tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859630543071726897.post8704535890680755906..comments2023-06-27T02:08:44.750-07:00Comments on ciaransgapyear: Feelings of guiltCiaranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13020007990416558279noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859630543071726897.post-61827019258905767342010-10-27T08:02:03.675-07:002010-10-27T08:02:03.675-07:00Sadly it isn't mate. But as you've found o...Sadly it isn't mate. But as you've found out there, goodness abounds.Charlie Adleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17063071455000195762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859630543071726897.post-5911003722673916572010-10-25T13:43:11.316-07:002010-10-25T13:43:11.316-07:00Thanks Charlie,
Lovely story about the Travel...Thanks Charlie,<br /><br /> Lovely story about the Traveller in Ballybane!<br /><br /> It's funny, during all my years as a sports writer in Galway the best people to deal with were always the boxers, from the most marginalised sport of all. And of course their ranks include many Travellers. Certainly a lot nicer to deal with than the "cute hoors" in the GAA with their sleveen agendas!<br /><br /> While I was writing this piece, the old punk in me couldn't help but recall two fabulous tracks about this subject, 'Holiday in Cambodia' by the Dead Kennedys and 'Holidays in the Sun" by The Sex Pistols.<br /><br /> Here in Nicaragua, I have met quite a few North Americans who really are "holidaying in other people's misery" as Johnny Rotten used to snarl.<br /><br /> As a volunteer, I hope I'm not smug or arrogant, but at least we try to make even a tiny bit of a difference to people's lives. Seeing the joy which a simple computer brought to a class full of seven year olds, some of whom can barely write three letters on a page, brought that home to me just this morning.<br /><br /> Meanwhile, America keeps spending a fortune on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while there is so much poverty right on its own doorstep.<br /><br /> Life just isn't fair.Ciaranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13020007990416558279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859630543071726897.post-25198937398444684382010-10-25T13:38:46.185-07:002010-10-25T13:38:46.185-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Ciaranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13020007990416558279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859630543071726897.post-56717911845024218382010-10-25T02:55:04.112-07:002010-10-25T02:55:04.112-07:00Have to say, I didn't enjoy that feeling of st...Have to say, I didn't enjoy that feeling of sticking out like a sore rich thumb on my travels. In 1984 I was in an industrial town in Java, far away from the traveller's trail, back when Trailfinders was a small shop in Kensington. <br /><br />Quite possibly too young and naive to make the most of it, I found the Developing World overwhelming - so much to take in, too many new value systems to learn and understand.<br /><br />I decided that I'd learn more from my own world, the First World, not because I didn't care, but because I felt I could learn more within a world I understood. Don’t worry about coming home Ciaran - you’ll be different anyway, and many of the things you have enjoyed out there are available in Ireland. <br /><br />When you write about the joy of helping steer kids away from crime and hopelessness I think only of the 17 year-old Traveller who came to me as a Youth Worker in Ballybane. One of 8 brothers in a major family, he was seen in the local community as a hard nut, a gang leader, but asked me to "give him literacy". He’d left school at 15 with nothing, and now wanted to learn to read and write and do a pluming apprenticeship. <br /><br />A few months later he read and enjoyed an Adult Literacy novella by Roddy Doyle and stomped all over Castlepark proclaiming he’d read a book by Ronnie Drew! Funny! My buzz was just like yours: not in the teaching, but in the way help was sought, by someone who wanted to improve their circumstances.<br /><br />Glad that it’s going well for you mate, and all power to you for keeping a happy and balanced perspective on the good aspects as well as the harder ones. It’s not easy sometimes.Charlie Adleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17063071455000195762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859630543071726897.post-72706901932445696942010-10-24T12:57:40.578-07:002010-10-24T12:57:40.578-07:00Thanks Mike, And thanks again for all your encouar...Thanks Mike, And thanks again for all your encouaragement re taking a gap year before I had the courage to take the plunge. Without a doubt, the best thing I have done in my entire life. Now my only fear is about what it´s going to be like to go home ...!Ciaranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13020007990416558279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-859630543071726897.post-76835753134193814882010-10-24T11:43:48.193-07:002010-10-24T11:43:48.193-07:00thanks ciaran great post on your blog from michael...thanks ciaran great post on your blog from michael in genevaUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03399866197432264489noreply@blogger.com