Participation and Pure Fun!

"No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline."

-Kofi Annan

We had a bit of a "lie-in" this morning (sleeping in) as the volunteers of Corrymeela have come to understand our group to be slow-starters (to put it euphemistically). As we were we gathering for our morning session, we noticed the weans from Dunclug Primary School lining up to leave! So, of course a room of youth workers need to say their good-byes. It was quite sad to see all their positive energy leave our new home community, but we're looking forward to interacting with the next group of young people from a secondary school who we're told are staying until Sunday! We hear their sleeping habits are a bit more like ours...

For our morning session three of Corrymeela's long-time volunteers (LTVs), Sang, Raziyah, and Theresa, walked us through how they work with youth, treating us as if we were a group. Many of the games and experiential learning activities follow similar methodology lines we are used to at the University of Minnesota, but the volunteers took care to point out how many of the activities are geared towards bringing the two groups of the conflict together.

One activity had the entire group holding strings and working together to raise a ball from one unstable pole to another pole 15 feet away. The key was to attempt this process without dropping the ball or tipping anything over - if so, we were to begin the process over! We came to realize this process cannot be accomplished without listening to everyone's perspectives in the circle. The LTV's explained their debriefing they hold with youth groups, and how they ask the right questions to get at the concept of how everyone may see one event (or conflict) from completely different perspectives, but how important it is to consider all sides when attempting to explore solutions to struggles.

Afterwards, Alissa spontaneously led us in a relaxing back-rub circle and group bonding moment. This special moment reinforced what we learned during the activities as well: that even in the few days that we have been together, our group has become very cohesive and good at "having each others' backs", and positively working through any group dynamic struggles. As for us three, we're very proud of our family of 16 (Theresa included!).

For dinner some of us ventured to Morton's in Ballycastle, for "the best fish & chips" in the world, according to folks that have experienced and/or lived here...we have to agree the fish was fresh, hot & flaky, and the chips were tasty! Afterwards, it was off to the town, The Central Restaurant, to have some 'pure fun!' For our first night experiencing the local scene, we were treated to traditional Irish hospitality. One of our group members was even given the opportunity to entertain the patrons with two songs! PURE FUN!