Trekking with a gay group
I was an EVS volunteer in Ireland, in a small town near Cork in 2009. We organised free time activities for children. We had three sessions a week, the sessions lasted one and half hours. We talked with the children, played and did arts and crafts with them or we sometimes cooked easy dishes. I was deeply grateful to God since I liked my work, I became acquainted with wonderful people in the person of my colleagues, my landlady and my mentor. I found a friendly Baptist congregation within 20 minutes’ distance from my home, though was the only Baptist congregation in the neighbourhood of Cork.
Remembering my EVS experience, I would like to share my most remarkable memories with you. My funniest adventure which was originally a misunderstanding on my part was when I went to hike with a gay group. I like climbing and I searched a backpacker club. I typed the words “Cork” and “hike” in the Google search and it gave me “Cork Gay Hillwalker Club” as the forth result. I chose them because I would have had to pay membership fee at the other clubs. Honestly, I didn’t know the meaning of the word “gay” because I learnt English from language books, so that is why I went for them. I was sure the word means “guy” since if you try to write the word “guy” according to Hungarian spelling rules (Hungarian is my mother tongue), you use the letter “a”. Besides, I wouldn’t even have dreamt that gays have their own hiking group in Cork. After finding this organisation I sent a message to their leader, I told him that I was a Hungarian girl and I asked him whether I could join them. He answered back that I was welcome.
The day of the trip came. It was 21st June, we climbed to the highest point of Ireland. The ground was really rocky, I didn’t see any trees. In reality, I didn’t see anything because we were actually walking in a cloud which had sat on the top of the mountain. The first suspicious sign was that the group consisted only of men. I asked them if they had female members as well and they said they didn’t have any but there was another group, the LINC where women were, too. They explained the name “LINC” came from “lesbian” and “Cork” but I wasn’t sure at that moment I heard the word “lesbian”. After this, while talking to one of the boys I asked him why he learnt Italian. He said because his boyfriend was Italian. I got the third suspicious sign when I asked a man why they put a flag on the peak of the mountain. He said they wanted to raise awareness of sexual relationships and especially of gays. At this point, I didn’t dare to ask the meaning of the word “gay” after understanding it has sexual connection. When I checked the homepage of this club at home, I realised my mistake and I was laughing for minutes.
Two other things struck me. The boy who had an Italian boyfriend wore a flowered handbag, and the voice of another boy was oddly high. He said he was tired as he had taken part in a stagparty with his Italian and French friends. Well, after this, it was difficult for me to imagine the bride.
I didn’t notice anything else peculiar. They dressed usual men’s wear and they behaved like men. They were very kind towards me. One of them gave me water when I ran out of it. What have I learnt from this experience? Even before the trip I didn’t have any prejudice against homosexuals, I knew their unusual sexual interest can’t be considered a bad habit, their body and their feelings are different. Although, I am sure if I had been aware that they were gay, I wouldn’t have joined them. Meeting them was a pleasant surprise for me.
The trip in which I saw the most wonderful scenery was almost as hard a trip as the one on the highest point of Ireland. The coast in Northern Ireland fascinated me. My on-arrival training was organized in Dublin in March but six of us travelled to the northern coast after the training. Three of us were hiking to the Giant’s Causeway, to a particular natural formation, where lots of basalt columns stand on the seashore. The sky was cloudy, we were afraid that we would be soaked. My mates wanted to talk me out joining them and they recommended me to follow the other three people who hitch-hiked to the Giant’s Causeway as I didn’t have waterproof shoes and jacket. The wind blew strongly if I had worn my scarf outside my coat, the wind would have kept it straight behind my back. The scenery made the difficulties forgotten. We saw rocks falling into the sea from the height of 30-50 metres. We saw grazing flocks of sheep, some of them climbed on the edge of the rocks and we admired them. And then all of a sudden, I sighted the White Park Bay, the picture of which I set up as my background picture on the computer one year before without knowing where it is in Ireland…
I wanted to enjoy the scenery of sheer rocks once again therefore I cycled 23 kilometres to the Cliffs of Moher from a small village, Miltown Malbay and back. The reason why I was there I learnt set dances in the biggest folk music and folk dance summer school of Ireland. This trip to the Cliffs of Moher became my most reckless undertaking. The Cliffs of Moher is very remarkable visitor’s attraction in Ireland. The Cliffs are 200 metres high and range for 8 kilometres over the Atlantic Ocean. As buses rarely go there and I was alone, I decided to hire a bike. However, I wasn’t trained enough and I got so tired after cycling 23 kilometres that I felt I couldn’t pedal any longer. In addition, several showers caught me and I got drenched, though wearing a raincoat. I relaxed one hour at the visitor’s centre but it was doubtful for me if I could go back to my guest house before 10 o’ clock when the sun sat. It was necessary since I didn’t have any lights with me. If I hadn’t been able to cover the distance, I could have stayed in a hostel along the way. Fortunately, there were as many slopes backwards as on the way there and I reached home by 10 o’clock.
Not only my most reckless undertaking but my happiest moments are connected to the summer school. Honestly, I was driven by a little selfish intention in applying for a volunteer placement in Ireland as I always wanted to learn Irish folk dance. Folk dance is still a living tradition in Ireland, balls are organized once a month in every Irish town. My dream came true, I enrolled in the most famous summer school. In one of the afternoons my dance lesson finished. The sun shone and I felt some breeze on my face. I had pain in my feet as I didn’t have appropriate dancing shoes, only sandals. I decided to go to the seashore and walk there barefoot on the sand. Roaring of waves always enchanted me and now the cold and soft sand calmed my tired feet, too. And then the feeling caught me, that I truly love Ireland.
The sun shone as beautifully in Miltown Malbay as in Ballincollig – sunshine is a rare gift of God in Ireland – when I got scared the most. A hill lies north of Ballincollig, where I worked and I wanted to climb on that hill. As there weren’t signed tourist ways on the hill I was just hiking without any set directions. All at once I spotted a cattle grazing, I went closer to them to admire the famous black and white Irish cow. When I reached the wire fence all of a sudden all the cattle started charging to me mooing. I got frightened as I imagined what if they ran over the fence. I scampered away to the other part of the field. After this I was keeping my distance from all the cows on the hill.
To tell the truth, I didn’t take part only in splendid hikes and escapes but failures as well. It may seem foolish but I consider my biggest failure that I couldn’t speak German. I took the intermediate language exam but I didn’t use the language for ages. I worked with a German volunteer in Ireland and I wanted to practice German with him. However, I didn’t dare to talk to him in German as I forgot lots of words. I was embarrassed to speak. My situation changed for the better when I figured out that he could teach me – what he took on for free – while we were travelling. We helped at a youth centre in Bandon once or two times a week and the journey there lasted more than one hour. After a while my boss in Bandon said that he didn’t need my work and that put an end to my German lessons. So I abandoned finally to polish up my German.
My string of bad luck started when I couldn’t go to Bandon any more and it still continues. I majored in Hungarian and History at the university but I am not a teacher. I had a simple job without any challenging tasks before I got the volunteer placement in Ireland. I spent 6 months there and I looked for my new job for another 7 months after arriving home. My present work which lasts until the end of November is monotonous and in my opinion, almost worthless. In addition, I earn the minimum salary of secondary school graduates. But anyway, what kind of advantage have I taken of volunteering in Ireland? I worked with children and more or less I got to know their way of thinking. I began to understand the Irish’s relation to Irish language and I became acquainted with several Irish folk dances. I started to appreciate some of the values and merits of my country, like the cuisine, hot summers, mountains covered with forests, the castle in my hometown or long maternity leave. Besides, I passed the advanced level written exam in September and now I am preparing for the oral one. However, it is doubtful for me, whether my volunteer experience will help me to get a better job. I have to admit that I am a little bit pessimistic because the prospect of finding a job with my qualification in or even beyond my field is dark. All in all, I became richer with many unforgettable memories due to my volunteer experience but my joy over this is undermined by me not being able to find a proper job.
by Erzsébet Gombkötő, Hungary
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