Goats wandering around grazing in the “town” together with cows, and none of them seem too mind the traffic, passing by in tremendous speed, when passing the road. People shouting “mzungu how are you?” at you. Besides the traffic, animals, and maybe some generators running there’s no much other sounds besides some birds and rain pouring down now and then. I feel that everything is passing in slow paste… Taxi drivers are fighting over who should take you to Kiamhunga (a place where we attend Compassion International), and even fighting more (about the price) when they realize that the mzungu aren’t paying mzunguprice…

I’m back in Bushenyi, and I have been here for some weeks now. I’ve been away for Christmas holiday and Infield-course (a follow up course arranged by the school back home) (More about that below…)

Before the school started our working schedule looked like this:

Mondays: Work with the woman in prison (at the time - doing handcrafts with
the prisoners, mutual learning)/office work
Tuesdays: BMC (Bushenyi Medical Clinic) – being together with the
HIV/AIDS children while they wait for their medication. We bring
playing cards, books and thing to draw on and with. We usually also
show a movie…
Wednesdays: Compassion International
– an organization that organize different activities for orphans,
HIV/AIDS sick etc.
Thursdays: Office work/”field work” together with a health station.
-> Visiting the Dispensaries in the villages, seeing how they work
and help out if we can.
Fridays: Compassion International

I found the work interesting and varied. It was good to do something else than mainly office-work. We wanted to come here to meet people and help out if possible. Even though we helped with the paper-work at office, I feel more of a help when I’m out and meeting people…

-Together with some of the children at BMC-

I still struggle with the language, and it can be a problem sometimes, but one way or another you find other ways to communicate when needed. Like in the prison we can show each other how to do things without necessary explaining more… (Many of them speak little or no English) And I’ve had a nice time together with the ladies there.

The schools started this week. From next week we’re going to start with helping out at a computer-training school at Wednesdays and with teaching or similar at Fridays at the school for disadvantaged children. Compassion International is now only continuing on Saturdays, due to school.

I’m really looking forward to get started on this work. I think I’m going to learn a lot, and hopefully I can contribute something to the children, woman and youth that we’re going to work with. It’s going to be an exciting time.


CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY

-We spent much time traveling with bus and crossing borders during our vacation. This is some of the children at one of the border crossings…-


NORWEGIAN CHRISTMAS AND CRO!

“Pepperkaker, gløgg, melkesjokolade, Jul i Skomakergata, juleverksted, pinnekjøtt, surkål, grøt med mandel i…” This is some of the things we (Kathrine and I) enjoyed on our first days of our holiday – typical Norwegian Christmas traditions, food and candy… And where did we get all this? In Mbale!

The first days of our holiday we spent in Mbale visiting the CRO (Child Restoration Outreach) project and the two Act Nowers (AN) placed there.


-Thomas (AN) and his sister Kristin making “pepperkaker”-

I found it interesting to see what CRO is doing for many street children and help out with the Christmas-party they were holding for them. The work they do is so impressive and to see all the happy faces was amazing. I can’t imagine what they all have gone through, it’s too mind-blowing, and still they smile to you. It makes you think about what’s important in life. (You can read more about the CRO-project on the blogs for the ANs placed there – Eivind and Thomas)


-Children at CRO playing-


-Some of the children at CRO-

Coca Cola sponsored CRO with sodas and some other things for the party. From before I don’t have a very good impression of the Coca Cola Company, so I was a bit amazed over the fact that they actually sponsored CRO and even other projects. That’s very good! When Coca Cola came with a couple of trucks the children “suddenly” couldn’t sit still any longer (a function with speeches etc. was a part of the program for the party). I can understand that! ;)


-One of the Coca-Cola trucks-


ZANZIBAR

White beaches, restaurants, hotels and bungalows at the beach.
Spending some relaxing days at Zanzibar with some good friends is recommendable! My Christmas celebration was spent on the south-east coast at a place called Jambiani. I must admit that I didn’t really get the feeling that it was Christmas, but I really enjoyed the days spent there. Just relaxing and enjoying life… Christmas day I went snorkeling… ;)

-Sitting outside our accommodation right next to the beach-

Before leaving Zanzibar we spent some days in Stone-town as well. There the paste is a bit higher, than in north and south, but still calm with many small roads and market streets. I enjoyed walking around…


A NEW YEAR

When the New Year started I was in Nairobi. I celebrated it at a “FOCUS-camp” together with almost all the Norwegians placed in East-Africa. At the camp there were held meetings, Bible groups and seminars. New Years Eve were celebrated with a meeting and a party with some entertainment. Even the Norwegian “focus-people” entertained with a medley song. We had a countdown for the start of the new year, and reaching 0 people started clapping, shouting, lifting chairs, and running/jumping around in addition to congratulate each other. We then got biscuits and soda. And then it was all over… Hm… A new experience…

-Celebrating the New Year-

The celebration only lasted until about half past twelve when all went to bed. Well not all… nearly all the Norwegians (and a couple of others) stayed up two more hours in order to celebrate the Norwegian New Year… (Norway’s two hours behind…)

-Celebrating Norwegian New Year-

The other days in Nairobi I went to visit some of the places I remembered from my childhood. Places like The Norwegian Community School (NCS), Kenyatta Conference Centre, Horseman (a restaurant), Sarit Centre (shopping Centre), the railway museum, Uhuru Park (boating on the “lake”) and the giraffe Centre. It was fun visiting the places again even though I visited some of the places last time I went to Kenya, only a year ago. At NCS I met 5-6 people that either had been my teachers, or had been there while I went to school there as well. Most of them were also just on a visit. Funny how this things just happen… :o)

-From the top of Kenyatta Conference Centre-


-Railway museum-


-Giraffe Centre-


JINJA

Like last year, while traveling around, I went to Jinja for rafting. This time it was a lot more water. It looked scarier than last time, but that made it maybe even more fun. Sorry, I don’t have any pictures from it – but it was a bit difficult taking pictures while rafting… ;)


INFIELD-COURSE

After our vacation the infield course started. It was nice to meet all the Norwegians again (even though it wasn’t long since last time) and two of our teachers from Norway. We shared some experiences and encouraged each other. A really nice week!

One of the days we went on an excursion to Jinja - visiting the source of the Nile. Well… It is not the source, but it was believed to be for a long time, so…

-The source of the Nile???-

While we were in Jinja, some of us used our spare time on bungee jumping. 44m over the Nile from a platform… It didn’t look too high from the ground, but when we were up there… ai-ai-ai… I have for a long time wanted to do the bungee jump, but now that I had the chance I didn’t know if I dared… But I went out to where we were going to jump from, the security guys tied the bungee around my legs and I moved towards the edge…

-Standing at the edge-

When I stood there I thought: “I can’t do this… I’m not going to do this…” The man told me: “You have to jump now, or else you won’t jump.”

So I jumped…

I’m so happy that I can say that I jumped!
I can, together with the eleven others that jumped, recommend it!

-Enjoy and have fun! :o)-