My Visit to Cork

Nothing too exciting happened on my weekend after the last group. We were all pretty tired and stuck to the house mostly because it was rainy and partly because it was Monday and Tuesday and there is nothing to do when our weekend falls on those days. Our work week was very short and only consisted of three days of visits. Wednesday afternoon we filled a bus with six volunteers and four members and made our way out to Glendalough. It is a beautiful part that contains the remains of a 6th century monastic development founded by St. Kevin. Glendalough means "Glen of Two Lakes" and we made the small hike through the woods to see both of them. The weather held out as long as it could, but we were all rather wet by the time we made it to the hotel on the other side of the park. But it was absolutely worth it to see the great big hills on either side of the two lakes and the deep blue water that was oddly still that day. The members seemed to really enjoy the day as well, and I think it was an overall success. The following two days were spent with quicker visits, only lasting 3 or 4 hours.



We had three days off this weekend, and our group split up. Gabriele's sister came over to see him from Italy, and he took her up to Northern Ireland. Bohye, May, and Kate made the trip with them, but I wasn't willing to spend the money. Katie is coming to see me in a few weeks and we are going all over Ireland, so I decided to stay behind this time. Erin told me that we were all invited down to Cork for the 40th birthday party of a long-time CASA volunteer, Tom. She told me that she planned on going down for two nights and she informed me that she would be able to stay at Tom's place. I couldn't pass up a free place to stay! So off to Cork we went on Friday morning. The bus ride took about four and a half hours, and we arrived at the station around half two. Tom picked us up and took us to the grocery store. He bought us some ingredients with the agreement that we were to make dinner. (It was a great plan, if you ask me!) So Erin and I made fajitas, which he had never had before. Mexican food isn't very big here, which is unfortunate. Anyways, the night was quiet, which we gladly accepted. Tom lives in a huge house that he built a few years ago. He built the house on his parent's farm, which now partly belongs to him. On that farm he has 5,000 chickens!! He has a fancy conveyor belt that brings all of the eggs from the coup into the shed where he sorts and collects them every day. He also has a little garden with mostly carrots and potatoes, and a small greenhouse with tomatoes, onions, and grapes. The house is simply beautiful with a kitchen I would kill for! His hospitality was so wonderful and I won't forget the generosity of him and his family. They all treated us like we were one of them, although, I must admit that I could only understand about 50% of what they were saying. The Cork accent is very difficult to understand! We got up very early the next morning and went to the half eight mass. The three of us had breakfast (with fresh eggs!) and enjoyed the few minutes of quiet before the day really began. We were informed that the party was going to be much bigger than we expected with about 200 guests, a quartet, a DJ, and a bouncy castle for the kids! Katherine, an old friend of Tom's and the party coordinator, came in around ten and we were her helpers for the rest of the day. My wrist is still feeling the effects of buttering 15 loafs of bread for the sandwiches! (The Irish use butter instead of mayo on sandwiches and I find this very odd...) There were SO many sandwiches by the time we were done. Three different women made loads of little cakes and tarts and even after the swarm of people at the party, there were hundred of cakes and sandwiches left! We definitely did not go hungry during our stay! After the preparations that seemed endless, the guests began to arrive. Erin and I sat down and enjoyed a glass of wine. After two glasses of wine, my understanding of the Cork accent went from 50% to about 20%, but luckily the Irish laugh at their own jokes so I was able to join in without too much of a delay. :) The welcome was fantastic, and the party was a huge success! I even got to see my member from the big group, Linda. It was lovely to see her, and nice to talk to someone that I had previously met. By half ten, most of the people had gone, but there were some late arrivals that had no intention of leaving for a while longer. I decided to go upstairs and rest for a bit, and join the party later. I woke up around midnight still in my clothes. I could hear that people were still downstairs having fun, but I got up, put my pjs on and climbed back into bed. I wasn't going anywhere!! I woke up around nine this morning and came down to the kitchen around ten giving Tom a sheepish look. "Well, well, here you are twelve hours later!" he said with a smile. Apparently, I didn't miss much, and Erin admitted that even she did not understand half of what was said, so I think I made the right decision. After breakfast, we went down to check out the chickens. Tom put us to work gathering all of the eggs. He told us that for every 100 chickens there were about 90 eggs every day. So you can imagine how many eggs we sorted today! After that job was done, he showed us the inside of the coup and it was a little scary! So many chickens everywhere! He told us that in a few weeks they will all be collected and taken to the slaughterer, so that was kind of sad. He has a few weeks to clean out the inside of the coup, which is apparently a huge job. Then he'll get a new batch of 5,000 chickens and start all over again. I had fun on the farm, but I'm definitely a city girl. I'm happy that Dad decided to be a deacon and not a farmer like his siblings! Anyways, we sat around and drank coffee and tea for a few hours before we had to go back to the bus station. We left feeling very relaxed and a little sick of cake!

We have a kids group starting tomorrow afternoon and ending Friday. It's a four-day group, so I'm expecting to be extremely tired by the time Friday afternoon rolls around. We all have to be ready to work at nine so I better not stay up too late tonight. It's almost eleven and I'm not tired yet! I had plenty of sleep last night... But I guess I better go pack my things because we will be at the Swords house for the group. Say a prayer for me, if you have one to spare. My last kids group was very exhausting mentally and physically. I hope my energy lasts! :)