One does what one can

It was a cold, cloudy day as the knight saw the little sparrow, lying on its back in the middle of the path. Remaining in the saddle, he looked at the fragile creature and asked: "What are you doing, lying there on your back?"
"I heard that today the sky is going to fall."
The knight laughed: "And your twig-thin legs are going to hold it up?"
"One does what one can," answered the little sparrow.

One of the current European BVSers shares this story on various occasions...

Last week was rough.
Some of the volunteers here are leaving earlier than planned. Although I'm the volunteer's advocate, I felt like I'm on a tightrope sometimes between BVSer and project.
I'll be interviewing 5-6 new people in the just-started orientation seminar in the USA and am getting geared up for that.
One big congregation in the USA requested CoB program staff to explain what we're doing about differing opinions on human sexuality, the peace position, and women's leadership, before they decide on continuing donations to the denomination's ministries.
The UK Borders Agency suddenly and yet again shifted website information and links and all of that UK visa stuff.
And our BVS director's mother died.

One does what one can.

Each 5 weeks at Quaker Cottage one of my responsibilities is cooking lunch for the families for a full week. So, I had my first cooking week the week after last. I had to prepare enough food for 10 adults and about 8-9 children. I also chose 2 menus for the week, with a slight variation for the children. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I served hamburgers, soup, and coleslaw, which was very easy to prepare. I slapped patties on the George Forman grill, heated up soup on the stove, and had help making the coleslaw. Thursday and Friday I chose to serve champ (which is similar to mashed potatoes with green onions), beans, and sausages. Thursday morning, I was getting help from 2 of my coworkers, and I felt like I heard hundreds of suggestions and advice. I was asked to serve something simple on Friday so that I could work with the children and be in the kitchen as little as possible, so I decided I would just double my recipe and save enough for Friday's families. I thought things were going well with the champ. The mothers even came in and helped mash the potatoes up, making a hell of a stir about it too! However, once the families left for the day, my boss Grant had to tell me that the champ wasn't good and that the mothers wouldn't eat it. He explained that the champ was too lumpy, and I couldn't serve it to the mothers for Friday. As mentioned above, I thought the meal was going well, so I was taken by surprise with the bad news. I realized the champ had lumps, but I personally don't mind lumpy mashed potatoes because it reminds me of homemade-with-love potatoes vs. perfectly smooth instant mashed potatoes from a box. So I sulked lamenting my failed meal. Friday Grant took charge of remaking champ and sausages, and I prepared the children's lunch and snack that day.

Trying to shake off my culinary flops and insecurity in the kitchen, I arranged to go to the Giant's Causeway with a few friends. The Giant's Causeway is up on the north coast, and it's 40,000 hexagonal flat step-like stones miraculously arranged on the coast. These stones have a wonderful legend of two rival giants. The protagonist in the legend is the Irish giant, Finn McCool, and he was shouting and fighting with the Scottish giant, Fingal who was across the Irish Sea. Finn picked up clumps of the earth and threw them across the sea, which formed stepping stones to Scotland. By the time Finn had finished, though, he was exhausted and too tired to go to Fingal. Fearing Fingal would cross the sea to confront the Irish giant, Finn's wife dressed Finn up like a baby to fool Fingal. The hoax worked! Fingal took one look at the “giant baby,” and thought if the child was that large, how much larger would the father be? In a fright, the Scottish giant bounced quickly back to Scotland tearing it up as he went, and creating the step-like stones that we have today. The Causeway was beautiful, and we hiked a bit to see “the organ,” which were the famous stones in the shape of a pipe organ. The sun even appeared for about 20 minutes on our hike, creating even more beautiful photo ops.

Last week Quakers had its September residential at Corrymeela peace retreat center in Ballycastle. Residential is another term for holiday or vacation time that is a special part of the Quaker Cottage program. The staff and 9 families go to a retreat center for 4 days. The idea is to give the families a break from their lives in Belfast, and also provide a fun family holiday. Quakers has a good relationship with Corrymeela retreat center, which is an amazing peacebuilding organization that specializes not only in hosting peace retreats, but other great programs that work for peace and reconciliation. Our residentail at Corrymeela was from Tuesday to Friday.

After arrival and lunch on Tuesday, I was with the afterschool group ages 5-12 and we had a treasure hunt on the beach! I was excited to play pirate and see the children light up when they discovered new clues. There is just nothing like enthusiasm you experience from children! After our treasure hunt, we went to Dunluce Castle about 30 minutes away. Dunluce Castle has an interesting story. One week there was a festival with lots of food being prepared. One night, the kitchen suddenly crumbled into the sea, taking several kitchen staff with it! Today the castle is in ruins, even without a roof. I enjoyed going and imagining what the place looked like in its prime. The children also enjoyed the castle. Wednesday, and Thursday I was with the babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, and we went to a farm, went on walks, played on the playground and baby room, had snacks, and the like. The days at residential were long; we were responsible for the children from 9am-5pm while the mothers were on their own adult outings. We also helped put the babies to bed and then supervised the afterschoolers at night. So our work shifts were around 8am-11pm each day. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end, and I definitely took last weekend to recharge my batteries!

On Sunday, I went to my first Quaker meeting. As many of you may know Quakers worship in silence, and if the spirit so moves, someone shares words of wisdom, or scripture, or a poem with the group. In most UK Quaker meetings, there is no sermon, no singing, and no liturgy. While I found sitting in silence to be a bit challenging, I truly appreciated the time to simply think and reflect about all that I've been experiencing. I prayed. I meditated. I thought about things I hadn't given myself enough time to think about. The silent worship was good for my soul, and I even got to chat with some of the congregation after worship, which was icing on the cake.

And now I look forward to getting back on schedule after residential. In a week or two we will get 8-9 new families, all with their own joys and concerns, struggles, fears, and dreams. I pray that they feel compelled to commit to Quakers, and allow the relationship to grow.

Celebrating Rainbows

I have been here in N. Ireland for nearly a full month. The work at Quaker Cottage has changed from the summer program to the school-year program. A large difference between the two programs is the lack of outings with exchange for community time at our mountain site. So, instead of taking the children out and about to visit parks, museums, heritage sites, etc., we have stayed at our cottage work building trying to get the children on a routine.

In the mornings I work with the 0-4 year olds. We try to take the 3 and 4 year olds to a separate room where we can work on “preschool” activities, like cutting, pasting, painting, reading/writing, alphabet, etc. The idea is to work on their motor skills, build their attention spans, help them read and write, listen to stories, have artistic expression, and other great skills that will help them along when they start preschool or “nursery.” Meanwhile, the 0-2 year olds are downstairs in the baby room playing away. The two groups come together again for lunch, and then we try to get the children outside for a walk or play on the playground. The mums finish their group counseling and come outside to meet us, and the families hop on the buses to go home.

About an hour of our afternoons are spent cleaning the cottage after the 0-4 year olds have been there. Then we staff members have a late lunch together and plan for our afterschool groups, which come Tuesday-Thursday. I am still learning the afterschool program schedule; there are group games, crafts, “free play,” and snacks. The afterschool program gives children a chance to get away from home for a few hours, interact with their peers, build relationships, learn new skills, self-development, and have fun! Quakers gives the children a chance to be who they want to be, and shed unhealthy personas that they may have developed at home or at school. The program is really great.

The Quaker Cottage “ethos” and values that drive our work with the children are truth and integrity, equality, nonviolence, and simplicity. I like to sum-up the ethos as “love and patience.” :) And how I have been tested to keep the ethos in my heart while working with these challenging children! My latest preschool hour was on Friday, when I had three 3-4 year olds by myself. We started with coloring, to work on their “writing” motor development, then we moved to painting. After one particularly difficult child stuck a paintbrush down the sink, I told them paint-time was over. I quickly tried to help them wash their hands and move on to story time, but by that time the children had lost it! They were running around the room, jumping on the couches, ripping decorations off the walls, pulling games off the shelves, crawling into our game and book storage nook, and more! Within a matter of minutes I had lost complete control of the situation, and even calling for backup didn't help! We had to drag the unruly children downstairs early to join the rest of the group, 0-2 year olds along with the other staff. What an hour! So yes, “love and patience!”

As far as my time after work, we had a quick goodbye celebration for our volunteer roommate Alex. We had a great dinner with her and then went to the John Hewitt for a pint. Last Monday I auditioned to join a community choir. I was gladly welcomed into the group, but I quickly discovered that the ensemble is more advanced than I am. Now I am caught with indecision of staying in the vocal ensemble, knowing I'll need to work hard to “catch up,” or try to find a less intense extracurricular activity. I am planning to go to the next few rehearsals before I make a decision.

Last weekend I had the exciting opportunity to go to an Eagles tribute band concert at the Empire, which is a bar that was formerly a church. The venue is beautiful, yet hip at the same time. The band was really good, and they played all of the Eagles hits, some Fleetwood Mac tunes, and even one of my favorite Neil Young songs, After the Gold Rush. Needless to say, I had a good night.

I just finished up another weekend, and I must admit I was blown away. My friend Becca invited Courtney and I to Portstewart to meet a few of her friends and enjoy the northern coast. I was captivated by the coastal town Portstewart. Portstewart had stunning landscapes, and a cute village that included shops, restaurants, churches, and a former castle that was remade into a school. It was beautiful. We stopped at Morelli's restaurant, and I had some of the best chips of my life! I ordered the garlic chips, and I was served a large bowl of chips that were swimming in garlic butter; I was in heaven!

After my artery-aching meal, we drove just a few miles down the road to Portrush. We parked at the beach and walked down to the sand to find a double rainbow! Flabbergasted cannot fully describe my feelings. Once we calmed down a bit from the beauty around us, Becca and I skipped to the tide and waded in the cold sea. It was a beautiful day.

This evening I went to the Crown Liquor Saloon with friends. The Crown Liquor Saloon is one of Belfast's oldest pubs and is even part of the National Trust! Established in 1826 The Crown Bar is unique for the look and feel of a cathedral. The pub has “vaults,” small conversation rooms with doors and all, which resemble confessionals. The bar is alter-like, and there are even stained glass windows! The architecture is uniquely Victorian, amazing wood carvings, brilliant mirrors, mosaic floor tiles, and gorgeous brown, red, and gold color scheme. The Guiness couldn't have tasted better than sitting in a historic, classy, and quite unique pub.

Again, I am pleased to report another great span of time in N. Ireland. I have faced both concerning challenges, and worthwhile delights. I need to remind myself that the frequent rain and challenges are all for a reason, and I can't experience rainbows and joy without the rain and struggle. I am excited to greet the challenges to try to understand the world just a little bit better than before, all the while celebrating rainbows.


Thanks for reading!

Peace and Grace,
Samantha Carwile

Week Two in Belfast

My second full week in Belfast was full of adventure! My work at Quakers was rewarding with opportunities to acquaint myself with the children. We had our last week of the summer program, which meant our last couple of outings into the city of Belfast and beyond. I am awed by the many opportunities I had to go out with the kids to see something new.

On Monday I spent my day with 4-15 year olds, as the teens were grouped with the elementary aged children. We went to the small town of Killyleagh, which had an outstanding playpark right off of the Strangford Lough (lake). The children & youth loved the park; it had an obstacle course, zip line, and the traditional climbing, swinging, and sliding infrastructure. After our playground time, we walked to the lakeshore to catch small crabs. Don't worry they were too small to pinch or bite! I spent my time playing “photographer” while being secretly too scared to catch crabs myself. :)

I had my first full day with the teens on Tuesday. Along with the teen-worker, Rory, we went to the cinema to see The Inbetweeners. Now, The Inbetweeners, is a film I may recommend to party-movie, perverted humor, and toilet humor fans. The film is based from a UK t.v. series of four underdog, nerdy, sexually ambitious teens and their many adventures. The film is about the lads' holiday before starting at university; you get the idea. After the film, we went to the Belfast Castle. I was completely surprised and excited to go, and the teens thought I was a hyperactive-freak! I had to explain that I had never visited a castle before, because the US never had a monarchy. The Belfast Castle is relatively young and was built in the late 19th century. The castle has a cat theme, with a legend about a lucky cat. If the white cat continues to roam the castle boundaries, then all those who visit will be lucky. So, the castle gardens holds 9 cats within the landscaping. I enjoyed seeing the castle and being graced with a lucky visit.

Wednesday was another great day with the elementary-aged kids, 4-11 years old. We went to Carnfunnock, another small town park area. Carnfunnock had an interesting sundial garden and lakeshore, but we were really there for the hedge maze. Our group leader, Phil, hid 10 marbles throughout the maze, and our group had the challenge of finding all the marbles. After our marble-maze hunt, we walked around to the “haunted hospital,” an abandoned hospital campus, which actually did give me the spooks! Phil told some great ghost stories to enhance the grim-and-ghoul aura.

I was lucky enough to also visit Castle Ward on Thursday with the afterschoolers, 4-11 years old. Castle Ward, is actually not a castle, but a very unique mansion. Castle Ward was home to theViscount of Bangor, and his wife; however, the Wards were not happily married. In fact, they were so unhappily married, that they had separate halves of the house. Interestingly enough, the lord chose a Classical décor for the front half of the house, and the lady chose Gothic architecture for her lay of the house. I was amazed to see the stark difference in architecture and décor. One can actually see the front Classical facade, and then run the the back of the mansion to see the Gothic facade. The interior, of course, also runs with this theme. The children from Quakers loved the house and stayed interested, asking lots of questions to our tour guide. It was amazing. After work, my roommates and I went to the John Hewitt, a famous and popular traditional pub in Belfast. The John Hewitt hosts artists almost every night of the week, so we enjoyed hearing the very start of the Blues Festival.

Friday was a simple day of baby care in the morning, and a deep cleaning of our work cottage in the afternoon. As mentioned above, Belfast hosted the Blues Festival last weekend, so my roommates, Courtney and Lena, along with myself went to two bars to enjoy the artists.

Our fellow BVS friend from Derry/Londonderry, Becca, came to visit again on Saturday. We went to a wine bar hosting a blues band for dinner, then went to a nightclub called Lavery's that night. I think we found the nightclub to be a little “too much fun” for us! The place was completely packed, and there's no good way to have a conversation or get to know people while trying to dance to blaring club music. We also fought the crowd to find a cab when the place closed. There's nothing like seeing Belfast's inebriated population all crawling around the street waving down taxis or just aimlessly wandering through the street! So, I think we're looking for something a bit tamer for next time!

Sunday was a great day, because we went to the cultural festival/Mela. The mela is a Belfast summer tradition with thousands of participants. There were 2 music stages, hosting dancers, stilt performance, Chinese lion dancers, and other cool acts. A world food market, and a global craft village were also present. The mela was hosted in the Botanic Gardens in South Belfast. The gardens were beautiful and enjoyable to explore.

Needless to say, I have been keeping busy! I'm enjoying each and every adventure I have, whether it's a quick grocery-stop at TESCO, on a long bus ride with children on our way to a cool site, or rockin' out at the Blues Festival. Wonder, discovery, gratitude, fortune, grace, excitement, and beauty are all collective words I would choose to use to describe my time thus far. Blessings on my journey!

My First Week in Belfast

Well, I'm excited to report that I've survived my first full week in Belfast! Overall, I'm doing great! I finished my first full week of work in childcare at Quaker Cottage and even managed to have a fantastic social life outside of Quakers.

During my working hours, I was with school aged children (4-12 years old) for 3 days, and babies (0-3 yrs) Wed and Thurs. The summer program here at Quaker Cottage encourages the children to get out to explore the city, while taking advantage of the rare glimpses of sunshine. Some of our outings at work have included going to a park with castle/fortress ruins in Hillsborough (about 15 minutes away), going to the Ulster Museum, which specializes in natural history, biology, and social history-including the Troubles, the Ulster Folk and Transportation Museum, which was more of a historical village set in the late 19th century, and Streamvale Farm-- an interactive child-friendly farm with petting stations, feeding stations, and more. So, I've been able to get out and about just by going to work! The children are a handful, but lovely at the same time. It's been great getting to know them all. My co-workers/supervisors are spectacular with the kids and have much knowledge about the N. Ireland conflict. I pick their brains on a regular basis; it's really great. And now I'm learning how to drive the minibuses so that we can start picking up the families that come to Quaker Cottage. While I have experience driving large vehicles through Manchester College outings, driving these minibuses are still a bit unnerving. I'm learning to drive on the left side of the road, and driving on smaller roads. It will take a while to feel comfortable driving these buses.

My living situation is good too. On Sunday, I switched to a larger room at our house. One of my roommates, Courtney, is also a BVS'er and arrived with me to Quaker Cottage at the same time. I've already gotten to know her from our BVS orientation in Maryland. She's a Notre Dame alumna that has degrees in psychology and philosophy, with an emphasis in peace studies/peace psychology. My other two roommates are German, Lena and Alex. Alex is will be leaving soon; volunteers come and go here at Quakers,and it's simply her time to move on. I just switched over to her room, which is larger and more enjoyable. :) Lena arrived only a few days before Courtney and I, so she is brand new as well. My roommates are all quite kind and we're getting along well. We all went out for a pint on Monday night, and Tuesday we all went to a 3 pound cinema to see The Guard.

My weekend was eventful and fun! Courtney and I went out for Thirsty Thursday. We learned that Thursday nights are student nights, which means the majority of pub-goers are 19 years old! We also went to Ollie's, one of the best nightclubs in Belfast, on Friday night, where we really got to mingle and dance. Saturday, Courtney and I met up with our other BVS comrade, Becca, and the pilot friend we made on our flight from London to Belfast last weekend. He also brought his friend, who's also a pilot. We walked and shopped around, then the five of us came back to our cottage to enjoy the view, and talk over a few beers. Today, Courtney, Lena, her friend from Germany, and myself went to the famous St. George's Market. St. George's Market is Belfast's award-winning market established in the late 19th century. St. George's has tons of vendors selling jewelery, artwork, crafts, books, garments, produce, catered food, and much more. The market is open each weekend Friday – Sunday. It was amazing. We saw our co-worker, Phil who has a juggling/circus equipment booth, which I found to be all the rage! Courtney and I had a go at juggling, and I think I've found my new Sunday afternoon pastime...learning to juggle with Phil at St. George's market. :)

I'm delighted and grateful for such an eventful week. I keep being surprised with realizing where I am...living in a beautiful cottage, having a job of showing love and patience to troubled children, taking regular adventures off the mountain to sustain my social life, and so much more. I'm so very lucky, and so very much looking forward to more!

Thanks for reading! Please message me your mailing address if you are interested in receiving postcards! I have a goal to send at least 5 postcards to friends and family per month!

In love, peace, and grace,
Samantha

New BVSers at Quaker Cottage

Samantha Carwile wrote last weekend after her arrival at Quaker Cottage:

Greetings from Belfast, N. Ireland! Thanks to St. Christopher (the saint of good travels) and all of your thoughts and prayers, I have traveled safely to Bonn, Germany for my BVS European orientation, which coincided with the BVS retreat. Also, last night I flew into Belfast from Germany. So THANK YOU for all of your thoughts and prayers! I am finally here!

Right now I am sitting in my new cottage house in Belfast! I arrived late last night. And I flew with fellow BVS'ers that live in/near Belfast, plus Courtney...who is also starting BVS with me at Quaker Cottage. It was fun to travel with friends this time instead of trying to figure everything on my own like when I flew to Germany. I have met my other room mates, they are German and were nice enough to pick us up from the bus station last night and made sure we were warmly welcomed into the house. I won't meet the other staff at Quakers until Monday when work will begin.

As mentioned before, I have been in Germany for BVS European orientation,which is basically talking about the N. Irish conflict as well as some logistics of BVS in Europe like health care, travel, technology differences, etc. My orientation also coincided with the BVS European retreat which happens each summer...so I had the opportunity to meet all of the BVS'ers in Europe.

My week in Germany was amazing! It was great making new friends...fellow BVS'ers in Europe. I hope to visit some of them during vacation/holidays if I can gather up the funds. The village where our retreat was held was very small, but it was near the city of Bonn, which was about the same size as Anderson. Bonn is also the birthplace of Beethoven, so they have a neat city-center with his birth house and monument. We had a free day on Wednesday where a few of us went to Cologne, which is a beautiful city, and much larger than Bonn. We toured a beautiful cathedral that barely survived WWII. We did a bit of shopping, got ice cream, and found some amazing Roman ruins. We actually stumbled upon an ancient Jewish bath house (mikveh), which existed before the times of Jesus! There was also an Emperor's palace where a wedding was taking place. It is just incredible to see such amazing history all around you. We wrapped up our time in Cologne by getting an authentic micro-beer in a German bar. Kolsh is the well-known German beer that we tried.

Back at the retreat near Bonn, we spent our nights sharing stories and building relationships. We would have a beer or share a bottle of wine amongst the group every night just talking and connecting with one another.And our meals were delicious and bountiful! Overall, I feel very grateful for having the chance to have my BVS European "orientation" during the Germany retreat. I feel fortunate mostly for the relationships I built with fellow BVS'ers. I have been welcomed and feel that I have an incredible support network of volunteer colleagues.

In about an hour I will be exploring the city of Belfast for the first time. Our room mates will be taking us grocery shopping. Then Courtney (the other newbie BVS'er with me) and I plan to be dropped off at the city center for adventures. So, I am off for my first exploration of Belfast and hopefully, the firstI rish Guinness of my life! Cheers!

- Sam Carwile

Retreat in Bonn

Here's the current crowd of BVS volunteers in Europe, retreating near Bonn, Germany, last week. (Missing was Joe from L'Arche Kilkenny.)