Sunday morning and a reflection from Elizabeth...

This morning, after a wonderful ngiht's sleep in the Sheep Island View Hostel, and a great breakfast of course, we set out for the coastline - except this time we headed towards Carreick-a-Rede, an island connected the mainland by a rope bridge. The morning was absolutely beautiful - the coastline hike culminating in the island provided wonderful views and we enjoyed perfect weather conditions for it. 

Carreick-a-Rede was tradiionally one of the best places local fisherman found to cast their nets for the salmon season - so each season they constructed a rope bridge to cross to the island where they would lower their boats - a much easier location than the coastal cliffs that dominate the landscape. We also enjoyed a nice time of discussion on the island after a few days to process on our own some of our conversations about our time here in Northern Ireland. I've seen so much growth and learning in each of the students and am excited to hear their stories of beginning to bring these learnings home to their communities. 

After an incredible Sunday dinner at the hostel (topped off with roulade for dessert - which was spectacular) Mark picked us up and we are headed back to the Farset hostel in Belfast to check in. The evening will have a bit of last-minute shopping for some, the possibility of visiting a festival, and we may be catching some local music with a friend from SkyCamp - we are planning on enjoying every last minute of today! We leave the hostel at 5am tomorrow to catch the bus to Dublin and travel back home. 

We'll have a few more reflections coming this evening and tomorrow as we travel, but here's one from Elizabeth Eby while we're posting here. 

Northern Ireland is the most beautiful place I've ever been to. Today we went walking on cliffs, climbed across a rope bridge then sat on the prettiest grass I've ever seen just staring at the sea. I did not realize that grass could be beautiful before coming here. It's so green! Yesterday everyone walked down to the coast and those rocks are amazing. I got my little adventure hat on and climbed all over those things. The tide was coming in and a minuscule chance I would die; but it was totally worth it. This week I've gotten so much closer to everyone in our group. Together we've gone hiking, ate amazing food, and enjoyed deep conversations late into the night. It's hard to leave this place and this group of people. For one, I can no longer laugh at the inside jokes we've created. Then there's also this aspect of feeling like I'm abandoning this culture I've spent so long trying to fit into. Even bough all of us are so far away from home, I have never felt out of place here. Sure, we all had our struggles being in leadership positions or suffering from exhaustion but that's all part of the learning experience.

Elizabeth Eby