Tordopia

New camera

2008-06-10T07:03:00.000-07:00

I bought myself a Canon 30D.

Norway!

2008-04-16T13:26:00.000-07:00

After a rather long journey back home, I'm finally back home, safe and partially sane.
But the "adventure" isn't over, coming home is a very vital part of a journey. Discovering that everything is the same at the same time as it isn't is kind of weird. Not to mention that a lot of the stories you want to tell falls to deaf ears.

It feels kind of good though. Understanding what people say and do is something not to be underrated. It's good to be home.

Closing up

2008-03-29T05:28:00.002-07:00

Next sunday I start my journey back home. Next sunday. That's pretty soon.
So what's moving inside my head right now?

Ofcourse it's knowing that it's probably a very long time until I get here again, if ever. Leaving friends I probably won't see again for many years.

But cynical as it might be, the thought of going back home is very appealing..
Meeting all my friends again.
Understanding the culture I am in.
Understanding what people say.
Understanding what happens around me.
Catching up with Natalia (= my guitar)
Not bathing in sweat every time I go to bed.
Drinking skummamelk.
Smågodt.
Decent internet-connection.
Not having to be afraid of "behaving wrong"

Not to mention, to move on and apply what I've learned this year. About the previous post, I've decided to go to Trondheim. That's what I want, and if I do anything else I'll just end up thinking of how it would be in Trondheim..
I haven't told Vegard, and he's most probably going to kill me when he reads this, but who cares :)

Choices

2008-03-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

With less than one month left of my stay here, I'm forced to start considering what to do next year. The military is planning to call me in next march, which would effectively ruin two years of education, hence this isn't an option. Then I'm left with either civil service or to postpone the military service. I'm tempted to just postpone it and get started in Trondheim, as I have looked very much forward to that. But then the military might catch up with me and I'll be having to go to the service when I'm supposed to start working.

As for civil service, I've checked around a bit; the two main options as for now is either to take my civil service in NMS and go back here, as they actually need a geek down here(actually I'm writing this while installing Windows on a laptop belonging to the Norwegian School here).. Another option is Fredtun Folkehøyskole, who are searching for someone with IT knowledge, with tasks I think I would find pretty interesting. It also counts in their favor that their music teacher is noone less than Ole Børud, ex guitarist of Extol, a band whos entire discography I brought with me down here. Another thing is that they go to Kenya for one month..

Of course, both those options are options I'm not guaranteed, I'll have to apply and hope for the best. But for some reason I'm still most tempted to get started in with my studies inTrondheim, I kind of feel like settling again after travelling all over Africa..

Whoever thinks it's a privilege to be allowed to choose have never tried to actually choose between great options like this. It is a luxury problem, yes, but that doesn't make it any less of a problem.

Life was much easier when I didn't have a choice..

Cours d'informatic

2008-03-08T00:41:00.000-08:00

After some weeks of delay because we didn't get hold of any computers to use we now finally have started our computing course. It was informed about during the sunday service (you should have seen our faces when we suddenly heard our names within a lot of blabbering we didn't understand), but that's about all we knew about what audience we would have. We didn't know how many, and how much the knew about computers, and what they wanted to learn. Of these three I was most worried about how many, as we only have 3 computers..

But the perfect amount appeared; 5. I had prepared some theory in the beginning, at a quite basic level; "This is the mouse. It's what you use to control the pointer you can see on the screen". However, when we let them try the computers it was obvious I started at the right level; Some of them I had to persuade into touching the mouse, and when they finally did, it would take them about a minute to move the mouse where they wanted it.. And when I explained the marvellous trick of lifting up the mouse if it gets into a troublesome position, "ahaa!". I should have them play a shooting game or something, where the mAus is something you really have to master.. ;)

The day and age we're living in, even in Cameroon, I'd say basic knowledge of computers are very important skills. The people we had in our class were university level students, no doubt they'll need to know computing.

Not again..

2008-02-27T14:39:00.000-08:00

I think trouble is following me, or I'm the cause of it. Anyways, something is going on here in Cameroon. Nothing here in Ngaoundere though. A translation of what we're supposed to say if someone asks follows:

Pray for Cameroon

During the last days there has been disturbances in Cameroons biggest city Douala, and the capital Yaounde. There has been political demonstrations, and some places the demonstrations have come out of control.

We who are missionaries here in the northern part of Cameroon don't notice any of the disturbances. It's almost a little strange that there's unrest in the capital while it's so quiet around us.

We're prepared that the phone-connection and Internet might get cut off in the entire country, which is quite common here during times of trouble. Since the news of the unrest probably will reach Norway it's important to say that we're feeling safe and we don't notice any of the disturbances.

If it should, which we do not expect it will, spread, we have a good deal with french authorities concerning protection and in worst case, evacuation.

We want to encourage you to pray for Cameroon. The minister of tourism who were at the opening of the church on Sunday said that "In Cameroon there lives 250 tribes in peace". Pray for it to stay that way.

170 Norwegians

2008-02-27T13:44:00.000-08:00

Last week this place was turned upside down; an airplane full of Norwegians arrived to participate in the opening of three new churches, one of them being the one 20 meters from my appartment.

So we got up last Sunday morning to find that our peaceful corner of Dang were overcrowded by both Norwegians and Cameroonians, because this was an important event.

The church was filled to the brim, and a lot of people stood outside. The ceremony was of the very long kind, over 4,5 hours, and included a choir from Norway

and a lot of cameras

and a lot of stuff in french I didn't understand.

Even though I'm quite sure most of the Norwegians (me included) were bored to death in the end (it is limited how exciting sitting on a bench for 4 hours without understanding a word is), I never managed to make anyone admit it. They were in Africa, and in Africa everything is great, no matter how boring it is :).

During the week I spent a lot of time as poolguard, and I'm quite amazed how long those guys could stay in the water. When me and Vegard took our first bath the day after they left, Vegard spent about ten minutes complaining about how cold it was before he finally got in, but the norwegians could stay in for hours..

Since Vegard got ill for some days, I also got to go to Mballang twice. Mballang is a very idyllic place next to a lake. It was about one hour driving, but since we forgot the key the first time we(Helene, Gilbert and me) went we did it in half an hour the second time.. ;)

Our job there was to prepare some food, and entertain the kids as the grownups went for a prayer walk around the lake. So Helene took some of them on a boat-trip on the lake, and I played some games with them, and we were both very surprised when the parents came back and nothing wrong had happened.

The day after I had a similar trip with Eline, although no kids this time. This time I also went around the lake to collect trash. Luckily I brought my camera, because there were many great photos to take!

On our way back we got some action though; I was driving(my first time driving in Africa), and of COURSE we were stopped by the police. And of course he asked for my driving licence. And of course my driving licence were at Dang! We solved the situation by me and Eline not knowing French and our friend Gilbert talking us out of it.. I'll bring my licence next time.

On Sunday we opened the church in town, right next to the missionary station. This was much like opening the one at Dang, with both the norwegian choir and some local choirs.

During this service I also noticed how fascinated we Norwegians are by symbols. When they hung this cross at the wall, it happened to be right above the head of the governor of Ngaoundere. Instantly I heard behind me; «that's a strong symbolic action; a cross over Ngaoundere». My impression got even stronger when it was announced that during the communion, they had phone contact with a church in Molde to celebrate the communion at the exact same time..

2008-02-08T03:01:00.000-08:00

Just a small update, as I can't think of anything funny to write right now.

I'm starting to kind of settle here. I know a lot more french now than I did when I left (but that ain't much of an accomplishment really :P), I've gotten to know a few people, and started to participate in some of the things going on around here.

My schedule now looks like this:

Monday: Free

Tuesday: French in the morning, free in the afternoon and worship team in the evening

Wednesday: On the schedule it says work at the EELC(at the missionary station) office in the morning, but practically I end up working there the whole day. There's a lot of work there for a computer geek :)

Thursday: French in the morning and Bible study in the evening

Friday: Study day, with computer course in the evening, which hasn't started yet.

Saturday: Some kind of music course in the afternoon. I still haven't quite got what that's going to be about..

Sunday: Church and various things going on in the afternoon, but that's not tied to the schedule.

In other news we went for a small safari up in the north this weekend, and I can post some pictures from that! Yay!

We saw a lot of giraffes. They're quite cool =)

But I have to say this is the coolest animal we saw

Dead animal.. hmm.. lion? where?

Here? (= 10 meter away from the previous picture)

This poor guy had fallen from the sky, and our guide found him lying on the ground. Apparently he was ill. He still looked great on photo though!

This guy made us jump quite good when he decided to join us in our car..

A very rare animal in Cameroon. Mostly found in rural areas in Norway with skis on their legs and a gun on their back: a Tjørhom!

I was there too!

And so was Helene!

And even Eline! Although maybe not mentally.. :D (sorry, couldn't resist)

It looks very cool, but in reality it's just extremely uncomfortable..

Last but not least: The kind of animals you only see on the Discovery channel: Biology scientists with an antenna searching for a radio-marked lion :D

Where are the comments?

Schedule!

2008-01-27T06:46:00.000-08:00

As I said, surprisingly little is required from us to get this rolling. We've been to two services to day, and in the middle of the last one our companion left us saying that we were going to have a meeting after the service. So we sat through, and when we couldn't find him afterwards it turned out that the meeting had already started and they had already done a lot of work on our schedule, which looked very promising.

They've captured me and Vegard quite well, a lot of both sports, music and even computing. Vegard is going to have an english course, I'm going to be with the worship team, mostly Vegard but I guess also me will be with CHRISC (CHRIstian Sports Contact), we'll have a computer course together, and I am going to have some kind of music course, plus they need a geek over at the office some hours per week, and here I am. Phew, long sentence. Oh, and we will recieve french lessons!

Some of this starts already next week, but the rest of it I guess will start up within a couple of weeks.
They also said they wanted us to «feel free». That is, feel part of the student community around here, not be afraid to hang around with people etc. That's kind of hard now as we run into some serious communication problems if we try to have a normal conversation, but that we'll work on. I suppose we'll get quite a number of friends and aquaintances(which is probably spelled a bit different than that) as we get started.

And a little update

2008-01-25T04:45:00.000-08:00

As I wrote yesterday we have moved in at Dang. In the evening we invited Amos and Benjamin, two previous Hald-students who speak very good Norwegian over to our place. We then got to know that there are things underway for us, and some time during next week we'll meet up with them plus some others to sort out a schedule for us. Everyone who have any kind of responsibility for this seems quite eager about it, and we're very happy about that. We couldn't dream of a better welcome.
For a «pioneering» Focus-team (we're both the first Focus-team, and the first youths in connection to the missionary station to move in by the university) it's surprisingly little we have to do to get things rolling, at least the way it looks now.
Yesterday I promised some pictures, and here they come;

In Cameroon they carry everything on their head. Everything. It has happened twice that somebody take BOTH of my suitcases (= 35 kg) on their head. But also small things, like a box of butter, put it on your head. It's fascinating.While I'm talking about carrying things on the head, I took this picture in central Kampala. That's confidence!
Vegard in the train from Yaounde to Ngaoundere

My room
My bed
A quite bad picture of my kitchen
My bathroom before I washed it (yes, I did!)
My bathroom after I washed it

Although it's not a luxury appartment I think we'll have a good time here. After all, I've found oat flakes here.

Observations about Cameroon

2008-01-25T04:42:00.000-08:00

After being here some days I've already noticed some big differences from Kenya to Cameroon. The first thing I noticed is that in general, the country is silent. People are quiet, there's seldom any music out on the streets and there's much less traffic. When we were in central Yaounde, which is the capital city, I was almost stunned by the silence. People didn't say a word, some people were working on a house, and you could even hear the materials moving against each other when they carried them. Sauda is more noisy than Yaounde.

The second thing, of course, is language. They speak french all the time, and people who don't know us always assume we know french. However, it's never hard to find someone who knows at least a little english, and so far I've been able to do the little grocery shopping I need without any major problems. A smile, body language plus the few words of french I know goes a long way.
Here in Ngandouere, around the missionary station, we're likely to bump into a Cameroonian speaking fluent Norwegian though. To sum up, language haven't been much of a problem so far.

The third thing is kind of related to the two above, but still; In Kenya people are in general more contact-seeking. It's very easy to start a conversation with a Kenyan. In Uganda that was harder, and Cameroon is somewhere inbetween those. It might be that it's hard to start a conversation when you don't know the language, or that many have already tried but I failed to notice since I don't understand. It doesn't seem that white folks are as big a deal as in Kenya, where we got used to kids jumping up and down and yelling «HAWAJOO» as we passed by.

Although the circumstances are very sad, I'm happy I get to experience two different cultures. We have a great few months ahead.

Arrived at dang

2008-01-24T03:54:00.001-08:00

Pardon me if there is any weird spelling mistakes in this post, but french keyboards are just totally messed up.

We just had our first night in Dang. We moved in yesterday evening, and started to wash our appartments and unpack our things. The appartments seem to be finished in a bit of a hurry when there suddenly were two people moving in there, but who cares. Now we even have our own bathrooms, a kitchen, a closet, some shelves and a really comfortable bed! MED DYNE!

Now we just took a walk up the area to look around, and found this internet café.

I'm probqbly going to write my post in advance next time; because this keyboard layout is really a pain. I'll try to post some pictures as well pretty soon.

Now I want to find something to eat. Au revoir!

Cameroon!

2008-01-22T11:32:00.000-08:00

So here we are in Cameroon, currently at the Norwegian mission-centre. Our journey was long, passport control was an interesting experience (Norwegians are supposed to have a visa in advance, which we didn't have), our french is still close to non-existent, yet still here we are.

We are going to live in Dang, close to the university there, and 15-20 minutes of driving away from the norwegian mission-centre. We've seen where, and it looks very nice! We even get one appartment each, which is a major step up from sharing 6 square meters :)

What we are going to do is still a bit unclear, but at least to begin with we'll just get contacts and figure out where we can contribute. The language issue is tricky there, but it seems most people know at least a little english, and we'll learn a lot of french the next weeks.

I suspect the worst moment of my africa-trip is over now; splitting the team. Mari and Ane, I wish you good luck in Tanzania, and I'm most certainly going to miss you. See you at Hald though!

I've also got a new phone number, +237 792 90499, and the more the phone beeps the happier I get :)

Cameroon?

2008-01-12T04:55:00.000-08:00

I'm still only carrying my suitcase from the one-week Mombasa vacation, I don't know french, and I most certainly don't know what I'm going to do there (what's student work in Cameroon?), but next week I'm moving to Cameroon. I'm going to stay there for 3 more months, together with Vegard, and also Eline and Helene who are other Hald-students there.

That means I get to experience even another culture, plus the feeling of being TOTALLY lost.

While I try to see the positive in this, the fact that Team Kenya is history is sad, both because I'm definately going to miss the rest of my team, but also the fact that the situation in Kenya is as it is. Our thoughts and prayers go to those affected by the tragedy.

We're all safe

2007-12-31T08:20:00.000-08:00

I just have to say this again, we're all safe. We(my family, my team + 4 other Hald-people, me, and about 50 other norwegians) are at the NLM Scripture Mission centre. It is one of the assembly points of the embassy, and we have regular briefings where we get updates from the embassy and on what's news from other sources. The last three briefings there has been nothing new.
This centre is located in the outer part of Nairobi in a very quiet area. We do hear it when it's noisy in Kibera, but the last 10 hours we haven't heard anything from there.

The mission centre has 4 guards with dogs, a 720 volt electric fence around it, and bars on all windows(as all other Kenyan windows). So we're safe.

Elections

2007-12-29T00:17:00.000-08:00

The 27. of December the Kenyans went to vote. That process went relatively peaceful, although it's a quite different story from what we're used to back home.

My family is here with me now, and we are in Nairobi. Today we were planning to go see Korogocho, but those plans got cancelled;

We went to town to meet someone from Tulip, and the plan was to buy something for the people we were going to visit. We did our shopping, but on our way out of the supermarket we saw people running. Our friend from Tulip reacted fast and we went back into the supermarket, and five seconds later the heavy doors rolled down to protect the shop from what was going on outside. After a while we went back out, and found our driver. We got in, and started driving towards Korogocho; but the main road to get there was closed, and a bit ahead we saw people fighting. So we turned around, although our friend from Tulip had to go back home (close to korogocho). He went by foot, and I hope he didn't get into trouble. He's a young man who knows how to conduct himself though, so I guess he'll be fine.
Then it was for us to get back to the Norwegian Scripture Mission centre. We had to get to the other side of town, and our driver took a lot of detours. We saw people running from time to time, the city centre was full of armed police and forces, etc etc. But we got there at last, and now we're all safe.

So why the fighting? There are claims of poll rigging, claims I'm very afraid might be true. The election results from the provinces president Kibaki is expected to be strongest in have not yet arrived, even though they should have been ready one day ago. Television also shows sheets with fixed numbers. I am afraid this might get quite bad :(

For all worried parents and friends; We are all safe, the rest of my team is in Mombasa which is very quiet. Me and my family are all safe at the Norwegian Scripture Mission centre, and we'll stay here until things calm down.

«Us» and «them»

2007-12-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

Christmas is getting closer, and so is the end of our work in Korogocho. In one way I look forward to being with my family which is coming on the 20^th, but that also means that there's a lot of my friends in Korogocho I'll probably never see again. However, it's time for some reflections as this comes to an end. What have I learned? What does walking among the worlds poorest people almost every day for two-three months do to you?

In a somewhat scary way I've gotten quite comfortable with walking in the slums. In a way it's good, because it enables me to meet people as people and to «forget» that they are in an extremely difficult situation compared to myself when I meet them. Hanging around with people living on less than a dollar a day is no longer strange. A guy told me some days ago «Now I'm going to visit my friend and find out if I can borrow some money from him.. If not I won't get food tonight». He said it in a completely relaxed way, as if it was a completely normal thing to say. What's shocking is that it IS a completely normal thing to say. He didn't complain about it, he just stated the fact.

On the other side not anymore reacting in the same way to the screaming poverty I see every day leaves a bad taste in my mouth. That kind of conditions demands IMMEDIATE action, but still it's hard. What to do? I wish I knew.

But I know one thing; we have at least as much to gain from them as they have to gain from us, maybe even more. You may ask, isn't that what we've been doing for years? Exploiting the poor to gain for ourselves? Yes it is. But it's the mentality of us coming from the rich countries to be nice and «help» I want to address. We keep trying to buy good consciousness, so that we can tell our friends back home how nice we have been. Do you see the arrogance in this? «Us» claiming to be the «superiors» coming «down» to «help» «them»? It's not the truth at all, believe me.

That's why I think it's a good thing to meet people as people. We're all people, we all love, we all hate, we all think, we all live, we all have dreams. We're not any different from each other in that sense.

I'm not saying that you should stop supporting various organizations, rather the opposite; support them, because they know how to use the money in a sensible way. But going gratefulness-shopping by running around in a slum being «nice» has no point.

2007-11-25T01:30:00.000-08:00

Again I'm sorry about the lack of updates on this blog, but here goes.
Yes I'm still alive, yes I'm having a wonderful time. The rainseason seems to be coming to an end. While my parents back home report of 20 cm of snow, I can report back of sunlotion factor 20*.

I've decided to write about the elections in my assignment. It is a theme that everybody is talking about. I mean, just a couple of minutes ago I talked with the lifeguard at the swimmingpool, and after the usual "where are you from?"-talk, it was straight onto the elections. By the way, I send greetings from him to the previous Kenya team! The elections is also, naturally very important considering the future of Kenya, and the way it is conducted can tell us a lot about the culture and society. The only problem is that now that I've decided, I actually have to start working on it :(

I've also been thinking about what I'm going to do next year. One of the things I've learned so far is that money is definately not everything. It's not even important, as long as you have your basic needs covered. So, earning a lot of money is definately not one of my goals. So, not considering the money, what do I want to do? And I thought of music. I don't have any problems with being a completely broke musician, living in a cold cellar, as long as I have food on the table(or floor?) and somewhere to sleep. The problem is that the school I would like to attend in that case has it's auditions in March, and I'm still here in March. Another problem is that it's very difficult to get in there. But if that's the Lord want me to do, I trust that it'll work out. If it isn't, then I'll do something else.

*) Ok, factor 15, but 20 looked cooler in that sentence

Kindergarten #2

2007-11-10T06:16:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Vegard and I went back to the kindergarten. This time it was much different from the first time; we came earlier in the morning, so the kids were awake, and very(!) active. They became even more active when we found the toys we bought them, and they loved it. Things as simple as a tennis ball was sufficient.

Another thing they found very fascinating was my camera. The fact that they found it fascinating resulted in me taking a bit of pictures:

What have these children done to deserve a life in Korogocho? What have I done to deserve a life in Norway?
That question is actually kind of irrelevant. What who has done to deserve what is not the question we need to ask. What's needed here is unconditional love, the kind of love that don't ask why or how much. What has to be done must be done. These children don't care that the "world economy would be imbalanced if poverty is eradicated", or that "africa has made its own tragedy because of bad leadership". These children are the hope of Kenya, the next generation. Again I have to emphasize the importance of education; if the young generation of Kenyans get their education, a lot of things will be different. Education is the path out of poverty. One thing is the kind of "charity" we did, but providing education and healthcare is crucial. Really.

Kindergarten

2007-10-26T07:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, three posts in a row, but it seems I'm on a roll a the moment.

Yesterday Vegard and me visited a kindergarten in Korogocho. As we came there, the kids were sleeping. On the average there were four kids under each blanket, and they were lying on a kind-of thick carpet. A lot of the kids had let the water go while asleep, and none of them had diapers.
The flies were flying around them, and as they woke up, they started playing with what they had; that would be nothing. They were running around, smiling and laughing, greeting these strange mzungu-visitors. I couldn't help but just sit there, overwhelmed. I wish I had a picture, but at this point I don't.

What have they done to deserve to be born to a life like this? What have I done to deserve to live a life like I do? I thought about their future, wondering if they would ever manage to get out of poverty. One of the kids are without any parents. An other one, 2 years old and unable to walk or talk.

We're hoping to be able to visit the kindergarten once per week. And realizing how much it would help to have something as simple as a couple of balls to play with, we'll see what we can find in town tomorrow.

What to say?

2007-10-26T06:51:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I got a challenge; to have a 5 minutes sharing, or «encouragement» at the morning-assembly at the Tumaini school in the slum today at 07:30. I said yes, and then I came to think of «What do I tell 15 year old girls living in the slum?».

I still don't know what to tell 15 year old girls living in the slums, but I ended up reading Phillippians 4:4, «Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again; Rejoice!». Then I asked if they think Norwegians are happier than Kenyans. The answer? «Some».
I told them that I've been to many classes in Norway, but I have never seen as many smiles in one class as here, and that's a fact. What's also a fact, is that Paul was in jail when he wrote his letter to the Phillippians. I then summed up with 1 Peter 1 8-9; the true joy is the joy of Christ.

I wish I had better time to prepare for this, as I said I only had an hour or two in the evening to prepare, and that was knowing that I had to get up at 05:30 the morning after, and being exhausted after a long day. Time, time.

My question to you remains; what would you want to tell them if you had the chance I had today?

Oil prices

2007-10-26T06:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I read some news (the matatudriver put a newspaper in our hands while we were waiting for the matatu to fill) about the increasing prices in Kenya. What was the reason behind it? The high oil prices!
What did I just read in Aftenposten? The oil prices increased by 10 dollars in 16 days, and the increase is credited to speculants. For Norway as a nation, this is good news, as it means more money for Norway. But does these speculants realize that they are speculating on the ability of the people living for under a dollar per day to survive? There's quite a lot of them around here, and I'm sure it causes more pain for four million people here than it causes good for the four million people in Norway.

And that's just in Kenya.

Time

2007-10-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

Back home time is something that is possible to waste. We walk around, constantly thinking about «could I spend this time better?», and if the answer is yes the fact keeps hunting you until you «spend the time better». I've caught myself thinking that in a couple of occations at Tulip, when we have been sitting around waiting without anything to do for a couple of hours. I feel my time is wasted, but can you really waste time?

I think understanding some of this might improve my patience. There is a time for everything. From a Christian perspective, if God had planned for me to sit waiting at Tulip for some hours, I guess he had a reason for it. After all, it resulted in a blog post. From a non-religious perspective, what does it matter? A couple of hours here and there, yes you might lose some interesting experience, an oppourtonity, whatever. But what is it to gain in dwelling at something you didn't do?
I haven't experienced it much here(yet), but I've read somewhere that the general African way of looking at time is that the «time» is when something is happening. That way it's actually impossible to waste time, because if you do what we western people would consider as a waste of time (a.k.a. doing nothing), you aren't wasting any time, because that time isn't worth collecting!

It might be related to that back home there's always something you can do, but here there will always be times where there's quite simply nothing to do, so you don't have to feel you're wasting your time when you're doing nothing. Is that something we lost on our way trying to collect all the best experiences, best skills, best reputation and not to mention as much money as possible?

2007-10-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

This week our program at TULIP started. So as of Monday we have been to TULIP every day, with the exception of Wednesday, which is our day off. We haven't really gotten started working yet, but we have been introduced to various aspects of what we are going to do. So what are we going to do?

We are going to

Do home visits. Me and Vegard did one today, which basically was visiting someone(e.g. the family of one of the girls in the TULIP programs)
Work at the clinic
Do after school tuition
Participate in Bible study groups
Teach them various things, in my case it seems I'll be doing some guitar lessons (:DDDD).
Do office work
Do other things I've forgotten

We are getting more and more used to how things are done around here. The last two days we have for instance traveled to from Focus to TULIP alone, without any major troubles. There is one thing I'm really missing from home though, and at the point I travelled I never thought that was the thing I'd be missing first: the washing machine. But I guess the whole thing of doing laundry by hand is something I better get used to the sooner the better..

As I said earlier, Vegard and me did our first home visit today. It was in Kibera, which is considered to be the second largest slum of Africa. And indeed, it was large! As we stood on a hilltop, there were only iron sheets as far as we could see. The house we visited was a dark, tiny place with a couple of chairs, a table and a bed. There were two guys in there, one older man and one man that the naive(I thing Vegard is still giggling at this) Tord considered to just be an exceptionally talkactive guy who was struggling with putting things in English, but later in the conversation it became more and more evident that he was just plain drunk.

Nevertheless it was a very interesting experience, seeing the inside of a house in the slums. I still have problems imagining how it would be like to have the slum as my «only world». Living there, eating there, «working» there, relaxing there, getting water from there, being sick there. After a day there both me and Vegard were quite exhausted, but wether that's because we're white and thus get a lot of attention we don't really ask for, or that we're not used to the slum environment, or just that the environment itself is very tiering, I don't know. For the sake of those who live there I hope it's us it's something wrong with.

2007-10-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

Nairobi is a quite nice town. The city centre was full of tall business-buildings, there were plenty of shops, a variety of restaurants, a nice park, and we happened to drive through one of the nicest neighbourhoods of Nairobi, and that was indeed very nice. We saw businessmen running around, a lot of schoolclasses in uniforms wandering around in museums, we saw the Nairobi university with well-kept lawns and big buildings. We saw big hotels with lots of flags on, we saw Coca Cola everywhere.
But a ten minutes matatu-ride out of the centre, what do you find?
The second biggest slum of Africa, the Kibera slum. And the Korogocho slum, where we're going to be working. People who came to Nairobi hoping for a better future, but ended up in the circle of slum poverty. It's expensive to be poor, since you have to buy everything in small quantities, and thus it's hard to save up any money to improve the way of living.
I've been told that it's not unusual for a Kenyan to never have been in a slum. How come? Is it simple ignorance? Is it because they don't want to face the truth? Is it because they are successfull, while those in the slums are not? Is it just like us europeans, «out of sight, out of mind» (directly translated from Norwegian, sorry)? Are they afraid of the slums? Or is it simply that they have no business there, then why go there?
I don't know what it is, but I hope to find out.

2007-10-10T04:30:00.000-07:00

The last days have been quite quiet, and we're settling here at the Focus center. We've had some lessons about Kenyan culture, and today we also had our first kiswahili lesson.
We've also been to a pentecostal church here, and that was quite different from the normal Norwegian church. But as we was thaught yesteday, there are all varieties of churches here, both the very conservative, methodical churches and the more liberal charismatic churches, so I won't write much about christianity in Kenya after a visit in only one church.

I'm posting this from a hotel near the Focus center, and they have a reasonably fast internet, so here are some pictures!

Vegard in the airplane

Ane (left) and Mari, just arrived at the airport

Jane came to pick us up at the airport. A very nice lady :)
Our beds, with the mosquito nets
This is what our breakfast looks like. Yep, we actually get bread, but not real Norwegian bread..
This is what it looks like right outside our bedrooms
Notice the short shadows :)
But the weather isn't always nice..Vegard enjoying a meal of Chapati (in his hand)
This cat comes to annoy us almost every meal. This meal was no exception.

And after eating, the dishes.. This time it's the girls, but we are sharing the workload(yes mom, I do dishes!)

Well arrived

2007-10-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

So here I am in the Focus office in Nairobi. Yes we’re all fine, all healthy, all safe, the food is good (chapati owns!).
What to say? We’re living at the Focus center, a quite nice place a bit outside the Nairobi center. We have some quite simple double rooms, that is they contain two beds and two mosquito nets, and our suitcases. We have access to showers(although the it’s a science to get hot water, and you get a minor electric shock when you try to adjust the water pressure with wet hands), we have good toilets(although Vegard had to fix our, it was “a little” leaky). We have everything we need, and quite a bit more than that.

For a Norwegian this might sound like a quite low standard, and by Norwegian standards it is. But after what we saw yesterday it’s great. We visited the TULIP-center in the Korogocho-slum. We met people living under conditions that are surrealistic to us. We only see that in the humanitarian-work-commercials. But there they were, right in front of our eyes. And what did they do? They were smiling! I’ve never seen that many smiles in one day I think. Kids screaming “How are you?” from everywhere, and smiling from ear to ear when we answered “I am fine, how are you?”.
At the TULIP center, which is (pardon my misinformation earlier in the blog) a center for girls that drop out of school for various reasons. They give them some education, healthcare, and teach them some things they can do to survive(making things, sewing, etc). When I heard this in Norway, I thought a bit like “yeah, the normal blabla-humanitarian things to do), but now having been there and seen them, I see that this is great!

We also visited a school run by TULIP. Every complaining Norwegian schoolkid should go there. One classroom with 14 students(one desk each at least), one small(!!!) office for the head teacher, one teachers room (a quite small room with a couple of desks in), a kitchen (a room with a paraffin boiler). There they sat, in the dark, in school. And common for them all? Smiling and laughing away. While we complain that our chair is too tall or the desk is wiggling in Norway, these pupils didn’t have anything to complain about.

We also visited a hospital supported by TULIP. It was surprisingly nice. It was clean, they had good routines, they had equipment, they were even expanding! That hospital is also the only place outside the airport I’ve seen another white person. We didn’t talk much with him, but he sounded either British or Australian, and I’m guessing he’s a doctor. (This is a place for you to visit, Mom, Dad and Ingrid!).

Now the really exciting part: As of Thursday, we will start working with TULIP, and their projects. That could mean teaching at their school, helping out at the hospital, home-visits, etc.

And sorry for not adding any pictures, the internet here seems to be running with African time =o)

Bye bye Norway

2007-10-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

This is the last regular(if I might call it that) evening I have in Norway before I leave for Nairobi. I have almost finished packing, but I suspect I'll be emptying the entire suitcase and repack it again tomorrow. However I'm surprised how easy it was, after all the activity of "packing" is very closely related to "putting things in a box".

Getting REALLY ready is a different story, and is not at all related to putting things in a box. I know that I'll be going together with my three teammates, who I really look forward to spending this time together with. I really do! Those three are the only thing I know for sure when I'm leaving home now. Yes, I know that I'll be in Nairobi, yes I know that I'm going to be working in the slums, but I have no idea how Nairobi is and how working in the slums will impact me.
Yet still, leaving all the familiar and friendly and going into the unknown future doesn't frighten me, at least not at the point of writing this. Does this mean that I'm actually getting ready? Or that I'm not ready at all? I'm guessing, hoping and praying that it does.

8 days left

2007-09-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

The date of departure is still(!) approaching, and with only 8 days left i'm forced to start worrying about practical things like getting to the airport in time. But at least there's one less thing to worry about, because yesterday we finally got the confirmation we were waiting for; Me and Vegard will be staying in Nairobi, together with Mari and Ane the first three months. Rumors are that we're going to do humanitarian work in the slum areas in this period. Exactly what kind of work i'm not quite sure about, but the students last year were working on a center for young mothers called TULIP.

It felt good to get to know a little bit more of how our situation will be, especially the fact that we will be all four together. It's easier to prepare when i know what to prepare for :)

Leaving soon

2007-09-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

3. October is closing up, and i still don't have a clue about where i'm going to live. I have very few expectations overall, at least very few conscious ones.
Yesterday we were at Lagets office in Oslo. That was mostly a repetition of things i already know, but still useful to remind me why i'm really going to Kenya. We were also at Fredskorpsets office, where we actually learned that having no expectations can prove to be useful.

But it's a quite scary feeling. In two weeks i'm sitting there wondering what happened. In two weeks everything that's safe and secure is long gone. In two weeks i'm right in the middle of what i don't have a clue of. And i'm really looking forward to it, much because i know i'm not going alone; i'll have my team and i'll have God himself.

Vision

2007-08-28T02:01:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to realize how much this year will change me. From being quite certain that computer engineering was my future, i have gone to have no idea.
Yesterday we (Vegard, Mari, Ane) made a vision and some goals for our team. The vision turned out as "religious, personal and socialcultural growth", both for ourselves and for the people we meet. What's even more interesting is that there was never any doubt about the content of it. The process of making this vision and the goals was quite inspiring, and I think we will become a very good team. I look forward to sharing 6 months with them in Kenya.

Milk

2007-08-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

An interesting picture reflecting the multitude of cultural backgrounds present here at Hald.

Hakuna matata

2007-08-19T10:05:00.000-07:00

I never got out of vacation-modus. My definition of "vacation" is to do something other than the normal, and this is definately out of normal.

My room wasn't empty when i came, there was a bag and a suitcase there. They're still there, and belongs to Joseph from Kenya and Rock(whos name is incredibly long and is conviently shortened to "Rock") from Madagascar, who together holds around 20% of the property in that room. Hm.
But that doesn't matter, hakuna matata. Minor issues like that disappeared as soon as they came smiling in the door to greet me. You'll have to travel far to find that nice people, probably all the way to Africa.

The cultures are crisscrossing here, along with the laughter.