Journeying Onwards

The last months have been busy and transitional. We have made many new friends through the summer program, but also have had to say many goodbyes. We will miss the people and the place and will remember stories of our time in years to come.

Currently we are on one last series of detours before heading home. August 28th was a particularly significant day because it marked our 2nd anniversary and our official leaving of Corrymeela. After leaving Corrymeela we spent a week travelling Ireland with Nathan and Kari starting from the North and finishing in the South. For Niki and I it was a time to see counties Cork and Kerry for the first time. We all spent a day walking, biking, and for Kari and Niki, horse-back riding. Right now we are in Spain in San tiago de Compostella getting in the mood for a week long walking pilgrimage. It is an ancient pilgrimage to the supposed tomb of saint James. Already we have seen many pilgrims with wooden walking sticks and clam shells.

Following the pilgrimage Kari and Nathan will head back to Canada while Niki and I head on to Rome and about a week later to Germany, London and finally Calgary.

Summer Stories

Life is good here in Northern Ireland. Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams are sharing power. The British Army left the country last night after 38 years of conflict. The summer is bringing many new faces from around the world. People are coming to play at Corrymeela who have never left their neighborhood and Niki and I are planning two pilgrimages. Our first pilgrimage is going to be on the Isle of Iona. We plan to arrive on the island this Friday and on Tuesday take a free 7 hour pilgrimage tour of the island beginning at the Abbey. The second pilgrimage is going to be in Spain with Nathan and Kari Enns. The pilgrimage is to Santiago de Compostela and has been travelled by millions.

Time seems to be flying by. It's hard to believe we only have two more weeks left of work. We finish work on the 23rd of July and then have a retreat with the Long Term Volunteer team before saying goodbye. Goodbyes are common here at Corrymeela with over 8000 visitors this year alone, but the end of the year will be different. On the plus end we are finishing the year well. Niki and I now know Corrymeela like the back of our hands, we are getting to know very interesting people that have come up to volunteer for the summer, and Kristen and Philip are engaged.

As I mentioned in the last post I would write more about our family visits. Both of our families spent some time with us travelling in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, also both of our families spent time with us at Corrymeela. Niki's parents volunteered with us for the church and peace conference while at the center and my family stayed on site while taking day tours. There was much to see and do such as historical sites and beautiful scenery, but the most enjoyable was being together again with family.

On October 2nd we will arrive back in Calgary. When we get back we hope to catch up with everyone. We will be spending time in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan before the New Year and after that we tentatively plan to buy a house in Winnipeg.

June adventures

The month of June has been full of events. Early in the month we had a wedding at Corrymeela. The wedding was of Kieran and Rhina who were previous long term volunteers. Rhina is from El Salvador and Kieran is from Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland. The wedding was a lot of fun and our Scottish short-term volunteer co-ordinator dressed up in his traditional garb for the occassion as can be seen in the photo above.

Niki left her mark at Corrymeela by leaving behind one of her paintings for display.

We had two memorable conferences. One of the conferences we took part in planning with 6 youth from Northern Ireland. We recruited, planned and delivered the conference and it was a success. The conference was on issues affecting young people in Northern Ireland and we had many marginalized youth attend the conference. The other conference we hosted with Niki's parents as well was a church and peace conference with participants from all over Europe and many of them Mennonites. It was the first time playing the Mennonite game with a group. During the conference we were privilaged to hear from Norman Kember who was one of the CPT delegation members captured in Iraq last year. We also chatted with his wife and heard her experience of that time.

Lastly we spent holiday time with both of our parents and my sister and Philip, but I will talk about this in another post. Needless to say June was an eventful month for us.