Playing for Peace

Our morning correspondent is Morgan Wajda:

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

- Anais Nin

Good Morning again!

Last night was a late night, so we were thankful for a later start this morning. Running Club met again since the rain had prevented even their strongest will to run yesterday morning. After a quick breakfast either at the Treehouse or in our own kitchen, the cabs picked us all up around 9:30. Today was much anticipated as it was finally time to get to experience Peace Players International of Northern Ireland (PPI-NI) first-hand after Rory O’Neill, Mr. Bizga’s former student at John Carroll University, spoke to us all last week. Peace Players International has four locations across the globe (Northern Ireland, Middle East, Cyprus, and South Africa) where many volunteers and staff work to bring communities together through sports. Last year PPI-NI worked with over 900 students through teambuilding activities and teaching these kids about acceptance of others in their community. Within Northern Ireland, PPI specifically focuses on the game of basketball, because most children do not know how to play and basketball is a neutral sport in an area of such deep-rooted conflict. PPI-NI staff divides the players into four groups of about nine kids each. These teams are mixed Catholic and Protestant with children from all over Northern Ireland who attend different schools. Starting at a common ground, all participants are treated equally and shown over a course of eight weeks the similarities between the two groups. Activities require teamwork with a group of individuals a child might not have ever met in the past. After Rory spoke with us last week, I couldn’t wait to experience this relationship building program.

When we first arrived at Ballysillin Recreational Center, in north Belfast, we were instructed to divide ourselves into four groups, each of our groups partnered with one of their groups. The event we were participating and helping with today was called The Game of 3 Halves. In the morning, the section we witnessed, the children switched off between four stations, Peace Players, Football (Soccer for Americans), Gaelic Football, and Rugby. My group was Brenna, Stephan, Drew, and Shannon, one of the volunteers from the United States, specifically Connecticut. We started off at Peace Players where we talked about stereotypes and what it means to discriminate. I was very interested by some of the responses the children had when asked what a stereotype was. The activity was passing a basketball to another teammate after saying the first thing that came to mind when given a word. Some of the “off the top of your head” answers given for Americans were burgers, tall, speaking differently, baseball, basketball, and proud. On the other hand, the responses given about Irishmen were Irish dancing, shamrocks, leprechauns, four leaf clovers, green, and drinking. I was amazed at some of the responses the 11 year old children said. After watching and participating in this activity, I see how valuable it is to educate young kids about respecting all individuals no matter what side of the city they live on.

The other three activities our group did were football, Gaelic, and rugby. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the kids interact with people they might never meet if not for PPI. The quote above really summarizes this feeling for me. A whole new world is opened to these kids when the past is left to the past and friendships are formed on neutral territory. Only once the children meet people from the other side can they form an opinion about someone who is very different from them. Although they play together, I was surprised when a little girl on my team, Amy, began talking to me about the 12^th. She was very interested in our studying abroad experience, and since she was under the impression we were only there for the day (she thought Ireland in general but we were only with PPI today) she told me I was very lucky I wouldn’t be in Ireland on the 12^th of July. When I asked her why I was lucky, she said, “Satan.” Through “telling,” a concept of asking generic questions to figure out what side any person is on, I was able to quickly figure out she was Catholic. I was disturbed by her statement after having just agreeing stereotyping is wrong. Immediately I turned to Shannon, the coach of our team, and told her. Shannon informed me the little girl lives in a very Catholic, nationalist community and that at lunch, she would talk to her about her statement because she figured she was probably just scared.

After we broke off from the kids for them to eat lunch, we left and went to have lunch ourselves. I believe this is where Stephan picks up, but every single one of us enjoyed our morning spent with Peace Players International. We will have great stories to share with you all when we return in a little less than two weeks.

Cheers! Dia dhuit!

Happy Birthday Marissa!!

Our afternoon correspondent is Stephen Sigmier:

“When people tell me that young people are the future, I say no, they are now.”
~Baroness May Blood

After reluctantly leaving the Peace Players, we stopped at a delicious sandwich shop, had a filling lunch, and walked up the Antrim Road to meet Reverend Bill Shaw at the Duncairn Complex. Rev. Shaw, a spirited man with a lively voice, sat us down in a conference room and spoke to us about the program he leads, the 174 Trust, and about his own life. Rev. Shaw was born in the Sandy Road region of Belfast, a predominantly Loyalist area. Growing up, he was taught to never interact with those outside his community; the first time he met a Catholic was when he was 17. At the age of 26, however, Rev. Shaw had a changing religious experience that inspired him to enter ministry in the Presbyterian Church. His first years as a minister were spent in traditional congregation. While working as a pastor, Rev. Shaw felt glad he was improving peoples’ lives. Yet he also began to feel that he could help improve the community by paying attention to problems that his church often overlooked. This feeling led him to apply for the leadership position at the 174 Trust, which he received only three weeks after the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

At first, Rev. Shaw felt alien working for the Trust at the Duncairn Complex, located in the predominately Catholic New Lodge area of Belfast. People in the area were skeptical that he, a Presbyterian minister, could improve their community. Their skepticism was increased by the fact that he was working in an area known as the “Murder Mile,” where almost 20% of all murders during the Troubles took place. The Catholic community only accepted Rev. Shaw after being persuaded that he had no ulterior motives in running the Community Center and seeing his contributions to the 174 Trust.

The main contribution Rev. Shaw explained to us was the 174 Trust Youth Group, which he had started personally with a group of 11-15 year-old kids from around the New Lodge and Shankill areas. The club began when, after seeing the kids loitering on the roof of a building, he invited them into the Duncairn Complex to hang out and talk about football. At the end of their stay, he invited them to come to the building the same time next week to play football in the assembly hall. They came, and thus the Youth Club was born. Rev. Shaw gave us an example of a game they played at the group, a puzzle in which the kids unscrambled a hidden word through guessing. He showed us the paper they played on yesterday. The word was “inclusion.” Rev. Shaw had a story to go along with this word; one day, after seeing a child show up day after day at the football field to watch the Youth Group play, he walked over and asked him if he wanted to join in. Ariel, whom they got to know over the course of the day, happily joined in, and the Youth Group suddenly included another member. After hearing so many painful stories about the Troubles this week, Bill’s was a balm to me; it made me remember that there is good in the world.

After speaking to us about the Youth Group, Bill gave us a quick tour of the Duncairn Complex. Colorful murals painted by both children and adults in the 174 Trust’s many programs adorned the walls of the buildings. My favorite part of the tour was the playground outside the two Irish-language pre-school trailers. Rev. Shaw mentioned that it was financed by the Bank of Ulster, which noticed the good work the 174 Trust was doing and decided to chip in to the effort. Although the playground had walls around it, which served as somber reminders that not all is well in the community, it was still good to see that local children had a safe place to play. The best part of the tour was the end, however, when Rev. Shaw mentioned that the entire complex was set to be renovated in the near future. He showed us a computer simulation of the projected effects of the renovations, which was beautiful, and went on to explain that he had managed to raise over 2.6 million pounds for the effort. The fact that the Trust had been so successful and gained so much support left me with a good feeling for the rest of the day.