So here's the craic

I hope you enjoy the Irish slang I learned.  They say the craic as a “What’s the craic?” like what’s going on.  Anyway, our first day here was beautiful weather and Doug (site supervisor) kept us super busy.  His theory is, yes, jetlag is a downer, especially coming from the U.S. since you lose a nights sleep but if you keep through the day you’ll get on schedule.  So he kept us busy.  He carted us around and made us walk around a lot to keep us awake.  He showed us some of the city and Stormont which is like the parliament building in Belfast.  

The group completely jet lagged at Stormont

He was right however.  While we all lost the battle to sleep a couple time throughout the day, I ended up cuddled in the most awkward position ever under my rain jacket in the middle of Doug's living room.  The next day however we went to both my sites and I got to meet both my site supervisors and here about the places I am working.   They both seem really cool.  I'll be working with a few projects at Fort William and a lot with their youth.  I also learned some background of the church which is really cool.  The church is an advocate for building bridges which isn't always received well in their neighborhood. I look forward to seeing how that works into my year.   At the WAVE Trauma Center I'll be working with Men and Woman's groups and maybe an injured group every now and then as they talk about their experience from the troubles.  

Since Wednesday we've been touring around all of our sites and learning about the city, the situation, and what we will be doing. Since the cease fire things have calmed down, but they are no where near perfect.  A lot of tension still remains and a lot of damage remains in the community.

On a lighter note I will end with an amusing anecdote of my culture shock since being here.  I was surprised by how many things are different.  I am having to relearn to do common things like using appliances and in a way speak because they say things very different here.  A completely different slang.  One of the best stories thus far is the one of Zoe (my roommate) and I trying to lock our door.  We have to lift the handle up before locking it then twist the key around twice, even on the inside.  We COULD NOT get it to twist around twice and our door would not stay locked.  So after over an hour of trying and a lot of door slamming, we gave up trying to lock our door.  We couldn't call anyone because at this point we didn't have working mobiles or a house phone hooked up.  So we put our efforts into barricading the door.  We took a masher from the kitchen and string and tied our door knob up so it wouldn't open.  We then put a dresser and a mattress in front of the door and placed glasses on so if it moved they would fall and break and wake us up.  Needless to say it was a nasty surprise for the handyman when he came in the morning.  It still takes us a while to lock our door but we're getting it slowly.  

Our barricade

The intricacies of our rigged door knob

Well if you are still reading this, thanks and I hope you found it interesting and enjoyable. I'll try not to make them so long in the future but a lot has been going on.  I will leave you with a picture of the group and the view from the top of this fort area in Belfast we hiked to which was BEAUTIFUL.  

From top right, Doug, Karl, Liz, Erin, Kendra, Me

From bottom right, Zoe, Patrick, Ellison

View of the city

The many obstacles to FINALLY GETTING HERE!

Getting here was a giant ordeal of an adventure.  Monday morning I woke up and called the consulate about me visa.  For those of you who don’t know I have had a lot of issues getting it none of which have been my fault.  They told me they still had and I just cracked since in the previous call on Friday they told me it would be here in time for me to leave.  I have held it together throughout all of my visa problems but when they told me it wouldn’t be here in time, it was just too much to handle.  But after a lot of pulling myself together and losing it again with my fellow YAV’s hugs I finally took action on the 4^th suggestion of “Maybe someone can just go get it since its in NYC nearby?”  I ended up  being the one to go.

I hitched a ride to Newark airport in Jersey and I was going to take a train to NYC to retrieve my visa.  However halfway to the airport I called MTA and was told the trains to and from the airport were shut down from Irene.  This put me on the bussing system.  When I went to try to figure it out, it was the most confusing system I’ve ever seen.  So clearly I asked a guy standing next to me who seemed to know what was going on to help me.  He ended up being the nicest guy ever.  His name was Fernando and he worked in the airport.  He told me another train system in Jersey was working that would take me into the city. He accompanied me to the train station and onto the first train with me.  He also mapped out my way to get home again after leaving New York.

 Fernando on the final train before we parted ways

So after a bus, 2 trains, the subway, and am 8 block walk I finally got my passport back with my Visa in it.  Then I got lost trying to get back to the train.  And after like 12 blocks of walking, the subway, and 2 trains I was back at the bus station without Fernando trying to find the right bus.  I ended up finding it only to find a 2 hour line to get back to the airport since the trains were down.  I didn’t have 2 hours because my flight was approaching.  Luckily I ended up behind a pilot who I heard asking people if they were going to the airport and moving forward when they said no because and express bus was coming in 5 mins.  So luckily I made it to the airport with my visa on time. Flight left on time and even arrived in Belfast earlier then it was scheduled to land.