Residential: take 2

I've spent the last hour and half reading other people's blogs, trying to work up the desire to write this one. It's been a super weekend, but the thought of putting it all into words is exhausing.

We had another residential, with a different group of yp. Since we've been banned from the center in Enniskillen, the youth worker scrambled around and found us an Adventure Center in Omeath, Ireland. I was pretty excited about my frist trip into the Republic, but let me tell ya, crossing state lines is a bigger deal. Except for roads signs in both English and Gaelic, and having to spend euros instead of pounds, you'd never know the difference.

This trip was a major improvement over the last one. We made it through the whole weekend, and I think the staff at the center rather enjoyed the group. They were definately "spirited" but mild compared to last week. It wasn't so much a cross commnity trip, since only two of the Protestant yp decided to come, but there was a big Orange Order (Protestant) parade this weekend (Whiterock), and apparently, the group hasn't participated as much in the center based program all along.

(sidenote: the parade has been contentious in the past, since they want to march through the gates and into a Catholic area. According to the BBC article I read, it was a pretty calm event this time around.)

So we went to Omeath. It was fabulously beautiful. On Friday night we kayaked from the center to the pier in town (3 miles round trip), all the while watching a brilliant sunset over the mountains (since it doesn't get warm in this part of the world they wear wet suits for all the water activities. It is impossible to feel confident in a wet suit.) The yp were mostly great, not whining too much, until we get to the pier. There's a whole group of younger kids and dogs milling about, who quickly decided it would be fun to throw stones at us. (I think it's in the blood of the Irish, to throw stones). It got our yp a bit riled up, but since we were in kayaks there wasn't much to be done.

They didn't sleep on Friday night. I got about 4 hours of shut eye, letting our paid staff members camp out in the hall and deal with the constant action. And Saturday we had to stay on the yp to keep them awake (which worked- we got a good amount of sleep on Saturday night). We went out to another pier for an entire morning of banana boating (n the rain), played hockey, climbed a wall, ran a blow up obstical course, played archery games and went on a beach walk to the town. There are some really great yp in the group we were with (of course, they're all really great...right?), so it was a good weekend.

I was home alone for the evening, but a friend from work stopped by. After talking for a bit she offered to take me on a driving tour of Belfast. It was excellent- we drove down to the water (a pivotal moment in both BVS placements...seeing the San Francisco Bay and the River Lagan), saw the Harland and Wolff crane (shipbuilders of the Titanic), plenty of nightclubs, the house of a man so obsessed with Elvis that he has a statue over his front door, plaques and all sorts of memorabilia across the front, back through the City Center, city hall, Albert clock, Queens University. We also drove down both sides of the peace wall. I'll have to go back during the day and take some photos, it's just this towering wall of concrete and metal. From the Protestant side it's all grafitti and broken glass and stones, with houses that back right up to it. On the Catholic side it borders the Springfield Road, it's landscaped, and much less threatening.

Here are photos from the residential...at times I wished I could ditch the group and just go around and photograph, but here's what I came up with on the fly, and trying to avoid getting people in the shots (apparently I'll have a whole few years of beautiful countyside and no people...gotta love child protection)