Kristin

Still alive in Lima! The other night we had a small earth quake, which was not really funny, but it only lasted for some seconds... The peruvians say its common, so the people in my home didnt even bother run outside the house for security.

Claudia, an eighteen year old peruvian girl is a professional in marinera, a peruvian traditional dance. She even has lessons for kids, and yesterday she took us to a place where we could watch the kids dancing- that was really neat. Tonight I guess WE will have the chance to dance as well, we are namely going to celebrate Christinas (other noruega) birthday in a club, together with the other noruegas and Jeanette and her family. Jeanette works in the Stroemme Foundation here in Lima, and is a great young lady. She cares a lot for us norwegians.

The other day we visited the Center for young mothers here in Lima, ran by the Stroemme Foundation. Its located in the same district as I live. About 13 young girls (average age is maybe 14) are living in the centre, with their kids. Many of them have very tough experiences. Some of them have been raped by family members and therefore have to fight some serious psycological issues as well. In this center they can get help with many things, including learning how to take care of their baby, handle their traumas, and also learn how to make a living after leaving the centre. They can learn to bake and sell bread, work as hair dressers or do crafts etc. The girls are very open and friendly to us norwegians, and I have gotten to know some of them a little bit already.

I will put out some pictures one day... I just didnt get the possibility yet..

Another day of spanish classes! We learn a lot, maybe too much at a time sometimes. But its ok as we may go straight home to our family and try it out "in the field"! I am trying to use the past tense, but I know it tests peoples patience... I will have to think for several seconds to figure out what word to say, but thats the way you learn isnt it. Yesterday we went to the movies to watch "El luchador", that is "the cinderella man". Nice movie, even though I just cant stand boxing... I think I will give it a "4".

Its kinda sad we will never become like the peruanas and slide into the crowd even though we learn spanish perferctly. Whereever we go people stare at the gringas (white girls)... I guess it will be even worse in the "sierra" (in the mountains). Its really strange to see that all the white people here have the prominent jobs, and they are the ones you see in TV and in commercials. Peru is still a society of classes. I really get to think about poverty and injustice as I live in one of the poor areas of the city.

I really appreciate your comments guys!  Hope you are all doing well.

This weekend has been exciting. We went to a birthday (cumpleaños) party at Diana´s niese´s house, that is her family´s house. Here in Peru it seems kids live at their parent´s place until they marry.  Diana´s sister has four daughters in their 20´s, who were really nice and funny. I taught them norwegian and they did my make up in the peruvian way (which is not really different) and we ate a peruvian dish called " Aji de gallina", which contained chicken, milk, potatoes, lettuce, tomato among others. (its kinda strange writing in english now, so forgive me if the sentences come out a little weird...). Jeanines friends showed up at 9 o clock or later, and the party went on until 6 in the morning!! I tried to sleep in a room next door, but it was rather impossible with the high bass... They basically played latino music, which I really enjoy. We danced salsa and merenge, but basically the people just moved naturally and included some salsa movements in their dance. It was really fun being part of a peruvian party for the first time. I will put out some pictures later. We were about 30 "muchachos" (youths) I think.

I am finally in Lima! My host family is really nice. The mother works in a center for young mothers and the father is a professor. They have a son called William who is actually doing engineering like me, but in the field of civil engineering. Two dogs are also part of the family.

Now we are soon off to Lima, they are going to show me the city I think. Exciting! The city is really big, I dont think I have been to the real center yet. Monday starts the spanish classes, which will be nice I think.. the language is a challenge, but my family is really patient and never get angry if I ask too many questions, and thats really nice... But its really encouraging when I actually understand something.

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.

From now on I will write in english to give my international friends the opportunity to read my blog! And for you norwegians its good practice:) Today we have learned about development and its history. We have been studying economics, and how market liberalism does not necesarily work in every geographical and cultural setting. I have learned that there are lots of other factors playing a role as well. Even though the development has gone in the "right" direction for the industrilized countries economically, the development for the poor countries has not really been only positive, and in some cases it has gone "backwards"... A lot of places people have felt that the western culture has been pushed on to them. And the western way is not necesarliy the best. We have a tendency to see other countries through our "western glasses", for instance without democracy we don`t consider them as "developed". Well, that was just some thoughts from today`s class...

I had a really nice weekend- Amund came all the way from Trondheim to spend some quality time here at Hald! I was really happy to have him here. He got to meet a lot of my new friends and take part in the lectures and also go to Strømme foundation`s office in Kristiansand. And of course I showed him the beautiful city of Mandal!

Idag hadde vi en leksjon om verdens fattigdom. Det er utrolig mange sjokkerende statistikker! "Absolutt fattigdom" defineres ved å leve for under én amerikansk dollar pr.dag, og i verden er det 1,2 milliarder som gjør dette! Helt sprøtt. Rart å sitte å diskutere problemet med fattigdom med kenyanere som kommer fra et land der gjennomsnittsalderen mennesker når før de dør er over tredve år lavere enn i Norge... En annen sjokkerende statistikk er at hvert 6.sekund smittes et menneske av HIV/AIDS... Ofte er fattigdom en ond sirkel. Uten ekstra penger til å spare opp har man ingen mulighet for investeringer slik at man kan komme "seg oppover" (f.eks. å kjøpe seg en ku og så selge melk). Det er derfor Strømmestiftelsens arbeid med mottoet "hjelp til selvhjelp" er så ekstremt viktig. Man må hjelpe folk til å klare seg selv, ikke bare gi dem mat for denne dagen.

Idag har vi også diskutert forventninger til hvordan dette året blir. Det er en del ting man gleder og gruer seg til. Mange tror også de kommer til å forandre en del holdninger og vaner. Lederen av programmet vårt har bodd mange år i Nepal og fortalte at når han kom hjem til Norge klarte han ikkeå tømme ut oppvaskvannet etter han hadde vasket opp, fordi han kanskje kunne få bruk for det senere på dagen... Ganske ekstremt. Men sier litt om at man ofte får et helt annet perspektiv på ting.

I ettermiddag hadde vi også en liten spansk-leksjon med Juan (bolivianer som jobber her). Kjekt å komme litt igang...