Imagine a dusty brown-red mud road and all you can see around you is green fields, forests, banana and maize farms, and houses of mud or bricks with “metal roofs” that really needs a shine up. The sun is burning and in front of you a man is walking with a stick trying to guide his only cow. Or you can imagine a tarred road without any road markings, many humps and holes. Besides the road there are tracks for the people to walk on... As you drive you pass many small shops stuffed with different items. WELCOME TO AFRICA PEOPLE. Yes I’m back in Africa, more precise Bushenyi in the southwestern part of Uganda. (Hopefully I will get some fact about Uganda and Bushenyi on the blogg in a short time…)

This year I’m studying with Hald International Centre joining their Youth Exchange Program through Strømme Foundation. The course is called Act Now. I’m placed with West Ancole Diocese for my “fieldwork”. Mostly I’m going to help out in primary schools and manufacturing Christmas cards for sending home to those who have “friends at heart” here in Bushenyi.

I’ve now been in Uganda for about a week. My first “impression” of Uganda was: Finally back in Africa. It’s good to be back. All the small shops, crowded streets and crazy traffic; it makes me feel so alive.

traffic in Kampala:


The first days we, all the Act Nowers placed in East Africa, spent in Kampala. Our accommodation was at “Blue Mango”. It’s a really nice place. The rooms are simple but nice and the surroundings and “restaurant” is beautiful. A good place to spend the first days.



We used the days to get to know our partners and supervisors here in Africa. Visiting Strømme Foundation, see the town and do practical issues, like registering at the Norwegian embassy, get some Ugandan money etc.



And then we went off to our respectable places. Kathrine and I therefore went to Bushenyi. On our way we passed the equatorial line… On the picture you can see Kathrine and Didas.. And off course there were some souvenirshops as wel...



I found the place, Bushenyi, nice. It is not a big place, more like a village. If you have been to Africa and driven passed small places with shops on both sides of the highway then you know how Bushenyi is. But you can get quite a bit in the different shops, and if you miss something its not far to a bigger place, Ishaka, or town, Mbarara.
The bodaboda’s (motorcycle taxi) are in plenty and you can easily get one right outside our gate or other transport…(picture)


The nature here is fantastic(picture shows some of our wiew..), and our accommodation is good. We have our own apartment with a bedroom and bathroom each, a living room and a kitchen as well as another bathroom. This is “luxurious”. The power/electricity is on and off… It’s very nice when it’s on, but you get used to it been gone as well. It’s nice to have some good light then though, like from a paraffin lamp.

Our kitchen and my room while umpacking(off course no power):

At work (four days now) we have met with the bishop, had some language classes (ranjakole), and visited a couple of schools. It has been very good to have some language classes. I can’t say that I’ve learned much yet, but that’s only because I’ve haven’t been clever to memorize and try to practice. But I hope that in time I will be able to understand at least some of the language.

Kathrine and our language teacher Miriel:

We visited the two schools, Mirimbi model primary (p) school and Nkanga p. school, together with our supervisor and a reverend. We were treated like honor gests. All the pupils gathered together outside and we had to sit in front. I felt I was on display. We had brought new testaments that we gave to the teachers and the pupils. Kathrine and I sang a song for the pupils in Norwegian together with some moves. I think and hope that they enjoyed it.
We had the honor to eat lunch at one of the schools,Birimbi. Goat meet, matoke(bananas), posho(or ugali, like some will call it), beans, cabbage and several other things were served us. It tasted really good.
At the same school we visited some of the classes one by one. I even had the opportunity to be a teacher. It was in social studies primary 4 and was quite fun, but it had been good to have some time to prepare. They were doing some repetitions before the exams, and I asked them some questions – made on forehand by the teacher. The thing was that I didn’t now the answers to the questions (mainly about this district…) and couldn’t tell if the answer was right or wrong… So; very difficult, but it was fun trying… At the end of the day the children had a class were they where supposed to play, but it was raining so most of them stayed inside. They started to sing songs for me; really great singers and dancers.