Over Holiday I took a trip down to Dublin with Micah and Lucy for 2 days. This was on the train ride back
The snow falling on the buses.Wow time sure does fly, it is hard to believe that just last month this time I was getting ready to leave to fly to Geneva and then on to Belfast. This is my 3rd full week at work already and I have experienced so much and learned so many different things.
Quakers is the type of work place where you can't really be told what to do you more have to just experience what is happening, each day of the week is also different depending on the groups so this makes it harder to explain as well but I will run through a typical week.
Monday- 9am work begins by setting up the babies room, preparing the snack, checking the mums' rooms and other various tasks
10am leave on a bus run to pick up the mums and babies
11-1:15 ish play with babies, have various tasks for babies 0-4, including going for a walk, painting, playing with cars, babies, changing nappies, and lunch time.
1:30- leave on the bus run to take the mums and babies home
2:15- return to Quakers, cleaning of the baby room if need be and then tea break to have discussions with everyone and some planning time
3- usually our day is finished
Tuesday- the morning is exactly the same as Monday
then around 3 we head out on another bus run to pick up the Tuesday after school kids. We do arts and crafts, games, books, and other fun tasks for them
5:30 leave to take them home back around 6:30
Wednesday is similar only we have a longer tea break with more meetings and then leave around 4pm to pick up the preteen group, we do activities with them and leave around 6:30 to take them home and our day is usually over around 7:30
Thursday is like Tuesday
and then Friday is like Monday only we have final Friday cleaning of Quakers and may not finish till 3:30 or 4
Remind you this is a typical week, and in my 3 weeks here, I haven't had one go exactly as planned.. but this makes life all the more interesting.
I think most interesting so far would be the week before Easter Holiday, when we had just a wee bit of snow and then the Electric went out for 4 days.
During these days we had to grit the mountain rd. so the buses could get up and down, and then since it was my kitchen week I was cooking soup and warming water over a gas oven.
We walked the babies up the mountain road to keep them warm since it was so cold in the play room.
There are 2 roads leading up to Quakers, and we have to be careful when we go down a certain one, since young boys both protestant and catholic like to gather on their respectful side of the road and build barricades or throw stones at each other. I have been told this is one of the worst years in a while for them to be out so frequent and often. I have moved my share of barbed wire and bricks from the road as well as smiling and waving as we drive past the boys hoping they see us and don't throw a stone over to the other side.
Yesterday we had to change the way we were hiking because a fire had been set to a certain part of the mountain.
I am learning to get used to the separation in the city and hear what each side has to say about the other, but all in all I do feel safe where I am living and am just smart about where I am going at certain times.
Quakers is great because we bring mums and babies from both sides of the conflict and they learn to get along with each other and learn their is nothing wrong with someone just because they have a different belief.
There are now 2 full time volunteers and myself living in the house, but Heather will be leaving come the beginning of May and Peter will leave in the beginning of July.
We are working on getting more summer volunteers, and full time volunteers there are a few possibilities but it doesn't sound like anything too definite yet.. could make for some interesting times, but nothing we won't be able to work though.
I am looking forward to the summer, because we do a lot of going out day trips and that sort of thing and it will be a good chance for me to see more of Belfast and the surrounding areas!
