Times are changing 08/09

Hi!

August was a month full of goodbyes. The first volunteers from our little group were going home.

In the first week I was meant to be meeting one of my tutors and we wanted to take a coffee and take the train back to the organization, when she said "do you actually want to come to my place, and we can have the coffee here". I didn't want to arrive with empty hands so I went to a bakery, and before entering the house I just realized I haven't been in someones home for eight months. It's funny how you notice certain things, like how I was definitely reading more this year, especially after March. And I am still happy that I actually went on the last possible day to the library to stock up on reading material. 

I met up again with one of the girls from the OAtraining after five months not seeing each other living only a few miles apart doing volunteering work abroad under a global pandemic (might be my favourite phrase out of this situation if you haven't noticed yet)

We went to Glenariff Forest Park and stopped in Glenarm. 

One of my friends showed me around the Crumlin Road Gaol, and explained me the story about the Crumlin Road Courth House: Once a building of intimidation and changing the fate of inmates, this judicial facility closed in 1998, to be sold for a pound a few years later. It's been empty for a long time, pair it with a couple of fires and there you have it: another hotel addition to the city.
And while being in the jail, I remembered the last time I was in one: Ulucanlar Cezaevi in Ankara, Turkey. Which was also turned into a museum. And funny enough, it must have been August as well while visiting it.
Different histories, different places, different people and stories but the same feeling was overall present: anger, emotional anxiety and strangeness.
The one in Turkey was a bit more depressiv tho the windows built into the complex were tiny, it was much darker, and knowing the names of the inmates- a lot of intellectuals, poets, writers, politicians and lots of criminals.
The last executed inmate in the Crumlin Road Goal was the great cousin of my tour guide for the day- talk about feeling strange! We continued with the peace walls around the city, and I was actually not aware how tall they were built.

We went to the Giant's Causeway with a tutor and part of the OG lockdown family: we all survived a full on lockdown under a global pandemic in a foreign country as European volunteers. Three of us couldn't join because of work, two of us already left last week and one of us was in Amsterdam at that moment.
But being able to see more and more of this country and the Giant's Causeway that day was something else. Because Causeway for us 11 volunteers is/was not only this place in the north, it's our house. It's our home.
I'll keep the memories forever. Especially the ones in the end about the secret society and its charity work. And actually bringing a bit of Causeway to Causeway.

On another occasion it was my friend and me again who had dropped of a volunteer in Dublin two months ago, we dropped of someone at Belfast International at 7am. And on our knees were six months of memories, the suitcase, of the volunteer who was leaving.

Another trip was to Slieve Gullion. We chose the most ideal day of the year, and were completely soaked. But we managed and reached the top and arrived home in one piece. On another day we went to Armagh. 

On the last day of the month a longterm volunteer from Brazil who decided to quit her job and come to Europe left with Brazilian brigadeiros, and I remember we talked about how we felt when we first arrived in the community. She was apparently really scared about this whole experience, on another continent, a different language and setting and all this new people. When I had arrived, I was excited for the year ahead not really understanding and maybe realizing I was about to leave Germany for a year and not seeing anyone from home for that period. 

In September galleries were open for a brief moment, so we visited the MAC, and went to the cinema on the same day as well. Last year I went to a few films during the Berlinale Film Festival, and this year only twice, once in February with my friend from the OAtraining, and in September with my fellow volunteers from the community. 

The weather was getting colder during this period, but we had some last trips during September: to Carrickfergus, to the Marble Arch Caves, to Carnlough, to Cushendun, to the Sillent Valley, to the Spelga Dam, one more time to Giant's Causeway, and Dunluce Castle, and another trip down to Dublin.

A documentary screening in Causeway watching "Children in crossfire" was on the agenda too, I had an interview to volunteer in a women's centre, and I was meant to be starting at the end of the month but due to the circumstances it had to be postponed and I couldn't start. Another screening was a premier of a film made in the community by my neighbor and fellow volunteer! 

Our gardening project came to an end, as the weather was getting colder, autumn was about to arrive. We had started this gardening project during lockdown- planting the seeds, watching them grow, and eventually the care of the seedlings. Our tutor provided soil and occasionally we got some help from the two children of the community. It was an adventure to say the least.

There were also a new people arriving to the community. And after four months of not seeing anyone new, it felt strange in the beginning. But I guess all things eventually come to an end, and new things are starting. Or in our cause people leaving, and people arriving.

A little preview for the next post. I was feeling a bit funny the last week of September, and I blamed it on my period. Little did I know than..