Whirlwind

Thursday November 4, we worked in the office all day. Nothing must have been too exciting this day, because we cannot recall a single thing we did! Yikes!

Friday, we headed off in the morning to provide a retreat for a secondary school. Larry, Thomas, Maria, and the two of us (mainly Maria) provided a morning of input. Micah and Larry talked about what makes Larry powerful even though he is a wee lad and would not hurt anybody! They talked about his laugh, sense of humour, and gentle spirit. Lucy and Thomas talked about what it means to be friends. They talked about how Thomas is patient when people misunderstand his speech, always forgives no matter what, and how they listen to each others’ problems. Maria talked about what it means to be powerful. After lunch it was back to Belfast, the guys all had to get ready for a weekend trip to Belgium. Larry, Thomas, Jillian, Scott, Maria, Aodh and Megan went to the wedding of the first house leader from Friday until Sunday. “In place” of the core members we took care of Scott and Megan’s kids, Octavia and Noah. So Friday evening Lucy hung out in the Ember with the kids. Micah headed to Homebase to buy a couple things for Frans and Julia’s room.

Saturday we were back in the Ember with the kids. They do not have a TV at their house so they were obsessed with watching television. In the afternoon they headed off to a friend’s house so we did some household tasks like take the recycling to the recycling centre and swept the paths and got food for dinner. When the kids got back, it was time for their bedtime. They spent the night at the Ark so it was going to be an early Sunday wakeup call. After the kids were away to bed, Frans, Julia, Makiko and the two of us sat around chatting over wee cups of tea.

Sunday was an early morning (mainly for Lucy, since Micah stayed in bed.) Octavia was up by 7 (sounds later than it felt!!) and was ready to play football and colour right away! She obviously wakes up quicker than we do! Around 10, Jenny and Makiko came over to take the kids for the day and we headed off to church. After church we treated ourselves to some Chinese food before relaxing in the afternoon. Lucy made pumpkin cookies while Micah sketched the chicken coop. In the evening we headed to Joy and Bobby’s house for dinner and then played spades!

Monday morning the two of us and Eimear headed to child protection training. We are still not sure when we work with adults with learning disabilities why we need child protection training, but alas we wasted a few hours learning how to report child abuse in Northern Ireland. In the afternoon, Micah had a meeting at Open Door to clarify legal issues around the use of their kitchen. In the evening we headed over to the Ember for dinner.

Tuesday started off with another training...infection control! At least this one was a lot more applicable to our work. Then it was off to work in the office. Lucy made some signs for the kitchen to show where to wash veggies vs. dishes vs. hands and where to cut meat vs. veggies. Micah had a meeting with Maria to work on an application for volunteers and another for the community leadership programme. Thomas and Maria were over at the Ark for dinner. After dinner we headed off to the Annual Yearly Progress meeting for L’Arche. It is a lot of formality about budget and vision, but also a time to meet the board of directors and obviously a time for tea and biscuits! Jillian was in quite the mood this night. Generally she does not like to go out after dinner, so in the car she was saying she was sick and wanted to go home, but as soon as we got there and she got lots of attention, she was flirting up a storm (mainly with Micah...) and laughing at what was being said. She is such a funny woman!

We are now working Wednesdays until the first of the year since the kitchen is up and running for Root Soup, but the training will not start until the new year. This means that Micah is helping to keep it going for the next couple weeks. He was over in the kitchen cleaning again on Wednesday morning and met with two of the guys from Open Door who are interested in participating in the Root Soup training. It was a lot of fun to begin to get to know their stories and see the hard work start to pay off. Then he headed to a meeting with VolunteerNow. Lucy went to a women’s cell group in the morning and then worked in the office in the afternoon, responding to lots of emails and organizing some meetings. Wednesday evening, we just chilled out!

Thursday started out with Ian’s. Lucy went out and brought it back, while Micah did a bit of work (even though it was our rest day). Then we headed to Bangor on the train. Lucy had a chiropractor appointment and Micah looked for some boots (and found some!! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Brown!!), before we headed to a cafe for some coffee and a cinnamon bun! Once back in Belfast we stayed indoors because it was super nasty outside. For dinner, we braved the storm and went down to the Ember.

Friday began early for Lucy since she was present all day in the Ember. Micah and Scott headed up to the allotment. In the late morning, Lucy dashed to the train station to catch a train again to Bangor for the first spine alignment! In the afternoon Lucy was back in the Ember. Lucy, Thomas and Jillian walked up to Forrestside to get some deodorant for Thomas and because it was a nice day out! On the way back we ran into Joy and her kids so they stopped by the Ember after their shopping. The rest of the evening was spent reading Bible stories to Thomas and watching a bit of TV.

Saturday we were both present at the Ember. Micah headed to Common Grounds in the morning with Thomas to volunteer. Lucy and Jillian tagged along for a cuppa coffee before going to Jillian’s monthly drumming group. The group sings, drums, and plays hand bells! It was a good change of pace! In the afternoon, a friend of the community, Lisa, came over to go for a walk. We all headed to Belvoir park for a lovely walk in the woods. After the walk we came back and headed to the Ark for a community craft day. Some people painted, some drew and Lucy worked more on her scrapbook!! By the time this ended it was time for dinner! After dinner, Micah, Larry, Matthew and Frans headed to the pub for a pint. The rest of the group enjoyed a bit of downtime!

Larry--not doing art, but enjoying a book on motor bikes.

Thomas and.....Thomas! O my!

Lucy scrapbooking!

Sunday began with church and then the rest of the day (pretty much) was spent skyping with friends and family. The evening was spent watching a movie and just being!

Today, we had community prayer and then a team meeting in the morning. After the team meeting, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch with Makiko and Emily before heading back to the Ark. Lucy went running then headed to Bangor (again) for her second spinal alignment. Micah meanwhile had a meeting with Valerie (their mentor) and Maria. By the time the meeting was done and Lucy was back it was time for dinner. Joy and Bobby cook dinner on Mondays so afterwards we enjoyed chatting with them and playing with their kids.

We have kept saying we hope life is going to slow down, but alas it has not and the end of the busyness is not in sight. BUT we are thankful for how Root Soup has begun, Lucy is feeling the positive effects of the chiropractor and there is fulfilment within the busyness. If you are interested in learning more about Root Soup and how you can get involved, you can email Micah and he will send you his fancy newsletter! His email is root.soup@larchebelfast.org.uk.

Where has the time gone?

Our beautiful sunflower!

Tuesday, October 12 began as usual with a meeting. We had a review for one of the other assistants, who does a great job so it was pretty easy! After the meeting we went to work in the office. Then it was time for Micah’s birthday prayer. It is a long-standing tradition in L’Arche to gather around a person’s birthday and tell them what you appreciate about them as well as what you hope for them in the next year. Micah found it slightly awkward to have so many people pointing out all his many gifts. After the prayer we had Thomas down for pasta...his favourite! In the evening we headed off to our course, Freedom in Christ, at church.

Wednesday was a rest day. We began the day with Ian’s as usual for a Wednesday. The afternoon was spent FINALLY finishing buying necessities for the Ark after the fire. It has been a long and draining process, but we are done!! Once we finished that it was back to the Ark to clean up and keep it looking nice.

Thursday was a normal day in the office. Lucy worked on planning transportation to a retreat for two of the volunteer assistants. Micah worked on grant writing, as usual! In the afternoon, Lucy felt pretty rubbish so took the afternoon off while Micah plugged away at the grant writing. In the evening Micah prepared snacks and drinks for Jillian’s Person Centred Plan meeting that was being held at the Ark.

Friday, Micah and Scott headed to the allotment. The morning was spent finishing the guttering, ripping out the front porch and cut new boards for the porch. The afternoon was spent back in the houses doing maintenance. Micah and Larry started to prepare the room for the new Swedish couple by taking doors off the built-in wardrobe to make some open shelving. Lucy spent the afternoon in the Ember. We skyped with Naomi, a previous assistant, because it was her birthday. Then Larry and Lucy made Ethiopian stew together.

Saturday we were both in the Ember. Thomas and Neil headed off in the morning to Common Grounds to volunteer. Jillian headed off to drumming with Makiko and the rest of us (Lucy, Micah, May and Larry) headed to IKEA to buy May a bed! She had been using a bed from the Ark but it was needed back for the new couple, so it was time for her to buy her own. After it did not fit into Rosie (our van) as expected, Lucy and Larry took the bus back to the Ember. After lunch, Larry, Jillian, the two of us headed up to Forestside. Larry buys a DVD every Saturday so he wanted to do that, and Jillian desired some new finger nail polish and a new colouring book. For dinner we skipped the usual fish and chips and went for pizza instead.

On Sunday we headed to church and were then invited to a couple’s house for lunch. The amount of time you stay at a person’s house here appears to be much longer than in the States. We are both used to going for lunch, chatting a bit and then heading on our way. The pattern here seems to be going for lunch, staying for dessert and at least one cuppa tea/coffee, chatting a LONG bit and then maybe thinking about heading on our way. It is amazing how much slower life is here even though it is part of the “Western” world. The evening was spent reconnecting with Micah’s parents.

Monday we had our team meeting as usual and then went shopping for food and for the room of the new assistants. In the evening a fellow BVSer, Pam, came over for dinner. It was fun to reconnect with her and share experiences from our different projects. It is amazing how far apart we feel even being in the same city! After dinner, Micah went to Larry’s Person Centred Plan meeting. He enjoyed hearing stories from Larry’s brother about Larry’s life growing up.

Tuesday we spent the morning in formation, where we look at L’Arche ethos and values. We looked at breakfast from different viewpoints (core members, assistants, guests) to see how it could feel to people. Afterwards (since it was Larry’s birthday and he chose to stay home for the day), we had him open his presents and then headed out for a lunch of burgers! Larry loved being the centre of attention and reason for celebration! Then right after that it was back to the office for a couple hours of work before heading to Freedom in Christ which started early because there was more material to go through. Whew...it was a busy day.

Larry opening his birthday present!

Larry's new camera!

Wednesday we dove into the preparation for the new assistants’ room of course this was after a trip to Ian’s Bakery. We spent the day cleaning and painting. For dinner we headed over to the Ember, to find that all the core members were out and about so it was just a few of us assistants. Micah headed to the pub in the evening with Bobby to watch the Tottenham football match.

Thursday we were back in the office for a full day. Lucy found out that one and possibly two of the volunteers are looking at leaving for different reasons. One has found an opportunity that she feels really called to and the other has never felt quite at home in the community and feels the desire to work with children. Although Lucy wants assistants to remain for their full term, it is better to have happy assistants than people feeling obliged to stay. But this opened up a bit of work before the beginning of the year for Lucy! It was a bit of a surprise. Micah plugged away at grants...then went to the Ember to help move the bed down to the Ark from May’s room. Micah, Neil and May were going to build her bed, but she didn’t show up in time so it still isn’t put together.

On Friday, Micah and Scott were back up at the allotment. They finished the porch, laying new woodchips on the paths, and in the afternoon welcomed the first official trainee for the garden as part of Root Soup! His name is Christian and what Lucy heard about him is he runs around and when asked to work says “No thank you”, but when he was planting strawberries he threw the plants in with great accuracy! Micah and Scott had a lot of fun starting to get to know him. Lucy spent the afternoon in the Ember. Jillian and Lucy cooked dinner while others were out and about. Then Micah and Lucy took Jillian to her Halloween Disco at the day centre. The great part was when Micah missed a turn, Jillian from the back seat asked quite loudly “Where you going!?” That woman knows her way around town! We then attempted to pick up Thomas and Emily from Special Olympics, but just missed them because they were pulling out of the parking lot in a taxi. Bummer!

Saturday began with Micah making pancakes! Then it was a day full of chores for the two of us. Micah swept the paths, did laundry, and cleaned. Lucy spent a chunk of the day moving the office and sleepover room to the upstairs floor since we are hopefully welcoming a new core member in the next weeks. At the end of the day we were quite tuckered from all the physical work!

On Sunday we were off to church in the morning. Then we spent the afternoon cooking and baking before another couple, Joy and Bobby, came over for dinner. We truly experienced many differences between the U.S. and Northern Ireland this day. First, sausage has no seasoning here like in the states. It is SOOOO bland. Second, here they differentiate between self-rising flour and plain flour and the States only has the self-rising so the cake was quite dense! Third, there is no such thing as Cool Whip, so we had to figure out how to whip our own (we definitely need more practice and learned after it helps to have a cold bowl). It was quite a stressful day, but alas dinner turned out pretty tasty despite the many disastrous encounters in the kitchen before. We really enjoyed the evening with Joy and Bobby and their two kids!

Monday began with a community prayer which Lucy lead, and then continued with the team meeting. Afterwards we worked on cleaning the Ark and continued preparing the room for Frans and Julia (the Swedish couple). Later on Micah went to a Funders Fair with Maria to try to get more ideas for grants. We spent the evening eating dinner in the Ember and hanging out around the table!

Tuesday we had a community conversation guided by Maria looking at where we all fit into the community and what we feel most connected to. Afterwards, we headed off to work in the office. Then Micah scurried around to get ready for Larry’s birthday prayer. He drew a bike and cut it into pieces so each person after they prayed for Larry put a piece of the car together. Larry loved his bike and the passing of the candle (a candle is passed around the circle and when you have the candle you say something you appreciate about the birthday person). After the prayer for Larry, we played a game for Octavia’s birthday and followed up with a pizza party to celebrate all the October birthdays (including Micah’s!!). Once the party was winding down, we headed off to our Freedom in Christ course at church before finally crashing into bed! Tuesdays are long days sometimes!

Wednesday began with the normal and delicious trip to Ian’s bakery. Afterwards we went grocery shopping and then prepared for another couple, Jenna and Peter (from Goshen area), who came to dinner. Peter and Jenna are here with MMN working at a peace and reconciliation centre. Luckily, dinner went a little smoother than earlier in the week. We made pizza’s and apple cobbler, both of which turned out amazing. We were actually pretty proud of our food. It was good to connect with Mennonites and play the Mennonite game. Later that night (Thursday morning) Micah decided to watch the World Series with Bobby. It was the first baseball Micah watched this season. We had good craic, but Micah did pay for it the next day.

Thursday was another day in the office. A lady came over in the morning to present a check for L’Arche so we all had some tea and buns and chatted for awhile. Then Micah had a meeting with Maria and Lucy did a phone interview for the opening in January. The evening was spent nursing another migraine...

Friday morning for Micah and Scott was spent putting the finishing touches on Frans and Julia’s room before Micah headed across town for a meeting (which didn’t happen). Then Micah and Scott headed up to the allotment in the pouring rain. It was a day when Lucy is glad not to be scheduled to go to the allotment. The guys worked on cleaning out the shed, and planted garlic. Lucy spent the afternoon in the Ember. We spent the afternoon working on Jillian’s and Larry’s Halloween costumes. Jillian was a bed of flowers and Larry was the car from the allotment (we had a garden-themed Halloween party on Sunday). Friday evening we had a flashback to Lucy’s childhood and watched the movie Hocus Pocus.

Saturday we were both present in the Ember. Micah accompanied Thomas to Common Grounds and Lucy took the morning to see a chiropractor in Bangor because they were giving free spinal screens. The chiropractor was optimistic that some work on Lucy’s neck could reduce the number of migraines she has. Woohoo! After lunch, the whole gang of us headed up to Forestside shopping centre for various errands. Jillian needed an outfit for a wedding that she is attending with others in Belgium next weekend. Thomas needed a new toothbrush and Larry HAD to go shopping for a DVD. We also had to buy all the food for the barbeque the next day! It was quite a lengthy trip that of course ended with tea and coffee in the cafe. Once we were finally back, Larry and Micah spent some time doing maintenance and cleaning up leaves. Lucy and Jillian made a pumpkin pie (there is no canned pumpkin here so it is the real deal!). In the evening we all (mainly Micah) spent a bit of time making a welcome sign for Frans and Julia. Micah is pretty proud of his sign! Lucy, then, worked on her Halloween costume for the party on Sunday. Then it was finally time for everyone to head off to bed except Micah who stayed up for the silly baseball game!

On Sunday we went to church in the morning and had a nice walk back up with Joy and Bobby. The afternoon was spent celebrating Halloween, which is a huge holiday here. We all dressed up, ate, played games, ate, ate, and ate. After all this we had a barbeque and then ate dessert (again). There was way too much good food and a lot of it got eaten!! Toward the end of the party, Frans and Julia arrived. Thomas was very excited to pick them up from the bus centre. The evening was spent chatting with them and showing them around a bit. Micah fell asleep super early just to wake up in the middle of the night to watch the baseball game. He is one crazy man!

Lucy's scary carrot costume.

Freeze dancing game.

Neils bird table costume

Larry taking a picture of himself in his fantastic car costume

Larry and Jenny, the bumblebee

Micah's spiderweb costume.

Monday began as usual with a community prayer and then we had a review for Scott, which consisted of us telling him what he is doing that is really helpful and if there is anything that would be helpful to us if he did. The afternoon was spent hanging out in the Ember and the Ark and then we went to the Ember for dinner and chatted for quite awhile. Micah AGAIN stayed up for the baseball game and luckily the Giant’s won so there is no more middle of the night baseball....says Lucy.

Tuesday started out with the team meeting. Then we were off to the office. Micah worked on the Root Soup newsletter called Tendrils. Let us know if you want a copy via email! Lucy spent time responding to soooo many emails and then reading updates on the UKBA website (all about the borders of the UK!). After work, Thomas had dinner over here with the two of us and Frans and Julia. Once dinner was done and cleared up, the two of us headed to our last Freedom in Christ class. It has been a great course and we are so glad we did it, but it will be nice not to have such busy Tuesdays!

Today, Root Soup launched! Applause, Applause!! Micah spent the morning at the kitchen meeting with Alison (the kitchen trainer) and Pauline (the manager of Open Door). Next week will be the first day people are being trained! After lunch, Micah got a phone call about the grant that Micah and Maria applied for a few months ago. Maria would have been happy with £1,000, Micah would have been happy with £3,000, but they got £6,500!! This is reason for lots of celebration! Tonight is date night. We realized that we had not been out for dinner together, just us, in over two months! Tonight that will be changed!

It has been busy and exciting times here in Belfast. Root Soup is launched! We have new housemates! Micah and Maria’s grant application was successful! We are feeling more connected to the community outside L’Arche. Life is good, but we are looking forward to slowing down in the next while and Micah still needs help deciding where we are going on holiday...Portugal or Malta?