Christmas times

 It's still fairly early to start decorating for Christmas in Norway

 Because you don't take in your Christmas tree until the 23rd

And you don't decorate it until the evening of the 23rd of December

But here in Cali, we've pretty much been living in a Christmas Wonderland (without the winter part) since the end of November. I'm fairly happy with this, since it lets me get in a Christmas mood even though I'm living close to the equator, "cold" means less than twenty degrees celsius, and I'm far away from my family. Sometimes I get in too much of a Christmas mood and I miss everything at home, almost down to the stormy winter weather and the icy, slippery roads. Then someone passes me some Colombian Christmas treat and there's music and people, perhaps some dancing, and general happiness ensues. And that's just a normal day in the office. 

Anyway, I'm enjoying the experience. And the food. And the dancing. 

The latest photos I took with my Nikon

 are over one month old (here: Maria, Stephania and Linda)

 and from the Global Forum of Resilience here in Cali

 with participants from 78 different Red Cross National Societies

talking about how to create resilient communities in face of disaster

And then... I don't really use my own camera much, since we have a "work" camera from the Red Cross, and I'm already carrying around too much stuff to add an extra weight to my backpack every day. It feels odd, because even while working in completely unrelated jobs in Norway, I usually used my camera more, at least to photograph my family and friends, but here I really don't use it. It might be some of the same reason that I am totally neglecting the blog - there is too much blogging, computer work and photography in my day-to-day work already, and when I'm at home I just feel like doing other things to unwind. I'll have to see what I can do about this.