Heading Home

After just a couple of hours of sleep we packed up in the vans and headed off to the airport. We had to leave early since some of he guys had earlier flights than our group. We checked in at the airport and sat and had breakfast. After saying goodbye to the rest of the team, Casey, Mark, Clint and I headed to our gate to wait. Casey and Mark decided to stroll around the shops since we had about an hour and half before our flight left. Clint headed off to the bathroom and I happened to head an announcement over the PA. "THIS IS THE FINAL CALL FOR FLIGHT XXX TO NEWARK. THE GATES WILL BE CLOSING." I grabbed the bags and started for the gate. Clint came running out of the bathroom and we bolted to the gate. We had no idea where Casey and Mark were. I ran back to the corridor and was able to see Mark and Casey strolling along enjoying themselves. They finally caught me jumping up and down and realized something was up. I guess they board the planes an hour early here rather than 30 minutes. Whew!!!

We landed in New Jersey and was considering grabbing a taxi and heading down to Ground Zero or Times Square during our layover. Considering our close call on the last flight - and the fact you are reading this... we chose just to stay at the airport.

Winding Down

I ended my last time with the guys Friday night. We started off a bit better with a fire call just a few hours into the shift - burnt toast. That night we had a real burner...in a dumpster. Yep, that's what I did. I was fortunate to experience some of the wonderful youth population of Belfast when a fight between the two neighborhoods (Catholics/Protestants) took place outside on the main street in front of the fire station. Just a lot of yelling and throwing rocks at each other. After I went to bed - I guess they got tired of throwing the stones at each other and put one through the fire station office window.
Even before I came I was told countless times about the traditional fish and chips meals they have. I think the team went out several times during the mission but I always seem to miss it... So the guys decided to make a special trip in town to get me a sample. I did my best but there was no way I was able to finish it all - the rest of them cleaned their plates completely.

After shift we headed back to the cottages to get settled back in. Since there was guys on shift every night, there was a lot of bed shuffling going on throughout the week. The guys were all discussing which beds were empty when I - accidentally! - placed my bag on one of the beds to pull out my computer. That started a whole ordeal about me (unfairly) claiming my bed. I retreated and went to take a shower. When I returned I found all my luggage wrapped in plastic on the bed with a plate of cookies - needless to say I slept in a travel trailer outside that night.

Saturday we had our final breakfast back at the golf course - still didn't get to swing a club. At the end of the meeting one of the Ireland firefighters said he had accepted Christ earlier that week. This turned out to be one of the guys impacted 2 years ago when the team came and saw how much he needed Christ when the guys returned this year. Ian told me he was one of the guys no one thought would soften - he was blown away and very encouraged. Later that evening, we headed to a church for a worship service. I had to sit out for Pete's message with a coughing spasm - maybe it's tuberculosis. On Sunday we went to church and had a final gathering with all the people involved that night back at the Firefighters for Christ headquarters. It was a good time of sharing and saying goodbye.

John was starting to feel a bit depressed so he sought out some victims to boost his ego. We prayed for him that night - he's feeling much better now - the gal still is in therapy.


With that it all came to an end. We got back to the cottages about 11pm - had to pack up and get ready to leave at 5am. I tried for about an hour trying to get the computer to upload the video and photos but it wasn't working and I finally had to give up and head to bed.

Last Night at the Firehouse

This is the crew I worked with and a special note to my daughter, Ashlyn...

Embedded in Belfast

Besides the early fire call - we ended up without another call that night. The guys are starting to really appreciate my time with them (they are getting some good sleep). I had the choice of heading back to the cottages for the day and rest or hang out with Ian until our shift that evening. While rest sounded nice - it was nice to spend the day one on one with Ian and his family. We left shift a bit early to go pick up his wife from home and drive her to work at a bank in town. Then it was back to the house and hang out with his two kids during the day.

While life certainly has it's differences considering our two cultures - we found that work, kids, and marriage pretty much are the same. We were able to take a short drive up into the surrounding country to overlook the city.

Tiredness did creep in later in the day - Their dog had the right idea...

Jay got a chance to come by and hung out as well. Jay was with Ian two years ago when FFC was here last time. We packed up the kids and the dog (the dog just hops in the back) and went back in to town to pick up Ian's wife and then back to work for my last shift.

Let the Sun go Down in Belfast

After completing the day shifts with the guys, myself and a small group had the chance to jump back into some of the scheduled events. On Thursday, a small group got to head out into the green wonderland for a round of golf. I, on the other hand, missed the golf bus because I was eating a quick breakfast - then headed out to another event - a breakfast. I know, once I thought about it, it didn't make sense to me either. Afterwards, we headed down to Lisburn and visited their Fire Headquarters. Here we are in front of their building by a statue which looked like the firefighter's version of the Heisman Trophy. If that doesn't make since you'll have to Google it...

Of course since we were heading back to the fire station for our evening shift we were required to wear our uniform...a pattern I was unaware would continue for several days. The guys back at the station decided to delight my taste buds with a traditional Scottish meal. (one of the guys was from Scottland - and no one could decided what a traditional Irish dish was) They called it "Haugus, Nips, and Tauties" which roughly translated to Haugus, Turnips, and Potatoes. To spare you the trouble of looking up Haugus (which I don't even know if I spelled it right) it is multiple selections of meat, mixed in with a bunch of grains and "other stuff," and stuffed into a sheep's stomach and cooked... yep.

Since our station is right next to the Firefighters for Christ building we were able to run over to the scheduled evening event - a "quiz" Hmmm. It took some explaining to me to realize that this was a fun event for over here.

It did end up being quite fun - until our crew got called out on a fire call - yee haw...

Not bad huh... actually it turned out to be the same fire the shift before us had. Seems they forgot to put it all out. That's alright, it was Bob from Anahiem's shift...

We did make it back to the quiz just in time for dessert... I caught John visiting the table multiple times.

He kept saying he was holding it for Paul... That was after the "Jane's not here"
comment.

Where is everyone?

Sorry for the lapse of info. I was on shift during the night and spent the day with the firefighter I was with. That placed me without a connection to the internet... Kind of like driving a solar car without the sun. So, It may take me a bit but I hope to catch up.

Doing it....Northern Ireland style

I finally hit the days I was scheduled to be at a station. I was scheduled to work the Red Watch at the Westland station (pronounced wes-lun) in downtown Belfast. Their day shifts are 9am-6pm (9 hours) and their night shift 6pm-9am. (15 hours) They'll work 2 day shifts in a row and then two night shifts followed by two days off. I discovered the daily schedule looks something like this.... morning tea - followed by "elevenzies" (scones with tea) at 11am, lunch is 1pm (with tea) and afternoon snack (cake and custard with tea) I haven't told anyone but I don't really like tea...

My station has a single "pump" (fire engine) with 5 guys. After our first round of tea another crew showed up with a "vema" (ladder truck) and offered to take me up to look around. Not a bad view from 33 meters up (I have no idea how high that is - I just smile and nod)

They also host a type of training camp for kids who have gotten in trouble with the police. They said I looked "important," I said "I am" ( I just wanted to quote scripture to them - right?)

The guys also took me through a drive around the city and tried to explain the history... The city has a "peace wall" which helps keep the sides out of trouble...

They also had me go through some confined space training. Let's just say I got "confined"

We didn't have any scheduled activities in the evening so we headed back to the cottages to get to bed early - yippee! But we did get a treat after a storm passed through

Morning Worship

This is from our morning worship time we have every morning.

Recruits who talk funny

I woke up this morning and was finally able to connect with Yvonne via video chat - gotta love the Internet! Our group split up today - half went to stations for their first shift, the other half (including me) went to our first breakfast meeting. We had about 10 guys from the area show up. I'm still getting used to the food. I've discovered that sausage bread and french fries are served at pretty much all meals.

After the breakfast, our group headed down to Ireland's fire training center. They are training a new recruit class and was just starting to train them on raising ladders. Needless to say they did about as well at the tasks as my class did when we first started. Of course it was fun to watch the instructors yell at them and make them do extra drills only to walk over to the side and start laughing at each other. Looks like many things are the same as in the states...

Here is a photo of our small group - see I do have pictures of myself...

Brian Price got real excited to try on one of the Irish fire helmets - I just thought he wanted to run around as a power ranger...

We made it home in time for a quick dinner - Chinese food (and french fries, I kid you not) the a shower and I've got to get to bed early tonight. I go on shift in the morning - I'll need my energy to be relational for that long of time....

Sorry no funny pictures of Clint today - we weren't together.

The Info Post

So yesterday I thought I'd finally have time to sit down and write up a detailed post of who/what/where/how/why of our trip. After a late lunch we had all afternoon to rest up/relax. It took me a bit to get my computer to reconnect to the internet and I thought I'd take a little nap before jumping into my post since I wasn't able to connect with Yvonne and the family at that time. I dozed off for what I thought was a bit but when I awoke I looked at my watch and saw that over 2 hours had passed... whoa. Guess I was more tired than I thought. As you can see - Clint was too. Sorry for all the photos of Clint, but I don't make these thing up.

Anyway, after arriving we headed to our housing... a place called "Good Cottages." We are just outside Belfast in the beautiful green countryside. From the plane it looked just like a giant golf course.
Casey, Clint, Mark, and I were assigned to one of the cottages with a couple other guys. We found one of the rooms had 3 beds the other... two. I supported the idea that Mark and Clint got the big bed. I ended up on the couch...

We headed out to a gathering at the Firefighters for Christ center here in Ireland for a dinner gathering we were having to meet many of the Irish guys here. This is our team. We've got 7 from Fresno and others from Anaheim, Orange County, Pasadena, Michigan, Germany, Canada, etc - I'm still trying to learn names...

Karl, one of the guys from Canada smuggled in some Salmon. Good thing he didn't get checked at the airport - I think he taped them to his chest... I think I found some chest hair on mine. Or maybe Clint got too close to the grill.

As you can see, Brian Price, one of Fresno captains - spent his time shaking hands and kissing babies.

Some of the guys head out to shift today - the rest will go to a Firefighters for Christ breakfast later this morning.

More later.

Back Online

So I had all these wonderful plans to post a full report including what all we are going to be doing and how our first day went... Then just after posting the video I did, my wonderful laptop with Microsoft's latest and greatest decided to pick a fight with the local network here. I missed out on my video chat with my family and all! Seems all the older versions of Windows and the Mac computers were doing just fine... Rather than rant and rave - I should be able to do more today.

Showers Please!

I'm too tired to write...

Flying Circus

With the birds chirping, we awoke in wonderful San Jose and ready to get headed to the airport...All but Clint.

Realizing our "discount" parking required us to carry our luggage about 2 1/2 miles to the shuttle bus we discovered how optomistic we had all become with the weight restrictions of the airline. Casey was by far the lightest (he even had weighted his before leaving) but Clint's was even heavy for him. He assured everyone that his was under the 50 lb limit... I bet him a coffee...mmmm it was good - and I don't even like coffee. Intersting fact - 10 of Clint's T-shirts weight 6 pounds....that's a lot of fabric.

Just to be nice, I booked Clint and Mark sit next to each other on the plane. Too bad for the young gal that was trapped in the confined space between them and the window - About 3 hours into the flight I'll I saw was a limp wave and a slight whimper from her.

So I'm still trying to figure this out... we left San Francisco at 8:30am - flew 6 hours to New York had a one hour layover and a 7 hour flight to Ireland. So it's about 11pm (time for bed) but the clock here is 7am... ouch. We'll have to see how my wife's secret jet lag pills work.

We are welcomed to Dublin with a bumpy landing and a bunch of rain. I think it's 103 in Fresno right about now....

If you look real close... Clint's toes are turning blue. The Ireland guys were getting a kick out of the fact he was in sandals. We have a short wait at the airport for another group to come in and the guys shared with us a Irish breakfast. I don't really know what this is but it's a good thing I just sat through a nutrition seminar...

First Night Away

So the plan was to leave around 5pm. I started packing just after 2pm but really didn't get serious until around 4pm - what really is the hurry? How long can it really take to throw some socks and shirts into a suitcase... luckily (for those also on the trip) my wife was there to help me with all the items I needed. I thought I did quite well packing all my stuff into one normal sized suitcase - I didn't even need to use the "expansion zipper" on it. Because we will be going on duty while we are over there we also had to pack our firefighting gear - that took one of the two bags we are allowed to take. We'll see how we'll I judged the weight limit - but if I'm close I know Clint will be WELLLLLL over.

Although there are 7 of us from Fresno, only 4 of us are flying out of San Francisco. We headed out finally around 6pm - after a couple of "return" trips back to the house for some missing item. Dinner was a wonderful meal at Farmer Brothers... I still am enjoying the after taste of the philly cheesesteak.

We arrived at our overnight stop in San Jose at some old friends from Hume. After some hockey highlights from the game - off to bed. Our flight leaves San Fran at 8:30am - and I booked the "later" flight. Someone said the alarm in the house goes off at 4:09am...

Getting Ready

I'll try to update this regularly... However considering I still need to pack and we are planning on leaving in about an hour....