Where Is Home?

Between 6 October and 5 November I visited thirteen primary schools for the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council's Diversity Education programme. Thirteen workshops, 347 children, one month. It is the biggest thing Humanitas Initiative has ever done, and now that the last table has been pushed back into place, I want to tell you about it.

The same hour, thirteen times

Every session had the same shape. We started by shouting hola, louder each time. We looked at photographs of strangers, guessed who they were, and got it wrong. We whispered a sentence round the room and laughed at what came out the far end. We stood up for every time we had been the new one. We made a plan for the next child to walk through the classroom door. Then we pushed the tables back and danced.

The shape stayed the same. The children were different every single time, and that is what made it such a joy.

Some things land every time

I show the children a video of the Catatumbo lightning, the storm that lights up the sky over Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela on most nights of the year. Sailors used it for centuries to find their way home. I have played it in thirteen classrooms now, and it has landed in every one of them.

I also show them El Sistema, Venezuela's youth orchestra programme, because I want them to see my country through its music and its children as well as its weather.

Getting there

I do not drive yet, so the buses of the borough and I got to know each other very well this autumn. On the day I went to DH Christie it was pouring rain, and I was kindly collected and driven to the school. The children in that school turned out to be fascinated by cars, which felt about right after the kindness of that journey.

Where is home?

In one of the schools, a boy put up his hand and asked me a question: "Where is home?"

He had heard all about Venezuela by then. He knew about the lightning and the long day on an aeroplane. What he wanted to know was whether I belonged here.

I told him, "Up Ireland."

And the whole room cheered.

I have thought about that cheer every day since. I came to Ireland in 2002 as a twenty year old student, and I have lived in a few countries since. A room full of children decided in one second that the answer they wanted to hear was here, with them. I will be carrying that for a long time.

The teachers joined in

In the last two schools the teachers danced too. The children were delighted, and so was I. There is something lovely about watching a class see their teacher learn a salsa step for the first time, right alongside them.

Sara Glendinning, the Council's Good Relations Project Officer, came to watch on the final day. Sara made this whole programme happen, and having her in the room for the last session meant a great deal to me.

The flags come down

If you asked me to sum up thirteen schools in one sentence, it would be this. The moment a room of children discovers they all love the same thing, the flags come down on their own.

I watched it happen in every school. A child who thought they were the only one finds out they are one of six. Two children at opposite ends of the room stand up at the same moment. Nobody has to explain anything. The room does the work.

That is why I tell children my own story. I want them to know that not every person who arrives here is the same, that we all come in different ways and with different hopes in our pockets. Once they have met one of us properly, they carry that with them.

Thank you

To Sara and the Good Relations team at Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, for trusting me with this.

To the principals, teachers and classroom assistants of St Peter's and St Paul's, DH Christie Memorial, Carnalridge, Portstewart, St John's, Killowen, Ballymoney Model Integrated, St Patrick's, Ballysally, St Malachy's, St Colum's, Mill Strand Integrated and Harpur's Hill, for welcoming me into your classrooms.

To the kind soul who drove me to DH Christie through the rain, for the lift and the warmth on a wet day.

And to all 347 children, for shouting hola louder than I asked, for your brilliant questions, and for one cheer in particular. You made a woman from Venezuela feel very much at home.

Everyone is from somewhere. After all, we are all humans.

Humanitas Initiative delivers intercultural workshops for schools, workplaces and community groups across the Causeway Coast and Glens. If you would like to talk about a session, get in touch at contact@thehumanitasinitiative.org.

Contact

Reach out to start meaningful conversations.

Phone

contact@thehumanitasinitiative.org

+44 7342976970

© 2026. All rights reserved.

EMAIL