This blog documents journals of one of the participants in Public Achievement's International Youth Camp in Northern Ireland.
“All my bags are packed I’m ready to go
I’m standing here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say Good byeeee…”
Could somebody please get that song OUT OF MY HEAD?!!! Well, for one thing, my bags are NOT packed… yes yes I know it’s 2:00 AM and the first bus leaves in less than two hours, what am I waiting for? Our bus is at 9:30 but I want to get everything packed and ready soon so that I can just relax and enjoy the few remaining hours…
I’m sitting in the quiet room, because all the equipment and laptops have been brought in and packed so I can’t take this laptop out! I’m burning some CDs of Irish music and some of the music Ronnie used during worship in the Croi.
I don’t know how to describe today or what to write about it… I went running this morning, and this time stopped at the
the man kept trying to get his dog to stop barking at me, and we had a nice little chat – “So you’re not from around here?” is what they usually ask… that obvious, huh??
Dafna had this wonderful idea the other day (I just noticed something – if I may interrupt myself – in earlier posts I used to follow each name with “from …fill in space…”, it’s like, we defined each person by what country they were from, we’d say: Dafna the girl from Israel, or Basak the tall girl from Turkey. But now, 10 days later – we’re all one group, and seriously, I would be writing and it would not occur to me at all to add any form of introduction after the name… oh well, I just had to share this tiny observation, I know I know, Lina stop blabbering and go back to the original story please)
So what was I saying? Ya… Dafna… Sweetest Dafna was shopping at Ballycastle the other day, and found these really nice little notebooks at the One Pound shop, where you get something like a set of 6 notebooks for 1 pound. And she came up with the idea of buying a whole bunch of them for everyone at the camp so that we can all write little notes for each other before we leave. So today, you’d see everyone going around with them asking their friends to write something… you’d see people like Zandy sitting on a kitchen table pondering with one notebook in hand and a couple of others in queue, because he wanted to write something thought out and personal, not just the it-was-nice-meeting-you-hope-we-keep-in-touch stuff.
I realize that I never took the time to share my feelings about the exceptionally amazing Corrymeela – and I know I won’t be able to do at this moment. But I will tell you one thing, it’s incredible how we all made ourselves very much at home here; it was from the very beginning, but more so in the last 3 days – we became so hippie… I’d be walking around barefoot on the grass, not giving a single concern to what I’m wearing, people would be staying up late and then sleeping on any couch, leaving our stuff all over the place and not worrying about anything (the concept of trust is absolutely wonderful – there’s no such thing here as giving you keys for your room or drawers to protect your wallet or other valuables – we all trust each other). We’re all so messy – but in a good way (I’m not sure housekeeping and the kitchen staff agree though). Oh, and I don’t think they’ve ever had coffee consumption here like in this past week
The final celebration was very nice – especially the bonfire. Thankfully the rain held back enough for us to enjoy a brief time around the fire and roast marshmallows (and some of that dough
The Corrymeela staff and volunteers prepared a wonderful dinner, really grand and elegant. Speaking of dinner, I cannot begin to describe the appetite I’ve had during this camp – I don’t know if others share this feeling, but it’s like we’ve been eating continuously throughout the day. I smile when I imagine how my parents will see me at the airport when I get back; a contrasting image of the daughter they said goodbye to less than two weeks earlier: puffed red eyes, fuzzy unattended curls, and… an appetite for 7 meals a day! But my dad will be happy to know that I started drinking 4 glasses of fresh milk everyday
We had a sing-along with Deano, who played “Bye Bye Miss American Pie” on the piano, and then Basak performed a solo with an incredible voice, and I loved Shelly’s Donald Duck bit
The evening program had started with a little speech from Ross – for a moment, I didn’t think the applause would actually stop. I guess emotions were so charged up…
Ok I’ve been staring at the screen for like 2 minutes, the evening’s playback paused at the image of Ross, Nathan and Akram standing there, and the moment of applause for them and all the amazing people behind this camp – all the PA staff and the Corrymeela volunteers and the Northern Irish participants… and I just don’t know what to write! Come to think of it… this is not at all a good time to be writing journals that I know others would read, because I have such mixed feelings and I’m running the risk of getting too mushy!!
There’s just so much that I wanted to write and share… I wish I could describe every moment, every quirky detail, and every special thing we did… I guess this journal is more of a glimpse than a documentation, a peak into an experience that would officially be referred to as “the international youth camp – youth as evaluators, NI august 2005”, but that holds for those who experienced it an entire universe of meaning that cannot be pinned down here!!
I don’t know if I’ll get to write again before we leave, I’m going to pack and spend time with