Passenger

If I’m being really honest I miss driving my car. I identify with Iggy Pop, always a passenger. I often accept rides home from the folks at Whitehouse Presbyterian, but for many journeys I rely on Belfast’s bus network. Using the city busses requires a tremendous amount of organization; at least that’s how it feels to me. I have to check the timetables before I leave my house, departing on the 7-minute walk to the bus stop. And I can’t take just any bus, the 2a doesn’t get me close to the church. If I’m going to Whitehouse primary school, I must be even more selective. I must remember to top up my card occasionally, AND remember to give my receipts to Doug, but only for my work card. It’s all very stressful; you’re allowed to feel sorry for me.

Yes, it's a bad photo taken from a bus. But it was a double-decker bus.

Setting aside the drama for a moment, riding the bus allows me to feel a little closer to the community of Belfast. I know little about rugby and less about Downton Abbey, but I can share the experience of bus travel with the people of Northern Ireland. When those goons were blasting house music on the second level at 8 a.m., I got to exchange frustrated looks with other passengers. When English tourists needed guidance, I had an answer for them. It is also a great joy to strike up conversations with friendly strangers. I’ve met a young man who aspires to live overseas and questions the existence of God. He said he was Protestant but really he just cares about being a human. I learned a great deal about Northern Irish politics from a man who I believe was without a home. He was intelligent and kind. And just Friday I met Sting’s greatest fan, who suspects that Obama is Illuminati.

In general my bus encounters are very positive. When they are not positive they are at least memorable. In my own car I have a little world to myself, and I miss that. It can be controlled very carefully: the music, the temperature, the speed. In contrast, the world of bus travel is a powerful affirmation of chaos theory, but the people of Belfast are mostly generous and kind. And it is a delight to share that world with them. 

What is Peace Players? (Sweet to the beat!)

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I hop in a car with a couple blokes and drive on the left all the way to Ballymena, a half-hour away from my house in North Belfast. We are coaches for Peace Players, an organization that uses basketball as a tool to bring together children and youth from divided communities. My basketball skills exemplify mediocrity, but thankfully the 8 and 9-year-olds that we coach have never seen a ball that they weren’t allowed to kick. We only worry about teaching the basics, and that is probably all I could teach anyway.

              The 90-minute sessions that we coach are called “Twinnings;” two classes from two schools in Ballymena are paired together. From those 50 or so kids we put together four mixed teams. The schools in Northern Ireland are almost completely segregated along Catholic/Protestant lines. My impression is that less than 10% of schools are consciously integrated. A Protestant child could conceivably learn to read, learn algebra, then calculus, read A Tale of Two Cities, and never have a substantial conversation with a Catholic child until their gap year in Spain. The absence of violence is not a synonym for peace. As much as we want the kids in Ballymena to learn basketball skills, the real value of a Twinning is the opportunity to develop friendships with children from a different community. Every session includes a “Community Relations” segment that is meant to get the kids talking about diversity, prejudice, and other non-basketball concerns.

              My comrades and I lead three sessions each week for 8 weeks. 3 sessions = 6 schools = about 160 children by my reckoning. There are several other Twinning sessions happening in Belfast right now, not to mention the Under-14 girls team, the Champions 4 Peace, and several special events. Altogether the number of kids that encounter Peace Players in a year is in the thousands. I think it is thrilling to watch children cross cultural boundaries by learning to play together, and to imagine that someday they may learn to live together, as the Peace Players slogan suggests.

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation." 2 Corinthians 5:18

 Please explore the Peace Players wesite:

http://www.peaceplayersintl.org/our-programs/northern-ireland

You will notice that the Peace Players main office is in DC, but it serves communities in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Cyprus, and Israel/ Palestine.