Last days of glory

At this time, two weeks from now, I will be back in Norway. The last six months have passed so fast – it´s almost unbelievable. Of course I have very mixed feelings about going home. There are a lot of things I´m looking forward to, like seeing my family and friends, but there are a lot of things I will miss in Uganda. Therefore, I have made a list of things I will miss, and things I will definetely not miss here in Uganda.

What I´ll miss:

– the children and teachers at school

– our lovely neighbours (and all other friends of course)

– our friends in CHRISC

– cheap fruit!

– being able to buy a meal for 3 NOK and actually feel full afterwards

– Boda Boda! It´s awesome that you can call a «taxi», and he´ll come to your door and drive you where ever for maximum 8NOK

– Talking to random people on the street

– That it´s impossible to be lonely, because you can just walk out the door, and meet a bunch of people who would love to hang out with you

– Ugandan «sharing» mentality

– Ugandan happiness! They really laugh of everything, and make everything funny

 

What I´ll not miss:

– Charging airtime

– MOSQUITOS!

– Ugandan traffic germ

– People who just say what they think you want to hear

– being called «baby» by strangers, or being called on like a cat. «Pss, pss». Haha

– the phrase: «Mzungu, give me money!»

– getting «mzungu-price»

– African time (works well if I´m the one who is late, but not that well if I´m the one who has to wait for several hours. Like the time we used 17 hours on a tour that was going to take 5…)

– How most Ugandan men think about white girls (90% thinks that white girls are «easy» because that´s how they are in the Hollywood movies)

Well, most of the things on the «not miss»-list, is actually quite ridiculous and funny, so maybe I´ll actually miss it a little bit? The only thing I know, is that I´ll definitely going to miss Uganda, probably more than I understand right now.  So for now, I´m just going to enjoy the last two weeks here in «The Pearl of Africa».

Here are some pictures of what I have been doing the past few weeks:

Visiting Ssese Islands, an island in Lake Victoria

Clean-up at the school. The kids did a great job cleaning up the slum areas!

Bungee jumping over the Nile

 

Have a nice day!

-Miriam

Det motsatte av kjærlighet er ikke hat, men likegyldighet

I disse dager spres videoen om Joseph Kony som ild i tørt gress på internett. Den er overalt: på youtube, facebook, og i de aller fleste nettaviser. Jeg har selv sett videoen, og har lest en del om LRA og Kony, og det er jo helt forferdelig, og jeg syns innsatsen til Jason Russel er imponerende, og det er helt fantastisk at så mange engasjerer seg i saken. Det jeg stusser litt over, og som jeg syns andre som ser videoen også burde tenke litt på, er hvordan i alle dager dette kan ha foregått i 26 år uten at ”verden” har visst om det. For fakta er at det skjer forferdelige ting overalt i verden hver dag, som vi enten ikke vet om, ikke vil vite om, eller lukker øynene for. Det er media som bestemmer hvem og hvilken sak vi skal bry oss om. Trist, men sant. Hvis VG lager et stort oppslag om en sultkatastrofe et sted, og et par kjendiser uttaler seg om det, blir saken ”populær” med en gang. Vi starter innsamlingsaksjoner, artistene lager sanger for veldedighet osv. Men hva med resten av verden? Hva med alle de som lider hver dag, som vi glemmer? Det at noe så forferdelig som det Kony har gjort ikke har blitt ”kjent” av verden før etter 26 år er jo helt forferdelig, men det er ikke første gang heller.

(Sitatene er fra «Afrika-en vakker dag» av Tom Kristiansen. Boka anbefales på det sterkeste)

Under folkemordet i Rwanda i 1994 ble 800 000 tutsier drept på 100 dager. ” Etniske sammenstøt, stammekonflikter, hutu står mot tutsi, det var bare litt morsomme navn. Etter hvert endret nyhetene karakter – machetedrapene og de blodige oppgjørene ved veisperringene var for alvorlige, det kunne bli krig mellom væpnede fraksjoner. Så meldtes det om massakre, først i Kigali, siden i andre byer, men folkemord var det ikke… Først etter at folkemordets hundre dager var over, gikk det opp for verden hva som hadde skjedd. 800 000 drepte på 100 dager? Det rakk aldri Adolf Hitler, selv ikke på sitt mest effektive.”  1 av 3 Rwandere har sett et annet menneske bli lemlestet, voldtatt og/eller drept. 1 av 3! Og den eneste grunnen til at vi vet noe om dette folkemordet i det hele tatt er nok fordi vi har sett ”Hotel Rwanda” på film…

Eller har du for eksempel hørt om borgerkrigen i Zimbabwe på begynnelsen av 2000-tallet? President Mugabe sa dette, etter at han hadde hørt om Hitler og hva han hadde gjort: ”Hvis Hitler er slik, vil jeg være ti ganger Hitler. Det er hva vi står for!” Tror ikke jeg trenger å si mer…

Hva med borgerkrigen i Sudan? ”Darfur ble verdens nye mareritt, den største humanitære katastrofen i vår tid. Ja, større enn tsunamien i tall. Krigen i Irak får all oppmerksomhet, men det er flere som dør i Darfur. Og det er farligere i Darfur enn i Gaza.”

Jeg kunne fortsatt og lista opp alle mulige grusomheter i lang tid, men det skal jeg ikke, for jeg tror dere har skjønt poenget mitt nå. Vi kan ikke glemme resten av verden, og la media bestemme hvem vi skal bry oss om, hjelpe og be for. Etter 2. Verdenskrig var ”alle” enige i at noe sånt aldri måtte skje igjen, men la meg minne dere på at apartheid ikke sluttet før i 1991! Og vi har altfor mange eksempler på lignende hendelser i nyere tid, selv om det ikke har resultert eller vært del av noen verdenskrig.

Arnulf Øveland skrev følgende: ”Du må ikke tåle så inderlig vel, den urett som ikke rammer deg selv. Jeg roper med siste pust av min stemme, du får ikke lov til å gå der å glemme!”

Han har helt rett, vi kan ikke gå her og glemme. Men det hjelper ikke å huske 2.verdenskrig hvis vi lukker øynene for det som skjer nå. Det jeg vil frem til, er at det er utrolig flott at så mange engasjerer seg i Kony-saken, og jeg håper virkelig at han blir tatt, men vi MÅ IKKE GLEMME RESTEN AV VERDEN selv om det er denne videoen alle har sett og hørt om nå. Vi må lære av egne feil, og ikke la det gå 26 år til neste gang vi tar affære.

Ja, dette ble et trist og alvorlig blogginnlegg, men jeg tror det er viktig å huske på dette allikevel. Og ja, det er forferdelig og deprimerende alt dette som skjer der ute som vi ikke vet om/ikke vil vite/lukker øynene for, og det er vanskelig å vite hva vi skal gjøre, men vi kan i alle fall huske på dem i bønn og gjøre vårt beste for å hjelpe dem.

«Det motsatte av kjærlighet er ikke hat, men likegyldighet.» – Mor Theresa

 

 

 

Ordinary – yet not so ordinary days

We have now started to work at the primary school again, and you would think that our days would be more “ordinary” now.  Most days are, but quite often, something happens which makes the day unusual. Actually, it happens to often, that unusual things are not that unusual anymore. Here are some examples of ordinary – yet not so ordinary happenings from the last weeks:

1. I was waiting for a wedding reception to start, all dressed up in high heels and long dress, when I all of a sudden got in the middle of an “accident”. A policeman had beaten up a man, and I was watching from a distance (not at the attack of course, this was some minutes later) when I heard someone talking about first aid. Then it accoutred to me that I actually teach first aid here in Uganda, so I run over to them. After convincing one of the policemen that I actually knew first aid, I was able to go over to the injured man, but then someone had already helped him (luckily for me. I was terrified). I still don’t know what happened to the policeman, I only know that they brought the guy to a hospital, and I think he was okay.
2. Some days later, I was on my way back from the gym when I saw three guys standing and watching a guy that was lying on the ground. I had to stop of course, to see what was going on, and then I saw that the guy had some kind of attack/seizure and he was lying on his side with spit out of his mouth and was not conscious. My first thought was that he was epileptic or something, but I still didn’t know what to do. I just but him in the recovery position and held his head and shouted to the other guys that they had to find a car to take him to the hospital. A lot of men were gathering around us now. I guess it’s not very common for them to see a mzungu girl on her knees, holding a mans head and ordering the other men around. The problem was that none of the guys around me bothered to do anything. They were just standing there and watching, almost careless. So I finally managed to stop a car, and when I was going to carry him to the car, all the men were just standing there and watching while a GIRL carried a big, grown-up man all by her self. The only help I got was from a guy who barely touched one of the feet. Well, after shouting that I needed some help, since we all of a sudden were going to CARRY him to the hospital, two other men came and helped me and we got him to the hospital. As soon as we had “delivered” him, all the other guys ran away, and I was left there alone with a man no one knew who was. It was a lot “back and forwards”, so I will not tell you everything, that’s too boring, but let me just say that it worked out fine. But I’m still furious at the men who were just standing there, and didn’t even bother to help the guy. I even heard one of them saying that he probably would die, and yet they were just standing there. I get that it’s hard to know what to do it a situation like that, but they could at least have brought him to the hospital immediately, instead of just watching him. “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference”.
3. My first day alone at the school (when I say alone, I mean without Seline) something strange happened as well. I was sitting in the teachers room, when a bunch of kids came in with a girl who was screaming and they needed like 8 people to hold her. I first thought that someone had been beating her or something, but when they laid her down on the floor, I couldn´t see any wounds. Then some teachers came over to her and started praying. Obviously, this was an attack from the devil or an evil spirit or something. At least that’s what they said, but I have no idea. I had never seen anything like this before, so this was also a new experience to me.

So as I said: there are not that many ordinary days here in Kampala, but that’s how we like it, and I’m quite sure that the last two months here (yes, I now have less than two months left in Uganda) will pass too fast.

Sorry, the internet connection is very bad here right now, so I can´t upload any pictures. Maybe they will come later. To see what we have been doing the last months (in pictures), you can check out Selines blog: http://www.selinejensen.wordpress.com

Have a blessed day 🙂

 

Update

A lot of things has happened since the last time I was able to blog, so I´ll make a short summary of some of the things that I´ve done.

Christmas Eve was celebrated with good mzungufriends in Kampala. We made a delicious dinner, watched «Three nuts for Cinderella» and walked around the Christmas tree for a loong time. Some of the local people obviously thought it was a bit weird to see 6 white girls «worship» a fake tree, but we enjoyed it very much 🙂

During New years, Helene, Benedicte, Benedicte, Seline and me climbed the Kilimanjaro. We had it all: rainforest, glaciers, rain, snow, wind, sun. It was too awesome to explain in a blog post. But most important: we reached the top on the 1st of January. It was a nice way to start 2012. Haven´t got the pictures yet, just some of them, so I´ll post the other ones when I get them 🙂 Here are some pictures from day 4, the day before we reached the top.

Foto: Helene Jørgensen - dagen før toppen!

It had been raining for three days, so all our clothes were soaking wet. Thank God for the morning sun of the fourth day!

After Kili, we went to Nairobi, Kenya, for Infield with the students at Hald in East Africa. And from there, Marte, Seline and me went to a small town/village called Kilgoris to visit an orphanage home/school. It was quite different from what we´re used to, because at first, the kids there were fearing us. Guess they had not seen that many white people in their life. When they finally  dared to talk to us, we understood that these kids were amazing.

The last night of our stay, we sat down in the girls´dormitory and they sang for us. There was no electricity in this part of the village, so our only light came from a paraffin lamp. When we were sitting there, listening to these beautiful voices, I started looking around in the room. There were many suitcases lined up along the wall. All the girls had one each, and this was were they kept all their belongings. Then I came to think about all the stuff we had brought, just to stay there for a couple of days. The three of us probably own more clothes than all of these 50 girls together. But there we were, singing together, worshiping God, and nothing else mattered. Their smiles were worth more than 100 sweaters, and they looked at me in a such a way that is hard to describe. Moments like that are just priceless.

Last week, we went to Arua and Mbale with CHRISC. Will try to write a post about it later, if I have internet and enough time.

Have a nice day! 🙂

Do they know it´s Christmastime at all?

Do they know it´s Christmastime at all? Well – at least our neighbors do. If not, there must be something wrong, because we have tried really hard to get the right Christmas mood for a long time now. For many others, the problem is that they can´t afford to celebrate Christmas, and I guess that makes it even worse. Seeing this, and seeing the contrasts from Norwegian Christmas really makes me realize what Christmas is all about. As you can see from the following pictures, we have done a lot to try to get the right Christmas mood, but it´s not working that well. There are a lot of things money can´t buy. Anyways- here are some of the things we have done:

It all started the last weekend in November. I was determined that we needed an «adventskrans» in our apartment, so I took a walk in the neighborhood, looking for something that could look almost similar to pine or spruce. I finally found a tree in our neighbors garden, and they kindly gave me a huge branch.

Very satisfied with this strike. In grandma´s 20 year old dress 🙂

Look mum! Not as satisfied with the result as I hoped for, but it´s better than nothing 🙂

On the first of December, we gathered all the mzungu-girls and celebrated the beginning of the Christmas month with norwegian porridge, Christmas music and «adventslys». 

We were invited to our friend sons graduation party (from kindergarden to primary school). A four hour ceremony- and then Santa Claus came! It was the most scary Santa I have ever seen, because he/she was wearing sun glasses, and had the most terrible fake voice ever, and the fake stomach was placed on the boobs in stead of the stomach.

Luckily for us-we have been very good this year, so we got a picture with Santa!

And there is no Christmas without cookies. Our plan was to make 7 sorts, but since we didn´t have  enough time or ingredients, we ended up with 6. They were made without anything to measure with(takk Gud for øyemål!) but came out pretty nice! Sorry, I don´t have pictures of all of them yet. But we made Pepperkaker, marsipan, nøtte-og sjokoladekjeks, brune pinner, kakemenn and Maryland Cookies.

We´re going to be the best housewives ever! 🙂

I´m not sure if they know it´s Christmas time, but at least they were happy-and they made me happy 🙂

We have also visited a «ghetto» for Sudanese refugees. It was a «nice» experience, and the kids were adorable! I think this is the best experience in December. Thank you, kids!

«For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.» Isaiah 9:6

– Miriam

Uganda – a warm country

Uganda is a warm country. You probably knew that already, but it´s not only the temperature that is warm here. The people are also more warm than any people I´ve ever met. And now I don´t mean on the outside (they´re probably warm on the outside also, but I haven´t given it much thought yet..) They have such warm hearts! Most Ugandans are caring and welcoming, and they share what they have. Of course there are those who shouts: «Hey, Mzungu! Give me your money» when we pass them on the street.  There are those who tries to charge us double prize just because we are white, and there are those who only see us as white money boxes. But I think I´m going to let those ones go, and concentrate on all the other, lovely people. Those who cuts down half of their garden tree and gives you for free because you´re going to make a norwegian Christmas decoration for your apartment. Those who help you find a taxi and waits with you for 30 minutes, just to make sure you get in the right taxi and that the driver don´t overcharge you. Those who give you a big pineapple for free (which is worth more than some of the people here earn in one day) just because she appreciates that you buy her pineapples a couple of times a week. THAT´s the Uganda I´m getting to  know. And to all those people, who are so nice to us: I know that you probably don´t have Internet or a computer, but anyways – Thank you.

«And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12,30-31

MTN Kampala Marathon

Have you ever walked into a barn, and the only thing you could see was small, yellow chickens? They were everywhere, and you could almost not move without stamping on one of them? Well,that´s how it felt to be in Kampala on Sunday. The only exception was that the chickens were humans. This Sunday, Helene, Benedicte, Seline and me attended MTN Kampala Marathon. And we were not alone – 20.000 other people were also running, and everyone was wearing yellow jerseys. It was awesome! We run 21(24?)km and 10 km.

When I was running, I realized that we(most Norwegians) have way to high criterions for our training. We use thousands of NOK to buy fancy sneakers and special training clothes. Many of the people that were attending this marathon, were running in flat shoes. For 21 km! My only thought was: wow, that must hurt. But they did not care. They ran, they had fun, and they did well! And if you´re a footballer, you probably have at least one pair of football shoes. Well, most of the kids I have seen does not have football shoes. If they´re lucky, they might have one. So they use that one shoe as best as possible. And let me tell you, they are shockingly good football players! It´s actually fun to watch a P.E class of 10 year olds when they play. I think we all have a lot to learn here. My point is: you don´t need to have fancy equipment to be a good sportsman.

Anyways. The MTN Marathon was awesome, and my legs are killing me today 🙂 (I had never run 24 km before. Yes, I know it is supposed to be 21, but I ran a little bit wrong, I think.. ) And the best part of the arrangement: all the money from the marathon (you had to pay approximately 20NOK to attend) went to clean water for the people in Amuria 🙂

ready for the marathon!

«Couse it´s in Him we live, we move and are free»

– Miriam

Kabale and Kisoro

This week, we went to Kabale and Kisoro to visit some CHRISC groups. It was very nice to see some nature again, and we had a great time! We took a night bus to from Kampala to Kabale, and I will never complain about «Sørlandsekspressen» again, because this bus ride was crazy! (But also very funny). The bus was so full that some people had to sit on the floor, it stopped all the time, some people tried to get on and off while we were still driving, and there were a lot of drunk people there. And if that was not enough, Seline was afraid that her window would fall out. It was awesome!

In Kabale, we visited two schools and had games with the pupils. The children were just as adorable as the kids at St. Martins. We stayed with our friends who work at the Drucilla Project. Very nice.

On Friday, we drove to Kisoro. 7,5 people in a small car, and we saw monkeys/Babon on the way. So cool!

3 stk i forsetet 🙂

Ape!

In Kisoro, we visited a local group, and then on Saturday, we drove 2-3 hours into the bush to have netball and volleyball tournament with all the local groups in Kisoro. We were 70 people in the back of a car! Seriously, we stood like «Sild i tønne». Nice experience. But the road we were driving on was a mountain road, and it was very bad, so I was afraid that the car would flip and we would die. Haha. But we got there safely! On the way back, when we had only been driving for about 5 minutes, we had do jump out because the car got stuck in some mud. So I and 3 guys started running. And the car used so much time, so we just continued running. We stopped and started walking after 45 minutes, because it was getting so dark, and then we walked for an hour, and then we waited for 20 minutes before the car got there. «Ting tar tid» in Africa. But it was a nice run!

Tree planting

The Winning team

Volleyball tournament

Netball tournament

70 stk på ett lasteplan!

Games in one of the local groups

«Couse it´s in Him we live, we move and we are free!»

Have a nice day, and may God Bless you.

– Miriam

Wedding introduction and rafting

We have had a lot of fun this weekend. First, all the other mzungus arrived Kampala at friday. We went out for dinner and had a nice evening together. On Saturday, we went to Masaka for Semeis wedding introduction. We dressed up in our Gomesis (it was WARM!) and felt like real Ugandans. Everything was in Luganda, so we practically just sat there for 4-5 hours without understanding anything, but it was nice anyway. I thought it was very interesting to see all the traditions and how they do things here. And everybody was dressed so smart. At one time, we actually had to carry some gifts on our head to give to the couple (I think). So we held our Gomesi with one hand (it´s long, so you have to hold it up while you´re walking) and supported the gift with the other hand. It would have been very embarrassing if we lost the gift or something. And it was so cool and different from Norway. Couse the gifts they got, were meat, soda, bread, butter and chickens (they were still alive! ) etc. Awesome. What I think is very cool, is that everything is very different from how we do it at home (we don´t even have a wedding introduction), but you could really see that the love was the same. And the coming bride was SO beautiful! The whole point of the introduction was for Susan(the coming bride) to introduce Semei to her family and friends. So in the beginning, they didn´t know who he was, but then some of them took warm water in a black cup, and then the cup changed from black, to a picture of Semei and Susan. African magic. I was so amazed! And we couldn´t see Susan at first either. So everything was kind of exciting. As I mentioned, we didn´t understand much of what they said, but sometimes we heard some of the toast masters say «muzungu»-something, and then everybody looked at us. It was weird to know that they talked about us, but we didn´t know what they said. All in all, it was an interesting day. I´m very happy that I now have  participated in a typical Ugandan wedding introduction.

On Sunday morning, we went to Jinja for rafting in the Nile. I was a little bit scared at first, but when we started it was just AWESOME! It was a grade 5 rafting, so the boat flipped a couple of times, and we fell out. It was so cool! And the weather was perfect. Sometimes, when there was some space between the torrents, we just jumped out of the boat and just swam with the flow. It was simply a perfect day. In the middle of the rafting, we stopped and had lunch in the boat. Fresh pineapple on the Nile. Priceless. The rafting lasted for 4-5 hours I think, and when we got back on land, we had a delicious BBQ-meal waiting for us. We´re getting pictures from the rafting on a CD by post, so I´ll post some of them when they arrive.

LIFE IS GOOD!

«For in him we live and move and have our being» Acts 17:28a

-Miriam

Update

I thought it was about time to update you on how things are going down here in The Pearl of Africa. To say it simple: Life is GOOD!

– we have started working at St.Martins Primary School. The kids are awesome, and the teachers as well! Being a P.E teacher for 60-70 kids at the same time is somehow exhausting, but very, very nice! We love it.

– we are getting Gomesis! That´s the national dress of Uganda. Will show you pictures later

– we have been eating dinner with our neighbors. Nice dinner, nice people. Now we feel even more safe, knowing that we have great people so close.

– our Boda-Boda drove out of the road and  in the ditch! It was very scary, because we almost got hit by some cars since we were in the wrong side of the road, but somehow totally awsome!

– we have seen a woman walking around topless. With just a skirt on. It was weird for two mzungugirls, so we didn´t know exactly where to look. But don´t worry – we won´t try it. Another funny experience.

– and now we have gas in our apartment! So we are making our own food. Amazing. We´re growing up so fast.

– we´re making friends! Awesome.

– we have not had electricity for a while. Someone may say that it sucks, but we think it exotic! And we´re getting creative.

Will add some pictures later when I have time and internet.

Siiba bulungi! (Have a nice day)