05/04/2016 Tuesday
We were invited to attend the President’s Council (senior leadership) meeting. It turned out that this was to be our first goodbye where we were given presents as reminders of our time in San Antonio. We leave in twelve days time.
Palo Alto College
05/04/2016 Tuesday
Palo Alto is another of the Alamo Colleges. It is a pleasant modern campus that lies to the south of the city which would be regarded as a poor district. Rena Denham had invited us to meet two philosophy classes. Again our time was short but we were able to talk about Corrymeela, tell some stories and get into how Corrymeela works at reconciliation. The students were shy and very polite. We were told that many of the students would not have been out of San Antonio let alone Texas. Rena gave us reminders of home, Tetley tea and Heinz baked beans, as provided by her boyfriend who hales from Buxton, Derbyshire.
Feast of the Annunciation (Incarnate Word)
04/04/2016 Monday
Returning from Austin we went straight to the University of the Incarnate Word to lead a reflection of the place of mercy in reconciliation. This was at the invitation of Sr Walter who hand entertained us to lunch several weeks ago. We used the chapter “A place called reconciliation” from David Steven’s book of the same name. In the end there were nearly 50 people, staff and students, present. Yvonne told several stories then we broke into four groups to consider questions like “Do we have any stories to tell?” “What is the tension between mercy and justice?” Dealing with the past.
It was a short session but feedback suggests it was appreciated.
Trip to Austin TX
01/04/2016 Friday
Set off to Austin in the afternoon to spend the weekend with Noel, Larry and little Daniel Armendariz. (Noel’s parents, Chris and Mary Anne Busch from N. Carolina, are house sitting for us in Ballycastle while we are away). That evening our hosts had organised dinner for us and some of her friends. We met Allen and Tracy, Marilyn and Norton. Allen is Social Work colleague of Noel at University of Texas, Tracy is a home mum and runs a cake baking business. Marilyn is Social Work teacher at University of Texas who is running a project to change the teaching culture in schools which have many students with behavioural issues. This included the use of restorative justice practices in the schools. Norton is well retired but still teaches about loss and bereavement in his 80s! We had a lovely meal and they got very engaged with the use of Yvonne’s puppets as a teaching and learning methodology.
02/04/2016 Saturday
After a good breakfast of bacon, eggs, bagels etc. Noel and Daniel took us on a tour of Austin. It is a lively and beautiful city on the Colarado river. It is clearly a very wealthy city with house prices escalating at the moment. We viewed the city from Mount Bonnell, one of the high spots near the city. Noel then dropped us of at the Lyndon B Johnson Library where we spent a couple of hours looking at LBJs life as President – the good and the bad. We also saw Ladybird Johnson’s office.
In the evening we went out to Black’s Barbecue in Lockhart just outside Austin. The cooking is done in wood fired pits which gives the meat a lot of flavour. Larry, Daniel and I opted for beef ribs which turned out to be massive and very tasty. Yvonne went for pork ribs and Noel had sausages. So meat was the thing. The sides were items like black beans, refried beans, green beans and macaroni cheese – no salads in sight!
02/04/2016 Sunday
We were up early in order to get the to the West Cave Nature Preserve in time to take the first tour at 10:00. This is a beautiful area of river, creek and canyon in limestone scenery. At one time it was a popular spot for swimming etc which resulted in a lot of destruction and pollution but has now been brought back to original natural state. So access is by guided tour only.
On the way home we visited an olive grove, a winery and a fabric shop.
In the evening we went to Congress Avenue bridge in the centre of Austin to join several hundred people watch the world’s largest bat colony emerge from under the bridge. An estimated 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats leave as the sun sets and the flies come out to bite.
We had a very interesting and relaxing weekend. Thank you Noel, Larry and Daniel and not forgetting Tavo and Zeus – two cute French bulldogs.
Humanities Class at Northwest Vista College
30/06/2016
We were asked to contribute to a class looking at Northern Ireland as a case study of a society coming out of conflict. We provided various handouts produced by the Community Relations Council but used videos from the Creating Community resource to illustrate the background of the troubles and the role of religion and politics. After the break we talked about Corrymeela and its approach to peace building and reconciliation. Some of the students were taken with the ideas of story telling, safe space and the building of relationships. They asked about how to start telling stories which led us into such things as walking debates, use of objects and puppets, safe space and rules of engagement such as speaking for oneself etc. From the class responses it was clear that racism is an issue for many of the students. Work to be done there then!
Thank you to Neil Lewis for inviting us to take the class.
Virtue Ethics Class
29/03/2016 Tuesday
We went into two of Matt Fuller’s Ethics Classes. The topic under consideration was “Virtue Ethics”. The class looked at Aristotle and was then asked to name some of their heroes and list the virtues that contributed to them being heroes. The class was then asked if they considered forgiveness a virtue. This led to a discussion about the Enniskillen bombing and, in particular, Gordon Wilson’s response. It was suggested that forgiveness is a journey and the process of forgiving does not necessarily require the word forgive to be said.
Easter at Christ Church
27/03/2016 Sunday
Easter day was preceded by the usual preparations including a Tenebrae service, foot washing and stripping of the altar, and the Easter vigil.
The Easter morning services were packed out with the 9am service starting with the children bringing in flowers to “Flower the Cross”.
La Fonda on Main
26/03/2016 Saturday
Yvonne and I took Andy, Mary Lyn and AJ Hill to the Mexican restaurant La Fonda on Main for lunch. This was by way of an appreciation for organising, facilitating and hosting our Fulbright here in San Antonio. We had a very pleasant afternoon where stories and Easter eggs including knitted Easter bunnies were exchanged. Thanks y’all!
Interfaith in the Park
25/03/2016 Friday
We spent a wonderful morning in Denman Estate Park SA at a gathering for refugees organised as an Interfaith event organised by Sr Martha Ann. Some eighteen nations were represented. The activity tables were set out under the trees next to a small lake. With beautiful sunshine filtering through the trees the scene was idyllic. The participants gathered in groups to do art, music, singing, learn about different faiths and of course puppets with you know who!
Fun with Puppets
24/03/2016 Thursday
Professor Sandra Snavely, who teaches Psychology at St Philip’s College, has enjoyed learning how useful puppets have been as a tool in her teaching. Today was the second time Yvonne had used puppets in Sandra’s Social Psychology class. This time it was being filmed by Patrick to provide a video resource dealing with the puppet methodology and to accompany the eighteen puppets that Yvonne will leave behind at the College. The class had previously been introduced to puppets and asked to produce scenarios relating to adolescence and relationships to significant adults. Issues included: conflict around the use of a family car, body image, sexual activity and curfews, teen pregnancy, teen suicide, moving out of the family home, bullying, single parent and loss and time available with a parent in the military. Working in twos they produced little plays which were recorded on film. The class concluded with a discussion about how the use of puppets helped in understanding the issues and in particular the associated feelings and emotions.
