Our last full day in Caherviseen, Ireland

We started our morning with learning the skills of Gaelic football.  Our delegation was divided into 3 groups, and each group had a player from the Caherviseen Football team ... the team that riveted the area with their success.  Gaelic football is a cross between basketball (dribbling), soccer, volleyball...and I don't know what else.  We practiced just kicking the ball, passing the ball, and kicking goals.  Then the teams had some games.  It was so much fun...many of them were asking when/if we'd be doing it again.

From there, we went to the Caherviseen Community Center where we met a group of local students who do volunteer work for the community.  We were again divided up and each team took part in "tidying up the city park."  I doubt if many of them have had as much fun pulling weeds before...but they sure seemed to today. 

We were arranged, with the local volunteers, in rows according to the colors of our shirts, in front of the community center.  We held letters to cheer on the Waterville Singing Choir who ended up driving by in their bus on the way to a competition.  People were driving by and slowing down to see what all these kids were doing ... lots of fun!

After lunch, we headed to the peat bog!  The turf (peat) is cut in bricks, dried, and used for heating.  We cut some, and stacked some that had already been cut so it could dry.  It was SO COLD and WINDY... but it didn't rain...maybe a little sprinkle, but it didn't rain.  There was a little intermittant lite rain here and there, but none to speak of.  We're hoping and praying for the same tomorrow because the first part of the day is all outside activities! 

Next stop was a stone fort built in the shape of a ring.  I'm going to try to post photos of it.  The 'fort' was built in the 9th century!  We had amazing views of the landscape from there.  It's just stunning...

This was driving to the stone ring...

Next stop:  Daniel O'Connell park.  It runs along the river and even though it's small, it's beautiful.  The bridge...3 arches...all stone...and no telling how old it is...but it's breathtakingly beautiful!

The delegation was then divided into groups of 4, given a simple map, and 2 pages of questions.  Off they went to explore Caherviseen and find the answers.  The idea was that they needed to stop and talk with the local people to get help.  Communicating with the locals was the goal...and to have fun and explore, of course!

Back to the high school we went for dinner and then a caeli!  A group of 17-? year olds played some Irish music for us, danced for us, and taught us a couple of Irish dances.  Even those who said, "NO WAY...I'M NOT DANCING!!!" looked like they were having a blast.  Jeremy fell in love...

Back to our guesthouses we came...

It is the end of a very full, very fun Day 2!