the day that we got here steph came to collect us, as she would say, and we started the trip back to renvyle. it was a very strange feeling for me... i had gone 15 hours by plane, changed 8 time zones, knew i really wanted to be chatting away with my cousin and yet it was like i was part zombie and just could not do it. as i struggled to stay awake in the car we all made a little small talk and mary (my grandma) filled steph in on all the family in the states and steph told us a little about everyone here. it took me the whole car ride back to renvyle, being in the house for a few hours and meeting about 15 cousins and aunts and second cousins and such before i really began to believe that i was actually here. and even then it was more like a dream.
we spent all day tuesday at the house with the family:
jerry- mary's youngest brother. we are staying at his house.
eileen- jerry's wife. she is a teacher in clifden.
steph- jerry's oldest daughter. she is 28. she has spent the most time with us so far and has 2 kids.
grace- steph's daughter. she is 6 and she does irish dancing.
peter- steph's son. he is 4 and is hilarious.
liam- jerry's oldest son. he is 25. liam plays gaelic football and soccer. he also works in construction.
barry- jerry's youngest son. he is 16. he has been off school since we've been here and mary named him sir lancelot for being such a chivalrous adventure companion for her. he fishes and plays soccer and irish football as well.
caitlin- jerry's youngest daughter. she is 12. she is one of the country's best irish dancers. she is in 6th grade here and is the same age as the kids that i teach which is blowing my mind since i find her to be so much more mature than they were.
jackie- mary's oldest brother. he lives up the hill.
petey- just younger than mary. he lives a house away from jerry.
joe- lives in the top of momo's old house.
teddy- mary's second youngest son. he lives down the road.
geraldine- teddy's wife.
jackie- teddy's oldest daughter. she is 25. she is a teacher too.
sinead- teddy's youngest daughter. she is nearly 21. she works at kylemore abbey.
i'm sure i missed someone but i'll make sure i add them in as necessary.
tuesday we went on a hike. mary remembered this hike from the last time she was in ireland and that it wasn't too hard to walk down the white strand to the pier and back up to the house through the town of tully. i had no idea prior to the hike what we were actually in for and thank god that barry came with us. we walked down the sand along the beach, climbed rocks, jumped fences, cut through fields and after about 2 hours we made it up to tully. i don't think in a million years that mary would have thought it would take us 2 hours to walk the whole thing. so when we got to tully we went to a store and took a little break. we ran into peter, who was at his little friend's house, on the way home so he joined the caravan and walked with us home. a good 3 hours later we returned to the house, ate lasagna and chips (french fries) for dinner. after dinner we went up the hill to mary's brother jackie's house. i have never met him before, unless i was a baby, and so i asked a lot of questions and found him to be a very interesting old man. after we had chats with jackie we went down to the grave where my great grandmother and grandfather are buried and then went to patrick's pub to get a drink. at this point it was just me and mary and jerry. jerry seems to be really excited to tell people that his sister mary is visiting and everyone i meet seems to be my cousin once removed to some degree. the pub owner is my 4th cousin. mary says her father was his fathers cousin. my goodness it gets really complicated. anyway we stayed in the pub about an hour and i thought mary was just going to fall over with exhaustion so we went home.
wednesday steph had to go to the island of inishbofin (which i thought was called english muffin since they say it so fast and in their accent) to take photos for a pub to put on the walls of their food and events and such. we had to go to letterfrack to catch the ferry to the island. it was a beautiful drive, as are all drives here in ireland. i went with steph and sinead came with us, as she had the day off from the abbey. i really don't know how to explain it, but it seems like the 3 of us have always known each other. we laugh and joke and get along just fine and had lots of adventures on inishbofin. it was a really eventful day of being chased by chicken, driving a car that had a can of guiness explode in the back while we were driving it, hiking to places that probably no tourist has ever seen before and just enjoying each other's company. i am so thankful that i get to spend my time here with relatives like these! at the end of our day on the island we got back on the ferry to come home and instead of staying out on the deck like we did on the way to the island we decided to sit inside where it was much warmer. we found 3 seats together and a man approached me and told me i was in his seat. we all just kind of sat there waiting to see if he was joking or serious and it was difficult to tell until his wife appeared mouthing to us to just ignore him. he asked me if i had my passport and was making on like he was going to get me in trouble for obviously being an american and after we started talking get this... his best friend lives in america.... in scottsdale... and works at the mayo clinic... across the street from st. anthony on the desert (my church at home)... and the old irish man on the ferry has been there!! to my church. imagine that. he then told me that he was a magician and he met a leprechaun who gave him some irish silk. he pushed it into his fist and told me to blow on his hand and made the silk disappear. it was amazing. so much so that i asked him to come back and show us again. he did and it was just as amazing the second time. he told me to tell steve and pauline bisel that grandpa magic says hello when i return to scottsdale.
today is a voting holiday in ireland and so jackie is off of school and we are all going to do something. still being decided but they are all here and i need to stop writing. when i upload pictures here it isn't possible to label them so i will just have to put up as many as i can and hope that you can figure it all out.
love from renvyle,
me and my mary
a guiness settling
the "pink" people
inishbofin community center
the west side of inishbofin
the chickens and me
mary, caitlin, grace and sinead on the strand low tide.
