So, about two weeks ago, I was in the shower, and my housemate Christina ran up the stairs, and pounded on the bathroom door. She shouted, "Turn the shower off! Turn off the water!" So, I did, but as you can imagine, I was quite confused (and thankful that I hadn't put shampoo in my hair yet). When I asked what was going on, she said that our shower was leaking down through our kitchen light fixture - what?! Since when does that kind of thing happen?! I mean, kitchen ceiling, okay, that's understandable - but the light fixture? Thankfully, we were able to get ahold of Christina's minister, who called the plumber. The next morning, the plumber came to assess the damage and fix our shower, shower seal, kitchen ceiling, and light fixture. This was my day off, and as I sat comfortably in the dining room munching on bananas/peanut butter on toast, I heard a drill - and realized that in order to fix our plumbing issue the plumber had to drill down through our shower, through our kitchen ceiling in order to fix the seal. It only took him a few hours, but I realized later that he never touched the light fixture... Don't worry, we haven't seen any sparks, and no one has been electrocuted in the process of turning on or off our kitchen light; however, I'm still quite perplexed as to how the water running through our light fixture just sorted itself out... (I just considered re-writing this in the form of a sonnet - The Sonnet of the Leaky Shower...maybe some other day...too complicated for midnight...)
Last Wednesday in JAFFA (Jesus A Friend For All) Club, we were talking about the story of David and Jonathan's friendship, and how, when King Saul wanted to kill one of the boys, the other boy promised to tell his friend whether he needed to run away or whether he would be safe to come back to the city. As a starter activity, we told the kiddos to draw a picture of them having fun with their friends. So, two boys at my table - I think we've learned, as leaders, that it works well if one of us takes each table - drew faces on their papers. To be clear, they each drew one face on their page - and the face was clearly making a funny face. I asked them what these faces meant, and they joyfully explained that they have a handshake that they do...they fist bump, and then they put their faces close together, stick out their tongues, and go "ahhhhhhhh" a la Haka warrior (Humor me... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=376xryqSgn8&feature=related). It was hilarious! Maybe you had to be there, but our table burst out laughing. Soon, we were all doing the handshake, and then I taught them the jellyfish and the rocket ship. Everybody loved the rocket ship, and my little table of eight drew little rocket ships on the backs of their pieces of paper. It was very cute. I think we bonded... :-)
More later...
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Good Craic
So, if I've counted correctly, I believe today marks the beginning of my third week here in Belfast, and its high time for a blog update.
The eight of us spent our first week becoming acquainted with each other (and Doug and Elaine, our site coordinators), the City of Belfast, and each other's site placements. Basically, this means that we spent TONS of time together as a group of 9 or 10, roaming around the city centre on foot (figuring out the bus system and running small errands), traveling by minibus to learn more about each other's jobs, and eating lunch and dinner together every day. So, we bonded a whole lot, went on long walks in the hills, learned more about the complex history of Northern Ireland, and had a great time overall! Its also important note that over the past couple of weeks we've been learning a lot of new, wee vocabulary words (everything here is "wee" - a "wee" cup of tea, a "wee" walk, not a short walk...ahahaha). Some other examples include "CRAIC" and "SKINT." Craic is easiest to understand in context, so someone might say "What's the craic?" Like, "what's up?" Or, "What's good?" Or, I just came for the craic, like the good times. Craic is pronounced "crack." Skint means broke.
My roommate and I get along really well, and we have a lot of fun trying to come up with meals with what we have in the house - always an adventure. Our first night here, we couldn't figure out how to lock our door, so we barricaded ourselves in. We used a potato masher to hold up the door handle in the locked position, some twine to secure the masher to some coat hooks, pushed a dresser in front of the door, and placed 3 glasses on top of the dresser, because we were sure that we'd wake up if they shattered. If nothing else, we're creative; however, its a good thing that I woke up early the next morning because the plumber had to get in in order to finish installing the rest of our bathroom appliances. (Side note: when we first got here, we had a toilet in our bathroom. Our shower was sealed on the second day, and usable on the third, and then later that week a sink was installed, and we have a mirror, but are having some difficulty figuring out how to apply the double-sided tape...) In any case, the poor plumber was having a terrible time trying to open our door with his key because it wasn't locked in the conventional way, luckily we were able to move the dresser before he got REALLY frustrated. hahaha. And clearly, our bathroom is in wonderful working condition (sans mirror).
Other mishaps might include the time when the blow dryer shot sparks at me - one baby-sized spark, and one GIANT spark while it was in my hands...that was a little scary... Oh, and the time when the vacuum started smoking randomly when I was in the middle of the upstairs hallway. The question still remains: Are these appliances on the fritz? Or should I not be allowed to do housework? ;-) No worries, my room is very clean, and we're working on getting into a cleaning and cooking routine.
More later...
The eight of us spent our first week becoming acquainted with each other (and Doug and Elaine, our site coordinators), the City of Belfast, and each other's site placements. Basically, this means that we spent TONS of time together as a group of 9 or 10, roaming around the city centre on foot (figuring out the bus system and running small errands), traveling by minibus to learn more about each other's jobs, and eating lunch and dinner together every day. So, we bonded a whole lot, went on long walks in the hills, learned more about the complex history of Northern Ireland, and had a great time overall! Its also important note that over the past couple of weeks we've been learning a lot of new, wee vocabulary words (everything here is "wee" - a "wee" cup of tea, a "wee" walk, not a short walk...ahahaha). Some other examples include "CRAIC" and "SKINT." Craic is easiest to understand in context, so someone might say "What's the craic?" Like, "what's up?" Or, "What's good?" Or, I just came for the craic, like the good times. Craic is pronounced "crack." Skint means broke.
My roommate and I get along really well, and we have a lot of fun trying to come up with meals with what we have in the house - always an adventure. Our first night here, we couldn't figure out how to lock our door, so we barricaded ourselves in. We used a potato masher to hold up the door handle in the locked position, some twine to secure the masher to some coat hooks, pushed a dresser in front of the door, and placed 3 glasses on top of the dresser, because we were sure that we'd wake up if they shattered. If nothing else, we're creative; however, its a good thing that I woke up early the next morning because the plumber had to get in in order to finish installing the rest of our bathroom appliances. (Side note: when we first got here, we had a toilet in our bathroom. Our shower was sealed on the second day, and usable on the third, and then later that week a sink was installed, and we have a mirror, but are having some difficulty figuring out how to apply the double-sided tape...) In any case, the poor plumber was having a terrible time trying to open our door with his key because it wasn't locked in the conventional way, luckily we were able to move the dresser before he got REALLY frustrated. hahaha. And clearly, our bathroom is in wonderful working condition (sans mirror).
Other mishaps might include the time when the blow dryer shot sparks at me - one baby-sized spark, and one GIANT spark while it was in my hands...that was a little scary... Oh, and the time when the vacuum started smoking randomly when I was in the middle of the upstairs hallway. The question still remains: Are these appliances on the fritz? Or should I not be allowed to do housework? ;-) No worries, my room is very clean, and we're working on getting into a cleaning and cooking routine.
More later...
Friday, July 1, 2011
First Post!
Wow. It is hard to believe that all the Young Adult Volunteers leave for orientation in Stony Point, NY, in just 52 days. Along with 7 other volunteers, I'll be serving through the PC (U.S.A.) in Belfast from 29 August 2011 until the summer of 2012. Each of us has received a church placement and a community center placement from our site coordinator Doug Baker. I am so excited to get to know and serve with the other volunteers and Doug.
Specifically, I will be serving with the Glengormley Presbyterian Church (www.glengormleypresbyterianchurch.org) working with youth from the congregation and the community in a mixed area of North Belfast and assisting with a parents and pre-school group, art club, and other programs. In terms of my community center placement, I will be working with The Vine Community and Advice Centre, which is located in a low-income area in North Belfast. The Vine provides a comprehensive range of community services to all age groups including after school tutoring, youth clubs, women’s groups, a senior citizen’s lunch club, an advice center for those needing help filling in forms, and JAFFA (Jesus A Friend For All) a Christian education outreach for children (www.vinecentre.org). So, I'm eager to learn from and serve with the people of North Belfast.
On a more personal note, in preparation for the year in Belfast, I have become a recovering vegetarian. I started slowly with turkey and bacon (Surprise, right? Apparently, bacon is a gateway meat...meaning that vegetarians are lured back to the meat-eating world by its salty goodness), and I've worked up to chicken and other kinds of pork. I have yet to tackle lamb and beef, but I'm sure that will happen soon (maybe even over the upcoming holiday weekend?!?!). We shall see! More soon.
Peace be with you!
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