We joined one of Matt Fuller’s Ethics classes to assist a discussion of the film “Five Minutes of Heaven” starring Liam Neeson and James Nesbit. We had prepared a number of questions for the class to aid exploration of reconciliation, forgiveness, dealing with past and healing. We also explored the ethics of using TV to bring perpetrators and victims together for the first for the purposes of dramatic television as with the rather disastrous Face to Face TV series. There was an impressive response by the class in terms of their insights and understanding particularly from two recently graduated high school students ( 16 and 17 years old).
This weekend we were visited by Yvonne’s niece Fiona Doherty and hwer husband Shawn and little boy Colm. We collected them from San Antonio airport at about 9:30 pm on Friday. Saturday was spent visiting the tourist sites. We started at the Alamo then the River Walk ending up at the Market Square. After lunch of tacos at Viva Villa Taqueria we then visited some of the 18th century missions built along the San Antonio River. After an aperitif at the The Friendly Spot we had dinner at our local restaurant/bar Luthers.
After church on Sunday we met up with Andy Hill and family at the Pearl for coffee. There was an interesting street market taking place here. We then spent some time at a children’s park in Brackenbridge. Later in the afternoon we retired to the apartment where Richard produced a traditional roast chicken dinner!
It was lovely have the Doherty family with us from New York and got us thinking about family at home, meeting our new grandson and our son Matthew’s wedding in May.
Breakfast at the apartmentShawn at the Market Square with a margarita made from Mexican beer!Colm enjoying the play park
We set off on an approximately 800 mile round trip from San Antonio to Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and return. The party consisted on Andy, Mary Lyn and AJ Hill, Matt Fuller, Richard and Yvonne Naylor travelling in two cars. With tempertures in the 80s F (27C) it was good to have air-conditioning in the cars.
Before we left San Antonio we got caught in a traffic jam caused by weekend road works and aggravated by the fact that many people were travelling at the end of the school/college mid-term break. Our first stop was in Houston at the home of St Philip’s College Principal Adena Loston. She had, very kindly, invited us to have dinner with her on the way through. We spent a couple of hours hearing about her many years experience in the Texas education system, her time at NASA and swapping stories about our own experiences in N.I. Thank you Adena.
We eventually got to the home of Andy’s dad, also called Andy, and his wife Marilyn. We were given a very warm welcome but were glad to collapse into comfortable beds.
14/03/2016 Monday
Next morning I had a very interesting conversation about the oil industry and fracking in Texas with Andy (senior) who was very much involved in the industry. He was positive about fracking and felt that the issues raised about its harmful effects had been largely addressed. He also commented on the effects that the oil price drop had had in Texas and US in general. The number of rigs drilling for oil and gas had dropped nearly 70% in the last two years. On our road trip we saw a lot of oil and gas sites which consisted of small installation of pipes coming out of the ground. These were often accompanied by three or four storage tanks about 50 m away from the pipes. Evidently most of the disruption and noise occurs during the drilling phase after which the installation is visited periodically by tankers to collect the oil and gas. The most obvious difference between Texas and UK/Ireland is that Texas is flat, large and sparsely populated outside the urban sprawl. This makes access to and development of sites relatively straightforward. We did see some nodding donkeys but these are used mainly to pump oil from shallow wells. Most of the oil/gas fracking is done at 8,000 ft to 15,000 ft which is well below the water aquifers. Andy commented on the appalling pollution in Azerbaijan that he had seen when he worked in the oil industry. This was due to poor regulation and enforcement.
Andy & Marylyn’s yardThe yard againMary Lynn works while we play!
The main event of the day was a visit to the Houston Space Center. This is a visitor attraction containing l0ts of space artifacts and interactive exhibits particularly aimed at families. We started with a tram tour of the site which took us to the astronaut training facility. See photographs below. There was equipment for simulation weightlessness, mock up of various space capsules including Orion which is part of the mission to Mars project due to take place before 2030 and much more. Back at the Space Center we had a half-hour presentation by Astronaut Duffy who had recently retired. He talked about the space station programme and life in space in the weightless environment. In another lecture we heard about research that was taking place to investigate long term space travel and particularly as a preparation for visit to Mars. We got to see inside the space shuttle cockpit and some video on space walks from the shuttle and use of the mechanical arm for repairing satellites in installing new equipment in space.
Being the beginning of the school holiday week the Space Center was extremely busy but they coped with it all very efficiently. The cafeteria was huge but it handled the numbers very quickly.
Richard, Matt, Yvonne, AJSpace shuttle on its transport 747Astronaut Training CentreOutdoor clothes!Orion mission to Mars mock upTransportMercury Redstone rocket used in early space flightsSaturn 5 assembly. Kept inside hangar because materials corrode in the Texas climateSpace shuttle cockpitShuttle flight deckToilet
We returned to Andy and Marilyn for a very pleasant evening.
15/03/2016 Tuesday
We next headed for Dallas. A long drive ended at the Dallas Arboretum where we had a lovely walk round beautiful gardens. Lots of tulips in full bloom as well spring flowers and trees just coming into leaf. The white blossom on the cherry trees was impressive.
Yvonne with MonetAndy with his hero ShakespeareCherry blossom
The next stage of the journey took us to the Hill family farm a few miles outside Fort Worth. Some of Andy’s brothers and sisters live on the farm and they made us very welcome. Their houses are situated on top of a hill with a great view of the surrounding countryside and sufficiently far from the urban sprawl to be nice and quiet. A great place to walk and relax.
16/03/2016 Wednesday
A day for relaxing on the farm. We eventually took off to the Fort Worth Botanic gardens and then to the Stock yards to see the afternoon cattle drive complete with stage coach and a gunfight! In the evening the family gathered for a Texas bar-b-q.
Some photos from the farm
Gas well from fracking on the farm
David Hill with YvonneSue and Ed with Yvonne and Richard on their porch. Yvonne had just planted flowers.Fort Worth cattle drive
17/03/2016 Thursday
The early morning (about 5 am) was marked by thunder and lightning followed by rain and hail. A siren went off which turned out to be a tornado warning. As nobody got up we just went back to sleep! It turns out that the tornado passed close by and did some damage to wild fowl and cars close to Fort Worth. It also turns out that all this was going on at the time that Sarah was delivering our second grandchild in England. A St Patrick’s day baby coming in with a bang! (Later named as Samuel Richard Warwick Naylor, weighing 8lb 5oz).
Our long trip back to San Antonio was broken by a quick visit to the Ladybird Johnson Wild flower center just outside Austin. The main show was the Blue Bonnets which are beginning to appear everywhere in the countryside and on roadside verges. Other flowers in abundance were the Texas Paintbrush and flowering cacti.
Ladybird Johnson Wild flower CenterBlue bonnets beginning to show
Yvonne in her element
We had a great trip particularly meeting Andy’s family and spending time on the farm. The countryside that we passed through was mainly low trees and flat grasslands with nearly empty river beds. Typical limestone scenery. Eastern Texas between Houston and Dallas is particularly flat. Here there was not as much ribbon development along the freeway as there was between San Antonio/Houston and Dallas/San Antonio. For me one impressive fact was the number of cars and pick-up trucks both on the freeways and, particularly, in the vast and numerous car lots alongside.
This evening we visited Sr Martha Ann who is a religious sister of the Incarnate Word. She had invited us to take a look at some of the murals painted in the south west area of San Antonio. This district is primarily an Hispanic area. After viewing the murals we returned to her convent house in the district where we were joined by Larry Hufford (St Mary’s University and Corrymeela) and his wife Lynda. We had a great evening talking about San Antonio, religion and, of course, politics. Yvonne gave an impromptu talk on sectarianism round the dinner table!
Here a just a few of the murals:
Figures based on skeletons and skulls are feature of traditional Mexican art. It is to do with All Souls Day and remembering and honouring the ancestors. It is about fun and fiesta rather than being macabre.
10/03/2016 Thursday morning
We had a brief visit to Alamo Colleges headquarters to meet the Chancellor, Bruce Leslie, who has overall charge of the five Alamo Colleges. We discussed what we had been doing and what we had learned whilst being in San Antonio. He talked about his visit and involvement with the Belfast Metropolitan College last year. Belfast Met are involved in a creative thinking project called FRESH which the Alamo Colleges want to bring to their colleges. In fact we were told that two members of Belfast Met were in currently S.A. for several days although we were unable to meet them. There is a good chance that we will see the Chancellor at Corrymeela.
Chancellor Bruce Leslie with Yvonne and Richard
11/03/2016 Thursday Lunchtime
We met Sister Walter Maher, also of the Incarnate Word, for lunch at the Silo. She had invited us to take part in an event to mark the anniversary of the Incarnate Word University. This is an annual event at which we have been asked to lead a session on the role of mercy in reconciliation. So we did some planning with Sr Walter for this as well as finding out more about her order and her Irish roots. A very nice meal by the way!
The Principal of St. Philip’s College, Dr Adena Loston, invited Andy & Mary Lynn Hill and ourselves to the annual awards dinner of the United Communities of San Antonio (UCSA). Four people, including Dr Loston, were given Brotherhood/Sisterhood Humanitarian Awards at the ceremony.
UCSA is a charitable organisation that takes a stand against bullying, bias, prejudice and racism in all forms. It has a particular focus on young people. In her address the organisation’s Chair, Megan Fisher Kruger, talked particularly about three of its programmes: Cyberbullying, the Youth programme in schools and summer camps for leadership. There certainly appeared to be a lot of similarities with what Corrymeela and other organisations in N.I. are doing.
The four people receiving awards included: Dr Loston, Principal of St. Philip’s College, Sheriff Susan Pamerlau, Major General Joe Robles and Dr Alice Viroslav. They are all involved in developing community in their different ways. Susan Pamerlau is the first woman to be elected Sheriff of Bexar (pronounced bear) County.
MG Joe Robles told how he experienced racism when as a young soldier he was thrown out of restaurants because they deemed him but because they deemed him native american because of his high cheek bones. He is in fact white.
Dr Loston told a story from her childhood. Her father was a fully qualified plumber who ran his own business serving largely white customers. He instructed his children to write down everything that was said to them when customers called to ask for his services. This included any name calling including the “n” word. On going out to the jobs he took the child who had taken the original message with him. On completion of the work he informed the customer that they were getting a very special price. Of course the customers were pleased about this but what they did not know was that the price increased according to how badly they had spoken to the children. Customers who had treated his children with respect were surprised, pleased and curious when he told them that there would be no charge!
Well, we have been bumming about the beautiful weather that we have been having in San Antonio since we arrived on 11th January. We have had many clear sunny days with temperatures often in the high twenties Celsius. These days have often been followed by cold nights. We had a couple of nights rain about three weeks ago that transformed the brown land into green. In the last few days humidity has risen and we are now getting low pressure fronts coming in from California. So we now have dull weather with rain. Thunderstorms and a lot of rain are forecast for the next couple of days. Spring is on its way with trees beginning to leaf and flowers appearing. We are looking forward to seeing the blue bonnets which are beginning to appear in the hills. We have been told that spring does not last very long here. We have also been told that the weather over the past few months has been unusually warm.
The San Antonio area is very prone to flash flooding and after significant events in the early twentieth century measures were put in place to control this. The Olmos Dam was built in the 1920s not too far from down-town. In more recent times the dam has had several upgrades, flood gates have been built at each end of the San Antonio river loop and a flood relief tunnel has been built under the city. These measures have proved very effective.
In the evening we went to Santikos Bijou Cinema to see The Lady in the Van. It turned out that this cinema operated like a restaurant. The cinema seating rows were well spaced out with with a table running the length of each row. Menus were given out as you bought tickets and you could then order and eat at your seat. Enjoyed the film.
05/06/2016 Saturday
Andy and Mary Lynne took us to see the musical Godspell preformed by students at St Mary’s University. This was very well done. Of particular note were three sisters, triplets, from Kenya who all had amazing voices and a big, warm latino Jesus. Thanks Andy & Mary Lynn.
Yvonne went with the Dean of Social Sciences Cindy Prior to the Education Service Center for the the annual APEX Summit. APEX – Advanced Professional Enrichment Xperience. This was a training experience for Adjuncts – part time lecturers who had not taught before. Yvonne and Cindy did a session practical methodologies for transmitting learning. They did a practical session using trigger objects as a means of encouraging interaction and story telling. Their second session covered the use of puppets in role play situations. In introducing herself Yvonne talked about Corrymeela and there was a lot of interest in the web site.
The Hot Potato Dialogue is hosted at the Campus Ministries. This week the subject was bullying with particular emphasis on that affecting students and staff. It was led by Robert De Luna who talked from personal experiences. Other students and staff also shared their experiences and some of the strategies that had been helpful.
After closure we had a hot potato lunch! Dare I say it but the potato was a nice change from tacos, tortillas and enchiladas! And that suddenly brings to mind Richard Loudon’s Mexican version of Molly Malone!
Each Wednesday tea time Christ’s Episcopal Church holds a Two Tables event. The two tables being the communion table and the dinner table. Dinner/tea starts at 5:30 pm and the Eucharist begins at 6:00 pm. The address is usually an invited speaker who speaks for 30 to 40 minutes on some issue or theme. So we were invited to give a presentation about Corrymeela. We used Power Point with plenty of pictures and music. Questions were about interfaith dialogue, our links with Coventry and what people take away from Corrymeela.
The meal is an important part of life in this church. There are volunteers whose mission is to provide the food so a lot of the events take place round a meal. Breakfast is available on Sunday mornings and dinner/tea at the Two Tables events.
