Special blog post, Momma-style!

As promised, I've asked my mom to give a bit of reflection on her whirlwind tour of Belfast (and most of the UK). So without further ado:


It’s rather unnerving to do a guest blog; Tricia does what I consider a fabulous job with her entries. She did warn me about this request but it just gave me more time to fret about it. Well, here goes:

Thursday: Being busy doesn't even touch on what Tricia had in store for my visit. After the bus ride home from the airport we got our first sign of how friendly Belfast can be. With only 2 blocks to go, Robert insisted on giving us a lift. As Tricia said, people are so friendly here you learn to just graciously accept these kind offers. We crock-potted dinner and were on our way for one of my few opportunities to see Tricia active in one of her normal weekly-duties—Lunch with the Pensioners. Julia prepared a traditional Belfast feast and everyone that works at the Vine had nothing but good to say not only about Tricia but also her work there. We went on the see so much of the city that Tricia has been calling home this year, (or she was keeping me on my feet so I wouldn't fall asleep). The Maundy Thursday service was beautiful and gave me the opportunity to meet some of the people who have helped Tricia feel welcome in this foreign country. Going out after the service with friends and fellow YAVs was very comforting and gave me peace. The plan for new YAVs on their first night in Belfast is to stay awake until at least 9:00 P.M. But no, normal bedtime back home for me is 9:00 PM, add those 4 hours for Belfast time, equals 1:00 AM in Belfast. We only made midnight, but still a very long 38 hours. Glad I squeezed in that 1 ¼ hours of sleep on the flight over.

Meeting David and Anna on Thursday

Friday: After a traditional Ulster breakfast we trekked to Belfast Castle. The castle wasn't the main attraction but the several-hour hike up to Napoleon’s nose in the snow, ice and cold was the naz. Fellow YAV David included us in his weekly hike, and was a wonderful guide—patient and tolerant of Tricia and my less than perfect skills and a Florida mom who had never frolicked in snow. We got home in time to change for the Good Friday service and my opportunity to get to know Lesley, the pastor at Tricia’s church, and to meet others who have helped Tricia feel welcome in Belfast. It was nice to see Tricia involved with the service. The evening outing gave me a chance to meet TJ, the final North Belfast YAV. Things closed early for Good Friday so we got to bed before midnight.

Our view from "Napoleon's Nose"

Saturday: Tricia has made the trip to Giant’s Causeway with friends from the congregation before but we got the full-day tour with many sights of this lovely country both along the way and on the return to Belfast. Upon our return we headed back to Belfast Castle, now the main attraction. It was odd hiking up the hill in the cold and dark to get to the castle, but was so worth it to see all the Northern Belfast YAVs as a group. The friendship they share is priceless. The support and camaraderie they have towards one another is invaluable.

Photo op with the Giant's Causeway in the background

Sunday: Easter Sunday was a peaceful morning, not having to get out of the house until 10:00. Maybe not as calm for Tricia with every alarm in the house set to make sure she didn't miss the time change. (What devices automatically change time, which don’t?) The service was lovely and I got to see Tricia in another phase of her work: keeping the service and all of its digital aspects in sync; a nice presentation of Tricia’s work with The Youth Club was included. After the service there was a chance to meet others in the congregation. Stewart who complimented Tricia’s help with The Boys' Brigade, and several young couples who love Tricia and value her relationship with their “tots”. After church we went to the City Centre. More was closed than expected on Easter Sunday so we missed St. George’s Market and our falafel, but this just allowed us to eat at Nando's, one of Tricia’s favorites. Easter and the time change combined had us miss our tour of Belfast but Tricia came through once again. We got a very special, first-hand tour of the murals in Belfast and the Peace Wall, the biggest attractions of the Belfast tour, from TJ, who does much of his YAV work in this area.

Monday: Well this brings us to the 7:00 arrival at the International Airport for our flight to Newcastle for our “whistle-stop tour” that Tricia mentioned in her blog. She makes it seem like a simple tour but seeing how my first 4 days went, I’m sure you can imagine the “tour” of Great Britain at times seemed more of an “assault”. We made the most of the vacation time and finished it with a wonderful meal at a winery B&B that Tricia tricked me into having her pay for.

Of all the wonderful things Tricia mentions in her blog, what does Tricia’s mom do? Hears anything that she could worry about--life is scary; no, it isn't easy; trials and tribulations; etc—often not even hearing the context is which something is said. But I guess we all can be proven so wrong. With my short time in Belfast I saw so much. Not only have I seen my daughter’s successes and accomplishments, I've seen and witnessed some of her trials and tribulations.Tricia has met some wonderful people, has had irreplaceable experiences and has learned volumes about herself. She now sees that she can do anything and that every cloud has a silver lining. A mother could be nothing but proud. Tricia has soldiered through her YAV year with dignity and grace—for that I am extremely proud of her and admire her. And for who she is I love her.

Aww, thanks mom - love you too! For more of our photos from the trip, click here.

A moment for reflection

At lunch today, I mentioned to another of the young adults in our lunch group that my last Sunday at Fortwilliam and Macrory would be July 14th. After which, I will be packing up for a bit of travel before heading home. This was soon followed by the realization that today is April 14th, making it exactly 3 months before I leave Belfast.

This is so strange. I know that time is flying, but this feels a little extreme. There is still so much here I want to learn and do before my time is up!  But as much as I want to soak it all up here, my mind has already started to drift back to Louisville - clearing up my resume for the impending job search, pulling my old landlord's contact info out of the files - but in reality I have so much still left to experience here.

I've had this discussion with some of the other YAVs, about this strange limbo between Northern Ireland and the States, knowing that many of our projects are wrapping up soon for the summer, and that the next batch of Volunteers are making their first steps toward fundraising and preparing for their new life-changing experience. Like many of the emotions I've experienced this year, trying to put it all into words somehow seems so daunting. Maybe someday I'll be able to do it justice.

Holy, Wholly, Holi...

Bear with me on the obscure title, hopefully it will make sense shortly... 

The past few weeks have been extremely full in real life, which makes for figurative crickets on the blog end of things. As I was thinking about everything I had to update you on, I realized that two of them were pronounced \ˈhō-lē\... so I just went with it and stretched the other update to fit the theme.

HOLY
Holy Week was March 24-30. Since many of the local kids were either off school or preparing for break, many extracurricular events were cancelled - leaving me more time for the Church side. We participated in a joint communion service with Cave Hill Methodist on Maundy Thursday, an intimate service at Fortwilliam and Macrory on Good Friday, and of course the typical Easter Sunday festivities.  My special guest for these events was my mom, who flew in on Thursday morning. It was great to see her after almost an entire year apart, and I was glad to give her the opportunity to experience such a full time at the church (although it meant she missed out on a few of my regularly scheduled activities like homework club and Boys' Brigade).

WHOLLY
This one is clearly the stretcher in the theme, but nonetheless... as part of my mom's trip, we decided to take a road trip! The week after Holy Week (Easter Week) is fairly quiet at both my sites, so we hopped a flight to England and did the whistle stop tour, hitting highlights in England, Wales and Ireland. So while we did not hit the entire British Isles wholly (see what I did there? Also: sorry, Scotland!), we did make a noble attempt.

Our road trip - covered all this (plus Dublin) in 5 days!

View Larger Map

We had a great time visiting new places - and my mom even managed to hold her own with driving a manual transmission on the opposite side of the road! She will be writing a special "guest blogger" post within the next week or so to give her perspective on our time together and my work in Belfast, so keep an eye out!

Dinner in Dublin
View more photos from our trip here.

HOLI
My mom left on Saturday, and by Sunday I was deep enough into my "introvert recovery" that I considered skipping out on the Belfast Colour Festival that was taking place that afternoon. However, I decided that I would probably regret it if I didn't attend, and of course I couldn't let my £3 ticket go to waste, so I talked myself into putting on my ratty jeans and a white T-shirt and headed to the City Centre.

For those of you who have never heard of Holi, it is an Hindu festival marking the beginning of spring. (Please note that I am SO vastly simplifying this holiday!) It is typically celebrated in part by throwing colored powders at each other, which has been the inspiration for events like the Color Run. Since I love just about anything from India and I hate running, this was the only way I could hope to have mass quantities of colored powder thrown in my face. ;-)

Immediately after leaving the ring

While the event was definitely commercialized and I spent an hour crammed into a line with hundreds of strangers for just 10 minutes of color throwing, I was really glad I attended. Mostly, because it reminded me of my life back home. "Cross-cultural" here is mostly confined to Protestants and Catholics. I rarely have the opportunity to experience other religious traditions or dance like a fool to Jai Ho (which they played no fewer than 3 times while I was there). Plus, I love the concept of celebrating Spring. While it's still been unseasonably cold here, there's something to be said for shaking off the winter blahs and bursting forth in a blast of color!

So in that spirit, I charge you now to go forth and celebrate! Jesus is risen and the world is blooming!

You ask, I'll answer!

Hello, everyone!

I realize that I'm getting questions across several different platforms - and rather than answering them all individually, I've decided to do another FAQ round. So send in your questions!

A few guidelines:

1. Send questions via the comments section below, or via twitter (@pdcentre). If you'd prefer to remain a little more anonymous, message me on facebook or email tricia.mcreynolds [at] gmail.com. 
2. There are no stupid questions - in fact, I'd prefer those if it clears up common misconceptions that I face often. There might be inappropriate questions, which I reserve the right to kindly pass over, but I will do my best to answer everything. 
3. There is no timeline (send to me by xx/xx) or anything, I will just write the answers up once I have a few good questions. 

So there you go! Start asking!

Yesterday was a pretty average day... until it wasn't.

If you read my last post, you know that on Thursdays I go to lunch club, then homework club, then make the 2 mile walk back to my house for a quick meal before BB. It turns out, however, that yesterday wasn't quite so average.

We had a few people missing at lunch club, so I switched up my regular seat at my regular table to balance it out a bit. The conversation I joined at the ladies' table was heartbreaking, as they talked about how it felt to get older and lose respect from their children (last Sunday was Mother's Day in the UK). Everyone just assumes that since their bodies are breaking down, so are their minds - and anyone who's ever met these ladies will know that is absolutely not the case!

Fast forward to my walk home. I remembered that tomorrow (today) is my day to provide treats for our staff meeting, so I popped into Tesco. As I'm ringing up, I see this older gentleman struggling to lift a basket from the pile. He is stooped over so far that he's practically bent in half, and he shuffles his crutches back and forth in an attempt to lift it. He asks my cashier to give him a plastic bag instead, since it is easier for him to carry. I asked him if it would be okay for me to get his items for him, so I leave my groceries at the front and begin to search for the items on his short list as the Tesco employees find him a chair. Everyone chips in to help me look for sesame seeds.

Once the list is complete, I ask him if there's anything else. He says that he likes to buy the bread on special to feed the birds, but if I have time to carry the basket he'll come with me. We shuffle slowly around the store, not finding bread but picking up sweets for his wife (because they're her favorite). He tells me his name (let's call him G), and that his back is sore from too many years with a pick ax in the garden. A feather could knock him over, he says. Just standing to speak with me, he often comes close to losing his balance. He's one of 13 siblings, and his brother died 3 weeks shy of his 102nd birthday (the Queen sent a letter for his 101st, the President of Ireland sent a check). Oh yeah, did I mention G was 92 years old?

I begin to wonder why G is shopping alone. Is he the strongest of the two of them? I wonder if he has children, or if he has fallen out with them in the same way as the ladies from lunch. If they're too busy to notice his struggle. He makes me miss my grandpa. I think of my recent conversation with my grandma, and how much she appreciates my mom coming by so often to visit. Does my mom even know? (OK, now you do.)

Sometimes, you meet people that just stick with you for one reason or another. For whatever reason, my short time with G was enough to know that I will never see the world in the same way again.

What's Up?

My apologies to those who read this in google reader... I hit publish on the wrong post just now. Obviously that one isn't supposed to go up for a few months, and now you know my secret of writing posts long before they're published! Just pretend you didn't see it... it'll be our secret.


It has been so kindly pointed out to me that most of my recent posts haven't really had anything to do with what I'm doing here in Belfast - just photos and videos that entertain me. Of course, since I'm the one living the daily life, nothing really exciting seems to be happening... but I know that's not the case for you, the faithful readers of my blog.

The weeks here pass so quickly, it's like I've completely lost track of time. In fact, I just realized my last "week in the life" post was almost 6 months ago - whoops! So here's an updated glimpse at a week in the life of this Belfast YAV:

Monday
Most Mondays begin with YAV Meetings. We still meet as a group roughly 2-3 times per month for devotional time, to discuss local issues and share a meal together. On our "off" weeks, we have one-on-one meetings to check in on a more personal level with Doug. Of course, this month will be a little different - Doug is currently in the States to interview the next batch of YAVs (I can't believe it's that time already!), so we're meeting without our fearless leader for a few weeks.

Since our meetings are in the City Centre, I take advantage of the bus fare and do most of my errands in the afternoon while I'm downtown, before heading up to the church to prepare our weekly Bible Study. Our group is small, but I've loved the opportunity to get acquainted with these ladies. We just completed a study on prayer, and are currently doing a short Lenten series.

Tuesday
I meet with Lesley (the minister at Fortwilliam and Macrory) in the morning to check-in and discuss what's on my plate for the coming week. I usually spend the rest of the day in the office working on my larger-scale projects like the monthly magazine or upcoming Artisan Market (the one in December went so well we're planning another for June).

(You're not incorrect if you remember that Tuesday was my day off. But after a few months of my former schedule, I found that it was difficult and a bit lonely to have a different day off than everyone else... so I asked if it would be alright to rework my schedule a bit.)

Wednesday
I start off Wednesdays at the Vine for Mums and Tots. I love playing with the kids and sharing a cuppa and some toast with the carers (sometimes mum, sometimes granny). We just put out the toys and let the kids have their fun, so it is a fairly relaxed atmosphere compared to some of the other mother/toddler groups I've heard about.

My little buddy - we're usually attached at the hip!

I have a few hours between Mums and Tots and JAFFA, the Bible club, which I usually spend writing lesson plans or doing office work. During JAFFA I rotate with David and Elizabeth on teaching the lesson, serving snacks, playing games or assisting with crafts. The kids can be a bit "mustard" - which in this context is an affectionate term to say they're sort of stubborn or rebellious - but overall they're really great.

...apparently I sit on the floor in this room a lot...

After JAFFA, I head home. By the time I get back, it's usually time for our community dinner with the North Belfast YAVs. Each week we rotate between the girls' and boys' flat and someone cooks dinner for the 4 of us. Tomorrow is my turn. We just started this tradition at the new year, but I really enjoy it. We hung out a lot at the beginning of our time here, but now that we've got other friends and activities outside the program we decided to be more intentional about spending time together. We often follow it up with a trip to the local open mic night that Anna and T.J. have promised to attempt later this year.

Thursday
I head back to the Vine on Thursdays for the pensioners' lunch club, which I enjoy. I like hearing about their younger lives, since it offers another perspective on growing up in Belfast and raising families during the Troubles. It is difficult to hear some of the things these ladies (and a few gentlemen) have experienced - losing children or facing paramilitaries in their communities - but I think it is important to get a wider picture of the community.

After lunch we have some sort of activity with the group, which ranges from trivia to bocce or trips to local museums and bowling alleys. I then head upstairs for homework club, hopping from child to child practicing spellings or working out maths problems as needed.

I head home for a bit after the Vine, to eat and change into uniform before I'm lifted (picked up) for Boys' Brigade. We're currently practicing for our display night in April, so much of what we're doing involves learning the words to our songs or taking turns doing physical drills like forward rolls, trampoline jumps or climbing the horse. Keeping the wiggly Anchor Boys still as they wait for their turn is always a challenge!

(case in point: notice how few of the boys are facing forward?)

Friday
Fridays begin with our FMPCI staff meetings, a time to discuss our programs and community issues that have arisen in the past week. In the afternoon we have RESTORE, a small prayer meeting (which will move to Tuesdays after Easter). In the afternoons, I prepare the worship slides and announcement sheets for Sunday morning.

I'm not on football club in the evenings any more, but I do tag along occasionally to lend a hand or spend time with the boys - since I don't really have the opportunity on Saturday nights. They've begun playing matches with other local clubs, and while I haven't made it to a game yet, I am quite proud of their undefeated record!

Saturday
Now that I have the mornings free, I generally spend time with other YAVs or wander aimlessly for hours around St. George's market. It's essentially a covered farmers / craft market, and my idea of heaven on a Saturday morning. Falafel for lunch! Yum!

In the evenings, we still do Youth Club. Currently, it's like a drop-in centre in the Macrory Halls each week. We typically have a game (like football or dodgeball) going on in the main hall, billiards and table tennis in the back hall, and a craft or kitchen activity that the kids can wander between as the night progresses. Others sit up on the stage to chat, listen to music and watch the boys playing football. This will soon be changing a bit.

Making "Fifteens"

Due to other community issues, our numbers have gone down significantly in the past few months. Some of this may have to do with ongoing flag protests and preparations for the beginning of marching season (a few weeks ago, we had no one in the club but heard the bands practicing in nearby Tiger's Bay). As the departure of our Youth and Community Development Worker has left us a bit short staffed, we will move the club to fortnightly (every other week) after Easter; partnering with another local club to fill in the gap until we can get a new staff member. We will also focus more on "detached" youth work, where we walk around Tiger's Bay at non-club times and talk to the community kids as we see them hanging about. I'll fill you in on all that once we see how it goes...

Sunday
I go to church in the morning, then usually have the afternoons to myself. We've just begun watching the Nooma videos in Bible class, which I think the kids will really enjoy. I think it's easier to grasp the concepts in story form, and it has already facilitated better discussion so I don't completely feel like I'm talking to myself! Once a month, the young adults go to lunch after the service. I always appreciate the opportunity to spend time with this group!

So there you go, a week in the life, part 2. I promise I'll try to be more mindful about updating you all on projects and exciting events in the future! Much love.

The scared is scared

Sometimes, life is scary. This just makes me happy. Enjoy.

 
the Scared is scared from Bianca Giaever on Vimeo.