Lockdown & Postlockdown 06/07

Hi!

Special thanks for Jojo to actually mention Youthreporter again, so here I am typing about my lockdown in NI. 

The weather during these difficult times were actually amazing. We had the sun for weeks and weeks, and we also started to gain more normality as cafes started doing deliveries. I remember we ordered donuts from Belfast, and it was nice. But it felt strange to have them without their setting. In the middle of Belfast. In a cafe. With the sounds and the different smells. Realizing once more how long this whole lockdown was actually taking place.
Like, when will it feel normal again to walk outside without people turning their backs, keeping their distance? Without seeing signs of this current pandemic? When will we stop distinguishing people in "key workers" and "non-essential"?
May and the beginning of June was also the time where we were able to see more people being outside. Which was nice and strange at the same time.

June meant halftime for me. The month marking six months of Northern Ireland, my sending organization asking for a report, and the month I was turning a year older. And half of that time I spent in a lockdown under a global pandemic.
I had troubles sleeping, and I was feeling this whole situation on different levels- I still can't decide if empathy, to the extent how I have and feel it, is a good thing or not. 
We talked more openly about some issues with the other volunteers, different people passing this message to me "You have to understand and accept that sometimes you are not able to change a situation" which I try.. but than I care?

I care about all the people who have lost their jobs due to this pandemic. I care about all the domestic violence issues which sadly can end in murder. I care about people losing the roof above their heads. The struggles people face because of the uncertainty. I care about all the victims of police brutality. Victims of hate crime, racism. I care about people being on antipsychotic medication and who think about "their potential detriment to a fetus, the complications that are likely to ensue postpartum, and the genetic chances of passing the disorder on to the child" (from the "the collected schizophrenias").
And all this in the current state of the world. Walking around in masks and keeping the distance.
Now looking back, that was also the time, where I was thinking to leave earlier. But then, there was not really the option to leave, as flights were not operating properly.

June was an eventful month. Full of travels in the end, as the organization gave us the "go" and we started to explore this part of the island. Sometimes alone, sometimes in little groups of 2-3 people. I was in Lisburn, in Londonderry, in Coleraine, in Whitehead, in Dublin airport to drop off a fellow volunteer (and also a first in leaving Northern Ireland in the middle of the night it was 2am, actually I would like to write more about this night. It was the longest day of the year, 21.06, and I was awake with two others watching the sky. It wasn't getting darker- in fact around 1:30 it got lighter, and that it was time to met the other volunteer who was about to leave. A previous volunteer-now working in this organization- and three volunteers went to Dublin airport and arrived there at 4am. One of the girls and I call this night the "the great escape" and it might be one of the highlights of my stay. After saying goodbye, we realized that we were not taking the same road to return. It was weird. Until "hold on.. the Mourne Mountains?!" we stopped and the driver said "happy birthday. to both of you." as it was my birthday two days ago, and that morning the birthday of my friend. What a memory), in Mourne Mountains, in Donaghadee, in Portrush, in Portstewart. 
It was also my birthday- where the first half was spent with two of the children in the community, and the second half was a picnic in the fairy garden of the community with our little group, and two of our tutors. I received a lot of cards, and I was really happy and grateful that so many people had stopped and took their time to wish my a happy birthday. It was strange to be away for my birthday in a complete different setting but it was still nice.

June was also the first time where we all got tested. The whole community. 

And finally in July we got some trips approved. So one of our mentors took us with the car or a minibus around the country. Our first trip was to Tollymore Forest Park and Newcastle, which has a beautiful beach, Murlough, we went to the most northerly point of the island, which is Malin Head and to the Westcoast of Ireland, we stopped in Sligo and the last trip of the month was two days in Dublin, where three of us went on a Sunday, and met two others the next day in the National Gallery of Dublin. We spent over two hours there, and if it wasn't for the hunger, we'd probably stay a bit longer. And I had also noticed how much I missed being in galleries and museums. 

Here I would like to add a thought about Dublin. I have no idea what exactly it was, but I didn't enjoy visiting the capital of Ireland. Maybe the crowds after spending so much time in a small community? The amount of homeless people? People fixing their drug use?
I felt ignorant while dandering around and being amongst the most vulnerable and helpless of a society. On our way back to the train station I saw a tent in an alley with two people inside. Young men fixing their needles behind columns of the court services. Another person being on a hunger strike for 50 days in a sleeping bag in front of the department of the taoiseach.

I felt helpless, and just realized how sheltered I have been in the organization I live in. 

There was anger. A state of despair. And disappointment. That was my Dublin. I enjoyed visiting different cultural institutions, and the time with the guys though.