Korah Winn

I’ve been excited to send out my December update. It’s a big one for sure. J It’s getting so close to Dec. 25^th so I wanted to write you all a lovely note before life gets any busier than it already is. J

I admit that it was tough going through Thanksgiving without my family but I had a whole group of friends from here who rallied around me and helped me celebrate my favorite holiday. It was the first Thanksgiving I’ve ever been to with no other Americans, but we had a ball. They couldn’t get over how much food we prepare for Thanksgiving. We feasted. J I made them deviled eggs, creamy mashed potatoes and corn, homemade macaroni and cheese and pumpkin pie from scratch. They totally loved it and got in the spirit by bringing along lots of other foods and making desserts like pavlova and banoffe. We had a wonderful time. I even introduced nap time after the meal was over (just kidding.) We played charades until we had enough energy to go back for dessert. It was a great night. One of the highlights was when they decided to dress me as the statue of liberty in honor of celebrating an American holiday. They’re a great group of people and I’m so glad I’ve been able to become great friends with many of them.

I have good news from the home front... there is a new Rotarian in Arizona. The story is this, my mother remarried in 2002 to a man named Casey Rooney. They just moved from Illinois to Arizona in June of this year. They were both very proud of me and excited for me when I was chosen as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. When Casey got out to Arizona, he looked into the Rotary club in Prescott Valley and decided that he would join their club. I thought that was great news. One of the things that I was asked to do as a scholar was to encourage people to become Rotarians so it’s nice to know a small impact has been made.

University has been going quite well. My classes are challenging and I always walk away with a head full of information. I have quite sad news though. Dr. Steve Walsh, my module coordinator and thesis supervisor, will soon be leaving to take on a new position in England. He’s worked at Queen’s for 10 years now so he is incredibly knowledgeable. We are all happy for him, but there is a concern about how the next semester will go and who exactly will replace him for supervising thesis production. I hope everything works out for the best.

I am currently making presentations at clubs. My Rotary host counselor Naomi has been helping me right and left to get adjusted and be a part of things in Rotary here. She’s been an angel to me. I am heading to Enniskillen on Monday for another presentation. Enniskillen is about two and a half hours away so it is in a new area that I’ve never been to before. I love getting to go to Rotary events. I really enjoyed the district conference. I went to my own club’s charter night in late November and had a wonderful time. There was a dance after the dinner. I got to jive with my club’s president. J There are just some experiences you never imagine having before coming and that was one of them!

I’m pretty excited about the possibility of a new volunteering experience. My friend Chris works with Northern Ireland youth at a resource center and I was asking him about mentoring programs. He started asking me some questions and found out that I have a degree in elementary education and that I can teach English to non-native speakers. He’s going to see if he can work up a position for me one day a week, helping out some people at the center he works at. I’ve got my fingers crossed that it is all going to work out. J

Just in case you were wondering about Christmas, I have a best friend here named Kathryn McGeagh who absolutely insists that I spend Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day with her. Naomi has also invited me over to her home for a nice meal on Boxing Day so I am going to be surrounded by families during the holidays. You don’t have to worry about me sitting by myself in my dorm room on Christmas. The people here have shown a huge compassion towards me as they know that I’ll be missing my family during the holidays. I couldn’t ask for a nicer group of people to be with while I am far from my loved ones.

As always, pictures are a great way to share with you what is going on here, so I am including links for you to view. I know some people still have 56k connections and I don’t want it to take 30 minutes for them to get this email so I took the time to upload my pictures for you all to view. Now you can put some faces with names. J

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

I visited Dublin yesterday and came back this morning. I was only in the Republic of Ireland for less than twenty-four hours but in that short period of time, my visit allowed me to see Northern Ireland in a different light. What threw me off was the whole “Irishness” of the Republic. You could actually call people there Irish without offending anyone. Of course you’d call them Irish. What else would you? It’s not necessarily the same when you live in another part of the island that just happens to be a part of another country called the United Kingdom. In Northern Ireland you don’t see as many flags. Flags have connotations that go along with them that have the potential to cause people to fight and hate here. I can only begin to wonder if it is identity that causes all of this walking on egg shells. Some people consider themselves Nationalists while others think of themselves as Unionists. The stereotypes are that the Nationalists are Catholics and that their extremists are called Republicans whereas the Unionists are Protestants and their extremists are Loyalists. Life is not cut and dried like that so those stereotypes do not apply through and through. What happens though is when one group tries to negate the identity of the other and say that their own identity is right or better, it causes a huge rush of anger because one group is denying the other’s identity. When the Union Jack or the Republic’s flag is flown there are so many strong connotations that go along with either and someone’s feelings are bound to be offended. It feels odd to come from a country that identifies so strongly with its flag and then move to a land where flags are almost considered contentious. If I slip and call someone from here Irish, I am excused as a foreigner, but someone from here has to know the layers upon layers of nuances that come with being from Northern Ireland. If they call themselves British and loyal to the crown, one part of population hates them, but if they call themselves only Irish and desire that the north be united with the Republic of Ireland then they can be perceived as disloyal to the United Kingdom. If they want to march to show their roots or beliefs, someone, somewhere is bound to be offended. So much hurt doesn’t go away quickly but they are doing their best to strain towards a future where no matter how people identify themselves, they won’t have that identity negated. It’s a difficult task but peace is still gracing Northern Ireland for the moment. It’s many people’s wish and prayer that she stay permanently and help people be exactly who they are without anyone arguing that they have to change.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Tonight, I mixed words together that I shouldn’t have given that I live in Northern Ireland. Belfast is really thriving and prospering now that the troubles have not shown themselves strongly in the past several years. Many immigrants are coming in from all around the world, but especially Poland. Two very kind Rotarians gave me a home last night on their way back to Hillsborough. We were talking about the population growth and I began to say that Belfast was poised to explode… but before I could finish, Irene kindly jumped in an advised me that those weren’t the best words to use to describe the changes in Belfast. I acknowledged that was the worst possible choice of words to put together about the city and I made a mental note to put the words explode and Belfast on opposite ends of the spectrum.