Pints and Peace

It was our first full day in Ireland after the hellatiously long first day.  There were only 7 people in my group, 5 of whom were guys.  It wasn’t looking good.  Before heading into Dublin, the program took us up to a place called Glencree.  In the mountains and completely isolated, I didn’t have too high of hopes for a fun night.  We get a little spoiled with regard to that at CMC.  That day at lunch, though, I met some of the volunteers who work at Glencree.  They are a really cool group of people from all over, and after talking for a bit, we decided to have a bonfire that night.  Since it is a Peace and Conflict Resolution course that I’m on here, it was fitting that the fire was in the peace garden.  The whole of our group come down together at around 9:30.  It was fun.  We drank Guinness and chatted about nothing serious until four of the girls from our group left.  There were about six of us left around the fire.  That’s when I met Yaser, a volunteer from Gaza.  We talked for a while about the situation there, which I found to be enlightening.  

Out of fire wood and very cold, we headed up to the volunteers’ house where Yaser pulled out his hookah and Jacquie brandished show hard a.  At this point it got a little more wild.  We laughed and talked for until about 4 in the a.m, covering topics from Jacquie’s romantic interests to the nature of violent conflict.  

The Irish always talk about the “craic”.  Roughly translated, it means the good time and is generally associated with good conversation.  The image of hardcore drinking is a little bit off.  Yea, of course you drink at the pub, but the night of the bonfire I realized that drinking is secondary to the craic.  It might be a part of it, but by no means is it the most important part.  With that said, Guinness is indescribably good here!