Email: Megan Buff

Friends,

We left Louisville, Kentucky, on a Tuesday afternoon in early September. More hours than I care to count later, my team of eight arrived at Belfast City Airport on Wednesday morning. Our first sight of the city was a huge Ikea home furnishings store located right next to the airport. While we landed, we commisserated in spirit with some of the other teams, some of whom still had another full day of travelling left.

We all moved immediately into our apartments. Two volunteers share each apartment. My roommate, Emily, and I live on the eighth story (or what we in the States know as the ninth story) of a high-rise apartment building. The place is small but pretty well-furnished, and has a magnificent view of the hills surrounding Belfast.

The next day, Thursday, we started visiting placement sites. We meet with the pastor of the church and other leaders who happen to be around. My church, Kilmakee Presbyterian, is located across the street from my apartment—one of the team joked about running a zip-line from my bedroom window to my office. The church seems like a great place to work. It’s located in a Loyalist (pro-British, Protestant) stronghold, but is working hard to promote cross-community work and reconciliation. In fact, they recently received a grant and are looking at ways to implement this.

Some of the other volunteers are having a bit of a hard time understanding the pastors and supervisors, especially one at my roommate’s site who has a country accent. One of them pointed out that it makes her listen harder and really pay attention to what’s going on. In such a situation it’s much harder to zone out for a little while and then pick up on the conversation again. I know that as we go on, the accent will become more and more natural to our ears. But I hope that we keep the spirit of listening that we’re developing in these first few days.

One of the supervisors was talking about the kids in the area. He pointed out that his program (where Emily will be working) is designed to give the youth a place to belong. “It’s all about having an identity,” he said. “If you don’t have something to live for, you’ve got to have something to die for.” I think that statement strikes at the core of the Troubles here.

Three weeks later, I kicked off the new youth drama team at my church. In the past, young people have been involved with occasional skits in Sunday morning worship or evening youth services. Apparently, the day after I flew into the country, people from the church gathered for a prayer service. One of the requests that came up was that God would raise up someone who was willing to work with the youth and develop a drama team. Then I showed up that Sunday and mentioned that I’d minored in theatre at university. And the people who had prayed a few days before all got very excited.

One of my main jobs is working with the seven teenagers, aged 13 to 17, who’ve expressed interest in a drama group. There are only two girls (one of whom is named Megan). They’re a great group, full of energy, excitement, enthusiasm, and nervousness. We met on Tuesday night for the first time. The room quivered with potential. At this point, we’re doing a lot of team-building work, so that they’re confident with each other. In about a month, the team will do something for a youth evening service. We have a good schedule for the rest of the year, with some fun and exciting things planned for the spring and summer. I’m looking forward to working with this group of kids, helping them learn, and watching them grow.