Rotary Club of Belfast

TABU Presentation - Paul Chambers

Tabu10PaulThe 6 students who participated in the TABU 2010 visit to Chicago received their Certificates at the Club meeting 27th September 2010. On behalf of all the students Paul Chambers reported on the visit illustrating what a life‐changing experience the programme has been for them, the text is reproduced below.

Report

This scheme is titled "towards a better understanding", and I assure you there was a lot to get our heads around.

The vast majority of people I would encounter on a day to day basis are from the UK or Ireland, many of them Christian. On the 1st night, I sat at a dinner table discussing, among many other things, the USSR. Why was this? My host family was Russian. Moreover, I wasn't within my culinary comfort zone. That night was my first experience of Pesach food, as my family was also Jewish. Incidentally it's quite nice! As you can tell, I wasn't exactly staying with the most conventional family. What I'm trying to get at is, we weren't staying in an environment anywhere similar to ours back home. I used that example because it was the one that I personally experienced, but I wasn't the only one in an interesting household. Each family was different from the other, and on the outset they were all polar opposites from what we would be used to here. This may sound a bit intimidating, but as far as we were concerned this was a good thing. If we were in our comfort zones something would be wrong. We were there to learn from a different culture, so I'm glad that we weren't shielded from it.

Over the course of the 10 days, we participated in a wide variety of activities- simply too many to talk about all of them. So, when contemplating what I was going to say today, I thought I'd talk about the highlights. Then, on contemplating that I discovered that there were too many of them as well. However, I shall struggle on and endeavour to give you a flavour of what we were involved in. We rather poignantly visited a Holocaust Museum. This noticeably affected our hosts, as many of them had a family member or members who were involved in the Holocaust. Furthermore, we were guided around the museum by a Rotarian who herself had lived through it. Then there was the Zacharias Centre for Sexual Abuse, obviously another intense visit where we learned about the healing process after severe trauma. The Anti Defamation league- a wonderful society devoted to the reduction of segregation, which taught us more about our own identity, and was something that many people over here could benefit from. A prison, 2 schools at either end of the social spectrum, homeland security, a court and the building where all the emergency services are co-ordinated, to name but a few of our visits.

But it wasn't all rest and relaxation. We had to force ourselves to go on a tour of the city, to a comedy club, a party hosted by the HP Rotary club president, Bill Pigatti, and Doris' pet hate, shopping. Needless to say, we were fairly busy. By the half way mark, if it wasn't for excitement, or in my case excitement and caffeine, we would have been zombies.

I think it is safe to say that in N.I, religion is a major segregator. Our group was compiled of various denominations, which we were happy to note didn't affect the group in any negative way, but rather improved it. I'm proud to say that on Easter Sunday, we proved that creating separation over 2 different denominations was truly ridiculous, and that there is hope for a brighter future for this country. Out of the group's own initiative, the entire group from both Northern Ireland and Chicago decided to have a joint religious service at sunrise on the shore of Lake Michigan. When I say joint, I don't mean catholic and protestant. Also add Jewish and Muslim into the mix. Ladies and Gentlemen, if 11 students from 2 completely different worlds and 3 different major religions can meet and form close friendships in around a week, then this country can put the troubles behind it and move forward. We didn't let ourselves be separated by our differences, but rather we accepted that we weren't the same, and then accepted that that wasn't a problem. For something so simple, this early morning, (and I mean really early) had a big effect on the group.

In many ways that sums up what we learned from the trip. We understood that everyone was different, but we also understood that this was a good thing, and wasn't a barrier from working together and getting along. We also understood that through communication and an open mind, people can get along where they might not be expected to. It is difficult to find words to depict how big an effect this scheme had on the 6 of us, but it is undeniable that the experience will stay with us for the rest of our lives, and that we have made many strong friendships. We moved towards a better understanding. It is now our task to help others along the way.

Lastly, I would like to highlight that this is not the end of the book; it's merely the end of a chapter. We have a group of Americans to look forward to, and the long and arduous task ahead of us of spreading what we have learned to others who were not so fortunate to see what we have seen, meet the people we met, hear the stories that we heard and most importantly, learn what we learned.

When I said lastly, I lied. In time honoured TABU tradition, I feel it appropriate to propose a vote of thanks. Firstly, to the Highland Park Rotary Club, who put so much time and effort into our experience. I also feel that Martha Gray deserves a special mention for leading that side of the pond. Then, to all of you who supported us on this side. We would truly have been lost without our Mummy Doris and Daddy Morris, and of course we can't forget good old omnipresent Uncle Brian. Their commitment and effort did not go unnoticed, and they certainly brightened the trip for us.

I hope this speech was of some interest to you all.

Thank you for your time.

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