-08-01T16:33:00.000-05:00

Life is good here in Northern Ireland. Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams are sharing power. The British Army left the country last night after 38 years of conflict. The summer is bringing many new faces from around the world. People are coming to play at Corrymeela who have never left their neighborhood and Niki and I are planning two pilgrimages. Our first pilgrimage is going to be on the Isle of Iona. We plan to arrive on the island this Friday and on Tuesday take a free 7 hour pilgrimage tour of the island beginning at the Abbey. The second pilgrimage is going to be in Spain with Nathan and Kari Enns. The pilgrimage is to Santiago de Compostela and has been travelled by millions.

Time seems to be flying by. It's hard to believe we only have two more weeks left of work. We finish work on the 23rd of July and then have a retreat with the Long Term Volunteer team before saying goodbye. Goodbyes are common here at Corrymeela with over 8000 visitors this year alone, but the end of the year will be different. On the plus end we are finishing the year well. Niki and I now know Corrymeela like the back of our hands, we are getting to know very interesting people that have come up to volunteer for the summer, and Kristen and Philip are engaged.

As I mentioned in the last post I would write more about our family visits. Both of our families spent some time with us travelling in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, also both of our families spent time with us at Corrymeela. Niki's parents volunteered with us for the church and peace conference while at the center and my family stayed on site while taking day tours. There was much to see and do such as historical sites and beautiful scenery, but the most enjoyable was being together again with family.

On October 2nd we will arrive back in Calgary. When we get back we hope to catch up with everyone. We will be spending time in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan before the New Year and after that we tentatively plan to buy a house in Winnipeg.

June adventures

2007-07-06T05:22:00.000-05:00

The month of June has been full of events. Early in the month we had a wedding at Corrymeela. The wedding was of Kieran and Rhina who were previous long term volunteers. Rhina is from El Salvador and Kieran is from Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland. The wedding was a lot of fun and our Scottish short-term volunteer co-ordinator dressed up in his traditional garb for the occassion as can be seen in the photo above.

Niki left her mark at Corrymeela by leaving behind one of her paintings for display.

We had two memorable conferences. One of the conferences we took part in planning with 6 youth from Northern Ireland. We recruited, planned and delivered the conference and it was a success. The conference was on issues affecting young people in Northern Ireland and we had many marginalized youth attend the conference. The other conference we hosted with Niki's parents as well was a church and peace conference with participants from all over Europe and many of them Mennonites. It was the first time playing the Mennonite game with a group. During the conference we were privilaged to hear from Norman Kember who was one of the CPT delegation members captured in Iraq last year. We also chatted with his wife and heard her experience of that time.

Lastly we spent holiday time with both of our parents and my sister and Philip, but I will talk about this in another post. Needless to say June was an eventful month for us.

The first family visit

2007-06-06T13:51:00.000-05:00

Last week Tuesday Bernie, Delores, Derrick and Karina came to visit us at Corrymeela. They stayed for two nights and on Wednesday I was officially their tour guide of the northern coast. We had a lovely visit and for Niki it was an opportunity to meet Bernie and Delores for the first time. Niki and I look forward to hosting both Niki's parents and my own within the next month.

Travels in western Ireland

2007-05-31T03:59:00.001-05:00

After my initiative week I took to the West coast and did some sight seeing on my way back. My first stop was Ennis, where I was hosted by one of the workers from Irish Seed Savers. After that I left for Doolin on the coast. From there I was able to see the Doolin cave, which just opened last year and holds the largest stalectite in the Northern Hemisphere visible to the public as well as the Cliffs of Moher. I then made my way to Galway where I saw Duke's Special in concert. And finally I stayed in Letterkenny, Donegal before coming back to Corrymeela. The trip was lonely but energizing and I managed to hitch a few rides as well as meet some interesting people along the way.

Saving Seeds

2007-05-27T13:18:00.000-05:00

Last week Thursday I left Belfast for Scariff, Co. Clare for my initiative week. I spent time volunteering with Irish Seed Savers Association weeding, replacing beds, building a cob house, planting and hosting about 200 people for biodiversity day. If I were to describe my experience there in two words it would be wholesome and organic.
I felt lucky to be there during biodiversity day and during a time when they were building the cob house. I learned many new things about apple trees including how to graft a tree and make root stock. We also had discussions about weeding including which plants contribute to the tree and which do not, and philosophical questions arose among the staff about how to speak about disease and health within the orchards. My hands were dirty and the work took place within good company.
The organization is a small, grass roots initiative. Currently they hold the largest seed bank in the Republic of Ireland and sell plants and seeds to Irish gardeners in order to prevent extinction of native species. I first learned about Irish Seed Savers from an inspirational book called The Death of Life: The Horror of Extinction by Sean McDonagh. More about Irish Seed Savers Association can be read on their website: http://www.irishseedsavers.ie/ The experience was well worth it and left me with many good memories.

London Detour

2007-05-15T13:30:00.000-05:00

After the Belfast Marathon, Niki and I took flight to London. It was my first time in London, and Niki's early birthday trip. We stayed with Rachel whom Niki knew from MCC in Brazil and I had met while we were travelling in Brazil. Her flat was a part of what I would call an eco village within London, which was very interesting. Rachel's hospitality made us feel right at home quickly. In London over two full days we did quite a bit. We went to Buckingham Palace, the London Aquarium, an art exhibit on Dali, the National Gallery, a large market place and the theatre to see Evita. The trip was quick, but enjoyable. With only 3 and a half months left for our volunteer year, it feels like time is going by quickly.

Belfast Marathon

2007-05-13T17:06:00.000-05:00

On May 7th, 2007 the streets were packed for the annual belfast Marathon. The marathon began in the middle of the troubles and is said to have been a significant part of the peace process; Protestants and Catholics had to agree to allow others to run down their streets. In the past there have been bomb scares in Belfast on Marathon day and previous volunteers have talked about these, but during the race this year there was none. Very important considering the 8th was the first day of shared power between Sinn Fein and the DUP. Some of us joked that a bomb scare probably helped runners to run faster. Corrymeela every year has a team entered into the relay marathon. Kai, Robbie, Hanna, Kelly and myself were the team this year. I ran my stretch, 5.3 miles, in 45 min. Our whole team finished in 433rd place in just under 4 hours. There were 1627 relay teams and 1453 full marathon runners. A previous long term volunteer was doing the full marathon this year and finished in 182nd place. It took him 3 and a half hours. I still have a long way to go before I can do that, but the marathon was fun and we all had a good time.

Trip to Narnia

2007-05-01T16:39:00.000-05:00

Last week Niki, Christian and I packed our bags and caught a bus to Narnia. The Mourne Mountains are considered the primary inspiration for C.S.Lewis' Narnia, and thus while we were walking I couldn't help but feel like I was walking in Narnia. We camped in Tollymore Forest Park and took day trips into the Mournes. The big hike that we did was to climb slieve Donard, the tallest mountain in Northern Ireland. We began at the Bloody Bridge and walked along the waterfalls until we reached an old granite mine and eventually the Mourne Wall. We followed a section of the Mourne wall up to the top of slieve donard where we saw signs of megalithic cairns and fantastic views. The trip was great, because it allowed us to go camping and exploring with Christian in a non work environment. It also reminded me of how much I love the outdoors. When we returned we worked with the community members. One of the highlights of the weekend was when Christian and I had fun learning about the corrymeela video camera and creating a video with it for the talent show while working with the youth. The weekend reminded me of a church retreat.

Palestine, a Place of Creativity and Suffering

2007-04-28T09:33:00.000-05:00

“Come with your cup empty and let the people you meet fill it,” is what Sarah, our delegation leader, suggested. My cup has been running over for the weeks since I arrived back, sometimes literally, through tears, and sometimes through thoughts or memories, pictures and writings.
It has now been three weeks since my return from Palestine and it has taken this long for me to start comprehending all that I experienced in those quick ten days. My time with the Christian Peacemaker Teams’ delegation in Israel/Palestine was an intense, thought provoking, humbling whirl wind encounter with people, the land and God. I consider it an incredible blessing to have had the chance to spend time with such an astoundingly accepting, hospitable, resilient people. I will try to, in some sort of coherent manner, describe some of my experiences and learnings.
My desire to spend time with CPT has been a long time coming. Being raised in a Mennonite pacifist home, spending time going to marches and vigils, studying at CMU, and finally working at Corrymeela Peace and Reconciliation Centre, has all led me to a strong belief that Christians are called to stand with the oppressed all over the world in the way that Christ demonstrated, non-violently. I have often listened longingly to CPTers, returning from places of conflict, with a deep feeling that they were fulfilling an important call. This May the time was ripe, and things quickly fell into place, including finances, due to a very supportive faith community and family.
My heart was lost from the moment I stepped into the markets of Jerusalem, our team meeting place. The smells of spice, calls of shopkeepers, and the depth of history quickly captured my imagination. We wandered from the Muslim quarter, to the Christian quarter, to the Jewish quarter of the Old City. Upon first glance, often the only glance for tourists, Jerusalem is a city of great diversity living together in peace, or at least, agreed indifference. This perception was shattered in the next nine days, though Jerusalem remains a beautiful city.
The CPT delegation consisted of a beautiful diversity of people: Karen, an ex-American navy officer, archeologist, now Catholic proselyte was my buddy for the trip and kept us informed and passionate; Kelly, a public relations coordinator kept us in touch with the broader world; Deb, our meditator and lawyer, kept us in a deep space; Christopher, an English/German Quaker pharmaceutical manager, kept us laughing; Rosamarie, a 74 year old Maryknoll Sister, kept us spunky and in touch with reality; Warren, our media coordinator, kept us all humble by his continued willing to help out; Delycia, a retired teacher, kept us asking the hard questions; Sarah, our fearless leader, worked tirelessly to make the trip meaningful for all of us; And finally, me, the youngest, only one married, and only Canadian. Our reflection time together each day continually brought new insights into my time.
Half our time was spent speaking with different Israeli and Palestinian peace organizations, and half the time was spent working with the CPT teams in Hebron and Al-Tuwani. The Israeli organizations that we met with were B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence, Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, Rabbis for Human Rights, Sabeel and Parents Circle (the last two consist of Israeli’s and Palestinians). Palestinian organizations that we met with were the Hebron Land Defense Committee, the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee, Badil, and Wi’am. I’m not going to go into each in-depth though they all had a profound impact on me. I would encourage you to look up their websites. They stand up with little support looking into huge opposition, but continue to do so resiliently.
It was the times that I spoke to soldiers guarding checkpoints, the times I got pulled into someone’s home for tea, the times I stayed up late listening to someone’s story, and the times that I exchanged names with children I couldn’t understand that taught me the truth of CPT’s call. During our time in Hebron it became impossible to deny the power of simple presence. Wearing our identifying CPT red hats, we made our way through the Hebron markets towards the CPT apartment, we were surrounded by continuous cries of “welcome.” After patrolling the streets and checkpoints, four of us were pulled into a home for tea, after which we again began our walk home, just to be offered tea several more times. Upon arrival we were greeted by a traditional Palestinian meal cooked for us by Zleekha, the CPTer’s translator, upon her insistence. Again and again we experienced the hospitality of a people that have been trampled to the ground.
The Palestinian people face a continuous oppressive occupation, little of which we hear in the Western countries. The West Bank is a prison home now completely broken up by Israeli roads, which Palestinians cannot travel on; road blocks, which few Palestinians can pass through; home demolitions; an apartheid wall, which denies access to land, family, schools and medical care; settlements on stolen land; ongoing harassment by soldiers, settlers and the international community, all under the label of “security.” As Zoughti Zoughvi, Director of Wi’am, says “We have chosen hope, but hope has not chosen us, yet.”
I can remember when the reality of the occupation first hit me. We were driving through Jerusalem and all of a sudden our van stopped. The road had dead-ended at a huge wall. The wall did not even divide Palestinian and Israelis; it went straight through a Palestinian neighborhood. Then as we were standing there taking pictures, a military vehicle stopped down the road, blocking traffic and checking vehicles. It was what became know to us, as a flying check point. Putting these two realities together, the statistical picture that I had been hearing about began to come to life. The 80% of the wall that was being built within the green line, through Palestinian land, became a hard ugly visible wall. It made no sense.
In Hebron we spent time doing school patrols, during which we monitored the three checkpoints within two blocks that most teachers and students have to pass through to get to and from school. We monitored a Palestinian home that had just previous to our arrival been invaded by illegal Jewish Settlers and was heavily guarded by soldiers. We arranged and participated in a demonstration against the road closure and Settler harassment against the small community of Wadi Ghroos, which is surrounded by a police post and illegal settlements. And at one point CPTer Abigail and I were monitoring a group of six soldiers who broke successively into three different Palestinian homes.
One of the questions I’ve gotten most often since I’ve arrived back in Northern Ireland is ‘weren’t you scared?’ Absolutely, I was terrified at times. Opposing a soldier with a gun does not come naturally. My hands were clammy more then once, but more often then not, all it took was to look into the soldier’s face rather then at the gun. The Israeli soldiers are most often no more the 18 or 19 years old, and either don’t particularly want to be there, don’t know what’s going on, or are just treating it like a game. The CPTers were incredible at letting us know when to step in and when to step back, when to take pictures and when to just observe. I learnt something from each one of the CPTers. Each CPTer has unique creative styles of intervening in a non-violent manner. 72 year old CPT John humored us by stating the fact that every time he might be going into a tense situation, he stops to get an ice cream. ‘No one can hurt an old man with an ice cream cone’ he claims. The CPTer may bring humor into life, as is necessary to survive, but there is a great depth in understanding and purpose with each move they take.
The occupation was difficult to comprehend until I’d seen it, and even then I still think at times ‘it can not possibly be so.’ When I laughed at the irony of the wall at the Bethlehem checkpoint, which reads “Peace be with you,” when I watched soldiers arrest a 12 year old boy, when I heard the story of a family home being demolished three times, it becomes impossible to ignore the depth of suffering and the strength of perseverance. At times I felt shameful for my desire to go in for 10 days to “share” their suffering, just to go back to my comfortable western home. But there was never any disgust aimed at us, only the request over and over again: “when you go home, tell my story, tell the story of the Palestinian people. Don’t forget us.” I continue to ask myself, how do I do justice to their stories of suffering? How do I describe both their suffering and their pride, creativity, hospitality, and all the beautiful things they are? How do I tell of the occupation, without making the Palestinians into victims? Maybe I left Palestine with more questions then I arrived with, but maybe that’s ok.
In the end, I was most encouraged by the Palestinian voices of non-violence: by the fathers who continue to ask the question ‘how do I raise my children in the occupation so that they don’t hate Jews’; by Omar from Sabeel who said “I do not want the oppressed to become the oppressor, I do not want the sword to change hands. I want to get rid of the sword”; by Nayaf, a photojournalist, who has been shot four times for taking pictures but continues to do so because it’s his only way of non-violent resistance; by the coffee shop which remains open in a street of deserted shops in a stance of non-violent resistance; by Hafez who was beaten and arrested after organizing a non-violent protest for his village, just to return and do the same thing; by Rami, a Jew, and Ishmael, a Palestinian, both of whom have lost a child to the conflict, but now work together for peace; by the children and teachers, who keep going to school every day; by the shepherds who continue to graze their flocks in fields where they get harassed continuously; by the family that rebuilt their home three times. These are the true lives on non-violent resistance, and I was honored and blessed to spend a short time with them.
My cup continues to overflow. Thanks once again to everyone who has supported me in this journey. I am very welcome to questions and sharing more about my experiences.

A note about Palestine...

2007-04-15T17:49:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to put anything about my CPT delegation to Palestine up. My mind is still turning with all that I experienced during those short 10 days. It was an incredible experience and in many ways both my heart and mind stayed behind in Palestine. I'm working on a report that will eventually go up that will describe everything in much more detail, but I thought I'd throw a couple images up. The first is a picture of me overlooking Jerusalem. You can see the dome of the rock in the background. The second is of soldiers walking children to school in Al-Tuwani, a town in the south Hebron hills. The third is of the protest that we did in a small community in Hebron called Wadi Ghroos, where the children get harassed daily by soldiers and settlers going to and from school.

Thanks so much for you patience, as it's hard to debrief everything while carrying on with our busy Corrymeela schedule. Thanks to everyone for you support in sending me to Palestine and all the thoughts and prayers while I was there. I've never met such an incredible hospitable, loving, oppressed people.

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T06:02:00.000-05:00

Our Easter Sunday began at sunrise. We woke up and walked to the cliffs by the cross to do some singing and liturgy with the 8 others who got up for the service. The cross was nicely decorated with garden flowers as is tradition here. We then went back to bed and woke up at 9:00 for another liturgy around the nicely decorated and full breakfast table. There were about 20 Muslims in the House. They had been welcomed to join and they all did. They were curious to know what an Easter celebration was like. After the liturgy we all had a nice breakfast to the music of two Muslim instrumentalists.

Winter ends, Summer begins

2007-03-28T09:26:00.000-05:00

It has been hot and sunny for about a week now in Ballycastle. On Sunday afternoon I took a stroll into the town and saw for the first time what looked like rush hour. Hundreds of people flocked from throughout Northern Ireland to spend a sunny day at the beach or to have ice cream from the shops. Summer officially began in the UK on Sunday. The birds are coming back, the trees budding and city dwellers enjoying the ocean.

Niki is enjoying her time with CPT. She spent the first couple of days in Jerusalem listening to the stories of the people before going to Hebron and now Bethlehem. She has not had much access to email since Jerusalem so we'll have to wait to find out more. I spoke with a lady that was staying at Corrymeela on Monday. She had been on a delegation to Israel/Palestine in November 2006. She had such an eye opening experience that she told me CPT saved her life.

Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley have agreed to share power in Northern Ireland. I have been asked what I think of this, but I'm not too sure what to think. An article about it can be read at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6494599.stm?ls

Niki Arrives Safely

2007-03-20T17:12:00.000-05:00

Niki emailed me today to say that she made it safely into Jerusalem and was very excited to be fulfilling one of her dreams. She spent most of today walking around Jerusalem and at 6:00pm she was going to meet with the rest of CPT for an orientation. Thanks to everyone who has been supporting and continues to support Niki in this work.

St. Patrick's Day

2007-03-17T12:52:00.000-05:00

Today is St. Patrick's Day and we are spending the day in Belfast. During the early afternoon we went downtown and watched some of the people. Below are some photos of what we saw. Many children and young adults had whistles, there were more buskers, more police presence and definitely more green than a usual Saturday. Tomorrow is Mother's Day in the UK.

Heading to the Holy Land...

2007-03-02T09:41:00.000-06:00

At Corrymeela we are encouraged to take 5 days to go and volunteer with another organization. I have decided to take this time plus some holiday time to go on a CPT delegation to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Hebron from the 19th to the 31st of March. I'm very excited as this is something I've wanted to do for quite some time. It will be my first chance to be a non-violent activist in a conflict zone.

It is a 10 day delegation where I will meet up with the Christian Peacemaker Team there, learn what they are doing and help them do it. It will involve documenting human rights violations, hearing Palestinian and Israeli stories, being a non-violent presence, and reporting back to our communities in the Western world. No doubt I will have many stories to tell when I get back to Corrymeela. As it is a fairly expensive venture, so if you would like to sponsor me, funds can be given to either of our parents, anything would be much appreciated. Keep checking the blog for stories from the upcoming experience. If you would like to know more about CPT, their website is www.cpt.org Feel free to email us if you have any questions. I would also welcome thoughts and prayer.

La Prensa Grafica

2007-02-16T08:50:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we were talking to Christian, our volunteer from El Salvador, about his journalism work in El Salvador. He worked for the newspaper called La Prensa Grafica. He told us stories of being taken in a helicopter to see what was happening during a volcano eruption in El Salvador, or interviewing the mothers of gangsters for mothers day. You can look up his newspaper online and just search for Christian Guevara to get a list of articles and photos submitted by Christian. http://www.laprensagrafica.com/. It's all in Spanish of course.

Our first visitor

2007-02-15T03:19:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I heard that Jonathan Dueck, one of my CIT's three years ago, was travelling Europe. I told him that he should come visit us if he was in Northern Ireland and maybe volunteer at Corrymeela. On Friday last week I received an email from Jonathan asking if he could come and on Monday he arrived. Jonathan had been cycling France lonely and growing tired of the same food, so since arriving at Corrymeela he has been very thankful for things like a bed and cooked food. On Tuesday Jonathan and myself did a famous walk from the Giant's Causeway to Ballintoy Harbour. We were stunned by the scenery at every bend. The walk took us 5 and a half hours. Wednesday Jonathan began volunteering at Corrymeela and hopes to volunteer until next week Monday or Tuesday before he continues to travel other countries. Above is a photo of Jonathan and below are pictures of some of the scenery on our walk.

More on our Long Term Volunteer Team

2007-02-11T12:48:00.000-06:00

This is a photo of Helen and Daniel. Daniel comes from Ballintoy, which is not very far from here along the Northern coast. He has a degree in Computer Science and has a qualification in teaching English as a second language. He was born at almost the exact same time as Niki, so his birthday is June 20th. Daniel hopes to go into Youth Work. Helen's birthday was today and she turned 27. She comes from North Belfast, has a Psychology degree and hopes to go into Social Work.

Derry/Londonderry

2007-02-02T09:14:00.000-06:00

We've been to the city of two names for the last couple day. Jason and I, along with the american volunteer Marian, sent a lovely two days in Derry. We spent most of our time wandering around inside of the old walled city, visiting museums, churches and coffee shops. We also went to the theater twice (The last king of Scotland and Miss Potter, both very good movies). It was a nice treat seeing as Ballycastle doesn't have a movie theater. Here are a few pictures. Jason will be updating the blog again soon with some descriptions of our dear housemates.

Long Term Volunteer Team

2007-01-13T06:33:00.000-06:00

We have permission of the volunteers to post pictures and say a bit about them. To start there are pictures of Katharina or "Rina" (top left), Robbie (top right), Christian (bottom left), and Marian (bottom right). Rina is a volunteer from Germany/Switzerland, she is 20, she is very artistic. Robbie was at Corrymeela from January until December. He is from Ballycastle/England and is now living in Belfast hoping to study Social Work in September. Christian is from El Salvador, 28, and a journalist for a major newspaper in El Salvador. Marian is from Ohio, US, is 23 and has a psychology degree. I will continue posting more later. Any questions just post them.

Update

2007-01-10T07:55:00.000-06:00

Getting back into work has been nice and slow so far. The volunteers had a two night stay at Corrymeela Knocklayd where we relaxed and shared our "life maps" with each other. After this Niki and I worked with a study group from Bethel College, Kansas State. Yesterday we had off so I went on a 2 and a half hour walk to Murlaugh Bay with Kai where we got picked up and brought back to Corrymeela. It was a great walk with cliffs, old coal mines and ruins along the way. At Murlaugh Bay we had a spectacular view of Scotland. Today I am working with Religious Education students from an integrated school. On the weekend the site is full with community members and we are welcome to join in on the sessions. Next week Wednesday we will get official training in group facilitation which will be useful for our resumes and our work here at Corrymeela.

Christmas and New Years

2007-01-02T15:49:00.000-06:00

Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Years to all of you. We've spent the last two weeks away from Corrymeela and just arrived back yesterday.

Before Christmas we stayed a lovely little hostel just outside of a small town called Malin Head on the most Northernly point of the island or Ireland which ironically enough is actually located in the Republic. The hostel was nussled into a little cove and operated by a lovely old Irish couple. We did a lot of walking and relaxing, we almost bought live crab right off the harbor one day to cook ourselves, but then chickened out.

Christmas itself we spent at Kilcranny, a centre similar to Corrymeela except much smaller and more focused on being enviornmentally friendly. It's located just outside of Colraine, about a half an hour from Corrymeela. There were five of us, and it was all of our first Christmas away from home, so we attempted to blend together some of our traditions, and come up with a sort-of-Christmas. Much of our time was spent taking turns of the phone. However we did manage to find a Church of Ireland Christmas eve, my dad read us a Christmas story over the phone and we did throw together a small Christmas dinner.

Following Christmas Jason and I headed south in Northern Ireland to Newcastle. There we made our first discovery of a bed and breakfast. Newcastle is just outside of the Mourne Mountains and so we managed to get in some short hikes. Then... we both got food poisoning, something I highly recommend avoiding at all costs.

New Years we spent back in Belfast with our host family, some of there friends and some other volunteers. It was a lovely evening. And now at last it's good to be home.

For the next few days we'll be at Knocklayd on a retreat meant for our volunteer team to get to know eachother even better! It'll be good to be with the whole team again after a little break.

Further Reflections on our Jerusalem Friends

2006-12-04T16:39:00.000-06:00

Here's an excerpt from my journal written during our visit from our Jerusalem friends:

"We introduced ourselves around 3 candles and a lit fire and they commented saying we had a good team. When I was introducing myself the Muslim Sheikh asked if I brought my family with me. I said "no," but then caught on and said "well yes." He believed he brought his family wherever he goes. He introduced himself as being 458 years old and considers himself from Ubeckistan even though he has been living in Jerusalem. He has books written by his ancestors that are about 500 years old. The Jewish Robat Shalom spoke often of release including releasing our certitude and releasing our expectations of change, which is very interesting to me because I associate the word "release" with Sabbath and Jubilee. Both Jew and Muslim talked about planting seeds which is very much the language of Jesus."

Interest in Ecology

2006-12-04T15:55:00.000-06:00

Over the past couple of months I have developed a strong interest in ecology. I have had an interest in the wilderness for quite some time now, but recently I have now delved into studying ecology during my spare time. It all began when one of the group leaders listened to my interest in both theology and ecology and recommended a book to me by Sean McDonagh called The Death of Life: The Horror of Extinction that he spotted in the Corrymeela shop. It is a book by a Catholic Missionary Priest who has also done a lot of ecological study and awareness work. The book brought to light the most devastating environmental destruction that is going on in the world and in Ireland particularly as well as touching on the negative effects of a broken relationship between church and scientific communities. I was never one to read the news, but now I am starting to regularly check environmental news on BBC online. I have also led a worship based on McDonagh's book and continue to search for books on environmental topics. I have found one masters program that combines theology and ecology and that is through the University of Toronto. If logistics allow I hope to study there sometime.

Trip to Edinburgh

2006-12-01T18:00:00.000-06:00

On Tuesday afternoon Niki and I took voyage to Scotland across the Irish Sea. Once we landed in Stranraer we hopped on a train to Edinburgh. The city is so full of history that it seemed like Niki and I only got a taste. The place itself is beautiful, full of ancient buildings and castles as well as some more natural surrounding hills.
As Niki's face shows above we got turned down at the Edinburgh Castle entrance due to high winds. But this was the only real disappointment. The trip was many firsts for us. The first time to Scotland, the first time riding a train (for me), the first time crossing the Irish Sea etc... In Edinburgh we did a variety of trips including a science center, the woolen mills, local museums, the house of John Knox and a section of the old city underground. It was a good chance to learn more about Scotland and the Scots, although there's still much to explore.

Meeting with those of the Abrahamic Faiths

2006-11-27T10:32:00.000-06:00

I had, possibly, my best weekend at Corrymeela yet. Saturday I spent listening to and collaborating with a group of Turkish/Turkmenistan Muslims who are seeking to raise awareness and create inter-faith dialogue within the Irish/Northern Irish communities. They hold a lot of passion for what they do. I was very much inspiring to hear them speaking the same language of peacemaking that we speak. I will be meeting with them again, and hopefully that will be helping me plan an inter-faith youth conference for next April.

Sunday we had two visitors from Jerusalem, a Rodef Shalom (a Jewish order of people who are anointed to be pursurers of peace in the Orthodox tradition), and a Muslim Sheikh from the Sufi tradition, who have chosen to work together in Jerusalem for peace. They formed a organization called Jerusalem Peacemakers, the website is www.jerusalempeacemakers.org I was blessed with the opportunity to spend the evening with the two of them and our Centre director. It was fascinating to hear their stories and recieve their wisdom in building peace. In the morning they joined us in worship and taught us to pray in Hebrew and Arabic, quite the experience. We were told that we would be welcome at any time in their homes, so maybe we'll just take them up on it.

I've found over the last little while that the idea of peacemaking between religions gives me a lot of energy and captures my imagination. I've had many chances lately to meet people from the Muslim faith and they've all captured my respect very quickly. I really admire their deep spirituality and their dedication to building peace, which is contrary to how the media has been potraying people of the Islamic faith lately.

Update

2006-11-24T09:08:00.000-06:00

Just a quick update about our week. Since our trip to Dublin I worked with a youth group that was thinking about bullying in their own communities and coming up with ideas on how to support other youth. This I have noticed is a major issue in Northern Ireland because people are being pullied and over extended abuse many are committing suicide because of this. Even mean texting is a problem here. Niki worked with a church group looking at Celtic spirituality. This past week I have been on resource updating the Corrymeela website (check out the photo gallery and bookings section), making a comprehensive list of available dates at Corrymeela up to Jun 30th and doing an analysis of the cottages for three fiscal years to give an estimate of how much income Corrymeela will lose moving volunteers into the cottages next year while Coventry is being rebuilt. Niki was on housekeeping and during the evenings she spent some time painting an encouragement tree in Coventry similar to the tree at Camp Valaqua. This weekend we are both on resource and Niki is present for a couple of day groups. Next week we are off to Edinburgh for a few nights holiday to celebrate my birthday. Today is a significant day for Northern Ireland and if you would like to find out more about the current events start by checking the BBC news online. www.bbc.co.uk

Dublin

2006-11-20T11:29:00.000-06:00

Jason and I spend a lovely (and rainy) few days in Dublin. We spent our time wednesday visiting some of the historical sights of Dublin such as the old jail, where many of the leaders of rebellions against Britian were kept and executed, and the Dublin Castle, really a parlimentary palace. Ireland gained independence in 1921 and they are very proud of their history. Our passports did get checked by an officer coming onto the bus on the way into Ireland, but not on the way out. So it's pretty difficult to tell that you've moved into a new country. However, in some ways Ireland was a breath of fresh air, because you no longer have to watch what you are refering to or what to call people etc... Most of the signs in Ireland are in both English and Irish, Irish is the official language and students have to take it in school.

We spent Thursday on a day long tour into the Wicklow Mountains right outside Dublin, beautiful territory. Our stay was spent at a downtown hostel, which was in the perfect location and not to much of an expense, but besides that Dublin is a very expensive city to travel in. We also enjoyed a really good celtic music band one evening. Unfortunetly the trip home was a little frustrating as Northern Irish public transportation is not great.

Last weekend I worked with a lovely church group exploring celtic Christianity and Jason worked with a youth group looking at ways to reduce bullying in their communities. This week I get the great pleasure of being on Housekeeping and Jason is on resource. After that we're going to head out to Scotland for Jason's birthday trip! We'd love to hear from everyone who's reading, so keep sending emails or comments our way!

Holiday Plans

2006-11-07T14:39:00.001-06:00

Here are our tentative plans until Christmas:

Nov. 14-17 - Trip to Dublin (First time in Ireland)
Nov. 28-Dec. 3 - Trip to Edinburgh (First time in Scotland)
Dec. 20-25 - Stay with Volunteers in Northern Ireland
Dec. 26-Jan. 3 - Travel Irish Counties Cork, Clare, Kerry and Donegal

Training at Corrymeela

2006-11-07T14:39:00.000-06:00

Corrymeela is very kind in giving us many training opportunities throughout the year. So far we have received: Child Protection Training, Assertiveness Training, and Diability Awareness Training. Before Christmas we will receive Food Safety Training.

Tea and Coffee at Corrymeela

2006-11-07T14:37:00.000-06:00

If you are asked if you would like tea or coffee you may be asked if you want a "cuppa." And I find that if you are asked, just say yes because if you don't have a cup of tea or coffee in your hands you will be asked by three or four people before the break is done. If someone is going to make a cuppa for themselves it is practice to ask everyone else if they would like one as well.

Tea and Coffee at Corrymeela is all fair trade. The coffee here is usually made weak and may be compared to a cup of tea with a coffee flavour. The tea here is black with the options of milk and sugar. What we call "mugs" in Canada are called "cups" in the UK and what we would call "cups" are called "glasses."

Having tea or coffee, however, does not mean simply the drink. Usually having a cuppa involves eating something as well, like a "buscuit" (which we call cookies), scone, toast with butter, or a bun (which we would call doughnuts with whipping cream inside).

I usually take tea with two sugars and milk and it is becoming one of my favorite aspects of a day here at Corrymeela.

New Website up Yesterday

2006-11-07T09:35:00.001-06:00

Hey,

The Corrymeela website has been under construction for a number of months now, but yesterday at noon it was up and running. There is still a lot of gaps, but have a look and be sure to take the virtual tour. The link on this blog will take you to the website.

Talking Peace in Birmingham

2006-11-02T12:15:00.000-06:00

I had a fabulous weekend at a retreat centre just outside of Birmingham. The conference was put on by Fellowship of Reconciliation, the group was about 30 people mostly in their 20s and 30s. The topic was Religious Rights and Wrongs in Contemporary Conflicts. They brought in really interesting speakers, one of which was a female Muslim councilor from the city of Birmingham. It was interesting to hear her reflections on what the Muslim community has been going through since the London bombings. My favorite part of the weekend was really just the chance to connect with the peace community throughout England. I had some really inspiring conversations. I would say that most of the people there were more towards the activist end of the spectrum when it comes to the peace movement, Corrymeela tends more towards the community development end. I love my work here, but was missing the activist energy. We looked a fair bit at inter-faith dialogue and the difficulties that accompany it, which is an area I would be interested in entering. I arrived back at Corrymeela tired and inspired. Many of the people from the conference I hope to keep in contact with. If you have any questions about the conference feel free to email me, we really enjoy hearing from everyone.

We're both off this week and this weekend I'm working with a Habitat for Humanity group that's preparing to go to Sri Lanka, doing mostly team building activities. It's getting colder here, but no snow yet.

Birmingham and Ballycastle

2006-10-27T17:31:00.001-05:00

For the weekend Niki and I are separated by sea and country. Niki is in Birmingham, England attending a conference on Religious Rights and Wrongs in Contemporary Conflict, and I am in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland teaching people how to play Settlers. As we speak there are three Northern Irelanders playing a game of Settlers on their own. Before we came to Northern Ireland I don't know if anyone had even heard of the game.

As far as an update is concerned. Last weekend Niki and I stayed in Belfast mee'n Corrymeela friends and ge'n to know the ci'y a wee bit be'er. This past week I was hos'n and facilita'n a youth group taking a class in religious studies. Their sessions were fabulous and as a group they were good craic.

This weekend I'm on housekeeping and after Monday Niki and I are off until Friday. It seems to me that Halloween is a bigger event here than in Canada. At least in Ballycastle there is festivities all weekend right up until Tuesday.

Inter-Faith forum at Queen's University

2006-10-19T04:42:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I along with two other volunteers had the opportunity to go to Belfast for a meeting on world religions in religious education. One of the most interesting speakers at the forum was a father who shared how Bahi children experienced both Catholic and Protestant schooling in Northern Ireland. The question this man left us with was how can schools accomodate children of other religions in a relational way. There was a book launch at the forum as well, the books are meant to be a resource for teaching world religions. Snapshots of different religions are presented throughout the book showing local faces and interpretations of their faith.

Connecting with Vic Thiessen

2006-10-14T08:07:00.000-05:00

This past weekend Niki and I shared a traditional Ulster Fry at Corrymeela with Vic Thiessen, Director of the London Mennonite Center. It is nice to connect with another Mennonite on the other side of the world. We played the Mennonite game and talked about our lives here and in Canada. The website for the London Mennonite Center is www.menno.org.uk/.

Lord John Alderdice speaks to group at Corrymeela

2006-10-14T06:03:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday morning I got up early during my off time to attend a session led by Lord John Alderdice. He spoke elequently on his experiences and what he has learned from those experiences. John touched on the role of religion in Northern Ireland challenging the religious communities to be more concerned about being prophetic unto its own community and less concerned about presenting its own troubles to the public. John emphasized in his stories the importance of providing hope, respect and a space to speak and to listen.

Above is a photo of myself and Lord John Alderdice at Corrymeela.

If you would like to learn more about Lord Alderdice here is a link: www.independentmonitoringcommission.org/cv_01.cfm

What do we do at Corrymeela?

2006-10-11T07:44:00.000-05:00

This question of what we do at Corrymeela is very difficult to answer for many of us here, but I will try very hard to describe our work simply for the benefit of those who have been wondering.

There are four main areas of work that we are scheduled for: 1) Working with a group 2) Kitchen 3) Housekeeping 4) Resource.

The type of work that we do the most of and is most difficult to describe is working with groups. I'll divide this into tasks we need to do and what is flexible.
1) tasks we need to do: We need to prepare the residential space for a group by turning on the heating/lights, tidying, making a welcome poster, getting a coal fire ready to light if it is cold out, preparing a tea/coffee/juice and buscuit/sandwich trolley and generally create a welcoming atmosphere before the groups arrive. When the groups arrive we sit in with them during the cover speach about health and safety at Corrymeela and lead the group in some ice-breaker activities such as silly songs or games. After this there may be a session which will vary depending on the group and may be led by us, one of Corrymeela's staff or the group's facilitator. These times are usually the most interesting times for us. At 9:00pm everyone is welcome to worship in the Croi (meaning "heart" and is a building for worship, sessions or indoor activities), and following this there may be a session or free time. A lot of our work here is simply making someone a cup of tea and having a conversation with them. Around 10:30pm we will serve hot chocolate and buttered toast for "supper." Basically our schedule is dependent on the group's schedule and sometimes we are asked to lead, participate or if we are not needed or it is a private session we will be allowed an hour or two of down time. In the mornings we prepare breakfast, which always consists of cereal, toast, orange juice, sometimes porridge and of course tea or coffee. Worship in the morning is at 9:15 except Sundays where worship is only at 12:30 in the morning; worship is led by volunteers/staff/community members/group facilitators who sign up for worship. We will set the tables for lunch and dinner (or "tea" if it involves meat and potatoes), get the food in an electric trolley (if we are working in a residential space that is not where the food is cooked) and serve the food to guests. If we are scheduled for lock up we lock up the site at 12:00pm. Volunteers are off at 12:00 unless the fire alarm goes off in which we have to evacuate the building etc. If a group goes to bed before 12:00 we may be off then as well. 2) what is flexible: The in-between meal times and worship times is flexible; we may be taking a group of kids down to the beach, taking a tour of the Northern Coast with an adult group, listening to powerful political leaders from Northern Ireland or elsewhere and the list here is could go on and on, hence what we do is so hard to explain because we don't have much of a set routine. When the group leaves we do a verbal evaluation of how the week went.

Kitchen is more structured and usually considered a break from working with groups. We start at 9:30 work until about 10:30 when we take a 15-30 minute coffee break, then we work until lunch which is usually around 1:00. We then have our lunch and afterwards we just wash up, put the leftovers in the cold room and sweep and mop the floor. We get a break until about 5:15 when we do last minute prep work for Dinner and after Dinner we clean up and enjoy an evening off.

Housekeeping is from 10:00 in the morning until 3:00pm with a coffee break and a one hour lunch break. I haven't done this yet, but from what I understand it involves sweeping, mopping, cleaning windows, laundry etc. Housekeeping and Kitchen volunteers during the week decide and organize between them who does reception from 7-9 each day.

Resource is basically a float job and if there is a lack of groups on site there will be more volunteers on resource. This week I've worked an average of about 4 hours a day helping out on reception, kitchen, recreation store organization and preparing information packages to be sent out.

Groups are here from Tuesday to Friday or Friday to Sunday, Monday is a meeting day. Meetings involve a program co-ordination meeting, resource meeting (where we spend an hour organizing our resource area -- my area is the Croi, Niki's area is the playrooms), Coventry meeting (Coventry is where we live -- so we discuss the nitty gritty of living together as a community), and all site meeting. After that we have one of three things for 2 hours: training, reflections, community activity. Dinner is prepared by one of us and is a community meal, at 7:00 is what we call "super sevens" which is an opportunity to learn from all sorts of people from Northern Ireland. Sometimes this year groups have come on Monday already in which case we would start work after our "super sevens," but Monday nights have traditionally been down time for volunteers.

Our schedule involves roughly 6 days off a month, but this is not usually evenly spaced. During our year here we get two weeks off at Christmas, one week off before Christmas, one week off after Christmas and two weeks off during July and August which apparently is a whole new "system." We also get one week where we may work or get training from an organization of our choosing in Europe. Niki is hoping to go to Bethlehem and I'm not sure yet where I want to go.

That's a very simple outline of what we are currently doing. Basically, we are training to be experts in hospitality.

religious conflict?

2006-10-10T05:07:00.000-05:00

George raised the question of how much religion plays a part in the conflict. So far I have the impression that religion plays very little role in the conflict. I asked one of the volunteers from Belfast if religion has anything to do with the conflict and she laughed and said no. Basically one can be a Catholic or a Protestant without having a faith or going to church, it just depends which side of the political conflict one is born into. People here refer to the Catholic/Protestant conflict but it is best not to see this as meaning people here are fighting primarily over religious issues.

Derry

2006-10-09T11:21:00.000-05:00

A highlight last week was when Niki and I had the opportunity to get a wee tour of Derry. With our group we walked the streets where "bloody Sunday" occurred and visited the memorial museum there. We saw the murals and walked the wall of the inner city on a guided tour.

At the top is a picture of Niki looking from the wall at Derry; below that is a picture of a mural depicting Bloody Sunday.

Rathlin Island

2006-09-24T14:39:00.000-05:00

Jason and I had our first weekend off this weekend and we choose to go camping on Rathlin Island. It's an island right across from us, a 45 min. ferry ride. Saturday we had a beautiful day which we spent exploring and relaxing. The island has 4 lighthouses, we visited the east one. It's full of beautfully green rolling hills. There's stone ruins everywhere. We spent a fair bit of time in a cove watching seals play. That night we camped in the island's only pub's field. We woke up to a down pour, which unfortunetly lasted 3 hours. But overall it was a great chance to get away and do some exploring. For any of those who are coming to visit us, I'm sure we'll make it to Rathlin. During the summer months it's a breeding ground and sanctuary for many types of birds, so Jason looking forward to returning at that point.
Note the two seals on the rocks in this picture.

Belfast Murals cont...

2006-09-22T03:40:00.000-05:00

It's been a week now working. I've helped to host three groups. A church group and two schools groups. Above are three photos from last week. The three above photos are taken in Belfast, the top is a photo of a Protestant mural, next is a photo of a police station and lastly is a "peace" wall which is up in an interface area.

Belfast Murals

2006-09-15T10:30:00.001-05:00

Here are some photos of Belfast. Nationalist Catholic and Loyalist Protestants will mark their territory with flags, colours and murals. The photos above capture some of the murals from Catholic territory, I'll try to add more pictures of murals later.

Northern Coast

2006-09-12T06:50:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday as part of our training we got to spend a day touring parts of the Northern Coast. The rock formations are unique especially at the famous Giant's Causeway; but in general the scenery is beautiful no matter where you are on the coast. We went to the famous rope bridge which used to be a good fishing location for salmon. We went to Ballintoy and the picture above gives a taste of that small town. We then went to the Giant's Causeway and made a couple of stops on the way back.

Irish English: A First Impression

2006-09-10T11:34:00.000-05:00

The Irish accent includes some key words to learn if you are a Canadian and want to sound Irish: lovely, brilliant, aye and wee. There are also some words that we use that may give the Irish some confusion. For instance what we call a "flashlight," is a "torch," a "trunk" is a "boot," "pants" are "trousers," a "jacket" is a "coat," a "sweater" is a "jumper," "supper" or "dinner" is "tea," "snack" is "supper," "underwear" are called "pants," a "truck" is a "lorry," a wrapped ice cream treat is a "lollypop," "running shoes" are "trainers," and lastly the "washroom" is a "bog."

Time of Reflection

2006-09-06T16:13:00.000-05:00

This is a space that could potential be a very reflective spot for me. It's looking out to Rathlin Island from Corrymeela.

A Gradual Unfolding

2006-09-05T16:42:00.000-05:00

We've only been at Corrymeela for a couple of days, but it's felt like a long time. There are a lot of things that we have learned about the program, the history and the people. I'll maybe break up this post in those three ways:

People: "This is going to be the best year of your life," said Corrymeela Director three times in a row to the full year volunteers while discussing the centre and its' mission. We arrived at Corrymeela with a warm welcome from community members and staff Sunday evening. There was a nice room to await us and three or four people asking us a number of times if everything was to our satisfaction. The people are really great; very welcoming and lots of character.

History: Corrymeela has been around for about 40 years. It was founded by a prisoner of war and who found that while in prison that they needed to get past their differences in prison in order to get a voice for decent treatment. Out of this experience grew a community that is founded on this idea of an open and safe place for people to come from all backgrounds. The Corrymeela symbol of a diamond divided in four parts is to represent people coming together from the four corners of the earth. The community started before "The Troubles" in Ireland, but proved to be a significant safe haven for both protestants and catholics to escape the bombs and the bullets. Many people from all over the world and from different backgrounds come to the center for retreat or group learning/development.

Program: Currently Corrymeela tries to get about a third or half of its volunteers from Ireland and the other part from other countries. There are 12 full year volunteers which help out in many aspects of the community work and live in community on site. As well as full year volunteers are short term volunteers that work for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks at a time. There are also finance workers, kitchen workers, program workers, directors, managers etc. Groups come in usually with their own program leaders or with a Corrymeela program worker and we, in pairs or more, facilitate/ host/ participate with/ mediate with groups. If we're not with a group we might work with housekeeping for a few days, which involves changing sheets and wiping walls or toilets, or we might be working in the kitchen helping to prepare, serve, and cleanup meals throughout the day. We get two weeks off at Christmas when we have to leave the site and about three or four weeks off during the rest of the year. Currently we are getting two weeks of training. We get about 6 days off a month.

When we are working with groups it will be mostly all day everyday until the group leaves. The main kind of groups that come in are children or youth groups or family groups.

Ballycastle...home

2006-09-03T17:34:00.000-05:00

We've arrived, at long last. Last night we had a potluck at our host family's home where we finally met all of our new house mates. This afternoon we were driven up to the Corrymeela Ballycastle centre, it took about an hour and fifteen minutes to get here from the house in Belfast.

Ballycastle is as beautiful as we had imagined. There are several different buildings. The main one is "the House," it is actually what I would compare to a lodge. Then there's the Village and the Cottages, which are residential places for people to stay. There's the Croi (said Cree), which is our worship building and is magnificant inside. Not much light, but it's built of stone and is a complete circle, it has several rooms but the are all semi circluar as well, with the small worship space containing pillows and a small alter in the middle. They are very purposeful on not being overtly Christian, but create a space where all people can feel safe and worshipful. Our home is coventry. Also a very unique building, it's got lots of character and I'm actually quite happy with our room. We're all in the same level, kind of like a domatory, we're at the end on the south western side. Our room consists of a bed, desk, sofa, closet and sink. It's really quite cosy. It's very green and I'm ecstatic about the ocean (and they have kyaks here!).

Our team is very international, which I'm also very excited about. We have people from: El Salvador, Nigeria, Sweden, Germany, US, Canada (us), Northern Ireland, and England. It's a really neat group and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better.

We now enter into two weeks of orientation and then into our jobs. I'm getting the impression that it will be a lot like camp work, with a little more focus on reconciliation and group facilitation, along with the broader range of age groups, but mostly children and youth. This post is getting fairly long, and I don't want to give all the details away at once. But as the Irish would say...it's been just lovely! Good night.

P.S. Above is a picture of Coventry which is where we are living.

First images

2006-09-02T10:46:00.000-05:00

Here are some images early on our journey from top to bottom:
1) Local street in Belfast with brick houses and cars parked on the sidewalk.
2) Our host family's house
3) Downtown Belfast
4) Niki and I at the Calgary Airport carrying our stuff
5) Driving down a road in Belfast in the evening on the Left hand side of the road
6) View outside our current bedroom window
7) Typical residential street in Belfast

No Turning Back

2006-09-01T12:58:00.001-05:00

We made it to Belfast safe and sound. We have a wonderful host family and we're excited about learning more. More Later.

Camp's done...packing's started

2006-08-19T21:51:00.000-05:00

We have officially completed our jobs at camp this summer. We both left camp with a real feeling that we've done good jobs and had a lot of fun. Jason discovered new skills in the area of administrative and office work. He was incredibly creative and organized this summer. I discovered that I can in fact work with youth. I have an amazing group of 16 CITs to work with. They were motivated to learn, to grow and to get to know eachother and their campers. Basically, they made my job easy. I will miss them as we all move on to other areas. It's an odd job in the way that you work incredibly hard to get to know each other and to mentor them, then after 8 weeks of intense community life, you simply disappear from each others lives. Camp is headed in a great direction, we look forward to hearing how next summer goes.

We've got 2 weeks now of packing and goodbyes. Unfortunetly I severely sprained my ankle the second last day of camp, so I'm moving slightly slower then I had hoped to this week. This weekend is my parents 25th anniversary and our commissing from our church here in Calgary. We're spending a week in Saskatchewan with Jason's family and the rest here in Calgary. We'll be flying out at 12:30 AM on August 31 from Calgary. Continue to keep us in your prayers and we make the transition.

Summer half over

2006-07-30T12:46:00.000-05:00

It's crazy to think that our summer is already half over. The past two weeks have gone by quickly. Two weeks ago we had a crowd of rambunctious 8-10 year olds come through camp and drain the energy of our staff. This last week, however, we had a bunch of veteran 10-12 year olds that helped the week run smoothly. Last weekend we went to two weddings, one in Rosthern and one in Tofield. We were fortunate enough to spend some time at my parents house and overall it was a wonderful weekend.

First Camp Week

2006-07-14T23:34:00.000-05:00

The last week was our first full week of camp this summer. It was a smaller camp which makes for better bonding opportunities and smoother transitions all week. Our Nature Leader stepped up as our chaplain which was terrific and the campers and staff had a great time. Our staff is doing a wonderful job and it is a real pleasure to work at camp again this summer.

Even though I was fairly busy I did manage to get in some fluke birding as I was trying to find one of our overnighter spots off property. As I was on my way I was suddenly surrounded by at least three Great Grey Owls. They seemed agitated so I did not stay longer than 5 minutes, but it did not take long for me to realize that this was the family of Owls that nested at camp Valaqua. I saw at least two of the Great Greys and heard at least one more adolescence. The Mother had her defined features; the larger build and clearly lined face. The "babies" were now about as tall as the mother and had a similar wingspan, but were fluffier and skinnier and of course with less defined facial lines.

Another highlight for me personally was of course our hike. I was no doubt one of the people in charge but given the group this really wasn't a stress for me, but more of a break. Grotto Canyon was scenic and it had a variety of relaxing hang-out spots. We saw ancient hieroglyphs and unique watter lapped rocks.

Niki's is enjoying her job and doing very well at it. She just finished two busy weeks and is looking forward to a more relaxed schedule. I have heard very positive feedback from the CIT's.

Camp Begins

2006-07-09T11:14:00.000-05:00

Hey,

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. First of all, last weekend was mini camp at Camp Valaqua. This was a chance for many of us to get used to our roles for the summer. It was my first time performing the duties of Assistant Director and Jon's first time as Director. It all went fairly well in our opinion. Families seemed to be having a great time and there were no significant problems. Seven hours after mini camp we started our staff orientation. At first it was a bit overwhelming to be overtaken by people, but I got used to it soon. We did lots of team building activities and standard sessions. We have a great staff this year. This week is our first "regular" camp and we don't have a chaplain. In my years at camp there has never been a week without a volunteer chaplain. Because we don't have many campers we can hopefully count on support staff to fill in for the chaplain role.

Outside of camp we are looking forward to going to Northern Ireland in the fall. We have received volunteer visas and bought plane tickets. We also look forward to going to see a play next weekend at the Rosebud theater with our parents and the weekend following that going to Matt and Emma's wedding and Kerry and Mark's wedding.

As for birding highlights, I had the opportunity to watch male and female three toed woodpeckers play together. And on the other end of camp we have found a woodpecker nest. I haven't actually seen any woodpeckers there yet, but we can definitely hear the young ones coming from the nest.

Regarding photography, Niki and I have been developing our skills and been given lots of opportunity to practice, as well as lots of compliments from all kinds of people. I personally don't like to put our nice shots on the blog because I'm afraid of someone stealing the shots. So simply ask us to see our pictures when you see us next. Since mini camp I have been given lots of time to practice people shots, so I am learning on that front. You can see one of my people shots (right) in the most recent Mennonite. It says "camp Valaqua photo", but what they mean is "Photo taken by Jason Fehr."

Birding Highlight

2006-06-04T17:51:00.000-05:00

This past week I was privilaged enough to be shown the nesting sight of Great Greys. Rumour reached the Theological Studies group at camp about the nest and my knowledge of it; and so I led a field trip with my old nature leader hat on. We arrived at the sight and the owl that was in the nest that morning was nowhere to be found. Feeling utter failure at bringing a large group only to see an empty nest changed suddenly when someone spotted a young owl sitting on a log on the ground. It did not take long until the mother was spotted as well. We have pictures including one with me a meter behind the young owl. I don't think the group was disappointed, and I certainly was not.

Spring at Camp

2006-05-27T20:42:00.000-05:00

Hello all. We are currently enjoying a relaxing weekend in Calgary. These last three weeks have been exciting for Jason and reviving for myself. Jason has been busy writing devotions, painting posters, exploring and developing new camp opportunities, and enjoying the camp surrounding (especially when it comes to our new camara). I have been recouping sleep, painting, reading, and overall attempting to store up enough energy to make it through the next year and a half. I start my position, CIT (counselor in training) Director on June 5, my group of 18 CITs is shaping up to a fun one. Last weekend we spent time with Jason's family up in Banff and some time with Kari Enns and Amy Goerzen here in the city, boy was it hot. The weekend before that was Nathan's birthday, check out the size of the steak in his plate. The highlight of this past week as checking in on the Jeff and Ing's (camp managers) one hour old baby goats, there were also a pair of 3 weeks old goats...what fun they are.

Goodbye to Winnipeg, hello to The Rest of Western Canada

2006-05-12T12:49:00.000-05:00

Time for an update. Well until this week the last two weeks found us on the constant move. On Thursday April 27th we handed over our keys to our first home, hopped into a very loaded down little truck and drove to Jason's parent's farm. We'll miss Winnipeg and hopefully Winnipeg will miss us. It was a great place to spend the first year of married life.
After successfully making it to the farm, we unloaded, stayed a day, and then hoped on the 11:30 (not the 8:30AM, as we had thought) grey hound bus to Calgary (via Edmonton of course). We arrived in Calgary at 11:30 in the evening, enjoyed some conversation with my parents, successfully made a disaster of our home in a hurried packing for the next morning and fell into a deep sleep. The next morning we were at the airport at 8:30 in the morning flying to Vancouver Island for a week to spend some time with my family. The week was a lot of fun. Besides giving my mom's family and Jason a better chance to get to know eachother we took long walks, bike rides, minigolfed, read, ate salmon, birdwatched...birdwatched...birdwatched. You get the idea. The Island was as enchanting as ever.
We drove directly from the Calgary airport to Edmonton with my family to attend songfest and more importantly to see Nathan's girlfriend, Bekki...this has become a family event. After Edmonton we were dropped off at camp. Jason started his Assistant Director position on Monday and is really enjoying it thus far. I am figuring out what to do with myself for a month off...something I have done for quite some time. Currently I'm in Calgary spending some time with my family, and trying to get our documentation in order.
Thanks to all who are checking. Starting in September there will probably be faster updates, but we'll try to be consistant through out the summer.

Dear Friends and Family,

2006-04-04T20:45:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our new website. We have set this up so that others can keep informed of our detours. For ease we have set links to Camp Valaqua and Corrymeela where we will be working for the next year and a half.