k Livin´ Life

Class trip to Franshoek

2011-02-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

A day through Khayelitsha

2011-02-09T12:54:00.000-08:00

Lions Head- the all time favorite hike!!!

2011-02-09T12:49:00.000-08:00

Ethiopian food in Long Street

2011-02-09T12:43:00.001-08:00

The Old Biscuit Mill Market

2011-02-09T12:42:00.000-08:00

Muizenberg beach

2011-02-09T12:38:00.001-08:00

Hiking up Table Mountain

2011-02-09T12:33:00.000-08:00

Cape Point

2011-02-08T23:40:00.000-08:00

Arrival of MADM Bochum class and going to Waterfront

2011-02-08T23:16:00.000-08:00

ROAD TRIP!!!

2011-01-14T15:27:00.000-08:00

Im back in Cape Town after a WONDERFUL 10 day road trip in South Africa!!!
Where to start? - Excellent company with great friends, in a camper car, driving through amazing scenery- from New Year in Durban, to relaxation at Golden Gate, crossing over to Lesotho, then to Aliwal North, back to the coast - starting with Port Elisabeth, then the Garden Route from beautiful Knysna to George, where we did awesome bungie jumping and canope sliding from trees. Ostrich riding and Cave experience in Oudtshoorn. Driving Route 62- from Outdshoorn to Montague, and back to Paarl.
Not to forget delicious braais (BBQ) nearly every evening, and lunches outside enjoying the view along the journey! Ill try to give you a glimpse through the photos and posts below. Enjoy =)

Chocolate fountain

Christo- the driver

Cultural Sotho village

The special nature at Golden Gate

Such a change in scenery and weather along the route

2011-01-14T15:02:00.000-08:00

Animals

2011-01-14T14:41:00.000-08:00

5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 BUNGIE!!!

2011-01-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

Worlds highest bungie- 216 meter high

Very satisfied jumpers!

Congo Caves

2011-01-14T14:17:00.000-08:00

One of the world's great natural wonders sculptured by nature through the ages - fascinating limestone formations in a wide variety of colours

Oudtshoorn and Ostrich Farm

2011-01-14T14:07:00.000-08:00

Ostriches are interesting birds; with a
brain 40 gram light, they think they
are alone simply by covering their head
with a bag, and you can climb them in
an attempt to ride

Having fun in Montegue, the last stop of our Road Trip before returning to Paarl where we set out 10 days before

A return to love

2010-12-26T15:54:00.000-08:00

I wish I could express the joy of knowing Im about to return to the country and continent I have come to love. In three days I board the flight to return to Cape Town, South Africa. Though the photos below show glimpse of the beautiful nature, it is really the people, and life in general that makes the place so great (as anywhere else in the world)!

Anyway, for those who follow me from afar, I´ll do my best to try to keep you a bit updated on my life.

For a start, Ill spend new years eve in Durban and take a wonderful 10 day road trip back to Cape Town with great friends. My classes resume in January, and at the moment it´s uncertain when is the next time I come home. All I know is- there is much good ahead!

Karibu sana!

Finally found the poem...

2007-05-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

"People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind,People may accuse youof selfish, ulterior motives; Be Kind anyway.
If you are successful,you will win some false friends andsome true enemies; Succeed anyway.
People may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness,they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.
The good you do today,people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have,and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis.it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway."

(Mother Theresa hung a copy of this poem on a wall of the orphanage she founded in Calcutta. It's source is unknown.)

Bushenyi town, in the south-west of Uganda

2007-05-14T06:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, I will miss this town. Its the people, the beautiful nature, the chapati makers on the corners, the boda boda's, the happy faces, the fruit market, the cheap tomatoes, the less stressed lifestyle, the kids... making my day.

Goodbye at Compassion

2007-05-14T05:47:00.000-07:00

The days at Compassion International has truely been among my favourite days. The kids are picked among the most needy in the society. Living in poverty and difficult circumstances they are given an opportunity to attend school, get healthcare and are thought about christianity. I was amazed to see how much this project means to the childen. Please, if you want to help, check out www.compassion.com

Here, the children dancing and singing. + Me saying goodbye to the wonderful kids.

Queen Elisabeth National Park

2007-05-14T05:40:00.000-07:00

Easter party at Ruhandagazi

2007-05-14T05:13:00.000-07:00

We were working at Ruhandagazi, a Pimary School for disabled once a week. As it was getting close to easter, we thought of repeating the success of a christmas party there, and asked if it would be children around.

"All the children that cannot afford to go home for easter will be here" was the reply. Ah, these we must make a party for, we thought.

On the day of the party, I double checked if there still was around 20-30 children as planned. Aroung mid-day I got a msg: "The longer you are delaying, the more children are coming". When we finally came, around 70 children were waiting for us, the news of a party had spread to friends and neighbours.

It was a great day with games, candy, food and some presents. These kids are so inspiring. They seems to really mean what they express, and when they show their appreciation, it touches the heart.

Fun at BMC-Hospital

2007-05-14T04:57:00.000-07:00

The Tuesdays at BMC keeps getting better and better as the children gets more comfortable and feels more free with us.

The Tuesday before Easter weekend was a highlight. We were painting on easter eggs, drawing, playing cards, playing music and making waffels.

At times the children doesn't want to leave the hospital after their check-up is finished. So thats a good sign that they musb be enjoying. And when they are happy, so are we!

(Photos by Anne: The girl and I + the heart in our hands)

Gulu - a long way to get back after war

2007-05-14T01:52:00.000-07:00

24th of March we joined a norwegian pastor to visit some projects that his church is sponsoring up north in Gulu.
One of the things that really got to me was a visit to a child daycare center. The children who come here, are affected in many ways after the war, run by LRA.

Some have lost their parents, others been kidnapped and trained to be soldiers by LRA, others have been among the thousands of children walking miles from their village to town every night in fear of the possible attacs in the villages at night time.

At the centre, the children were thought things other children automatically grow up with. They must be thought about their cultur, songs and dances. Much time are spent on teaching these kids what it is to just play! Sounds unimaginable for us in Norway.

The photos are from the daycare centre, and 2 photos are taken from a visit to the IDP (Internally Displaced People)-camp we visited.

A statistic say that there are about 476 000 people in Gulu. Of those 476 000, 70 000 are orphan children. Of the 70 000 orphans 90% has HIV/Aids!!! Chew on that number... Its a painful one.

Wedding at Lake View Hotel

2007-05-14T01:41:00.000-07:00

On 17th of March Anne and I joined a friend to attend a wedding held at Lake View Hotel, Mbarara. Just had to share a glimps of this amazing cake. We were sitting through most of the ceremony wondering wether or not the cakes under the fruits were real.

Back to Kisumu

2007-05-14T01:03:00.000-07:00

For the second time in my stay, I crossed the boarder and went to Kisumu, Kenya. I lived here for a few months 2 years back, working with street children.

It was great to be back. I first went to Interfelk, and spent the day with the new streetboys at the center. We had a good time with games like "stolleken", "potetløp" and "slå-på-ring"

Then I visited Jans Academy, where the streetboys are taken to boarding school after completing about a year in the rehabilitation centre at Interfelk. I was so proud to see the former streetboys I was with, now in their school uniforms and happy attending school.

Gone kabisa...

2007-03-09T07:51:00.000-08:00

Just letting ya’ll know some reasons to frustrations down here. In my short period of stay, I’ve had a broken laptop (screen smashed, so borrowed a monitor from a friend from time to time). The MP3 player stopped functioning. My music with several hundred songs on the computer disappeared as several programs on my laptop refused to function (ended up with having to delete it all, to free space, as the hard disk was completely full, and I could not even burn things to CDs). Yesterday I wrote 4 posts to my blogg, but due to a virus alert, they all were deleted from my memory stick (the only place I saved them…man). But the highlight of all, I guess was after 3 weeks of holiday, in Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar, taking 500 photos, I lost all of them as I lent my camera to a boy who accidentally formatted the whole flash disk. Arg… he he. Unbelievable.

(Just had to have a photo with my text. And the sun is a good thing. There's always a new day coming, and along with that; new mercy, hope and opportunities!)

The work plan

2007-03-09T07:47:00.000-08:00

Since New Year, we’ve had a new work plan here in Bushenyi that we are very happy with. Originally it looks something like this:

Monday:
We are in the prison with the ladies inside (female section). We spend time with them, bring materials, trying to teach them some craft skills, teach some English etc. Otherwise it’s just about being there, doing what comes to your mind. Yesterday 10 of the ladies were out digging in the field. I found them there and joined them, planting beans under the scoring sun… Afterwards my plan was to make them waffles, but as power went, we had to find a back up plan & poured the dough in a suspan on the charcoal stove. It sort of worked… at least they enjoyed it. The prison is a place I feel privileged to join. There are many special stories and things I learn from there.

Tuesday:
We are at a hospital next door, BMC. Aids sick children come here on Tuesdays for medical check-ups and vaccinations. Ann and I just activate them as they wait. We bring colour pencils, water colours, we play cards, watch cartoons and eat crackers together ;-)

Wednesday:
We are at Kabwohe Management Institute. It’s a school that educates girls in computer and craft skills. Many of these girls are orphans or from poor families, and have not had much schooling prior to this. The school has subsided fees, making the school cheaper than many others. Ann and I were supposed to help with their computer teachings. The Wednesdays with no power, we would do sports with them. But after three weeks of finding it strange that the room was so empty for students, we found out that they didn’t have computer teachings on Wednesdays… he he. (Tell us please ;-) So Wednesdays are now only sport days with the girls (playing volleyball and netball).

Thursday:
We have been moving with a health centre to their different units in villages. They mainly do check-ups on pregnant ladies and immunization + vaccinations. Since I do not have the knowledge to help out with most of their work, I rather work on Saturdays and participate at Compassion, so Thursdays are sometimes a day off for me.

Friday:
At Ruhandagazi, a Primary School for disabled children. We have P.E (gymnastic) with P.4 and P.5. + some English and Math teachings for P.7. But our most important “work” here, I guess is just coming and spending time with the children.

Saturday:

I’m joining Compassion International at Kyamuhunga. Saturday is a centre day for disadvantaged children connected to Compassion. (Orphans with only one or none parents, children from families too poor to take care of them + some children with disabilities.) They come here and get breakfast and lunch. The day is filled with singing, dancing, teaching, sometimes work like; digging, slashing grass etc. and lots of playing! They are about 280 children, and it’s so great to be with them!

A girls night

2007-03-09T07:41:00.000-08:00

Friday 16 of February, we went with two cars to Kyamuhunga, to pick up 9 pretty excited girls. Last time at compassion, we invited them to come over to our house to spend a night. We stopped and bought chapattis on the way, then we picked the food prepared for us at Meats and More, (a restaurant in town) through a friend.

After food, all the girls wanted to bathe. A joke I said before the visit became true. When I entered my room, I realized that the floor was flooding with water. The drain in my shower isn’t very good, and one of the girls had forgotten to turn off the water tap... So my floor went through some serious washing, as we stood for quite some time, trying to drain all the water.

Together with the girls, we made brownies, watched a movie, played cards and took lots of photos. The girls were not nearly as tired as Ann and I, when we decided to go to bed around midnight. Later I heard some giggling and footsteps outside my room. As I opened the door, I found all the girls tapping in a queue, heading for the bathroom. They were maybe a little shy using our house, so it seemed they all decided to go together.

The alarm was on at 6.30 the next morning. After bathing, we all had some boiled eggs on the go, and headed for a day at Compassion. The girls we’ve heard, had a great time, and nothing can be better than that ;-)

Give away

2007-03-09T07:31:00.000-08:00

Give away is a party in Uganda, arranged by the parents of the bride, before her wedding. It is quite many traditional things happening through the ceremony. The man must go down and “find his match” among several women (traditionally the ladies we’re all covered up, so only the eyes were bare. I wonder how he could be so sure to point out the right one, unless they agreed she would do some secret signalling or something like that?... ;-) The lady serves food to the two families, establishing a bond between them.

I have been to some of these give-aways, without having much special connections to anyone in the party, but here, you often get invited anyway. After the cake has been cut, the formal part of the party is over, and for many, the disco part begins.

Infield in Kampala

2007-01-18T04:55:00.000-08:00

We spent almost a week of infield in Kampala, with all the Hald-student positioned in East-Africa.

It was great days with the guys, and to have some time set aside for planning the months ahead, aswell as reflection on the stay we've had so far.

Realizing time in going way too fast now. Lets try to make the most of every day!

Bungie...

2007-01-18T04:24:00.000-08:00

Bungie jumping in the Nile...

...herlig- wonderful

2007-01-18T02:42:00.000-08:00

After hearing some of the life stories to these young ones, you get lost for words, and don't know what to do or offer that could be of help.

At least God has given us a solution and an example for us to follow. He gave his love...

Party at CRO

2007-01-18T02:02:00.000-08:00

Our first stop on the holiday, was in Mbale. Meeting up with 2 other Act Now'ers, working at CRO- Children Restauration Outreach. A daysenter for street children. I was so impressed with the great work being done at CRO.

Its really changing the life of so many children in this city. Giving them opportunitues for studies and care.
On the 19th of Dec, we joined in on their christmas party. A great start on our christmas holiday.

Wish you all a wonderful christmas!!!

2006-12-14T05:26:00.000-08:00

Hello dear friends.
It's been too long! I've had quite a number of things I wanted to update, but time is just running out these weeks. Some highlights: We've been at a school for disadvantaged children and arranging a party for them. Man, that was wonderful. These kids were deaf, blind and had other disabilities, but had the biggest smiles and such grateful hearts. And playing soccer on a bumpy field with mud puts and cow doung, to avoid is quite an exciting challenge.

Then we had visitors from the FOCUS guys in Kampala for a few days here in Bushenyi,
before the 6 of us headed for a weekend in Rwanda. We visited quite a lot of memorial places from the genocide that took place only 12 years ago. As I met people in the streets I couldn't help thinking; "what have you seen or what have you experienced?" Being at the Gisozi memorial place, getting the whole history with the throughout planning of the genocide, was beyond comprehension.

This week there are many American people staying at our compound in Bushenyi. Quite funny, because people think they see Ann and myself everywhere. (Since most muzungoes all look the same...)

The photo is from a wonderful day we had yesterday, helping out at Compassion International, with orphans and voulnerable children. Playing with about 100 enthustiastic children. Life can't be much better than that.

A wonderful christmas to you all!
(Will try to keep updating during holidays)

Love from K

Visiting Day

2006-11-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

This Sunday (5.11) I joined a good friend of mine to visit her sister, that is studying at one of the schools here in the district. Visiting day is a big day here in Uganda. If you have a child in a boarding school, as many of them do, you can only come and see your child on those visiting days. At this school, visiting is limited to three times in the year! Makes me understand why this is a big day.

This photo is taken later in the day. As I was waiting for someone, I went out and enjoyed my time with the children!

A visit to a refugee camp 3.11

2006-11-07T08:19:00.000-08:00

Suddenly Thursday night, Anne and I got the opportunity to go to a refugee camp we’ve been wanting to see. So we left early Friday morning with the bus, and we’re picked up in Mbarara for the next 2 hrs stretch. (The camp was only 60km from the border of Tanzania)

After passing through Isingaro Headquarter District, we were very close. “Everywhere from here is actually part of the camp”, we we’re told. Even after we entered the base camp, it was almost hard to believe (because it didn’t fit into my image of a refugee camp at all, from what I’ve seen on TV from home. The land they were scattered over was huge, so there was no chaos with tents and people everywhere, and there were no food ration ques…)

This is Nakiwaru, the biggest refugee camp in Uganda. There is living somewhere between 22 000- 30 000 refugees here. Most are from Rwanda and Sudan, but they also come from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia,
Tanzania and Kenya. What might also be special with this camp, besides the big size, is that most of the population has actually lived here for at least 10 years, so most of them are more or less settled.

Even local Ugandans are living in this area. Almost the only thing that differs them from the refugees, in terms of living, is that they are free to move out of this area if they want…

We we’re very privileged to be driven around in the camp by one of the camp leaders. So many interesting things he told, about the people, the different lifestyles in the camp etc.

There are only 4 primary schools in this whole camp. In one of the schools, there are more than 3 000 children. And the number of teachers in that school is only 14!!! Count how many pupils each teacher must have! (Not to mention all the languages the children in the classes would speak)

On this tour, we had a flat tire 3 times! The third time, we we’re stuck in a camp for the “newly arrivers” for very long. I enjoyed the time with children. Tried to teach them some Norwegian song with movements (almost didn’t matter if it was in Norwegian, there are too many languages here for everyone to understand anything anyway…) And then they sang. And sang, and sang, and sang…!

The children really were fascinated with this strange, white skin. I once counted about 10 different children hands touching just one of my arms. Ah, I still think a lot about this day in the camp. When we were there, a family from Congo had just arrived, and we brought them to the “arrivers’ camp”. Hm, you look at all the children and people in the camp and wonder, what have you gone through, what history brought you here… and what will the future bring...

One time when I was standing with a group of children around me, there was one very small baby, sitting bare on the ground, crying loud. I tried to pick it up, and some others tried the same. But it refused to be picked up, and just continued crying. I felt so helpless and starting looking around, asking: “Where is the mom, where is the mom!” The sad answers I got in return were; “No mom, there is no mom”…

(Photoes:
1. Anne sitting in the car, while the guys were fixing on it
2. From Isingiro District, on our way to the camp
3. Some of the settlements, from one small part of the camp)

Where do we start...

2006-11-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

Anne and I have now started some of the office work we’ll be facing here. Filing 2000 rapports on school children (that are representing their school for sponsors in Norway). Taking the 2000 photoes to attatch to the reports. And make 2000 christmas cards ready for sending.

We started with this pile, which is only papers from 1 out of the 7 schools…

2006-10-25T09:01:00.000-07:00

Ah, the power is back (after 5 days with problems) and I will again to to write. This Sunday we tried to attend a service at a local church we found last week. We were told it started at 9. When we arrived 9.20, there was no people there… A sign outside said the service started at 9:30. Then we met someone who said that because of rain it was postponded until 10. We arrived at 10 and then there were only 5 people present… This service lasted around 4 hrs, so when I my head around half way into the meeting, most people were finally present.

Some photoes from our walk to a neighbour city, Ishaka.
This week Anne and I are participating at some seminar StrommeFoundation is holding at the 7 schools they are working together with. For me, the highlight was in the breaks, when I went into the schoolyard and practiced my few runyankole words with the children, and made them teach me some more. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by 2-300 children. So many smiles and curious faces. How strange, but what joy!

2006-10-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

Orire gye! – A greeting we finally start to be familiar with here. I am now sitting in our livingroom in Bushenyi, looking out over the beautiful hills to be seen outside our living room.

I arrived in Uganda Tuesday last week (10.10.06). We were then 6 Act Now’ers that stayed in Kampala together for the first tree days. There we met with some of our supervisors, went to the Norwegian Embassy, and to see the Stromme Foudation Office.

Aerobic class at the rooftop for the Act Now’ers and the staff members at SF.

Then we departed to our different practice places. Anne Margrethe and I are now in Bushenyi, a smaller village about 5 hrs drive south-west from Kampala. This first week we have mainly been taking some language lessons in Ruanyankole. And just to give you a small idea of what that looks like, this is how you say “nice to meet you”: Nakushemererwa kuka reba…

Yesterday was our first day out visiting some schools. What a strange feeling to have 5-600 expectant children looking at you with curious faces. We came there with our supervisor and a reverend, to meet with the staff and children, and to hand out some new testament Bibles.
Afterwards we got to spend some time in different classrooms, where we later might do some teachings ourselves.

Sitting patiently listening, until the heavens opened, end we all had to run inside to get shelter from the rain.

2006-10-02T07:54:00.000-07:00

Holla

2006-10-02T00:54:00.000-07:00

Been postponding for so long, but finally there was set aside time to get this page up and running. As most of you know, I again took a year off from my studies to do something different- yes, it has somehting to do with Africa... The flight takes off on Oct 10th, and I’m heading for 6,5 months in Uganda. I will do my best to fill you in on a little of my life, and I greatly appreciate hearing from you too!