O jul med di fråversglede!

Då e jula godt i gang! Regna me pakkane e pakka opp, familieselskapa stende i kø og magane e godt oppfylde…her kjøme ei lita oppsummering av høgdepunkta i mi ugandiske jul!

23. desember, lille julaften!
I dag hadde oss juleavslutning for ongane på FOCUS-prosjektet! Det va utruli kjekt, dei kom oppdressa og flotte, og området va pynta til fest. Til og med et nakke improvisert juletre hadde dei laga. Ongane hadde forskjellige oppvisninga som dans, sang og skuespel. So va det lunsj, som bestod av kylling, chapati og potetet. Dessert va fruktsalat! Nammi!

Afrikansk juletre

Ongane kosa sej

Seinare…
Sia det va lille julaften hadde ej et lite håp om at oss kanskje fekk nakke anna enn det vanlige til kvelds. Og jammen fikk oss ikkje nakke i tillegg. Men oss va nok ikkje like heldige som grevinna e kvar lillejulaften vil ej sei. Trur ho fær nakke som e bedre enn innvollane ta en kumage. Ej holdt mej til det vanlige…

24. desember, julaften!
Droppa kirka i dag, og gikk i stedet ned i et lite befolka bysentrum for å kjøpe bussbiletta.
Heime ijenn fikk ej vere me på kalkunslakting, håpe den smaka meir delikat enn en hodelaus kalkun ser ut! So va det hanen sin tur….
Lunsj…
Kanskje oss fær nakke ekstra til lunsj i dag me? Jepp! I dag va det “pork”, lure på om det e gris…? Det smakte i alle fall godt. Sia det va julaften, og julestemninga glimra me sitt fråver, gikk ej og Kay på supermarkedet for å feire med Smarties-is og cola. Det va veldi godt! Kan anbefalast:) Skeia også ut litt ekstra og snopa Smarties og Skittles. Det e no tross alt jul…
Julekveldn…..
Grillparty la me folk fra kirka ej og Kay jenge i! Oss henta jentne so dei me fekk vere me på moroa. Va veldi kjekt, hadde bli-kjent-leika, sang julesanga, hadde sangkonkurranse og til slutt grillmat. En fole arti kveld! Fikk også telefon heimafrå og litt seinare ringte søstern, det va hinna første jul vekke heimafrå også!

Julemiddagen! Ikkje akkurat det same som heime nei..

Dans og feiring!

25. desember, 1. juledag
Dagen for å feire jul! For første gang strauk ej skjorta mi, etter at eine broren min søsnt den va for gale. Dagen begynte med kirke, der dei hadde julespel, dans og mykje sang.

Gud hadde trone med engla rundt sej

Hadde jentne på julelunsj i dag, som bestod av chips, den slakta kalkunen og hanen, irish potete, bønne og kjøt. Ikkje akkurat julemiddagen ej e vande med, men det venta ej no igrunn heller ikkje. Men det va veldi godt! Kalkunen smakte veldi bra, hanen overlot ej til andre å eite. Til dessert hadde oss is!

Ingrid og Aina kosa sej veit du:) Den afrikaske julemiddagen, misunneli eller?

I 6-tia va jula ferdi, og jentne blei kjørt heim. Sjøl la ej mej på senga for å kvile etter ei hard julefeiring. Fikk telefon heimafrå, alle va samla til juleselskap med mormor og bestefar. I år va der et tomt sete….(ej skulla søte der ja) Va veldi kjekt å få en litn prat me nestn alle. Oskar hadde mykje å fortelle!
Mykje seinare…
Oss va samla I stua sia en av brorane våre og en nær venn av familien hadde hatt bursdag for litt sia. Alle skulle sei nakke om dei to karane og om jula og Jesus før det va litt sang og kutting ta kakene, som alle fikk en bit av.

Min afrikanske bror og mor

I dag...
..e det boxingdag. Nei, ikkje dagen for å bokse, men dagen for å slappe av og åpne pakkane. (for min del gjelde ikkje det siste)
I mørgatila sette Team Kampala sej på bussn. Destinasjon: Nairobi! Mål: EZRA-konferansen 2006-2007!

Ønska alle ei fin romjul, ei flott nyttårsfeiring og et spennende nytt år!

I wish you a Merry Christmas, I wish you a....

Monday evening Audrey took Team Kampala to KPC to see the Christmas-cantata. I wish you could see it too! It was SO good!!

On both sides of the scene there was trees with lights, in the middle they had made a stable and a manger and the choir was placed in back. Right before it started the room was totally dark, only the lights from the trees was on, and that made me realize….It’s Christmas!

It opened with some songs all sang together, than a children choir, which were really good, sang some songs, before the actors and the KPC choir entered the stage.

While the choir, consisting of 190 singers, sang songs, the gospel of Christmas was presented in between. The songs were so nice and I’ve never been to a better Christmas play than this. I wish I could just fly down next year to see it, and you can’t say: “But you’ve seen it before! Won’t it be boring to see it this year as well” No! Because the play is never the same, and the songs are new every year! I’m jealous of you that have the opportunity to watch it every year. I got chills down my back while I sat there. It can’t be described with words; you have to see it to realize how good it was! But I will buy the CD with the songs from the play, so next Christmas I can give you people back home a taste of what I experienced.

It’s Christmas on Sunday! Right? I’m not sure how the evening will be yet. But if we’re not going to the village, we will go to the girls’ house and they will make rice-porridge with “mandel”! On Christmas day I’m not sure what will happen. It will a interesting week!

I wish you ALL a Merry Christmas!! Wherever you are:)

To my family: Share my portion of the Christmas dinner. Don’t let daddy take everything...

So this is Christmas….

….2006.

I sat in my room one evening, I had turned of the light and listened to Christmas-music in the darkness to try to get some Christmas-mood. It was nice, but when the computer played “Deilig er jorden” I got a strange feeling of that something was wrong! It was not right to play this song now…..

And yesterday I talked to a person about Christmas. She talked about what she’s going to do, and she said she will go home when Christmas starts at Monday. I said that we celebrate Christmas Eve, and she asked: “Why do you celebrate Christmas Eve? It’s Christmas Day that should be celebrated!” I said no and I felt that I got a little angry, and i thought: “Don’t question my tradition, the one that is correct!” but I didn't say it...

Later Kay asked me; “why do we celebrate Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day?” And I have no idea! It’s just the tradition I grew up with. Do you know why Norway celebrate Christmas Eve?

Heldivis vare ikkje jula heilt til påske!

Lite so sjer, advent, bilde fra Maria, løsta på nakke anna enn loff med smør og jam/nugatti/sukker til frokost ++ = Heimlengsel til mor og far

Ja, ditta her blir en litn klagepost….

Men først ei helsing til næ søster Anne som sei ho starta dagen på kontoret med å sjekke bloggen min. Ønska dej en fin dag på jobb!

Oppgåva e inne til sjekk, bøke blir for trøttende, det regna….he kjeda mej i dag! Og då fær ej tia til å tenke, og då kjøme heimlengseln. Lasta ned bilde fra næ Maria i går, va kjempemange tøffe:oD He sett gjennom dei en del gonga i dag, og trudd det skulle hjelpe, men å sjå tøffen som stende med øreklokke på og et kjempefint ta na Jakob og na pappa jor det igrunn berre verre. So ej begynte å rydde litt, men då fann ej flypapira, der datoen for heimreisa stende, 11. april virka veeldi langt vekke akkurat no:( Prøva å tenke på alt det som ska sje her, og ikkje minst at der e en pakke på vei! Jauda, det ska nok gå bra.

Uansett vil ej ønske dokke ei god helg folkens! Og ei fin adventstid der du e, om d e Sør-Amerika, USA, Asia, Afrika, Australia eller heime i gode gamle Norge:p Lykke til med eksamena, jule-forberedelsa/stress/handel/stri, tentamena osv!

Weekend in Kigali, Rwanda

We had to go to Mbarara to take the bus, so we went early Friday morning. After we had waited for two hours it came; and 6 hours, including the waiting at the border, was ahead of us before we reached the busterminal in Kigali. When we arrived at Kigali Hotel after some negotiation about the price for the taxi, we were soon ready to enter downtown Kigali to get some food. It was a nice city with much less dust and mud than we’re used to here in Kampala. It was good to be tourist for some days! Close to the restaurant we found a supermarket that had many of the international products, and it was funny to see how happy we got as we discovered more and more.

We had only Saturday to do things, and we wanted to visit memorials from the 1994 genocide, so we hired two men to take us to a small city outside Kigali to see the church there where 10 000 people were killed. I got a bad feeling when I walked there, just to know that the room ones was packed with people and all of them were killed. The roof had very many bulletholes, the altar cloth was still on the alter covered with dried blood and the (døpe)font had very many holes. Behind the church, under the ground, they had made one room that was filled with coffins that were full of bodyparts, and there was still space for more as more bodyparts still is brought there. In the other room they had gathered all kinds of bodyparts on some shelves and only heads on other shelves. The guide told us how the Tutsi’s, and Hutu’s that sympathized with them, were killed in the most brutal ways that I can’t even imagine.

The altar cloth

After visiting the church we went to a Memorial Center in town where we got more knowledge about the history of why the genocide in Rwanda happened, and it was good to get answer on some of the questions that had appeared in my mind.

We wanted to by some souvenirs, so we found an African craft-shop and bought some small things. In the evening we went to a restaurant to eat before we went home.

Sunday we had to go back. But we hadn’t made any reservation for the bus, and unfortunately it was full! So we had to take an ordinary taxi to the border, than negotiate on the price a little before a guy took us to a city where a bus went to Kampala. It was a slow bus, and after about 12 hours on the road we were home. It was a long trip, but it was an experience, especially the taxiride to the border, it sounded like the car could break down any time, and it was designed to carry 16 people, but we were 20!

It was a really good weekend!! And one of the best things, I got four stamps in my passport:)

Busheny

This weekend Team Kampala and Team Busheny (Kathrine & Anne-Margrethe) arranged a trip to Kigali, Rwanda. Team Kamapla got a ride with a colleague of me and Kay’s hostfather that lives in Mbarara, so we went with him on Wednesday. We were told that we could see some antelopes and zebras on our way, so most of the trip I did something my grandmother tought me when I was younger, and in Norwegian we call “myse”. I “myste” over the fields to see if I saw any exotic animals. And it worked! Suddenly (I think) I saw some zebras! They were quite far away from the road, so it was a little hard to see.

When we crossed “The Line” (equator) we stopped and a man showed us how the water in a eddy went one way on the northside and the other way on the southside of the line, and no way on the line!

Great nature, can you see a zebra?

Busheny was a small cosy town, 30 minutes from Mbarara, and Anne-Margrethe and Kathrine lives in a nice house outside the towncentre. It was good to come out of the busy and polluted capitol and out to the countryside! And one of the best things with that visit was “Helnøttsjokoladen” we got on Wednesday evening. Thanks girls!