Homeland Insecurity

25!!! That is the number of emails our group of prospective leaders required to organise a bus from Belfast to Dublin, a journey which, by American standards, may be described colloquially as small fry. The future of Ireland is in safe hands, that is unless the future will involve short haul bus journeys, in which case we’re in trouble. The saving grace of the aforementioned email count is that at least we have a tangible figure which we can compare with our homeward journey to see if indeed this leadership course has been a success. All this in the age of global communication, without the internet we would probably still be somewhere around the Europa hotel searching for a Subway sandwich shop and £1.10 for the bus home! But Dublin was reached and it was onward to Toronto before flying to Washington to begin this incredible journey over the next 8 weeks.

It appears that the Homeland Security Department read my mild mannered jibe at their bureaucracy that I made in my personal profile as I spent a rather uncomfortable amount of time in secondary passport control with an officer who had an unsettling obsession with looking at the palms of my hands. When it was realised that the mistake was found to lie not with me but with one of their own officers I was sent on my way.

Thankfully my faith in American hospitality was restored within the day as I arrived in Washington (albeit somewhat dishevelled in appearance) to be greeted by my host family. A family who have welcomed me into their beautiful house and made me feel at home within days. When I signed up for WIP it was something I never really thought about but I cannot emphasise enough what a wonderful part of the programme living with a host family is. Arriving back to friendly faces and being asked how your day was certainly beats an anonymous hotel room.

Week 1 news will follow really soon!!!!!