Donegal and Daily Life

Friday 6 May was a day at the office for Micah and a day in the Ember for Lucy. Micah had a meeting with a lady from L'Arche UK to talk about social enterprises. L'Arche UK has a number of communities who have and are starting social enterprises. Hopefully this summer or fall a group will meet to share ideas and expertise! In the Ember, life was very much the same. It was full of cooking, laughing and relaxing.

Saturday was a rest day and Maria was very generous and allowed us to borrow her car for the weekend in order to take a trip to Donegal. Donegal is one of the areas of Ireland that we hadn't been to yet and really desired to go so we were and are very grateful for Maria's generosity. Maria picked us up Saturday morning and we dropped her back by her house before we headed toward Donegal. On the way we stopped by Omagh, the town where the largest single atrocity during the troubles took place. Here is a bit more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omagh_bombing. The memorial was really unique and quite interesting since it is based on mirrors and Omagh is one of the cloudiest places in Ireland (http://www.omaghbombmemorial.com/). Afterwards we continued onto Slieve League, which are the highest sea cliffs in Europe. After admiring the view, we went to check into our hostel. On the we saw peat bogs. It was incredible to see how the peat is harvested. Once we were settled into the hostel we headed for the Silverstrand beach and then to find some dinner. We got the traditional fish and chips before hitting a local pub for a nice evening of chatting. The weather was forcasted to be rainy but we were blessed with lots of sunshine!

Slieve League

Peat Bogs

Sunday began with breakfast before we headed into Donegal for a cuppa coffee. On the way back to Belfast we went to Beltany Stone Circle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltany_stone_circle). Our lunch site was quite scenic...we used a museum parking lot for our picnic. By the time we got home we were quite knackered.

Beltany Stone Circle

Ahh...Ireland

Monday started as usual with prayer and a team meeting. After the team meeting we tried to go running for the first time post-marathon and didn't make it very far. We have yet to try again. After getting back, we walked over to Joy and Bobby's and then went to eat at the Ember. Micah met after dinner with the events coordinator of the church across the road to discuss the idea of using the church's kitchen for a summer program for Root Soup.

Tuesday, we had a formation on food followed by a day in the office. Micah had a meeting followed by a meeting. Lucy responded to tons of emails and then had a phone interview with a potential summer volunteer.

Wednesday was a day in the office. Lucy had women's cell in the morning and then we met with Scott for our supervision. Micah spent the day working on grant applications and added information to the Root Soup website. Lucy spent the afternoon helping Micah. Wednesday evening was just relaxed after a few busy days.

Thursday was May's birthday and our rest day!! We spent the day cleaning, drawing/scrapbooking and then went out to dinner with the community for May's birthday!

Happy Birthday May!

The gang.

On Friday Micah was back in the allotment and Lucy worked in the Ember in the afternoon. At the allotment the crew worked on weeding the beds, building new beds and planting. In the afternoon a photographer from Ardmore advertising (the company that helped Micah with the Root Soup website) came up to take his photo for a press release. He is a big deal here in Northern Ireland! Lucy spent her day finishing a scrapbook, drawing and having a lot of tea in the Ember. In the evening we drew and Micah made a big mess with soft pastels!

Saturday was a bit different than normal. Micah had a meeting for his leadership programme and Lucy babysat for Scott's kids while Scott was also in the meeting. Lucy spent a lot of time playing hide and go seek, colouring and watching Peppa Pig. After the meeting we went over to see Joy before having a nice relaxing evening!

Sunday began as usual with church. After we came back home for lunch and walked up to do some grocery shopping. That is about the extent of our Sunday!

Today we were suppose to have a team meeting, but a lot of the team is away planning for the Loom (the prayer space in North Belfast) so it was cancelled. Micah took advantage of that extra time to get a bit of work done! He is happy to share with you all the new Root Soup website!!! http://rootsoup.co.uk/. Check it out! It is awesome! Not much else has happened today!

We are finding it hard to believe that we have already been back in Belfast for over a month and that Lucy's parents come in 10 days!! Time is moving fast and life feels quite busy!