Sunday, May 1: Leaving Corrymeela and returning to Home

The 2016 Belfast Peace Project Volunteers In Mission Team

Debbie Aldrich, Abby Maiellaro, Helen Maiellaro, Pat Thomas, Debbie Whitehead, Mike Thomas, Jack Whitehead, Rod Aldrich

Final Day in Northern Ireland

We had heavy hearts as we got up today. We knew the bus was coming to take us to the Dublin Airport.  The day started with our Corrymeela friends getting up early to share breakfast together.   The last day of the Belfast Peace project is always bittersweet.  We are all eager to get home to loved ones yet we have fallen in love with this beautiful island. It is difficult to process all we have learned, the amazing people we have met and the sites we have seen.

How do you explain the heroic peacemakers who volunteer their time to meet with our group or the people of faith who truly walk the talk and live to make other’s lives better? How do define the feelings we get when we pack bicycles to go to Ghana, so children can go to school, refurbish furniture for the homeless, build planters for community gardens, share a meal with those marginalized who are homeless, mentally ill or ostracized by society.  How can we reveal how it feels to get a hug or a smile from these people who accept us, yet are not accepted by society? I am not sure we know how to share these stories. 

We are thankful for the members of this year’s team, Rod and Deb Aldrich, Jack and Deb Whitehead, Helen and Abby Maiellaro and the members of the Forthspring, Skainos, Woodvale and Corrymeela Communities. 

We as members of a Volunteers in Mission Team are in a covenant of hope for our communities and the world.  We do our best to help others through our work, our prayers and our caring for others. We have been asked to return next year to continue our work in these communities and we are already in the midst of planning now.

Submitted by Pat Thomas

Giants Causeway, Smugglers Inn, Dunluce Castle, Discussion

We woke up to another beautiful sunny day in Northern Ireland.  I actually have a sunburn.  What wonderful weather we’ve been having!  After a relaxing breakfast, we participated in a morning service of 25 minutes of silence followed by a bible verse and short service.  From there we were off to Giant’s Causeway!  The team was joined by AJ, Kyle and Aynna from Corrymeela.  With some song singing on our way, we arrived at the Causeway.  We had a guide who spoke to us through an ear phone system as we walked the path to the causeway rocks, learning about the geologic history that created these basalt column formations. 

At the Causeway everyone enjoyed climbing on the rocks and around the formations.  A seal in the bay watched all the people enjoying his rocks. The sun was warm and inviting helping everyone enjoy the morning.  After a quick stop at the gift shop we were off to Smugglers Inn for our final team lunch with much laughter and enjoying each others company.   

From there we traveled to Dunluce Castle for a tour given by Colin, a professor of archeology and environmental studies at Ulster University.  He led us through the castle giving us a wonderful perspective of the history of the site and the peoples who have lived there, and how this history is reflected in the conflict found in the country today.  Rod and Deb particularly enjoyed the discussions of sanitary facilities, considering their backgrounds in the environmental arena. Colin led us outside the castle walls and into a nearby field to see the archeology of the village that once stood there.  We walked down the field and were actually walking down the old main road of the village.  He established a strong sense of place, of who had lived there and how they had lived.  After our tour, we enjoyed a little down time sitting outside drinking hot and cold drinks at the tea shop by the castle, until our bus arrived to bring us back to Corrymeela.    

After a short break, we joined everyone staying/working at Corrymeela for dinner and we filled the eating area.  Staff opened the gift shop for a short while so we could check it out and we then met for an evening discussion of faith and work. 

Derrick, a long time member of the Corrymeela community - 51 years- discussed his life experiences and how he feels the feet take a step forward and the brain then follows in many roads to faith, peace and reconciliation.  Another younger member, Ellis, also shared his life experiences and faith journey.  We discussed how individual actions can help others change their perspective or be moved to also act in a more empathetic way.  Members of the VIM team actively participated in a very engaging roundtable.  

Our meeting had to end and most of the VIM team went to the 9:00 service.  Soon Maura, her husband and daughter will be arriving for a visit of fun and laughter and we will end this full day with getting ready for our trip to Dublin tomorrow where our trip together will come to a close.  What an eventful time we have all had!  

Submitted by Deb Aldrich

AT THE GIANTS CAUSEWAY

AT DUNLUCE CASTLE

Evening Conversation with Derrick Willis

Friday, April 29: Ratlin Island, Karen Eyban on Local Community Peace Efforts

We woke to beautiful sunshine at Corrymeela.  After a breakfast of porridge, while looking out at the North Sea & Rathlin Island, off we went.  The same taxi had to make 3 trips to get us all to the ferry for Rathlin Island.  There we met up with Paul Quinn our tour guide for the trip.  Jack & I spent most of the time on the ferry talking to one of the ferry workers.  He, his wife, and 2 children left Zimbabwe and now live on the island.  They wanted to raise their family away from all the violence that was there.

After docking in the island at Church Bay we took a small bus up to the West Light House & bird sanctuary.  Very beautiful, very, very windy!!!  Looking out at the North Sea you could see the the Isle of Isla, which is part of Scotland.  Looking with binoculars at the cliffs below we saw Puffins, Chough, Guillemots & Ravens.  After a delicious lunch at the Watershed Cafe, we stopped and shopped a little at the Breakwater Art Gallery and bought a few things. We then took a walking tour with Paul.  The water in the bay was turqoiuse because of the lime stone floor of the bay.  We saw Harbor Seals sunning themselves & playing in the water.  Dinner was back at Corrymeela, followed by a meeting with Karin Eyben about her work in the community.  At 10:00 tonight we will attend a service at the Croi.

I will close with a poem that Rod Aldridge wrote while looking at the seals in the harbor.

Submitted by Debbie Whitehead


Gray Seals at the Shore

The plump yet sleek seals
are in the nook of the harbor
balanced on rocks
whose tops
are below and above the swelling tide.
Their coats are in different shades
of dryness
with the most sunned now spotted.
Dark glass eyes
wetly peer at me with interest
tempered by deep contentment.
They nearly all curl
from raised muzzled heads
through low, balanced,
and many pregnant bodies
to elevated flat black-skinned tails.
Every body is arced
forming a bob of smiles.

By Rod Aldrich

View on Rathlin Island looking towards Ballycastle

View from Rathlin Island looking at Carick-a-Rede Bridge

Bird Sanctuary entrance

Walking down ramp towards lighthouse and bird sanctuary

Walking down VERY steep steps to lighthouse and bird sanctuary

Birds at the Sanctuary

More Birds

Team members viewing the birds

 

More Birds

Even More Birds

View of Harbor

The Puffin Bus we took several years ago

Seals in the Harbor

 More Seals

Team in front of seals

Walking the paths on Rathlin Island

On the Ferry ready to leave

Thursday, April 28: Left Belfast, Derry, Jon McCourt, Bog Side Artists, Corrymeela

While we were eating, it started to snow over Farset Lake.

We said goodbye to Ruth and other staff.

On the ride to Derry in a bus we saw considerable snow. Some started to stick in the grass and little nooks. The tops of the hills were white.

We toured the walls of Derry with John McCourt during no rain, light rain, and with wind. John said five people in his school class were killed in the troubles. He asked us to think of that happening to so many classes over the years.

Most recent figures show 18 percent of students in NI are mixed community schools where children from both the Catholic and Protestant communities attend. The figure could be 23 percent now. Usually, there is a wait list to get into those schools.

Protestant churches inside the city walls are empty and being repurposed. The protestant former members have left for areas outside the city.

John McCourt spent ten years in a boys home on the fringe of Derry. His brothers entered at the same time and he didn't see them for eight years. After his experiences going through the Troubles, John had the perception and commitment to support the movement to call for inquiry into institutional abuse. Without the Troubles, John might not have been able to do that.

John gave us the hard facts of the slaughter on Bloody Sunday, the failures of the first inquiry into how it happened, and the eventual success of the final inquiry which told the surviving families what they already knew.

Tom Kelly, one of the Bogside Artists, gave us a tour of the murals he and his other two partners painted. The human subjects of murals who were local were consulted personally by the artists before being depicted on a mural. The Bogside Artists formed the opinion that John Hume did a lot for peace.

All of the murals have thoughtful non-sectarian messages about discrimination, violence, and peace.
One depicts a 12 year old in an old World War era gas mask which was ineffective against tear gas. The boy is also holding a Malitof Cocktail fire bomb. The mural invites you to ask - How  did the boy get to be there? What would have this result for such a young man?

Tom sometimes sees the children Bogside artists took in art workshops years ago. Now these children are in their 20s and 30s and have friends in the community living opposite from them.

Once we got to Corrymeela, we ate, attended an introductory meeting, and we went to a service at the Chroi which was conducted in the manner of the Taizé. We met with Kyle and AJ to learn about each other's experiences in Northern Ireland.

Submitted by Rod Aldrich

Snow on the way to Derry

Start of tour with Jon McCourt

On the walls of Derry

On the walls of Derry

Helen and Abby at Columb Cathedral

Team with Bogside Artist Tom

Tom with Team in front of Peace Mural

Peace Dove Mural