Back to.. reality?

We spend two days at the orphanage, which was to be found 1.5 hours outside Kampala, in Masaka Road, south east in Uganda. I cannot find words to describe what it was like yet. Richard, the director needed to get the files which contained information of each child (about 500) organized, so that was my job while being there. I hope it will be of help in the future. The surroundings were beautiful, and you could actually see the Lake Victoria from there. The children who are living there have been taken from the streets of Kampala, but they may be from up north or even Rwanda before they ended up in Kampala. The reason for ending up on the streets are various, but the most common reasons are that the parents are dead or not capable of taking care of their children. This includes child abuse. I heard a couple of stories,where the childs mother died, the father found himself a new wife,who was not fond of the child and thereby beat her up and kicked her out of the house. Another girl had actually killed her own mother,
We were taken to meet some of the youngest children at the orphanage, and they started singing and dancing with us,that was really great!
It was a very emotional experience, but at the same time, it is good to see that someone are working to help these children. The director is worried that if noone acts now to get the children from the streets, Kampala may within ten years become somewhat like Nairobi, with huge criminal problems among streetchildren that have become older and developed high scale criminal gangs.

We spend one last evening in Kampala, and of course we had to visit Bubbles one last time as well! There was supposed to be a live music evening, as it also was, but it was good when it ended, because it was not very.. nice to listen to. However, it was a very nice evening and we met up with people we just met as well as people we had met before.
We went to have dinner at Mamba Point, Italian restaurant, and once again, too bad we didnt visit it before. The food was soooooo good! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! And they knew the true meaning of the service consept!
It was a long night, which resulted in Mia not getting up as early as planned the next morning. Ellen and I went to do some last minute shopping, and I got myself an extra suitcase, since I had to much stuff to be brought home. The rest of the day was spent on packing everything, and then Kaja came with us to the airport when the time had come to head back.
The flight was good, I ate, slept, ate and went off the plane in Brussels. Nice city! It was freezing cold (at least for two Mzungus without winterclothes and used to nice warm weather!) so I had to buy myself a scarf and some gloves.
And of corse I had to do a bit of shopping as well:)
We met up with two of Ellens friends whome used to be her colleagues in India.
Then we went back to the airport and flew home.
Espen met me at the airport, and we went directly to Kongsberg.
The first meal I had in Norway for three months was.. a cheeseburger, but damn it was good!!! Farris Bris, and salty liqorice. Mmmm.
Some of the things I am noticing that I no longer have to worry about is that there is no sand in the food I am eating, there is no mosqitoes that I have to worry about, nor any other sticking animals. There IS a toilet, and it is clean and not about to fall apart anytime soon. And there is HOT water...
Norway is cold. It is strange to be back, and I have to admit that I think I miss Africa already. However, I still have not met any of my familiy or friends, so I am really looking forward to that!
And to get started with the master thesis and to get myself organized as I am right now actually homeless!

FOR NOW, THANK YOU AFRICA!

Last week of Africa

Came back from Nairobi by bus last night, after traveling for almost 15 hours, and was very pleased to find Kaja and pizza at the grand hostel when we arrived!!
After finally deciding not to extend our stay, we went by ferry from Zanzi to Dar es Salaam, and met up with Siri for dinner, very nice:) Early (at 7) the next morning we went by bus to Nairobi. The company is supposed to be the best in this region, called Scandinavian Express. We got our ticket the night before departure, and got the two last seats, in the middle all the way in the back. On the company's web page, it says that the busses are in a very good condition, with toilet, A/C and more. However, we did not see any of that. What we got was a shabby bus with no functioning suspension (stoetdemper). Lets just say it was a bumpy ride for 16 hours. But what we did get was to see a BEAUTIFUL landscape in Tanzania and Kenya, the bus had to slow down not to hit giraffes and zebraes, and for a Mzungu from Norway, that is cool! Ellen's friend, Phyllis came to meet us with her brother Moses, and we stayed with their family the whole stay. They were sooo nice to us, and we had a really great time there. We went to the national museum, to a giraffe center were we got to hand feed the giraffes, on the top of KCC with a view over Nairobi, a rather poor safari walk in Nairobi NP, the Karen Blixen museum, and finally, we made it to Hells Gate NP. That was fantastic!! We rented bicycles and went cycling among zebraes and giraffes and many other animals. Luckily it was only plant eaters around;) And I was very happy to finally get to see a bat eared fox!! So nice:). We also went to the "Hells gate" with a guide, and at the lowest we were 125 feet below sealevel. they are building a large geothermal plant in the area. The water in the ground was HOT, you could even boil eggs there! We went in to Masai land too. Our guide that happend to be a masai, invited us to a masai village and told us about the oppurtunity to stay in a cave in masai land, a whole night and wach wild leopards eat. Unfortunately, there is not enough time in this world. I think I will have to come back. It was a beatuiful landscape, great smells from the trees and and... just GREAT.
We are supposed to do some voluntering at a childrens orphanage these last days of our stay, but since I can not reach the contact person today, I am not sure of what is going to happen.
It feels somewhat strange to think about that I am leaving this continent in a few days, but I am at the same time very much looking forward to see Espen, my family and friends again, its been a while.
Some words at the end, that will not make much sense in English so I will have to write it in Norwegian. Ellens quote after seeing a Masai man at the roof of a house:
- Det er bedre med en masai paa taket, enn ti i handa!

Zanzibar

Ive been at Zanzibar for one week now, and I really dont want to leave this place, it's soo nice!! Its just like paradise. Ellen and I have stayed up north in the village of Nungwi, and just relaxing at the beach and went snorkeling a couple of times. (Ellen has got her divers lisence too!!).
When I said I wanted to go on a boat trip, I had a calm evening with sunbading and reading at the deck of the boat in mind. What I got was a wooden boat, BIG waves (afterall it is the Indian ocean), and lots of water overboard making me soaking wet and frightened, as there were two lifejackets to be divided on a total number of 12 people. It got better when we arrived Mnemba Island that was the destination for snorkeling. I was snorkeling around on a protected reef, and swimming with loads of different fish, including nemo fish:) That was much fun!
Met a lot of people, mostly Europeans and locals (obviously a lot of Norwegian people around as the locals new some norwegian as well). There where some other girls from the course in Uganda there as well, so we had a really good time! Yesterday Ellen, Helene and I arrived Stone Town again. Helene went to Dar es Salam, whereas Ellen and I have been on a spice tour today. That was a wet, but fun experience. It was raining very heavily in Nungwi yesterday, and it seems like the rain reached Stone Town today. We saw loads of different spices and how they actually grow, and loads of fruit, I even had cocoa today!! It was yumy! We also entered a cave, where they untill 1890 hided slaves which they smuggled trough a tunnel to the sea and shipped to the Middle East.
The plan for the evening is to plan our trip ahead, as we have changed the original plan. We are thinking about going from Dar (Tanzania) to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, from there to Botswana and then finally Cape town. Then from there to Johannesburg and then back to Dar for a couple of days more at Zanzibar, then to Lamu at the north coast of Kenya, then Nairobi and finally Kampala, Uganda before we head back sometime in November. I hope we will find a nice and price wise friendly route.
I am doing very well, my health is good, and no bad experiences so far about anything.. well a couple, but nothing really bad anyway.
I have a lot of nice photoes, but it is difficult to find a public computer where I can actually upload them, so you will have to wait in exitement;)
Comments are appreciated!!
Ciao for now!