Eivind in Mbale: The last days

Eivind has uploaded some pictures from his last days in Uganda:

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Eivind in Mbale: Hard to say goodbye

Today is my last day at CRO. I said my formal goodbyes yesterday, because we have important visitors from Strømme Foundation today. In the morning, I said goodbye to the staff after the morning devotion. Most of the staff had something to say to me, and it was quite overwhelming with many nice words. I also had to hold a speech, and it was a special moment. In the lunch break, the CRO choir sang for me. I have heard them sing several times, but this time it was for me... "Eivind, you are leaving, we all wish you the Lord's blessings. We are sorry you're leaving us now, please remember to come back to us." The manager said some nice words, then one of the youth held a speech on behalf of the children. Dan, one of the boys living on the street, also wanted to give me a speech. It was very emotional, and I appreciated it very much.

Dan said he wanted to improve and get away from the street, so that he one day could visit me in Norway.

Eivind in Lira: IDP camps

Eivind has been visiting Lira town, where CRO plans to open a new branch:

After I had been to Kigali, I went to Lira to meet the National Coordinator of CRO. She showed me the building where CRO is planning to establish a new branch. It was supposted to be ready by Saturday, but it was not. The owner of the building claimed he was waiting for some doors from Kampala. They don't make good doors in Lira, according to him.

The compound and building for CRO Lira

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He also found time to visit some of the camps for internally displaced people in Lira:

The first camp we visited was abondoned. People had returned to their homes, as the situation has become more peaceful than it used to be. About five yeas ago, when the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) was terrorising the people of Northern Uganda, about fifteen IDP-camps were established inside and around Lira Town. They came there for protection. Now there are only two or three camps left in Lira.

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After seing the the abandoned camp, we went to visit another one, Erute Camp. Here I meet Okello, who has a wife, four kids, a hen and eight chickens. He has been living in the camp with his family for five years. He describes the conditions in the camp as good, eccept for the hunger and poverty.

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Eivind in Mbale: A night in Bududa

Yesterday was my study day, and I planned to spend it with Josha visiting some friends of him in a village called Bududa. We went by taxi in the morning, and after they had replaced a leaking tyre and a drunk driver, we drove for about one hour before we reached Bududa. On the way I observed lots of matoke (green bananas for cooking) on bicycles, trucks and heads, and on matoke trees along the road. To reach the people we were going to visit, we walked up a hill through a forest. After passing some eucalyptus forest, we entered into a land of banana plantations, mostly matoke. In the middle of one of these plantations, we found the house of Ben and Javia and their family. The house was made of clay and thin loggs, like many semi-permanent houses in Uganda. Josha estimates that a house like this can last for about ten years.

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Eivind in Mbale: Digging

Now the rain season is here again, we think... At least it has been raining a lot the last week. The rain season is the sowing season, and today some of the older CRO youth walked the three kilometers to the farm to dig and sow maize. Today was my study day, so I had a good excuse not to dig in the heat. But I climbed a piki-piki and went to the farm with my camera to pick some photos.

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Eivind in Mbale: How to get a passport

And I used to think it was a hassle getting a passport in Norway. Read on:

Josha, Farida and Moses have started their preparations for going to Norway in July. The first theing they have to do, is getting a passport. Farida has't been to school the last two weeks because of the passport application process. Josha has tried to explain the process to me.
Farida and Josha filling out the first forms 27. February

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Eivind in Mbale: More visitors from Norway

CRO has had visitors from Strømme Foundation's SKRIK project:

They were 2 representatives from Strømme Foundation in Kristiansand, 2 "confirmants" with their teachers, one couple which are donors to Strømme Foundation, and three teenage girls. As always, it was very nice to have visitors from Norway. We spent the whole day with them, and in the afternoon, they invited us for swimming and dinner at their hotel. I will tell the story about their visit in photos.

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Eivind in Mbale: Introduction ceremony, visitors and media coverage

Eivind has an update on what has been going on in Mbale:

The Birkeland visitors left on Tuesday, so now we can concentrate our energy on the children again, at least until tomorrow, when we have five Norwegian "confirmants" coming to CRO, together with six adults. The new rehabilitation class is complete with about 60 former street kids. On Thursday I was in the class with teacher Richard, trying to teach the children how to write their names.

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Eivind in Mbale: More animals

The Mbale boys have been adding to their list of pets lately:

In November, I published some photos of a selection of our domestic animals in Half London. Now is the time to add some new photos.

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You can find their previous list of pets here: Read more

Eivind in Mbale: Photos

Last week, we had an American photografer visiting CRO. Aubrey Graham took lots of photos, and some of them she has published on her website together with comments and a story from her visit at CRO. You can see the photos on http://sojournerdispatch.com.

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Eivind in Mbale: Visit from Birkeland folkehøyskole UPDATED

The boys in Mbale are having visitors again:

This weekend me and Thomas went to Kampala to pick up three visitors from Birkeland Folkehøyskole. On Monday we brought them to Mbale. When we reached the bus park in Kampala, there were two busses to Mbale. "The Elgon Flyer", we were told, were leaving on time, and not when full, as the other busses. But it was still 75 minutes to departure. The other one, a smaller buss, was more than half full, and they told us they were leaving within twenty minutes. We chose the smaller one, and hoped it would fill in relatively short time.

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UPDATE: See pictures from the week with the Birkeland students: Read more

Eivind in Mbale: How to mingle posho

The food for the children at CRO consists of porridge (soya and maize) in the morning, posjo (maize flour and water) and beans for lunch and the same for supper. Today I have been in the kitchen, mingling posjo for the children. Recipe: Bring 80-100 liters of water to boil, add 30-35 kg of maize flour, and mingle until you are too tired to mingle any more.

Eivind in Mbale: Going to Norway

Next year's Act Nowers from CRO have been picked:

Three youths from CRO are going to Norway as Act Now students later this year. One of these, Josha, is a good friend of me and Thomas. We promised him that if he was one of the chosen ones. we would make a party for him. This party took place yesterday. We invited around 10 of the youth we know the best here. 8 showed up. The party started with food and music, after we had watched photos from Hald as a "Voerspiel". Everybody looked happy, while they were eating jelly, chocholate pudding, pineapple, chocolate, biscuits and potato chips and drinking soda.

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Eivind and Thomas in Mbale: Back to school

The old rehabilitation class are going back to school this week. Most of them look really excited. Many happy faces at CRO today. A few of them on these photos...

Teacher Nicholas handing out school uniforms to the girls starting in different primary schools. The boys' uniforms were not ready from the tailor yet.

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Se flere bilder fra CRO på Thomas' blogg: Les mer

Eivind in Mbale: Visit from Norway

The International project leader of KRIK Norway has been visiting Mbale:

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Eivind in Mbale: How to cut muzungu hair

Even here in Africa, hair grows. In order to keep it short one has to cut it. It is not to easy to cut one's own hair, and it is not much easier for an unskilled Act Now-er to cut the hair of his teammate. The hairdressers here in Mbale in general have little experience when it comes to cutting mzungu hair. We explained our rather difficult situation to our national coordinator, Kamit Christine, and she told us that there is one hairdresser in town which all the mzungus uses.

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Eivind in Mbale: Challenges as a Social Worker

Beaing a social worker at CRO can be challenging:

This Thursday me and Thomas and two of the older CRO-kids, Caroline (who was in Act Now last year) and Moses did the street outreach. After an hour in the streets, we had found 13 new street kids who accepted to join us and come to CRO for councelling. In addition, we talked to five girls who promised to come to CRO this week.

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Thomas, Eivind, Torgeir and Kathrine in Kampala: Bungee Jumping at the Source of the Nile

In addition to the infield course, the Act Nowers in Kampala also found time for some extra-curricular activities:

Thomas skriver:

Hvem trenger omskjærelse for å bli mann når man kan hoppe i strikk?!? Lørdag satte Øst-Afrika gjengen kursen mot Jinja. Det offisielle programmet til Harald og Øystein (lærerne våre fra Hald) bøy på spennende poster som ”Se et stryk i en elv” og ”Besøke Nilens kilde”. Kilden kunne vært i Peru, Yemen eller Burma for vår del, det var kun én ting som stod i huet på oss studentene den bussturen: strikkhopp i Nilen! Endelig skulle vi alle få tilnavnet ’MANN’.

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Se enda flere bilder:Les mer

After a lunch break at Two Friends Restaurant, we had some time off for doing whatever we wanted. The minibus dropped us all off a couple of kilometers out of the town, and since the only activity availiable in the area was bungee jumping, many of us chose to try this. This activity was of course in no way connected to the infield course programme. 12 of the 14 students tried the bungee jumping. The two remaining did a wonderful job taking photos and videos, together with teacher Ruud.

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Torgeir skriver:

Der sto vi. Så utover Nilen. Køen ble stilt opp. Noen endringer blant de tre første; Karianne gikk sist i køen da hun bestemte seg for å gjøre det sammen med Ingrid. Thomas rykket fram som nr 2. Tredjeplassen var nå åpen. Hvem skulle lure til seg plassen blant de tre heldige? Jo – ingen ringere enn....Torgeir Persson Nygård. En lykkelig gutt sto nå blant de fremste i køen. Pulsen var ikke skyhøy, men steg gradvis.

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See more pictures at Kathrine's blog: Read more

Andreas and Eivind in Kampala: The source of the Nile

På infield-programmet i Kampala sto utflukt til Nilens kilde i Jinja:

Lördagen var utflyktsdag. På morgonen gav vi oss iväg i minibuss till Jinja som ligger ca 1,5 timme utanför Kampala. Först såg vi på "Nilens vagga"; platsen där Victoriasjön går över i Nilen. Tidigare var det vattenfall där så att platsen tydligt syntes, men p.g.a. att det byggts en damm för att få elektricitet så finns det inte längre några vattenfall kvar där. Det tar ca tre månader för vattnet att komma från Victoriasjön genom Nilen till Medelhavet. Det var upptäcktsresande John Hannington Speke som 1862 fann stället där Nilen börjar, även om man idag ofta menar att Nilen egentligen startar i Rwanda.

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Eivind continues:

Our next stop was by Bujagali Falls. They were nice, but not very impressive for a Norwegian, especially not for one who rafted the Nile one week earlier. Some locals make a living out of swimming through the rapids attached to a jerry can.

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Torgeir, Andreas, Thomas and Eivind in Kampala: Infield course

Den siste uka har det vært infield-kurs for Øst-Afrika studentene, både på Act Now og Fokus, i Kampala. Torgeir skriver:

Heisann! Dere har det fortsatt bare bra håper jeg. Fått en bra start på det nye året? Det har hvertfall jeg. Tirsdag 09.01 tok jeg og Andreas fly opp til Kampala, Uganda. Her traff vi de andre Hald studentene som holder til her i øst-afrika. Var konge å se dem igjen. En herlig gjeng! Noen av dem var jeg jo så heldig og fikk treffe i jula, men det var like kjekt å treffe dem for det! Selve infield-kurset startet ikke før onsdagen, da var vi alle mann alle. Fulltallig. Det var Harald (act now) og Øystein (fokus) som sto for opplegget.

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Andreas skriver:

De nästföljande dagarna var vi på Blue Mango. På torsdagen pratade om hur vistelsen har varit hittills och vad vi har för mål och förväntningar inför resten av tiden i Afrika. På fredagen pratade vi om informationsarbetet, speciellt när det gäller vad vi behöver fixa här till det (t.ex. vilka bilder som vi behöver ta). Øystein hade också bibelstudier om "People on the move" och tog bl.a. upp Abraham och Rut som exempel på två personer som lämnade sina hemländer för att följa Gud.

Harald og Øystein hadde med seg mye snadder fra Norge:

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For more about the infield course, with pictures, check out Eivind's blog:

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