Guess Who’s Back? I am! Well back
to Ireland anyway. My travels back to this little green isle were fine no
hiccups, just got on my planes and flew across the big pond. Upon arriving I waited
4 hours in the airport for some other NETters to ride the bus up to
Letterkenney Co. Donegal with, it was actually so worth the wait. We all just
talked about our breaks and the random adventures we had. That night we stayed
with the Foy’s, Tony Foy is the director of NET Ireland. He willingly hosted
all of us NETters a total of 24 of us stayed at his house! It was a full house
we will say that. The next 5 days were spent at a capuchin Franciscan Friary
called Ards Friary in the northern part of Donegal. I can honestly say it is
one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and it was just an awesome
time of training, and being with everyone again. The talks were challenging but
what we all needed and lots of fun was had by all especially the last day. From
an intense game of Flicker (like Ultimate Frisbee with a Rugby ball) on the
beach, to jumping in the Atlantic Ocean, to some new games and dramas that
teams had come up with, to finally dumping water out our room windows down onto
the girls below us. The boys were on the 3rd floor while the girls
were on the 2nd floor, we started by just talking out our windows
and then we got the idea to dump water on them. We got “in trouble” by the
staff but really they thought it was hilarious. It will be one of the nights I remember
for a very long time. The next day we spent a good hour giving affirmations to
each other in a big circle it was so nice but then… we were sent off once
again.
We left January Training on the 7th
of January to begin our trek back to the wee little Village that we call home
for the year. It was so hard to leave everybody but we can’t be a NET team of
26 NETters just would be impossible to find host homes J. But even if it was hard to
say good bye we were prepared to take on this second half of our NET year. The
drive took us about 3 and a half hours I would say if we hadn’t gotten lost a
few times trying to find a McDonald’s to eat at. At one point we found
ourselves lost and turning around in a residential area of this random town in
the North of Ireland, but we did not get frustrated we instead turned it into
determination! We found the McDonald’s and ate a nice late lunch. Arriving back
in the Village around 5ish we made some pasta, and spent the whole evening
watching Chuck and just relaxing with each other. The next morning in an
attempt to get back into some kind of routine we ate breakfast at 7:30 which
consisted of coffee and tea without milk, porridge without milk, and I simply
ate nothing. We then had personal prayer and went to mass. It was really nice
to get back to our church and even if Ireland isn’t our true home we do feel
very welcome in this small village.
We then came back and Tim and Amy
had their weekly meeting with Father Seamus and then after some scheduling and
unpacking we ate lunch and then did our weekly house cleaning and grocery
shopping, which was very good because our house literally had nothing in it.
That evening we did some team prayer, ate dinner, and headed over to the
O’Neill’s to catch back up with them and see how their Christmas was. The
O’Neill’s are so great to us and make us feel right at home, they will forever
be our little Irish family. The next day we did the normal morning but after
mass we were presented with a new way to plan our Youth Nights. Tim and Amy
thought it would be more efficient and good for us all to start planning the
nights by ourselves so we could get more done in less time. We all agreed it
was a great idea and then spent the morning deciding who would do which night.
After some lunch and team prayer, Tim and Amy went to a meeting with a lady who
works at a nearby school to see if we could do some religion classes there.
During this time the rest of us worked on any things that we needed to get done
and then when they got back had a fun time of skit practice. It was a great day that ended by some hood
time that was really nice to just relax and catch up with each other.
Thursday morning was spent by going
to mass and some more team service time which was awesome because all of us had
stuff we could be working on. That afternoon we had team prayer and some
discussion about our Team Life Charter which was really good, and left us
having a better idea of how we wanted to live out this second half of the year.
After that and a good walk we did the final preparations for our first youth
group back. The night was really good; it was so nice to see the youth and to
just hear about how their Christmas was. Friday morning was so nice for Marie,
Becca, and I since we had a sleep in, while Tim and Amy went to get a car
inspection done so we could keep our car licensed. The day went on and was a
very good, we spent some time practicing music, having a team meeting, and also
had an hour of internet to see how everything was back home. That evening we
ate dinner and spent the evening sharing pictures of our families and lives
back home, it was really good to see each other sharing their stories. On
Saturday we had a nice sleep in and a morning of prayer, but following that we
went into Mullingar and watched Les Miserables. It was sooo good probably one
of the best musicals I had ever seen. We came back after the movie to a dinner
honoring by the girls and diads. It was a great week we truly had a nice time
getting back into the life of a local team.
The next week was a lot like the
first week, getting back in the normal routine and just doing ministry prep for
the crazy month of February. Wednesday night Tim and I played Risk for hood
time and I whooped him, and we also watched Shooter which is a great movie p.s.
On Thursday for our youth group we had a town wide scavenger hunt that was
super fun, we had them do videos, pictures, and find certain things. To finish
the week off, Marie and I planned a full team day for us all. We started the day off by going to Trim
Castle, where all of the castle scenes were filmed for Braveheart, it was
gorgeous, we even got a tour of the keep. Next we went to Slane, where Hill of
Slane is at, which is where St. Patrick in the 5th Century lit the
Pascal fire to combat the High Kings of Ireland, who had told him he could not
celebrate his Easter vigil. On top of the Hill is an old Franciscan Friary
built in the 16th Century that is in ruins but fairly intact, and
there was no one to stop us from climbing on the ruins J. Next we headed down to
Dublin for a Pro-life Vigil. Abortion is the closest it has ever been to
getting legalized in Ireland, so the Pro-life movement have been fighting extra
hard, and this vigil ended up being the biggest Irish Pro-life rally ever, with
30,000 + people attending. We were so happy to get the chance to go to it and
share in the history being made. All of the NET Teams, and Staff were present,
it was so cool, a lot of us ended up being on camera too! To finish the night
we went to dinner with the Newbridge NET Team and NET Staff at Pizza Hut, then
drove back to our little home in the Village. Life has been really good since
being back, there have been challenges but they are only bringing me more
growth and developing me into a better man. Again if you guys have questions or
feel I left stuff out please let me know. Also write me letters! My address
is
15 Cois Caislean
Athboy Rd
Delvin
Co. Westmeath
Ireland
Well from Ireland with love!
Benjamin Record
