Getting to see More of Dublin

Once I got in on Wednesday, because it is one of our two early days in the week where we start in the morning instead of the afternoon, I used the time to do some of the program planning that had been talked about over the past few weeks. I used the time to try and look up different drug awareness programs resources for one of our Tuesday evening groups. I looked up listening and team building activities and games to use with some of our other freshly starting groups, and tried to look up information on sexual health resources for the girls group. It was an interesting experience. In Edmonton I would know where to go or who to talk to to help put together good quality information and packages that I would feel very conformable in using and facilitating with youth. Here I dont' have the same resources. So I slowly sift through information. Another thing I don't think people always realize is that when in a different country Google sends you to thats countries sites before anywhere else so unless you would have specifics I would come up with a large amount of information that I really did not have the knowledge of organizations or services to know what was reliable or quality information. I was able to sift through some stuff and put together a quality drug work sheet and some other awareness information. I also put together a mix of some of my favorite initiative and team building games.

I am finding putting information together for the sexual health programming interesting. I really feel there is a lot of apprehension around wanting to run this program without more training from a number of the workers. I think this has been something that has really struck me because it just brings out some of the huge difference in culture. When it comes to some of the stats back in Canada, such as one in every three women has been sexually assaulted in some way before the age of 18 it makes me sick and makes me think we are so behind in how we deal with and teach issues related to sexuality. But in contrast when workers are so very uncomfortable and unsure how to even start the conversation I am seeing just how ahead in this area we really are.. in no other way but in our slowly moving into it being more safe to talk about openly. The Catholic background of Ireland plays into this a great deal I assume which makes sense.. but is scary a little bit just because you can see how much it is needed in young people across the world.

In the evening, Martin, Eileen, and myself ran the young boys group. It was pretty fun, those boys are so cute. Its sometimes scares me the lives these boys really live outside the centre. They have so much to give, i hope they are able to see it.

Eileen then invited me for dinner that evening after work. It was super wonderful of her as my evenings have become fairly boring and a bit lonely at times. I think she had maybe picked up on this in conversation and felt kind of bad. She told me how she would normally not do this with a student but having an international student so far away from home with not many supports in the city she thought it should be something they should have thought more about before having me come. Which I thought was a good observation, not that I have been struggling that much, but that it would just have been cool to have the opportunity to do some more stuff with my co-workers from the centre outside of my placement since I am only here for a short amount of time.. but it's been hard to really make to much time for anything since I have been so busy anyways.. but it's something to think about.

The evening was so very Fantastic! Hard to even explain, it seems like I have all of these small events packed so full of so much learning and just great opportunities to talk to amazing people. This evening was for sure one of them for me. It was so wonderful even to get to drive through the city and see what it looks like from a driving perspective.. not to be just headed downtown on the bus. I got to see another Traveller area on the way, I'm so interested in learning more about the traveller community. I know I most likely won't have a ton of time while I’m here but I hope to do some more research when I get back home to have a better understanding. Eileen also lives with her cousin in an area of the city that she described as very 'posh'. It's funny cause even though I have spent some of my time out in the country side because most of my time in Dublin has been spent in Finglas and downtown I think I really started to think that’s the only way people in big city Ireland lived. I know that sounds horrible and somewhat ignorant.. but I mean it's just kind of one of those things you don't even realize until the thought is challenged. Anyways I was super glad it was just so I was able to have a more full picture of the city, seeing the contrast in different areas. This area is gorgeous, huge homes, very clean, much more up keep, just a different feel all together. Indeed this shouldn’t be surprising as this really is I’m sure how it is in any big city.. but was just nice to get that reality check.

The first thing Eileen did was take me to the beach.. again kinda a mind blowing thing.. which again not so proud to admit to. Don't get me wrong I do know that Ireland is an island, thus it would have the opportunity for lots of beaches.. but it just seemed so weird in some ways. Most of the coast I have experienced in Ireland has been just that.. coast. Not beautiful sandy beaches, SO BEAUTIFUL!! With seashells. Ha, I am a loser, how excited I was, but it was great.

After the beach she took me for a little drive through the community and it was very clear this was a very posh community. We then headed back to her cousins condo after getting almost locked in one of the estate gates after going to look closer at an old hatched roof house. Eileen showed me her place and made me feel very comfortable. We had dinner and a few drinks. We talked about how I had been doing in placement, my experience in Ireland, what I was learning and getting out of the experience in general. Then the conversation even went deeper into sharing more about our passion for the field and where we came from, and where we are at in our lives. It was so great to have that experience of getting to have someone I have gotten to respect so much as a great practitioner open up and talk with me at a level beyond just a student. I think in my everyday life I try and keep friends and family around me or at least a phone call away where I can get into these deeper conversations about life and my work with. I think I have been greatly missing it during this trip. It was so nice to have a bit of that tonight, I am so grateful.

Eileen then drove me home after a wonderful night. The last thing she did was give a short tour of Ballymun, really the only area in Dublin that has a worse reputation then Finglas. She showed me the big concrete building that use to fill the area. Only a couple are left standing and are boarded up now. But there use to be quiet a few in the area filled with drugs, housing the very poor, and a haven for criminal activity. Eileen went on to explain during the boom in Ireland they tore a number of them down and built new buildings but commonly people just feel they moved the drug users and the prostitutes into nicer homes, that it did not deal with the real issues in the area. I just looked up Ballymun on Wikipedia; right away it talks about these buildings. They honestly made me think of what I would imagine the buildings would looking like in the ghettos/projects in the states even though I have never seen them either.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballymun