Ice cream!

Diplom is

The picture you see above, is not taken in Norway, but at the nearest supermarket to where I live in Kampala. I have lived at this place for almost five months, and been to this shop many times, especially to buy water. But it was first last week I saw the big Diplom is paining on the freezer that they have their water. I wished really that there also could be some Diplom ice cream in it, because I think Norwegian ice cream is better than the local one, or the imported one, like nestle and other brands. But no ice, only water. But I am happy with that, since water is life:p And just to find a Diplom is freezer was really fun :)

Hot weather depressions

In Norway there is a lot talk about Winter depressions, the father north you live, and the more common this is. Winter depressions are when you life in a cold and dark environment during a period of time, and this effects your mood in a negative way.But what about hot weather depressions, the last months it has been really hot here (at least for me, and much sun. This is nice and good, sun makes people happy and in a good mood. This is a fact, or? Rules are meant to be broken. Because, I really have started to miss cold weather, rain, storm and what we call really good Sunnmørs vær. Because, you sweet when you sleep, you sweet when you go to and from the office. When you come back and a really tired, and you lie down on the bed to sleep, you finds it is too hot to sleep, and you sweet. And I also wake up, early because of the heat. Hot weather depressions are hard.By the way, it is up to you as a reader to decide how serious you will take this post. Depends on how good you now me. :p Just remember If you are happy, I am happy.

Travelling

This weekend I travelled to Soroti, with four others, but this time I was the only one from Team Kampala. It is good to travel, and I have done a lot here in Uganda. Hopefully I am finished with travelling now, I just want to stay in Kampala and in Gerenge (the camp site), the last week, and enjoy the time.

Culture what?

The last weekend me, Aina, Eddie, Faith and Brian travelled north to Lira, a town around five hours from Kampala. (Per was back in Kampala and Ingrid was in Kenya).
We had their training on voluntary staff on Saturday and on Sunday we visited a CU at a University around 45 min from Lira. We had a lot of program during the weekend, so we did not have time to see so much of the town. I got to visit on of my “host brothers” at the place he works, so that was nice.

Care-Groups is something I have worked with almost every week since I came here. So maybe I should tell something about that. That is a group that should have between 3 and 12 members, so we can also say it is small groups. This groups is a part of the CU (Christian Union) at the university, and is one of the ways FOCUS works. We help the different Care-Group leaders with training and information. One of the most important ting is bible study, but also other things as training/talking about important issues like: HIV/Aids, leader training and other subjects that is important for youths.

We also have had some individual talks about reversed culture shock with a counsellor working closely with FOCUS, and tomorrow we are going to have a training all four of us. I do no think that I will have any culture shock when I go back home. We have had two counsellors working with FOCUS since we came, and both have been talking about it is a bigger shock, going back, than coming here. But as stubborn as I am, I still have a very hard time believing it, to be honest I do not see the possibility for me getting a culture shock when go home :p

Bloggesisten

Eg blei tatt Nils-Ove, Aina, Marit og Finni, og sender derfor ballen vidare...

Reglar:Kvar spiller startar med å skrive seks rare ting om seg sjølv. Bloggare som blir "tatt" må skrive seks ting om seg sjølv i sin egen blogg, i tillegg til å angi reglene for spillet. Til slutt veljar spillaren seks nye bloggearar som "har den", og lister namna deira. Etter det er gjort, skriver han eller hun ein kommentar på bloggane til kvar av dei, for å la dei vite at de har blitt "tatt", og at de må lese bloggen til den som tok dei for meir informasjon."

Eg trudde at eg blei like sterk som Skipperen om eg åt spinat.
Eg er ein ”treige” person.
Eg klarer ikkje lengre å søve lengre enn til 7-8 om morgonen.
Eg er smågal.
Eg har skåra sjølvmål i ein fotballkamp mot Vartdal.
Eg blir irritert når hanar galar, før sola står opp.

Ballen går vidare til: Ludo, Jentene paa tur, Olav Magne, Elise

If you are Happy, I am Happy :)

If you are Happy


I am happy

Are you happy?

If You Want to Walk on Water You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat

I want to brag a little about all the books I have read in my stay in Uganda so fare. Maybe this is not so many books for this time I have been here, but for me I have read much more than I usually do. It is a good thing, because I like to read.And I also read my devotional book every day, and try to read in the bible every day.


- Curriculum books
- Den Globale reisen by Knud Vilby (60 pages)
- Møte mellom mennesker by Øyvind Dahl (230 pages)
- God Kontakt by Asbjørn Kvalbein (100 side)
- Tro og Bekjennelse by Tove Rustan Skaar (180 pages)
- Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybles (250 pages)
- The New Global mission by Samiel Escobar (190 Pages)

(Not all those books above, have I read entirely through, because there was some chapters that was not curriculum. So I have just written how many pages I have read from every book.)

- Other books
- Uganda Holocaust By D.Wooding and R.Benett (220 pages)
- The Great Divorce By C.S Lewis (110 pages)
- The Screwtape letters by C.S Lewis (130 pagers)
- God in the Dock by C.S Lewis (125 pages)
- The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett (285 pages)
- Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett (360 pages)
- The Talisman by Stephen King and (780 pages)
- The Seventh Scroll by Wilburn Smith (520 pages)
- The Flying Scotsman by S.Magnusson (190 pages)
- Babylon Rising by Tim Lahaye and G.Dinallo (400 pages)
- Heresies and Cults By J.O.Sanders (165 pages)
- Mere Christianity By C.S Lewis (155 pages)
- Wild at Heart by John Eldredge (265 pages)
- Abduction by Robin Cook (410 Pages)
- If You Want to Walk on Water You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat
by Johan Ortberg (250 pages)


Of these books I really want to recommend these books

- Courageous leadership
A good book about leadership, I liked it

- Wild at Heart
A book that I had problems letting down, but I had to, because it gave me so many ideas to think about, And with many quotations from Braveheart, it had to be a good book :p

- If You Want to Walk on Water You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat This was a really good book, it is a book I would recommend very much, it gave me so much to think about. I am going to buy this book and read again in the near future

Zhongfu

This is my new football shoes, bought them on a marked in Mbale. Yesterday I was on my weekly football training, and since it started raining heavily, I was glad I had football shoes instead of just ordinary jogging shoes. After the first training with my new ZhongFu, I am pleased with my shoes, my first Chinese shoes. The people I play football with are, from 10 to 45 years old (or something like that), men and women. From Denmark, Finland, Norway and Switzerland. Not very serious, but I like, it is good to kick the ball a little bit.



From Friday to Monday, we were on a little tour, visited Tororo, Mbale and Sortti.We did some training for FOCUS staff and associates. Hade a good time, and met many nice and interesting people. On Saturday me, Per and Aina visited Eivind and Thomas in Mbale. In the picture above you find the four playing Ligretto, Aina won, I lost and got minus 50 or something :pThey also made waffles and we also got to “brunost” put on. My first brunost since I came here in October, it was soo good :) So thank you guys! It was nice to visit them.When we where going back from Sorotti on Monday, we where going to stop in Jinja to have a training there also, but since we had some car problem we came to late. First we had to find and change a tired. Than the radiator got to hot, and we had to stop in a town and fix it, since it also had a leak. But at the end we came back, and I hade some good days. Next Saturday the plan is to go to Lyra, after that I think the plan is to stay for the most in Kampala.Under you can see a couple of pictures of the car problem.

Here are some new links:
Godoy A-lag blog
Godoy
Fokus blog

Under is a picture of the football ground the lies near our house, and here they play league games sometimes. So I will just say “Nothing is like Godøy gras, nothing”

Safari

Safari Last week me, Per, Aina and Ingrid and here parents went to Mourchison (Or something:p) Falls, one of the national parks in Uganda. It is around 5 hours drive from Kampala. We used some hours since our driver, had do help his son out of jail (but that’s another story).We slept in tents two and two, but they where big, and we even had beds, in the night we heard animals walking outside the tent, they said that sometimes there came a leopard inside the camp during the night. And also a hippo was usually walking around, but I did not see any of those, so I think it just was the wart hogs that stayed in the camp. E really beautiful animal… Or maybe not, you can decide for your self.

On Thursday we hade first a 4 hours drive in the park, where the driver raised the roof on the car, so we could stand and take pictures. There where so many animals to see, specially different kinds of birds, monkeys and Antelopes we got to see much of. After some driving around, we found there lions, they where walking around the car, and I think we got around five minutes with them, lovely. Than a little later we also met around twenty elephants crossing the road 30 meters in front of the car, was especially cool to see the biggest elephant, he stopped and looked at us, while the rest of the elephants crossed the road. When he saw that they where all safe over, he just turn around and walk after them. Then we saw some giraffes, water buffaloes, a hippo and many other.Later on the same day we went on a boat ride, a liked it very much. We saw many hippos, some crocodiles and many of the animals we saw earlier. I liked seeing the elephants eating from the tree. The trip was on three hours, we saw also a fall. Which we the next day, when for a little walking safari, it was really beautiful.

So I can say that I really enjoyed being on the safari, I think if I have to choose, I will say that the elephants and the lions was my favourite. We did no see any leopards that were an animal I really wanted to see.
Here are some more pictures.

King Harald birthday

Today 21 of February King Harald of Norway has his birthday, so I just wanted to write a little post. Me and Per will celebrate with Pizza, sodas and Ice cream
So if he or somebody how knows him reads this post: Happy birthday King Harald and have a nice day.

There is a time for everything

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heaven

Planning meeting
Last weekend we use to be in a planning meeting with some other Focus staff, we discuss who they can have a better impact on the different campus this year. What Focus can do have a bigger and better impact on the students. We made a quit a lot of plans, but most is after we will leave, so we were mostly just listening. But it was three long days.

Teaching
On that Saturday I also was teacher for a lesson at the children pros jet, I where in Class 4 (the oldest class). I had Health class, and I these day Emotions and Health was the theme, and I was going to teach them about psychosomatic illness. Quit a theme to start your teacher carrier with, there where so many hard word that I have problem (or could not) explaining I Norwegian and even pronouncing in Norwegian. But with some in advance reading and studying in the book I got, I think it went ok. At least I know some more about Psychosomatic illnesses.

Bible camp
Then I and the rest of the Team Kampala have been on a bible camp for six days in Gerenge (the camp sit to FOCUS). There was only around 25 persons (some days even under 20), but that was a good thing, it made it to a camp without stress. So I had some nice days. Everyday we had bible exposition about the Gospel of Mark, and I thought this was very interesting, and I learn a lot. There are so many more things you will find when you really dig deep into the text, and of course when you work together with other, and have a good teacher and access to different bible helps. We had also some other seminar, games and good time to rest and take a swim in Lake Victoria.

What to come:
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday these week, we are going to a Safari, it is something a really look forward to. I have heard that the national park we are going to have at least, hippos, crocodiles, antelopes, many birds and some beautiful water falls. In my next blog I will of course write about this trip.
Than the two weekends we (us four Norwegians and on of our bosses) are going to visit some universities in some other districts.
So it will be quit a lot of travelling in February.

ROCKY SIX
I hade to also say some few words about these movie, because I have loved the Rocky series, may except number five (For the people that do not know, Rocky is a movie(s) about a boxer called Rocky, and is played by Sylvester Stallone). So what can I say about the movie? I will just say that I liked it and, that I have to see the other Rocky movies again. If you the other Rocky movie, I recommend that you also see this.
I will end this blog with writing these words from the movie: “It ain’t over til it’s over”

Grip dagen/Carpe Diem!

Mitt store ”mål” her i live var lenge å bli 1.80 m høg. Elles har eg tatt ting som dei har komet.

Men eg blei aldri 1.80 m høg,. Dette va mitt ”store” mål fordi ein eller anna sa til meg for mange år sidan, at ein neste måtte være minst 1.80 for å spille midtstoppar, som eg gjerne ville bli. Nå har eg funne ut at fotball ikkje er det viktigaste her i livet (men kanskje det viktigaste av dei uviktige tinga?), eg bli aldri nokon ny Gary Mabutt og forresten eg har også funnet ut at eg likar betre å spele på høgre back.

Kva er eller kva bør være mitt store mål her i livet? Kva vil eg bruka livet mit til?

Dette er tankar som eg har brukt masse tid på i dei siste vekene. Eg har aldri stressa med slike ting, eg har alltid valt det trygge og kjente når eg har valt skuler og slike ting før.
Eg angrar ikkje på vala mine så langt i livet, eg er rett og slett nøgd :)

Men nå føler eg at eg har komet til det berømte vegskiljet her i livet. At nå må eg ta eit val.
Men kva skal eg velje?
Kva skal eg bli? Skal eg studera til hausten? Skal eg jobba? Kva skal eg studera/jobba med?

”Gud har ein plan med det liv”, det er noko som eg og har tenkt på, dette er også noko som eg trur på. Samtidig når eg tenker på det, so dukkar dei same spørsmåla opp da. Kva og kor vil Han at eg ska bruka livet mit til?
Ein anna ting, er at eg trur at Gud også har ein backup plan for både meg og deg, at så lenge eg er villig, så kan han bruka meg uansett kva eg velje å studere, jobbar, reiser eller bur.

Jeremia 29 11-13
”For jeg vet de tanker jeg tenker om dere, seier Herren. Det er fredstanker og ikke tanker til ulykke. Jeg vil gi dere framtid og håp.

Og dere skal påkalle meg og gå av sted og be til meg, og jeg vil høre på dere.
Dere skal søke meg, og dere skal finne meg når dere finner meg av hele deres hjerte”

Eg har alltid sett på meg sjølv som ein person som klarer å sjå positivt på det meste.
Så eg må berre seia at : Eg trur ordne seg til det beste til slutt og at det i alle fall blir noko av meg og!

Masse tankar her, å eg veit ikkje om ein blog er den rette plassen og dela dei med folk.
Men eg håpar at kanskje nokon vil komme med litt forslag til meg, til kva eg bør satsa på her i livet, korleis eg kan gå fram for å finne ut kva eg vil eller berre anbefalingar.
Takker og bukkar for tips og råd :)

Why is it suddenly so quiet in the morning?

When I came back from the children camp, there was something missing in the morning, I am nor sure what, but I slept very good, and nobody or thing woke me up in the middle of the night. The same happened the two next days, before I started to wander where the rooster had gone. I asked the people in the house if it was the rooster that we had eaten the day before, but it was not it. A little bit later into the supper I heard my good friend, the rooster crow, but not from outside, but from the garage!!!!In the night the goat also get to come into the garage, but in the day, he gets to go out again, but the rooster has to stay in the garage all day long.

So what I am wondering now is “What is the rooster doing in the garage?
a) Are we going to slaughter it soon and eat it?
b) Have the family put it here, because it wakes me up so early?
c) Is the rooster watching the car?
d) Have the turned the garage to a pet house?
e) Or is there another explanation? And what is it?

What do you think?Write your answer as a comment.The best (or funniest) answer will get to download free, a picture of the rooster/cock!!!!

Another animal is the Turkey. First off all, he are not allowed to get into the garage, not in the day and not in the night, he has to go outside all day long. At least a couple of times during the last week I have said to Per “This Turkey, he is a stupid, stupid animal”. But why do I say this about a innocent animal???Ok, in the morning when I am going to take a shower, I go out, and see this animal standing knocking his bill (nebb) against the car. When I am going to work, he is still doing it.When I come back from work, he is still on it. When I come back from my run, he is still knocking.

People says to me that the reason is that he sees him self in the car (like a mirror), and therefore he knocks the reflected image. I can buy this explanation, which he thinks he sees another turkey, but still, when he does this all day long, day after day, he must get the point soon. (And some times the car alarm start in the middle of the night, and then I often hear this animal, so I think maybe he also in the middle of the night, goes at start knocking on the car).I know it is not nice to call somebody or something stupid, so I am really sorry for calling this Turkey stupid, maybe I should just say “this less intelligent animal”

Nordic Sportsday

Today I have been on the Nordic Sporstday here in Uganda. There were both competition sports and just social sports. Since Norway had a quiet small group, I had do been en many of the activities, but that’s was fine with me. Denmark had at least three times as many participants as Norway, and Sweden twice.I ran 3,6 Km (Norway came 1,2 and 5 (me :p), than almost everyone swam 300 meters, before I was in the Norwegian swimming relay team, sadly we came last there. In the football we lost again a Danish team, beat Sweden two times, and beat another Danish team, so that was fun. Good to play some football again. I scored two goals, of course it is not so serious, and the level was not so high, but it is always fun to put the ball in the goal :pThan in the Running relay race and the tug of war Norway came second. Overall Denmark won, Sweden second and Norway third.The most important it not to win, but to compete ;)

I hade a great day, got to meet many new people, and got to do a lot of training, and I really need that:p and I liked very much to play football again. And there are some Danish abased people that are training every Tuesday nearby, so I could join them, so that is really great.

Children camp

I am sitting writing this blog, when I really should have been sleeping, because I have trouble holding my eyes open today. But as often before, when I am really tired, I manage to everything else except sleeping, for example: writing a blog. (That I am not going to publish before tomorrow, and therefore could have written it than). It will be good to sleep long tomorrow.The Infield course ended at Sunday, and of course we did not sleep so much there and then straight to the Focus’s children camp from Monday to Thursday. At there we have to stand up before 6.Am and than I had to take the kids for a jogging trip, in the evening they where very awake, and did all other things than sleep (does it sound familiar? :p).

But if you have a good time, you don’t need so much sleep, and I hade a god time. And is also very giving to see the children so happy, and to see they are really having a good time, who need sleep than. There are many things to tell about the camp, everything from swimming in the Victoria Lake to all the different seminars we had.I will just write short about two things I remember wellthe first was when they where going to have a “street” dancing contest between the to kids pros jet that was on the camp. (FOCUS and another nearby pros jet). I have seen this kids dancing in the evening early at the camp, and they can really dance. But suddenly now, nobody wanted to dance, everyone sat there. So I thought: “Yeah, Yeah. If I go a dance, people will get a good laugh, and see that they can at least do better than this crazy Mozungo”, so I went and “challenged” one of the leaders from the other pros jet. And we where going to street dance against each other.I do not know who won, because luckily for me, he is the only one I have meet from Uganda ( and many other countries), that is almost as poor as me at dancing :p But people laugh and had fund, and we did also.Sometimes you just have to swallow your pride, and be a little crazy:p
(I haven’t got any picture from the dance yet, but I shall try to get and put it out)The second was when we where make chapaties, they where going to make around 250, and they where planning to use a couple of hours or so, but it took much longer, think they started before six pm, and finished around 1.Am. Why they did use so long time? I do no knowbut I used the opportunities to take some pictures and films, and of course also try to make it my self. So I think I will try to make some after I go back homehere is a picture of me in action.And thirdly (I know I wrote to thing, but this is still the third)It is good to see how people here in Uganda, sings and moves at church and meetings, and the rhythm they have here is really nice and gets you in a good mood.But tonight when we came back to our host family, and there we prayed and sang a little bit together, and it was nice and relaxing to sing these there songs: As a deer, what a friend we have in Jesus and. The two first songs, I love so sing in my church back home (and of course here, when I get the chance), specially when we have meeting where both youth and old people are. I love this “bedehussanga” (old Christian hymns).I just felt to mention these.
Today (or tonight) I will end by posting a lucky shoot I made with my camera. I will just call it The Butterfly and Per

Picture from Innfield

I was going to uppdate my blog, that I hade written yesterday, but I forgot it at home:p

So until next time I am on the net.
here is a picture from the Infield course.

3-2-1- BUNGEE

from Wednesday to Sunday, we where 14 students and 2 teachers from Hald at Blue Mango Hotel in Kampala. Where there for our Infield course, we had some teaching, reflections, counselling and of course a lot of social. I had a really good time, it was so fun to be together with so many friends again, to share good and bad thing so fare in our stay abroad, and also to get advice from the teachers and the other students.In my room we where six guys, at three two-storeyed bunk, so it was quit cramped. But that was ok, because we where out of the room most of the day, and it was so fun to just talk nonsense (Tullprat) too late in the night:pHade some really good days. So thank you all, I look forward to see you all at Hald again.

Before I finish this blog, I have to say something about when we went Bungee jumping, because that was soo cool and fun. (Just for the record, the Bungee we did at our spare time, so the school did not organise it.) We hade to jump from at tower, which was 44 meters from the water surface, and what a kick it was to jump, you are trying not to look down, but of course you do, your heart is pumping more than unusual, and than the bungee guide says “3-2-1-BUNGY”, and you have to jump and bungee. It was so cool to be in the air, and than straight in to the water (you could choose if you wanted to touch the water or not). I hade three jumps, the first and the second was lovely, and I hade almost my half body in the water. The last jump, was crazy, since I was the last person jumping, I got some extra rope, so I think almost all my body was under water (maybe except the ankles). I can describe it, but it felt good and was a really adrenaline kick!!!Here I have put some pictures together of my jump. (The pictures is taken by Aina M Svendsen and Øystein Ruud)

Better late than never!

Today I finally got the packaged my mother had sent my in the end of November. (She has sent a cd with pictures in October, but that is still somewhere else then here:p). It actually arrived in Kampala 13.Desember, but they did not send out the letter before a week after, and then the FOCUS office closed for the Christmas, and this was my first day after New Year, but it was worth waiting for.This was what I found in the package:
- Nordvestlandskalendere 2007 (Calder of 2007 with pictures from the part of Norway I live in. In fact at the front, there where a picture from a lighthouse on my Island (Godøya) and there was also a picture inside with Godøya on it, Beautiful!)
- Dumle lollipop
- Six different kind of Christmas magazine (Donald, NR.91 Stomeperud, Flåklypa, Mickey Mouse, Billy and Knoll og Tott)
- Three packages with Vestlansk Lefse (type of griddle cake (thin, potato-based pastry traditionally served with butter).
- Lasagne plats and lasagne powder (so now I can make lasagne by my self:p )-
- Two pack of Norwegian rice porridge (Fast food, only 5 minutes cooking time).
- Four Kick liquorice stick ( Two ordinary and two with lemon taste).
- Christmas marzipan
- Mør (Yeah, I know this is a Norwegian word, but I do not knot what I shall translate this word, I now many Norwegians also have problem with this word. But that’s life.. hehe:p )
- Many copies of the famous Norwegian Newspaper Sunmørsposten (and one Nytt I Uka paper).- Smulting/dough ring
I would like to thank everyone that was a part of this Christmas package (or as some of my family maybe would say “Nødsending) and the packages that are somewhere between Norway, Uganda and the sun. :p

Here is the picture of the food:

P.SI know the Smulting is gone in the picture, but I let the people in the office taste it, and they loved it.P.S P.SSince on of my New Year resolutions where that I am going to eat less candy. So I will of course save the candy to another time.
As my mother told me when I was little: “Candy you should only eat on Saturdays and at Party’s).

Happy New Year! (Gøtt år og takk for det gamle)

Finni and me and Java


Since the last post, I have been in Kenya and Nairobi me, per, Aina and Ingrid went for the Ezra conference, which was hosted by Focus Kenya. We arrived two days early for the conference, so we stayed with the Norwegian Hald students in Nairobi. It was really good to see them again and to see how they are living and to sheer our time in Africa so fare.I liked the conference very much; it was much program every day, a little bit more than we are used to back home. I had some interesting meetings and seminars; I think I liked the seminar about leadership the most.On New Years Eve, we were 13 Norwegians together ( the 12 Hald students based in Kenya and Uganda and the sister of Thomas), so we hade to have a Norwegian feature in the New Years program. We also celebrated the New Year twice, since we are two hours in front hear, we also celebrated the Norwegian New Year. I also met some nice people from South Africa, which I got to know. If I was going to South Africa someday, I must come and visit them, and I could stay with them. So I think that in the year 2010, in the summer would be good time to visit South Africa.

We stayed in Kenya for a week, and me, Per and Finnie managed to go to town four times, so I go to see some of Nairobi town, it is more western and modern than Kampala. So I felt like a tourist, and also did some shopping. And we also found our "own" coffee shop, Java, which in fact visited all four times, some times eating, some times dirking milkshakes or coffee.So what about the bus trip to and from Nairobi, when we arrived in Nairobi we used 13 hours, and they said we should use 10 hours. And the way back… Back we drove over the night, we used 17 Hours, and I did not sleep at all:p and a little tip, if you are going to take bus here, sit as long as you can in front in the bus, before if you sit behind, you will really feel all the bumps in the road, and in the route between Kampala and Nairobi, you will fin many, small and big.

Ok, if you don’t know way I want to go to South Africa in 3 ½ year, I will tell you: It is because they are going to host the football World Cup then, hopefully the Norwegian also will qualify.And to before I finish this post, I will write down my New Year resolutions (for the rest of my time here in Uganda).

1) At least 3 jogging trips every week
2) Eat some fruits every day.
3) Eat less candy and drink lesser sodas during the week.

Ingrid, Aina and Per


Kari-Anne, Marit og Marianne

Ein annalens julefeiring

Dette med å feire jula vekke frå familien, trudde eg skulle bli det vanskeligaste (saman med maten) før eg reiste til Uganda. Maten he faktisk godt bra, like vel om det er uvanleg å ete middag til kvelds, ofte etter klokka 22.00 på kvelden :P
So kva med jula? Eg var nervøs for at dette skulle bli den tida eg verkelig fekk heimlengsel, der eg verkelig skulle ønske eg var heime. Men det har overraskande nokke ikkje skjedd.
Ikkje det at eg ikkje savne familie og vennar heime, for det gjer eg verkelig, eg gler meg til å sjå alle saman igjen. Gled meg til å feire jul igjen saman med dokke neste år, der eg får med meg, julemiddagen, juleselskap med besta, førjulsturneringa, romjulsturneringa og alt anna som høre jula til.

Men i staden å bruke mykje tid på å tenke på alt eg kunna ha opplevd, alt som er så trygt og kjært. Så gjekk eg inn i jula med den innstillinga om at dette blei ei annalens jul, ei julefeiring som eg bare kommer til å få oppleve ein gong, so kvifor ikkje berre prøve å kose meg og nyte den. Å d klarte eg, sitter nå på Boxing Day å skrive denne bloggen (2 juledag).
So her komme litt om korleis Julaftan og 1.juledag var.

Julaftan

Dagen starte med at eg for saman med vertsfamilien i kyrkja, denne dagen so var gudstenesta litt spesiell i forhold til vanleg. Dei hadde laga til eit julespel, som inneheld song, dans, drama, musikk og masse meir. Dei hadde også utvida og funne på litt ekstra innhald i juleevangelia, var mykje humor i spelet, so eg likte det veldig bra. I motsetning til mange andre julespel eg har sett, so var til og med Gud og Satan med i spelet. Elles var det mykje synging av julesongar under gudstenesta, so eg likte det veldig godt.
I motsetning til oss i Noreg, so feira dei ikkje på julaftan, men første juledag.
So på kvelden so for oss (Eg, Per, Ingrid og Aina) på grillparty at med brødrane våre. Å sete ute å ete grillmat er vel veldig langt unna korleis oss feira jula heime:p men det var ein anna leis, men fin julaftan. Å eg fekk også ein telefon heima frå, so vå kjekt å få prata litt med dei.

1.Juledag

Starta også i dag med å fare i kyrkja, i dag merka ein på folk at dette var ein spesiell dag, folk var so glad og fulle av energi. Og det merkast på mange av songane, tok heilt av på dei siste songane (fekk filma litt, so fær vise det når eg kjem heim), det var no berre morosamt. Etter det so var det å ønske folk God jul, før ein for heim og skulle ete julemiddag (eller julelunsj som ein kallar det her). Aina og Ingrid var også invitert heim til oss.
So kva var det oss fekk til mat, her er noko av det : kylling/hane, kalkun, gris, biff, chips, irish og søt poteter, 2 forskjellige risa, 3 forskjellige juicen, vatn og Chapati (Kanskje meir med:P)

So blei det å slappe av resten av dagen, avslutta med kake (sia to av brødrane våre hadde vært bursdag i Desember) å restekvelds. Før ein avslutta med å synge og be.

So det var litt av jula mi, blei kanskje litt lang blogg denne gangen.
Eg har hatt ei God men annalens jul, men sitter igjen med ei positivt inntrykk.
Uansett så feira oss jul av den same grunn, at Jesus blei født. Å det er vel kanskje ein ting som eg har fått tid til å tenke meir på, vekke frå ”julestresset” som er heime. Det er i alle fall ein bra ting og ta med seg.

Eg reiser nå til Kenya og Nairobi, skal feire nyttår der, skal være med på ein konferanse i regi av FOCUS Kenya. Blir vel der ei 7-8 dagar, så det blir vel inga oppdateringa på bloggen før det.

HA EI (fortsett) GOD JUL OG GOD NYTT ÅR TIL ALLE SAMAN :)

A Christmas away from home

One of the things I thought would be most difficult with going to stay in another country for six months was celebrating Christmas away from your family. For is it a time true the year when it is family, it has to be Christmas. And also it will be a different way of celebrating.
As the same as everything else (for example the food), thing are different, but still I have had liked it, I have had a good Christmas, I have enjoyed, had a good time with my host family. And the Christmas message is the same here, we celebrate Christmas for the same reason as home. A good thing with these Christmas is that I have had more time to think about the reason that we celebrate, that Jesus was born.

HAVE (still) a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

All you need is love

Why do I write these as a headline for my blogg post? Is it because I really believe it? Is it because I really love to listen to Beatles song? Or is it because in the last eight days, I have been to a Wedding, a 30-years wedding anniversary party and an end of year meeting for the singles in the DC Churches in Kampala?

Here, there, everywhere

Yeah, it started with a wedding last Saturday, when our boss Sam Opolot finally got Alice as a wife, it were a nice wedding, where we four Norwegian “had” to sing a couple of verses of the song “O`store Gud”, and I also mad a little introduction speech to the song. Luckily the three other ones are good singers, and I was sure not to hold the microphone:P
and there was a lot of dancing in between the speeches. (Søse dansing for å sei d på fint norsk :P). Here is a picture of the wedding couple. I think maybe Sam says to Alice “ I Want To Hold Your Hand”

On the following Friday our hostmother`s sister and husband was celebrating there 30th wedding anniversary, and Masters Kay & Peer was of course invited. (On the envelope and in the invitation card, there in fact stood Masters in front of our name. I think that’s was very funny, so I am going to save them). I liked the party very much, many good and funny speeches and stories. And I also think it is very good to so see that the husband still can make his wife blush, when he gives here so many different names in his speech, lovely. I can easily say to him She Loves You.

On Sunday it was time for the yearly meeting for the singles in the DC churches here in Kampala, and of course, me and Per attended that also. We almost had to find out who the singles celebrates their parties. They discuss a couple of things, that I think was just a small t thing, and should be over in less than 10 minutes. But in the culture they love to discuss, so it took almost two hours, Help. But it also a good thing to think that we can work it out. The meeting was ok, and it was fun when our good friend and workmate Apollo, was elected to be the president in the club for the next two years. So here is a picture of the El Presidento

And since we are into singles, I just want to send a warm message back home, in the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve (in Norwegian it is much easier, we just say Romjul), our Singles club (BedeHusKaraUtenKvinne) are going to have their yearly meeting. I just hope and try to Imagine that next year there our club will contain less members (our goal is to end the club:P )

I fell fine but Please Mr.Postman look and see if there is a letter in your bag for me, at least my mother has sent my letters, and the first she sent for over seven weeks ago. (not Yesterday). Of course I look forward to Get back home, but still I like the time I spend here in Uganda, and look forward to the time to come.
From Me To You here is a little Christmas greeting: Hello, Goodby, Let it Be a good and friendly Christmas for you all.

How many names of Beatles songs can you find in this text?