Want to go plant trees with Americans? Friday, Feb 24

 

Lessons about kindness. And History too.

We had such a nice day today. We spent much of it outside, but had lots of inside reflection as well.

After a lovely breakfast of croissants, cereal, juice, yogurt and….wait for it, TEA…we set off for an adventure to Cave Hill and the Belfast Castle.

Short bus ride and we walked our way up to a Victorian-era castle with a panoramic view of the West side of Belfast. Although a structure called The Belfast Castle had been around this area since the Norman Conquest…it has been burned and re-built and destroyed and re-constructed numerous times since then. This was the latest version built more recently – only 1850s, sold to the city in 1934 --  and now just used for weddings and special events. But we all loved walking through the garden, posing for pictures on the spiral staircase and playing Rapunzel on the balcony. We also enjoyed strolling through the rooms upstairs and gazing out at the view.

After returning from the hike we found a perfect secret room upstairs at the castle and plopped ourselves down for a bit of reflective writing and sharing. The late afternoon light was shining into the room just right and it gave everyone a chance to feel golden and consider how everyone was feeling so far. Among many observations shared was the deep sense of history that the land, the architecture and the conversations with folks here had made us feel. What does it mean to live with so much history – much of it painful – and to be able to keep carrying on?  How do people live together in spite of all the pain they have shared?

We also thought about the ways in which the care and kindness of the people we meet here has been so striking. There were several incidents today that helped bring this to light.

As we were sitting upstairs in our sunlit castle room, we heard the beginnings of a live Irish folk band and dance event in the floor below us. It seemed that a real Irish dance event was underway. Flute, accordion, fiddle…dancing feet….we made our way down the stairs and peered in the direction of the music. Wearing traditional Irish dancing shoes, members of the Belfast public were streaming into the ballroom and paying “10 pounds a head” to dance to the music. Standing in the crowd, peering into the room, with our backpacks and muddy boots…we were quite a sight. And then one of the older dancers leaned out and said ‘Please!  Come on in and watch. Find a seat!” So we ran in and sat down to watch the dancers, the special Irish dancing shoes, and the musicians. The kids were mesmerized. And many took out their phones to take pictures and shoot video.

After a few songs, we gave the signal and packed up and headed out to the door. The same lead dancer waved farewell to us. And we headed out to find our bus. The kids loved sitting on the upper level of the double-decker bus and taking in the sunset over the buildings, the hills and the neighborhood scenes. As soon as we landed at Belfast City Centre, however, Alice discovered that she did not have her phone. Oh no! We performed technological investigations – FindMyPhone and log in and search. Where is the phone? Why... it is sitting back at that castle!

 So….. Alice and I set off to find a taxi queue and got ourselves into a black taxi and headed back out to the castle. Once we arrived, Alice ran in and found that the dancers were still dancing, the music was still playing and the crowds were all around where her phone might have been left. She asked the receptionist nicely if any phone had been found. The dancing man who had helped us earlier then asked if she could have me phone her phone and they would ask the musicians to stop playing while she listened for it. The entire room of dancers held still while the music was stopped in order to find Alice’s phone. Astonishing. I sat in the taxi and kept dialing the number, while the taxi driver kept asking for all of the possible places she could have left it. He insisted I keep ringing the number and thought frequently about ‘What kind of floor was it? Was there a carpet? Maybe someone heard it fall to the floor?’

But the phone did not turn up. So the taxi driver insisted that we leave a paper with the name of our youth hostel, and a phone number and kept saying ‘No one will pinch it. They will find it. Don’t worry love’. And he took us on back home to our hostel in the city.

Although somewhat defeated, we figured we might get a call tomorrow and find a way to get back out there sometime tomorrow. And we headed off to eat our dinner in the hostel. At the end of our meal, we noticed a fellow coming into the hostel café who looked familiar. Why, isn’t that the dancer that had encouraged us to come in earlier? And sure enough, he walked in and stood before us holding up Alice’s phone. He had driven all the way down from the castle and found our hostel in order to return it to Alice. We all applauded. Alice gave him a hug. And we sat there moved at yet again how wonderfully kind and generous acts create such a fond feeling for all of us. This is how people should live together. A Hands for a Bridge moment if ever there was.

Barbara   Sunday night Feb 19