Ways to See the World

So for some crazy reason I have yet to work out, I have signed up to do a leg of the Belfast City Marathon on Monday 6 May. I do not voluntarily run and have never really been for a run in my life so I have just over a month to prepare to run the admittedly short distance of 4.3 miles. Thankfully there's a team of us here at Corrymeela who are all doing this together. So many in fact that we have two relay teams of staff and volunteers in the marathon this year.  So, why are we running? Many of us have given up our time to come to volunteer at Corrymeela and believe in the power of volunteering to provide opportunities for people to grow, develop and learn so that we can give back to communities around the world when we leave but also to contribute to the work of peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland in some small way. Not only is this a way of giving back to Corrymeela through fundraising but it is also a way of raising money to allow people who may not be able to aff...

It's that time of year again, the time to celebrate with family and friends and for celebrating the birth of Jesus, if that's your thing. As I have never celebrated the birth of Jesus, Christmas has always been the time of year when all the family meets up and generally just has a nice get-together over a few Harvey Wallbangers (on my Mum's side at least). Talking about family get-togethers is always a strange one since for most of my life I have always had to divide my Christmas and New Year between my Mum and my Dad. In some ways this makes them extra special as I then get to see both halves of my family over this period and in some ways it really doesn't as it takes the magic out of the whole experience. In recent years the family aspect has begun to fall away and I find myself wondering what the point of Christmas is if you don't celebrate the birth of Jesus and your family gathering seems to shrink every year despite your best efforts. This year is particu...

Of all the things I expected to love about being here, attending community worship was not one of them. Living and working in an open, Christian community sounded to me as if it would be the most challenging aspect of my time here since I am not a religious person. Thankfully, I have already been successfully challenged in my views and genuinely look forward to this aspect of the rhythm of life here. Worship takes place in the Croi ( pronounced Cree ) every morning and most evenings and whilst it is not compulsory to attend, I find myself there more often than not. The 'worship' is facilitated by community members and the nature of it changes depending on who is running the session.  Obviously, being a Christian community, some of the sessions are related to God and the central tenants of Christianity but generally speaking it is a space for contemplation and reflection on a topic, providing an excellent way to start and end the day. Last week was the anniversary of ...

It's been almost a week since I started work and already I feel like a part of a community.   I find it hard to describe the atmosphere here but it's an incredibly calm and peaceful place, overlooking Ballycastle with views across the sea to Rathlin Island, and Scotland on particularly clear days. Upon arrival there was a Welcome Party to greet me and due to various birthdays and parties this week there has been a lot of cake available. There was also Halloween which, being of Celtic origin, is far more celebrated here than it is in Yorkshire. It's also a good excuse for a non-sectarian party.  Having had no warning that all the volunteers would be participating in the Halloween parade I had no costume ready, especially as my Halloween costumes consist of variations of either pirate or witch, and everyone was going as a character from Mario. As it turned out, one of the volunteers had made me a toadstool hat and we raided the costume box for the rest of the outfit....

First impressions of Burgas aren't too bad despite getting ripped off by the taxi driver and staying in one of the warmest and definitely not the cleanest hostel I've ever stayed in. My initial plan was to take the bus from the airport but since my plane landed stupidly early that meant a long wait in the dark by myself on the side of a road slowly being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Maybe not then. Wandered back to the taxi rank armed with the knowledge that it should not cost me more than about 20 lev (not sure where from, probably Lonely Planet forum) . This information did not come in useful when I discovered that all the taxis were on meters and charged 5 lev per kilometre. My hostel was 10km away. You do the maths... The hostel had a lovely green neon sign above the door, the sort that you might find above a dodgy nightclub or those pharmacy symbols on every street corner in France. Admittedly its reviews were pretty bad but it's the only hostel actually in the t...

Here are the videos from each ICS team from the January-April group: Chardakatia: South-West Sat Vaia Para, Khagrachari: Chittagong Afjalpur: North-West

Here's an example of the work that the ICS Bangladesh team have been doing over the last three months.  This video was made by the North-West team and focuses on some of the work they have done to establish a dairy co-operative and empower women in the village of Afjalpur.  Hannah has also been blogging on the DfID website:  blogs.dfid.gov.uk/2012/03/connecting-girls-inspiring-futures/  if you want to find out more.