El Cementerio

 Hello Mathilde, and hello massive family mausoleums

 I love the colours of these cemeteries

Look!

The further up on the hill, the poorer you get

The colours from the wedding of a Norwegian princess

Beloved wife, only 20 years of age

Someone who died in 1984 - under the civil war - get to have guns on their grave

People always look oddly at me when I tell them I love cemeteries (so I don't tell many people). Part of our Spanish lesson on Wednesday a week ago was learning the story behind the Matagalpa Cemeteries, then going there. They have a "Foreigners" cemetery as well as a "Locals" cemetery, which in reality was "Catholic" and "Non-Catholic (the Foreigners)", and it's really interesting to see the differences between the two. Carlota, for example, was a foreigner or a foreigner's wife, and her tomb stone is very classic, white, and sobre. As you can see, a lot on the Local cemetery were not. Cemeteries also tell a lot about who were rich and poor, and about a country's history (see the gun tombstone). If you've followed this blog before, you've seen me ranting about cemeteries before, so I'll leave you here.

I've written this post beforehand, since I don't have internet all the time, but if all goes well, I shall be in Managua - the capital - when this gets posted. We're staying there two days, Thursday to Saturday, when we move on to Bluefields: one step closer to where we're going to live. We'll be having a week's long intro course in Bluefields as well, which probably means internet, but between February 24th and March 24th, I'll be staying with a family or on a center far away from the city, so don't expect much in that period - and send me any important messages before the 24th of February!

List of organisations we've met so far

• Movimiento Comunal Nicaragüense - A lot of goals and areas where they work, a lot of women's rights and farmer's rights and a lot of different things
  
• Grupo Venancia - Feminist Educacion and Communication: Women's rights
  
• Las Golondrinas - (The Swallows) A group of ex-sexual workers, working for the government to acknowledge what they do as an occupation, with as much rights as other occupations. Incredibly interesting, a lot of discussion here.
  
• Guadalupe Abajo - Not an organisation, rather a village where previous brigades have gone and worked and helped them. They make their own bricks to sell for people who are building houses, but they have a lot of problems with farmers who have to rent land to be able to produce a living, which then goes to paying the rent and leaves them with very little to live on.
  
  There will be more information about all this in our information work, and we'll be meeting a lot more, just as interesting, organisations, the coming weeks and months.

Other

 Planning in the cafe, Gro Malene and Nadia

 This has become our local, even though it's far from many of our houses

 A cake and international birthday songs last Tuesday for Diana (one of the teachers) on her birthday

Diana with her umbrella to guard her from the sunshine, very common here. Also Julie and Johanne to the left

Learning Spanish

 My door and my window = a curtain and plywood

 I've taken over the room of one of my host sisters, and this is my/her dressing table

 Answer these questions, and the language school can tell your Spanish level

 Line and I are the only two in the intermediate group, here chillaxing in one of the school hammocks

And this is part of the classroom. Seriously.

Last Sunday we were split up and went to our separate host families. I will get more photos from my house and of my family soon! I'm staying with the same family as my friend Hanne did when she went on this program in 2006. She stayed with this family the entire five-month-period, while I'm only staying with them ten days. They are lovely people, as said, but of course there is a language barrier. There is the mother, a sick grandmother who stays in her room, two grown daughters (I think about 19 and 21) and one little girl who's exactly the same age as my niece (both will be three years old in March), and very similar in many aspects, except that she has Down's Syndrome. She's amazing, and we're very good friends, and she copies me in everything I do (good when it means she finishes her meals, bad when it means she puts both the tortilla and all other food on the table).

My elder host sisters have said that my Spanish has gotten better throughout the week, since I'm talking more now than when I came. I'm still fairly bad though, and I still feel bad that I can't express everything I think and feel. I have managed to convince them to teach me to wash clothes their way, without a washing machine, and without letting them do the job for me.

The school is very amazing, which I think I said something about before, with only women working, and everyone seems to be working a bit with teaching and the reception and the arts shop and the tourist guide agency they've got. This week the Danes arrived, we've talked a bit with them, they're doing a similar project in other parts of the country, and we run into them on different social activities in this tiny town (well, the size of Tromsø, but you know).

First days

 We stayed in a hostel a few days, this is the level of tidiness we had (and Julie working hard)

 And this is us getting used to a different culture, a different country, and different ways of doing things

 We had one day off, where we went to a waterfall, here is Line eating some fruit or other

 And Julie being mysterious down by the water

And someone hiding behind Cascada Blanca (the White Waterfall)

I've got so many photos. I decided to start with first things first, so you'll always be a bit behind me, but hopefully never that far behind. I'm behind you all in time anyway, at the moment of writing we are nearing 0530 pm in Matagalpa, while my parents have gone to bed in Norway at 0030 am.

This second day, we went early in the morning to get a bus to the waterfall, which was our (or mine, at least) first proper experience with a Latin American bus. It was stuffed with people and food and a chicken in a box, all the clichés. The only thing that surprised me (but probably shouldn't have) was how noone got up for women and children and old people. After ten days in this country, I've seen someone get up for someone else once, and that was a man getting up for a pregnant woman to sit. 

We have two coordinators that have lived many years in Mexico, but also spent time in different countries in Latin America before - even though they've never lived in Nicaragua proper, they're very good to have for experience. Our two translators, Ingrid and Elise, have also lived in Guatemala and Bolivia respectively.

Soon to come more about our first week in Matagalpa!

Proof

I'm here, I'm here, I'm here

It's hot

I'm in the Spanish School

I haven't got much time

But we're learning a lot, meeting a lot of organisations and I have barely time to be with my host family, who are lovely, lovely people. Photos to come at some point or another.

In Matagalpa

Photo by Line Bellingmo Johnsrud

It's quite sunny, a little bit cloudy, a lot more hot and humid than what we northerners are used to. Still, we're at quite a high altitude (700m), and we're going to a far hotter and more humid place in a few weeks.

Before then we have a full program of language lessons in the morning and political meetings in the evenings, where we meet with different organisations. There are also film screenings and different afternoon activities. Even our Spanish Language School is politically minded, with only women working there, and a very clear anti-discrimination policy. They also own a local handicraft shop and a local eco-tourism tour company. I will ask whether I can photograph there one day.

We will be meeting a lot of interesting organisations, working with different things, I mainly remember those concerning women's rights, but there are several others as well. 

On Sunday we leave our (lovely, internet-filled) hostel, to go into separate host families. 

Every day is more exciting than the last one! 

NICARAGUA

We're here! Yes! And we have some internet! Good stuff!

I present to you

Ingrid, Johanne, Julie, me, Mathilde in a tree, Gro Malene, Line, and Elise + Nadia in a tree

Here's hoping that my blog will go back to normal, although there will be a lot more sporadic posting once I get to the land of N. These are the girls I'm going with, aren't they wonderful? In ten days we will be wearing a lot less clothes, but hopefully similar smiles!

Old news

But in case someone reading this blog doesn't know me personally or have me on Facebook,

I'm going to Nicaragua, february-june 2013.

All the excite. I'm volunteering for an organization called LAG, and I'm going with eight other, wonderful girls. At the moment I'm at a two-week preparation course in Hamar near Oslo. All our days are filled with a mix of Spanish lessons and different presentations about political and historical issues of Nicaragua. I'm going to be in charge of photography - we all have different roles and tasks in our group.


There's been a lot to do and think and learn. I'm still working on it. I'm looking forward to an exciting and ridiculously challenging five months.

Sleep now.

Travel

Let's hope Tromsø looks like this in a month, when the sun is back.

I'm near Oslo on a course, and I have some very exciting plane tickets (finally) in my inbox, to share. I just need more than five minutes at a computer to tell you the story.

Itinerary

14-16th December: Cabin trip near Oslo with people I'm travelling with in January.
16-21st December: Copenhagen, Denmark, seeing Cecille again for the first time in two years!
21st-27th December: Tenerife, Spain (Canary Islands), family Christmassy time.
28th December: Home! Home, home, home, at least a week or two before more adventures, which I've realised I haven't made that public yet, so you just have to wait...

Now to my Red Cross Christmas dinner, then sleep, then Oslo-time!

40 day dream

Just been reminded that this song exists. Other than that: ALL the preparations. None of the time to sort out the photograph problem with my blog.

Wintery times

Still working, still slightly stressed out, still happy that it's December and I can fill the breaks with baking Christmas cookies with my grandmother, and eating them and drinking lots of hot drinks at work. Sleep.

December equals Christmas

And even though you have to go to work or clean the house or go to the dentist, it's still December and everything is filled with candle light and gingerbread and hot drinks and people seem predisposed to be happy.

Dark

Did I mention we're in the dark period/polar night now? As of last week, no more sunshine!

Until I go to Oslo in two weeks, of course...

Talk

By Lukas Moodysson, I managed to find one with English subtitles

One of the big Red Cross Youth campaigns this year is against loneliness - since the numbers of lonely youth are constantly increasing. The Norwegian Red Cross Christmas campaign is called Loneliness doesn't go on holiday (implied Christmas holiday). Through this I was reminded of this incredibly strong film. It just makes me remember that I should talk to the random odd people some times, because maybe all they need is someone to talk to. I just make sure not to enter their houses (seriously, watch the film) or stay alone with them.

Cecille! Copenhagen!

 Visiting me in Falmouth, October 2009

 The last time I saw her in person, December 2010

Young and unexperienced back in August 2006

I'm so incredibly excited right now. I have a lot of other travel plans which will be announced shortly, but this one just came true as I got the tickets into my mail inbox tonight. I'm going to see Cecille on my way between a seminar in Oslo and Christmas holidays at Tenerife with my family - and while the seminar is exciting and I love my family, I haven't seen Cecille, one of my closest friends, since my last trip to Tenerife two years ago, when I also stopped in Copenhagen on the way.

I have this fear that we will meet and have nothing to talk about and everything will be rubbish, but that's hardly likely. EXCITE.

No photos today,

Ladies and Gentlemen, since without no previous notice, I've suddenly used up all my storage space on the blog, and I'll have to look into this/do something about it. Tomorrow. (Today is Downton Abbey).

I've had a lovely weekend.

Friday was the first day (both weekday/weekend) I had without going to any Red Cross House or activity since 28th October.
Saturday was the first day I could sleep in since I-don't-know-maybe 20th October.
Saturday was the first party I went to since Utropia Cabin Trip at the end of September.

Saturday also brought two Christmas parties, one family and one Utropia, which in Norway means a lot of greasy, fatty food and of course a lot to drink. Christmas dinner twice in one day! And already today Sunday I'm busy stuffing myself with pancakes and chocolate.

Om nom Christmas, bring it on, I say!

Quiet week

Only consisting of work every day (but Friday), then
Monday, gym + home, relax
Tuesday, library + dance, home, sleep
Wednesday, Christmas shopping, library, dinner, dance, home, sleep
Thursday, Utropia editorial meeting, drinks, art gallery opening, drinks, drinks, drinks
Friday, day off, exercise, Christmas shopping, home, relax, getting ready for two Christmas parties tomorrow and seeing my sister for the first time since I heard she was pregnant.

I have photos, somewhere...

Tired

Finally finished the third weekend of Red Cross Youth courses, this one held by me. Came home and thought I'd get lots of things done, ended up having a Downton Abbey Marathon to catch up with the episodes I've missed the past weeks.

Happy days.

Then sleep.

Night of Unfinished Works

 a) find a nice, cosy venue, with books and magazines and odd furniture and fairy lights (v.important)

 b) invite friends and friends' friends, let them have a drink

c) lower the threshold by doing your own contemporary dance 

d) success! Some of my friends arranged this, last week, and it was really a lovely evening. Much like an open mic night, only with an open stage, projector, room, whatever you want. We had a poem, a short stand up comedy show, a reading, contemporary dancing and story telling. I had so many interesting conversations with people, about immigration and art and things and stuff and I can't even remember. It could definitely have been staged in Falmouth.

On another subject: I have been saying hello to my cat, and my glasses are covered in fur. Good day to you!

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!

Angry bird

 Dina deciding to switch chairs every two minutes when we were at the library last Friday

 Dragging the table to the chair, climbing into it

 Then realising the table was too close. ADORABLE, YES

Later: refocusing her energies on drawing

My niece is wonderful, especially when she gets annoyed about the tiniest things. We had a really good day together, hiding behind the armchair to keep away from the lions, whilst drinking "coffee" from water bottles, then going to the library to pretend to read books, and change seats every two minutes.

And lastly; Miss Olsen

 November 2011

 February 2010

November 2011 (serious face)

Happy birthday Viktoria! With this, I'm going to end the birthday run, and start focusing on Christmas. Which is soon, believe it or not. I'm going to two Christmas parties next weekend (Nov 24th).

Anyway, happy birthday, my dear, I will get you a nice present soon!

I exist

Rubbish phone photo of lovely people, stolen from Jonas Ali Ghanizadeh (second from right)

There I am, happy that this wasn't taken with a high-resolution camera, which would have captured my tiredness after a weekend course in Migration, with little sleep and lots of new knowledge to stuff into my head. It was a very good course though, and I know a lot more about what happens when people come to Norway to seek asylum. Good stuff.

And theeeen

I think this is my favourite of the one million (or thereabouts) photos I have of her

Happy birthday Ida! Dearest, loveliest Ida! I'm looking forward to celebrating you tomorrow and hope you like your present and that we can use it together!

Every day I'm

April 2012

Red Crossing again. As said, I'm now working with multi culture in my full time Red Cross job, and volunteering in the Red Cross Youth - now with three consecutive weekends of Youth courses/seminars. I'm enjoying it, but now: Sleeeeeeep!

Aaand now for Ingrid

Norway Day 2006

Happy birthday to one of my oldest friends! Cake! Ice cream! Everything! I probably wrote a much nicer text last year, go and have a look at that. Love you. We should celebrate our ten-year-anniversary soon.

Happy Birthday Christine

 NYE 2009-2010

 Her own birthday last year

 A few days later, at Ida's birthday party 2011

This summer, on a walk in the woods where we got scared by cyclists

Hurra! Christine has always been a part of my group of friends (always = since 2006), but the last year we've gotten closer, through living in the same town again, living closer, going to the same gym, and having a lot of free nights this summer, which we've spent in more or less clever ways together. She's a friend I can climb a mountain with, go out with, watch a film with, or just go for a walk with at pretty much any time of day. So again, congratulations, you're catching up with me!

 First photo, perfect focus, subjects busy

Second photo, slightly out of focus, subjects perfect

From left to right: Jens Johan Hjort, Mayor of Tromsø, and Åsne Havnelid, Secretary General of the Norwegian Red Cross. The Secretary General has been visiting all districts in Norway, and was now in Troms and Tromsø. We had a big breakfast meeting this morning, where the local politicians and the local organisations were invited to the Red Cross house. I was up at 6am to finish the preparations, together with a lot of other tired faces.

Those two are persons who have really got the right job. Both their jobs require them to represent, a lot, to travel around (Åsne) or stay in town (Jens Johan), but always be smiling and happy, be good with the press, but still get their strong opinions through. And they are perfect for their jobs, as they are both wonderfully charismatic people.