This blog documents journals of one of the participants in Public Achievement's International Youth Camp in Northern Ireland.
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9:55 AM In five minutes we’re supposed to be meeting with our committee groups… We’ve been divided into six committee groups to get involved in running the whole show; Program, Activities (morning and evening), Celebration, Evaluation, Future Direction, and Media. I knew the moment we were presented with the choices what mine would be, no matter how interesting everything else seemed… MEDIA Today started out wonderfully… I woke up at 7:15, just in time for the morning run. The girls from Finland are awesome, they were all up early for this… Petra my roommate is a very nice person, and very athletic let me tell you ;p so anyways, it was them, Maiike from Holland, Roi and Dafna from Israel… I’m definitely forgetting people here but those were the ones running, and yours truly of course. The place is breathtaking, I mean, I’m running there with the green hill on one side and the sea on the other (still didn’t figure out what sea or ocean!!) and you have the most picturesque scenery engulfing you, and you’re just running, and running. Our run continued on the beach, and Roi went in for a dip – which all of us said would do tomorrow probably, then the minute he got out it started raining! Did I say raining?? No I meant POURING!! It was gorgeous… we were all so upbeat about it – up to the point we got soaked and our clothes felt so heavy… but running back under the rain was just a very special way to start this lovely Irish morning Just a few points before I go catch up with my group… The locals in this town are wonderful, quite often during our run we’d come across old people walking with their dogs, and they’d all smile and greet us with a warm “Good morning”. I guess it’s part of the countryside atmosphere, they tell me this is not something you’d see in the city. Another thing… they have THE BEST MILK I’ve ever had. No wonder the chocolate tastes deliciously different! I’ve had two glasses already since morning, and the plan is to cut down on coffee (to a certain extent Talk to ya later 11:10 AM Ok I’m back, it’s supposed to be coffee break right now, or no wait… tea break We had our media group meeting, and can I just say again that what we’re doing is great…so many ideas so little time! We’re going to have someone from BBC come and help us with the video cameras and give us some technical tips. We’re also thinking of doing some kind of a presentation for everyone with all the pictures that we’re taking… I personally love taking pictures, it’s so great when you can somehow capture the moment, and when you can document a whole day’s process through pictures. Lots of other ideas came up, like connecting with the local media, setting up a Corrymeela daily, getting people to keep regular journals (sort of like this
our media group
I’m so excited about the cultural market place I really want our booth to come out the way we all anticipate… I don’t want us to be running out of time and then doing whatever! There are my mom’s yummy Ka3k b 3ajweh, and there are the packages and brochures and the music!! Oh you know what, today would be a good time to wear the traditional dress I am so loving this place, and I so gotta run!! Catch you folks later 5:30 PM That was pretty hectic… we had to prepare for the presentation of our youth issues, the ones we had discussed and agreed upon before coming here. We set up our booth with flags and brochures and posters, and we had to ‘draw’ posters that reflect the issues and ones that answer certain questions about where we’re from and what our everyday life is like… I think the dutch group did a great job by bringing that powerpoint presentation showing each one of them doing whatever it is they do in their everyday lives, work, family, sports… that was nice to see. But seriously now, what fascinated me the most was listening to everyone talk about the issues they feel are important for youth in their country; it came out so natural; “organic” as Nathan put it. Well, just an example was the South African group… first of all; the three girls are neither black nor white, and I never knew there existed other ethnicities there and that apartheid was not just against blacks. And then hearing young people talking about the problem of drugs, funny how this has always been something I’m warned against but never ever see in my surroundings and the Jordan I know, while the groups from Missouri, South Africa, and Holland I guess, emphasized the extent of this problem for youth in their societies. The place that remains the most interesting for me is the Home Group… Northern Ireland; they have such a complex issue, such a rich culture, and they strike me as very smart open people. One of the issues they raised was alcohol and drinking… I kind of saw traces of that when we first got to Farset at Belfast, when we asked Nathan to “hit the town”
August 14th 2005 00:01 Well it’s practically still Friday, most people have gone to their rooms except for the Corrymeela staff, the arabs, and one or two other people Again, I didn’t go with the group to the pub at Ballycastle tonight… and again I told them that I’d probably go out tomorrow! I really want to, I was just not in the mood for it, and really wanted to do the website thing. My favourite uncle sent me an email saying “do not say No to Guinness”… not that I was planning to |
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we’re supposed to use all the available resources to document and capture the spirit of this camp… whether in writing, still pictures, video, audio… you name it!
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