Not Just a Walk in the Park

     Today is a sunny day in Belfast, something rare to come by lately. It is warm too, which is the sort of day that you find everyone leaves there house to enjoy.
     In hopes of soaking up some much needed vitamin D, I headed out this morning to walk around the park in my neighborhood, a park I had yet to explore. The park was quiet when I arrived, just a few people walking their dogs.
    As I made my first lap around the large pond in the park, I began to talk to a man about his dog. He was with a beautiful brown and white spaniel named Maddy that had so much energy. I have found that being away from home, I really miss my dog and it is often easy to bond with strangers over animals. As I walked with this man and his dog, we began to talk. He told me about Belfast and having grown up in the area. We spoke about the challenges that living in Belfast pose.
    For the first hour and a half, we talked about everything from the different countries we had been to to the terrible weather here and the way in which the prices in the supermarket have risen drastically in the past few hours. As we neared our fifth and final lap of the park, I asked my new friend if the park we were in was in a "mixed area" (a place where Catholic and protestants live side by side). He looked at me and chuckled. "I was waiting for you to ask those sorts of questions girl. I knew I would eventually become a part of your study," he told me. "Let's wait until there is no one around us and I will tell you the truth," he explained.
   My friend pointed to the different areas you could see in the park, he would say "You see that area over there? That is where the rich protestants live. And this here stadium, its a catholic stadium. And those houses over there...those ones are catholic houses." Quite amazed, I asked him then if the park was somewhere that anyone could come and he said "oh yea, here at the park none of that really matters." He explained to me, that in his perspective, so long as you look like you know when you are going, no one will bother you. He told me that in his opinion, there are idiots in every country so Northern Ireland is no different. My friend explained to me that he's "a bit like scrambled eggs" as his mom is protestant and his dad is Catholic. He grew up always in Catholic areas but never really went to mass or anything, so really it makes no difference to him. He told me, "Christmas is about chocolate and presents to most, you know?"
    I told my friend my story, having been baptized Catholic but choosing a protestant church as a teenager. I shared with him which church I had been attending here (a Presbyterian one) and he asked me, "so what do you guys do in there?". I giggled. I don't really think anyone has ever asked me what I do in church. I explained to him a bit about this church I attend in Belfast and how it differs from my one at home, so then he was curious as to what really made it different from Catholic church. I explained to him, with a bit more attention to detail than I will express here, that basically we are all Christians who love Jesus but show it in different ways, using unique practices and having some different understandings. My friend then smiled at me and said, "so basically you guys just don't kneel as much?". He made me laugh.
   It always amazes me how you can be engaged in a conversation with a complete stranger, only to notice two hours later that you have not even asked each others' names. Today was not just a walk in the park, it was a pleasant surprise. This older man I met is not the sort of person I would have picked out to talk to on the street. He has a rough Irish edge to him, with quite the thick accent; a little intimidating at first glance. I am thankful that sometimes God has you cross paths with unlikely people. It was a bit like walking with Jesus today, if you know what I mean?

Snapshots from my walk:

Wave your flag

      Have you ever had to put much thought into the streets in which you walk down on a daily basis?
Perhaps, like me, you are privileged or spoiled enough (which ever perspective you prefer) to be able to walk the streets of where you live and not have to worry about where you are. Here in Belfast, the reality is that in this "post- violent-conflict" society it is still important to recognize which street, neighborhood or pub you might find yourself in. Many of us living in America do not think much about the connotation of seeing an American flag hanging. Here, you may find yourself walking down a street plastered with British flags, red, white and blue curbs, and the emblems of prominent organizations or in an area that is green, white, and orange. To the typically tourist who is unfamiliar with the violent history here, these symbols might strike them as strange. The the locals, these are symbols that welcome them or ward them off to certain areas of the city.
   One night, while walking to yoga class with my roommate, and Dublin native, we walked down the street that I had been on a time or two. As we walked past a roundabout we entered into a part of the street, which I had not previously noted, demonstrated avid British pride. My roommate began to sweat as looked at me and muttered quietly under her breath, "Luiza I am not welcome here". Since she is from the Republic of Ireland and her accent is quite distinct, she was afraid that someone in the street might overhear her and recognize she was a Catholic in a protestant area. She was silent the whole walk, nervously speeding up her pace. I felt awful for taking my roommate down that road having been ignorant to the symbols that had been in front of me the whole time, but I will always be cognizant of where I am from here forward.
   Belfast may not be the "dangerous" city it once was, but it still remains (in many areas) a divided city. Some people live not phased by the divisions while it causes a deep sense of fear in others.

So the question remains: Is the flag a symbolic expression of identity and freedom or that which separates neighbors? 

"They use the flag to control us
Brainwash us to be their patrotic slaves
Programs our minds by controlling what we learn"
Red, White and Brainwashed: Anti-flag