This week's post is about Miss Ellenie.

I've been wanting to find a volunteer activity that I'd enjoy.  Something that would help me to get more into the community and better understand Ireland.  Several posts ago I wrote about meeting a new friend, Mary, who has introduced me to several people and through whom I've made my volunteer connection.  Mary is quite a match maker and I very much enjoy her company, hopefully it will be a friendship enduring beyond our stay here.

Anyway, Mary introduced me to Noreen who told me that she volunteered one day a week for The Community Foundation of Ireland.  The way she described it sounded a lot like a "foundation of foundations," right up my alley since I have so much experience with the "association of associations." I thought there might be something there for me to do in, what else, research. 

At this point I expect some of you are thinking that my retirement is already a bus man's holiday and getting more so.  But, those of you who really know me know that I didn't retire from research, I retired from bureaucracy.  I still love research.  Designing studies that ask people to share their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and then converting that to numeric tables that tell stories is my forte. And, I don't have to interact with a lot of people in person to find out, what curmudgeon could ask for more? But I digress.

I met with the CEO of The Community of Foundation of Ireland (CFI) on Tuesday and we discussed many things research.  CFI is interested in setting up an evaluation program to assess the effectiveness of the programs supported by the funds they manage.  I left with a project.  I'll be designing an evaluation of "Chess for All" a program that teaches the game of chess in schools.  Right up my alley.  The great thing is that starting with something that's so familiar to me will virtually ensure that I'll be able to do a good job while learning more about Ireland's schools. What better way to start learning about the community?  That's the great thing about what I do, learning a little about a huge variety of things.  This is a two-fer because I don't know much about chess either. 

But, back to Miss Ellenie.  At the end of our meeting CFI's exec, Tina, asked me if there was anything she could do for me or for Alan.  (A sign of a generous nature that bodes well for me in this endeavor I think.)  I told her that Alan was trying to find a writer's group, a networking group for him to have his work criticized and to read the work of others.  She said she knew some writers, as do most people in Ireland, and would check around.  She also mentioned an RTE (Ireland's NPR) program on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. where writers' short works are read.  She said the program is called Miss Ellenie.  I thought that was a pretty weird name for a show but figured that Ellenie was the name of the host.  I speculated that this was an Irish name, spelled something like Aoughire similar to Aoife the spelling for Ava.  I asked about Miss Ellenie's background to Tina's great puzzlement.  The program is Miscellany, "a mixture of various things."  Gotta get better with understanding the brogue. 

Today we are off to Donegal to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary.  Except for my little break on Tuesday, the week has been spent entirely on doing tables in Excel for a compensation survey that contains over 75 positions.  It's been a tough week and I need a break.  Then on Tuesday, I'm off to Provence to meet a friend from the States and "see the lavender," one of the things on her bucket list. 

To all of you back in the States, have a great Independence Day. I'll be thinking of fireworks on the roof of our old apartment building in DC where we spent the last 5 years watching the huge fireworks display on Washington's National Mall and the smaller ones put on by communities throughout the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. 

Right now I'm marveling over 35 years of marriage!