A Gradual Unfolding

We've only been at Corrymeela for a couple of days, but it's felt like a long time. There are a lot of things that we have learned about the program, the history and the people. I'll maybe break up this post in those three ways:

People: "This is going to be the best year of your life," said Corrymeela Director three times in a row to the full year volunteers while discussing the centre and its' mission. We arrived at Corrymeela with a warm welcome from community members and staff Sunday evening. There was a nice room to await us and three or four people asking us a number of times if everything was to our satisfaction. The people are really great; very welcoming and lots of character.

History: Corrymeela has been around for about 40 years. It was founded by a prisoner of war and who found that while in prison that they needed to get past their differences in prison in order to get a voice for decent treatment. Out of this experience grew a community that is founded on this idea of an open and safe place for people to come from all backgrounds. The Corrymeela symbol of a diamond divided in four parts is to represent people coming together from the four corners of the earth. The community started before "The Troubles" in Ireland, but proved to be a significant safe haven for both protestants and catholics to escape the bombs and the bullets. Many people from all over the world and from different backgrounds come to the center for retreat or group learning/development.

Program: Currently Corrymeela tries to get about a third or half of its volunteers from Ireland and the other part from other countries. There are 12 full year volunteers which help out in many aspects of the community work and live in community on site. As well as full year volunteers are short term volunteers that work for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks at a time. There are also finance workers, kitchen workers, program workers, directors, managers etc. Groups come in usually with their own program leaders or with a Corrymeela program worker and we, in pairs or more, facilitate/ host/ participate with/ mediate with groups. If we're not with a group we might work with housekeeping for a few days, which involves changing sheets and wiping walls or toilets, or we might be working in the kitchen helping to prepare, serve, and cleanup meals throughout the day. We get two weeks off at Christmas when we have to leave the site and about three or four weeks off during the rest of the year. Currently we are getting two weeks of training. We get about 6 days off a month.

When we are working with groups it will be mostly all day everyday until the group leaves. The main kind of groups that come in are children or youth groups or family groups.