CORRYMEELA

Recently I was in Northern Ireland as a volunteer for a year at the Corrymeela Community. Corrymeela Community was founded by Ray Davey who was a prisoner of war in Dresden and witnessed the Dresden Bombing. Ray felt called to establish a centre in Ballycastle and his vision was to create an open village, where people of all faiths and backgrounds could come together and learn to live in a community.

Northern Ireland as a country had its own share of ups and downs. Many people lost their lives. After the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, figures on physical violence has reduced. However, violence is still lingering in other forms. Wars with guns have come to an end but peace is still a distant star. People still seem fractioned over especially between two communities, Catholic and Protestant or Irish and British or Unionism/Loyalism and Nationalism/Republicanism.  

In the midst of the ongoing conflict and division, Corrymeela has been acting as a catalyst for change. It works with different individuals, groups, politicians, and other stake holders trying to plant some seed of hope and peace. Its main office is in Belfast and the residential centre is located in Ballycaslte, a wonderful calm place next to the sea. The center hosts groups with different goals and objectives where building peace is the one of the core values. It hosts a wide range of groups like reconciliation groups, respite groups and reflective learning groups where I worked with them in different capacities as a volunteer. Alongside the groups, I also worked in the Kitchen and Housekeeping.

Corrymeela Ballycaslte is extended around six acres of land with three major living sites, Main House, Davey Village and Coventry. The Main House and Davey Village are open for the groups at the center whereas Coventry is only for the volunteers working on the site. Except that, there is Tara Tavern where Arts and Crafts and Play Room are situated. The rest of the area is an open field.

Every year around 7000 individual visit Corrymeela including groups and 400 volunteers come to support the ongoing work of Corrymeela. Volunteers are divided in different categories. Volunteers serving for a year are called One Year Volunteers, midterm volunteers for 3 months, extended midterm volunteers for more than 3 months, short term volunteers for few hours to few weeks and summer volunteers. Except these there are also office volunteers. Volunteers live together in Coventry and the age can be varied as Corrymeela accepts volunteers of different age. I had a wonderful year of my life as a One Year Volunteer at Corrymeela, where the people were so supportive and positive. There was always someone around you to help when you needed.  I had the opportunity to learn the true meaning of hospitality along with the skills of being a good facilitator. Working there has provided me a good taste of how it feels to work with groups, be it a child group or a university group.

Corrrymeela is a small place but it gives you opportunity to meet people from around the world and share a wide range of knowledge and experiences. The variation of English dialect at one small place is just an amazing experience. Corrrymeela also hosts international groups. One of the examples of international exchange would be the one year volunteering program where 12 individuals from around the world are selected to work and leave as a team for a year at the center.  This is a place where you can easily experience the world just being inside the boundary of 6 acres. You can see people of different race, different faith, no faith, different nationality, different gender, different perspective, and different dialect along with some similarities as well which totally symbolizes the world in a smaller version. Hence, I would like to call this place, A Smaller World. 

THANK YOU

***This article was published in REPUBLICA, a daily national news paper on June 09, 2012***

Our country is in a state where everyone is eager to see the direction it takes. Nepalis are outraged by the acts of political leaders, lawmakers and security personnel. Nothing seems to be going right. The saying “Nepalko Kanun Daibale Janun” (Nepal’s laws only God knows!) seems to be true. At a time when people are expressing their feelings in the form of hatred and disgust, I would like to take a different approach instead, and thank everyone.

We’ve heard and seen the police taking bribes and know it’s wrong, but still I would like to thank them for not taking more than they do. If they wish, they can ask for more. I’ve seen Traffic Police personnel instead of booking the violator for breaking a traffic rule, ask for money. I’ve seen them taking Rs. 50 and 100 when the fine is Rs. 200. I thank them for just sticking around 50 and 100. I’m pretty sure those lawbreakers would have easily paid up to Rs 199 instead of giving away their license.

According to INSEC, 13,236 people lost their lives in the decade-long insurgency. I thank people like the late King Birendra, GP Koirala, king Gyanendra, Prachanda and Rukmangad Katwal for taking action to bring peace. If they hadn’t supported the process, more lives would’ve been lost.

I thank the then king Gyanendra. He gave up as an absolute monarch on the 19^th day of the People’s Movement II. The mass of people wasn’t small, and those 19 days were as difficult for him as for the general public, too. What would people have done for a living if that had continued for a few more days and everything would've been shut down? So I thank Gyanendra for not stretching it. I thank him and the public for not making it bloodier.

Recently, the Constituent Assemble (CA) was dissolved owing to refusal of extension of its tenure. If the Supreme Court had not given a verdict on May 28, 2012 as the last date for the CA’s tenure, lawmakers could have easily added some more time. Viewing the effort of our honorable lawmakers to drafting the new Constitution, I would like to thank the Right Honorable Supreme Court for not allowing them to add extra time for the drafting of the Constitution.

Personally, I have no problems even if lawmakers need eight years to write a new and balanced Constitution provided that they just focus on its writing.

Let’s forget about this and come to reality. At present, no one is certain about the Constitution’s fate. Let’s not talk about the public; the lawmakers themselves aren't certain. Whatever the outcome, I would still like to thank our lawmakers for doing as least a little work. With order from Supreme Court, some significant works have been done. It’s they who did it. We are just bystanders.

No one has any idea on how the Constitution may look like. There are a number of questions being raised. How many states will we have? What would be the basis of the division of these states? Would it be based on castes, ethnicities, geography, or something else? Will equal rights be ensured to all Nepalis? Whatever may the results be, I would like to thank them. If everything is good, of course everyone will surely thank them. And if it isn’t. I‘ll still thank them for not making it as bad as it would've been.