Finally found the poem...

"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

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

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

Easter party at Ruhandagazi

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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...

Bungie jumping in the Nile...




...herlig- wonderful

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

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.