Tea Parties & Bouncy Castles

"May there always be work for your hands to do, may your purse always hold a coin or two. May the sun always shine on your windowpane, may a rainbow be certain to follow each rain. May the hand of a friend always be near you, may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you."
- Irish Blessing

Our Correspondent today is Michelle Gattenio:

Today started out as a fulfillment of every little girl’s dreams- a real life tea party. We entered a large banquet room in the temporary City Hall, down by the docks, and saw 12 china teacups lined in a pyramid formation at the end of the table. There was not only real tea in the cups but there were real cookies (biscuits) on the plates! It was a brilliant addition to the actual meeting we had with the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Tom Hartley. The meeting started off with a short explanation of how he personally became involved with Sinn Fein and working with the peace process. Jim, from Stormont, also chimed in informing us that the newly elected Lord Mayor had founded the first actual Sinn Fein office, which was amazing to hear. We had never heard this before today, and the only time we had heard about Tom Hartley was when Mr. Bizga talked about the amazing tours he gives of the Milltown and City Cemeteries. To think we were meeting such an important person, not only in a political and leadership sense, but a prominent part of the history of one of the biggest political parties in all of Ireland.

The Lord Mayor willingly fielded all of our questions about where Belfast is now and where he saw it going in the future. One thing that stood out to me was the way he responded to a question about where Belfast was going, in regards to the peace process and integrating to the two neighborhoods. He said he didn’t know how long it would take for things to get better, but he knew for a fact that things wouldn’t go back to how they were. This was a refreshing point of view, one we hadn’t heard from any of our speakers yet. The fact that things may take a year or 50 years to improve is unknown, but it is ensured that the country will not return to the warfare of the past. The Lord Mayor (as we were instructed to address him) was remarkably down to earth for a man with such an impressive resume behind him. He refused to sit at the head of the table because his seat in the middle was just fine. This lessened any tension immediately and allowed the nature of the conversation to flow naturally. After we took advantage of a photo opportunity and signed the guest book, we headed out to Clonard Monastery to meet up with the Youth Team.

When we arrived we were enthusiastically greeted and rushed into a group photo with Gerry Adams, who happened to be at the monastery for a meeting at the same time we arrived. Many important talks throughout the peace process were held at Clonard. We approached him and he immediately recognized us as those Americans with flashing cameras from the park opening. We made some jokes about how we are following him everywhere with our cameras ready and he joked back that we were stalkers; all together it was a pretty normal conversation with an important political figurehead. After Katie vowed never to wash her hand again, (after Gerry Adams shook it) we got back to work cleaning up the Clonard grounds.

Our task was clear: the parking lot had to be in tip-top shape for that evening when the Youth Team would be hosting a big BBQ for the local children. When we finished the clean up, we ate lunch and started to bond with members of the Youth Team, who were all around our age group (15-22). Let me say this is an amazing group of people. They were all so welcoming and so willing to do whatever they were asked to do. We were then split up into three different groups and scattered into different parts of the surrounding neighborhoods. My group ended up in a ‘round-a-bout’ at the end of the street and began to set up the games. It astonished me how many kids started flooding out of their houses when they saw the blue shirts of the Youth Team coming. The games were commenced with a game of ‘skip’ or American jump rope, followed by a riveting game of limbo, which I won, and ‘jumps’ (jumping over a rope that gradually becomes higher- essentially backwards limbo). Then I decided to join the group of boys in a game of ‘football’ in the ‘car park.’ One of the little boys questioned if a girl was really going to play football, and Peter, one of the Youth Team members, assured him that I was from America and therefore I was good at football. Well as if that didn’t make me nervous enough, when I finally got picked for a team, the team captain, a 7-year-old boy Francis, looked up at me and said, “ You better be good.” The pressure was on. At the end of a grueling 2-hour match my team of course came out victorious and I left with many new friends between the age group of 5-10. The group met for dinner and some good “craic” (Irish for lively conversation and fun) and then prepared to face the BBQ in the rain. Let me tell you, the rain in Ireland puts Cleveland rain to shame. It came down hard and cold, and yet all the children still came out for their hamburgers, ice cream and jump of the inflatables or “bouncy castles.”

Today was not only a great opportunity to release our inner immaturity by playing with the children, but we also all made great friends with the members of the youth Team. They taught us certain words often said in Ireland, such as brilliant, that’s class, lovely, gorgeous (used in describing food and intimate objects along with people) and other various phrases in Gaelic. In return we taught them about Chipotle and the ever growing ‘that’s what she said’ fad. The day/night is one that will be treasured and remembered when we return to the States. It was full of laughing, new friends, hugs, face paint, ice cream and rain; a lethal Irish combination for guaranteed fun.

Michelle XOXOXO

Click here to see pictures from our day!