adios for a week!

Happy Valentine's Day, from me (and my darling be-sweater-ed hot water bottle) to you!

Today is significant for me because it marks one year since I made a very important and painful decision, and stepped further into the unknown. I was thinking about that as I walked through the streets of Dublin this afternoon. It's been a difficult year, but I am grateful for it in so many ways.

I'm sorry that I haven't been more talky this week, but it's been a busy one and most of my energy has been going to trying to stay awake when I need to be awake.

Today was a fun break, though, going into the city and sampling delicious desserts (plus a goat cheese - tomato savory tart) with a bunch from the student group. After I got back to the house, the girls and I folded origami and Meabh created a play involving swans (we made some origami swans) and treachery. I provided dramatic music. The swans were named Francoise and Clara; Francoise was a mean swan, but eventually he lost weight and gained a bunch of muscles and suddenly became a lot kinder. Hmm. But Clara ran off with another swan, and Francoise got a girlfriend who was a butterfly - which was great for him, because somehow he did not have any wings. But during the curtain call, Francoise started to bully Clara again. It was pretty confusing, but also quite compelling.

Tomorrow, I am leaving for a week (on a train!) to go to the westernmost of west Ireland in County Mayo. It's the site of the ongoing Corrib gas controversy, something that began in the mid-1990s and has really escalated. I am looking forward to talking with locals (and Shell spokespeople) and learning. The controversy echoes struggles I am familiar with in Indonesia between locals who actually live in the areas that gas pipelines/fisheries/chemical plants are put, and the multinational corporations that own the plants.

Sleep sweet, friends.