Kristin

It`s really strange that in 12 days we are off to Peru... Very soon we are out there and there`s no way back. Lately I have been thinking a lot about the "materialistic change" we will experience. As of right now I honestly don`t look forward to wash all my clothes by hand... But I am sure it will become part of my everyday and I wont think much about it. I can`t wait to meet the people that will be my co-workers in Chota, and see what the town is like. But before that, we will spend 3 weeks in Lima and I will stay alone with a family in a district called Villa Maria Triunfo or something. We will have about 4 hours of spanish classes every day.

I really enjoy having learned about all the different subjects at Hald, I am sure that most of it will be useful in the months to come. This week we have been talking about diseases and mental "problems" that might occur- it`s not very optimistic- after a whole day of lectures on AIDS, malaria, dengue fever, interior worms etc. you are totally convinced you are gonna get all the diseases the day you get there... Probably we will not! Yesterday the topic was a more exciting one: games for kids and youths! So we basically spent the day creating and playing games- a lot of fun!

These days the topic has been religions like buddhism, hindusim, islam and Christianity and how they deal with poverty, sorrow and death. It`s been interesting to see how different the buddhists and hinduists view life. For instance for the buddhists the truth is that everything is suffering- realizing this will get you out of the cycle of being born again and again, for example as a rat in your next life. This view of life is quite different than my own. Thank goodness not everything is suffering to me... Life is much more than that. It´s good to believe in a God that is love and cares about his people. The muslims have the perception that everything that happens is the will of God, both the good and the bad things. As a Christian I am convinved that it is not the will of God that bad things happen, such as people living in poverty. The human beings have been given a free will and will have to be held responsible for things they do (and don`t do). That means we are able to improve this world!

Last weekend I was in Trondheim! It was really nice seeing my old city again... The weather had not changed... But the people is the most important! I stayed with my good friend Marit. She is awesome! We laugh a lot.. In this picture we are in a café called Choco Boco eating breakfast sunday morning.

I also got to see my boyfriend a little bit (??), which was really nice as always... We had some quality time- for instance we went to a "moving-in-party" at Mikkel`s and met a lot of KRIK people. Saturday we had some friends over for dinner and party (see picture: Amund and Lars Martin). Sunday was the day for a refreshing walk out by the windy ocean (at Lade).

A really good and relaxing weekend!

It`s been a great week. Fredskorpset (The peace corps) was here a lot of the last week, speaking to us about crosscultural communication and culture shocks... So now we are all well prepared:) (well who can be??) Let`s hope we don`t get those deep depressions when meeting a strange, new culture. I think it`s gonna work out just fine. To learn can be challenging, but I am prepared mentally now. I am looking forward to get new experiences and learn from them.

Enough serious said. My good friend Edith was here for about 20 hours this weekend, and we had a really good time, chatting and laughing a lot...  We also went to "Jonas B. Gundersen" which is the one and only (?) pizza place here in Mandal... Well, the food is excellent there. When the Hald people are sick and tired of bread, bread and bread we go there to hang out and have some luxury food or coffee. Sometimes it`s really nice to get away a little from the dorm you stay in 24-7...

Today we learned about fair trade, a topic I find really engaging. Please be aware of which companies that use child labor and boicott them! There is a list on the Internet made by Norwegians:

http://odin.prohosting.com/~boikott/index.shtml

On the webpage, choose "barnearbeid" on the scroll down list, and you will find that for instance Benetton has 92% of child labor! Surprising isn`t it! We can`t really proove that the companies on the list use child labor, because we are not allowed to get into their factories... They don`t want to agree on WTO`s (World Trade Organization`s) Code of Conduct which is a contract against - among other things - child labor.

This weekend we all went on a trip together- and we had no idea where the trip went or what was going to be the content of it. It turned out we were going to "Hynnekleiv" which is not far from Arendal, and on the agenda were different kinds of teambuilding activities. For instance on saturday we went hiking to the forest where I had to walk around blindfolded and Inger Marie gave me directions and was responsible for me not falling down anywhere and not stumbling... It was interesting but also hard having to trust another person to a certain degree. Afterwards we put it in the context of teamwork and what it will be like to feel "like a helpless child" when we go to a totally different culture with a language we dont know and ways of communication we have never met before... We will have to trust "strangers" because we will be dependent to them.

This weekend I realized I really start to love all the people here- its such an open and nice environment. They are all so fun to hang out with. I talked to a girl from Uganda called Jennifer and learned a lot of what it is like down there. She goes to a boarding school where they sleep about 200 people in the same big room! Jennifer is a real fun girl to hang out with. Whe wants to become a journalist, and I am sure she is going to be a good one!

Tonight I have been studying a report from 2003/2004 written by The Ministry of foreign Affairs called "Felles kamp mot fattigdom" (Our common fight against poverty). It reported on how we are doing on the Millennium goals (UN) and how development work is more focused on human rights than before. The governments receiving development aid must now be at certain level when it comes to fulfilling UN`s human rights. I think it is good to make sure a country has a certain infraestrucure so that the help really reaches out to the people. If the country is using a totally different set of rules and values than your own, you cant expect them to use their given resources as you would like yourself.

You guys are welcome to comment on my thoughts- they are not necessarily absolute facts! It would be fun to hear your persepctive.