Youth delegates

 Not this one, this is Dasha getting ready to photograph the delegates

 These ones though, taking photos for their blog

 June and Samantha going to stay in Norway, Mari and Sigbjørn going to Zimbabwe, guess who's who

Now, let's take some more photos of each other

Monday and Tuesday last week (man, time flies), Dasha and I were at Sørmarka near Oslo to meet the new delegates. This week, the Norwegians have left for their respective countries, while the rest have travelled to Tromsø to participate in Street Mediation in the Red Cross. As said, we will have two Colombians here in Tromsø until Christmas. They seem to be the only ones I haven't captured in a photo yet, but I'll have lots more time with them.

As of now, Samantha from Zimbabwe is staying with my family for one week, and we are discussing the Norwegians' fondness for bread, the meaning of names, and the differences in the Red Cross and Red Cross Youth organizations from country to country.

Precious and Sunniva

 Fantastic unfocused photo

Sweet, normal photo

I have so many amazing unfocused and blurry photos. The one above is a result of giving my no-automatic-focus-lens to Silje, and having no flash, trying to bring the candle as close to us as possible, I upset Precious by bringing it too close too suddenly. We were eating in a really dark pub-type restaurant at the end of the Migration course. More Red Crossing to be done this weekend!

Autumn Camp 2012

 Russian banners, German instructor on a Norwegian course translated into English - normal

 Seminars! Discussions! Elizabeth telling us how English police officers call you "darling" to disarm you

 Silje learning all about the Red Cross Youth

 Anton telling us all about Russian police officers (this became a theme, I don't know why)

 Munya photographing the ladies from Zimbabwe

The ladies from Zimbabwe being photographed by me

This weekend has been the end of a very, very long week. It was good, I met a lot of interesting people, got to talk more to the interesting people I already know, and ate a lot of nice vegetarian food. There were, however, also a few discussions and tears and issues (external, internal etc), and I'm very tired now.

Trying to take tomorrow off. Sleepy times.

But before that: Downton Abbey S0302!

Look what I've got

Five Russians, one of them Tromsø resident, and one Norwegian (spot the Norweg)

This weekend is the annual Red Cross Youth Autumn Camp, the past few years meaning that the Russians come to stay with us and do activities with us in Haraldvollen. We also have a fantastically diverse youth group in Tromsø at the moment, with our youth delegates from Zimbabwe, two girls that mostly speak Spanish and one or two words in Norweg/English, and several other nationalities and languages all mixed together.

This time is always very confusing, with a lot of people together and no truly common language, but I love it. I love trying to learn all the words in Russian and only remembering how to say please, I love learning about the Red Cross in different countries, and I love learning how to dance from the youth delegates. Nothing is perfect, everything is lost in translation, but you learn so much from it. Here's hoping it's a good weekend (I will sleep on Monday. I will sleep on Monday. I will sleep on Monday)