Mzungu, how are you?

It is crazy how these last eight weeks have been. I am really getting into the job at CRO and after a few weeks with a special orientation program I became a part of the social work department. My job description includes going on street walk in the morning. Here we find children who are living on the streets and we try to find out why they are there and encourage them to receive help from CRO.

In general I am really settling here and getting used to daily life and tasks. I no longer think twice about going to the slum to buy vegetables or eating from a small shed where a couple of old women sit and cook different dishes (beans, cabbage and sweet potato is my favorite!). It is no longer strange when ten small kids start following you and saying “Mzungu(white man), how are you?” with beautiful smiles on their faces.

 My passion for watching football has been reignited after finding that “everyone” here loves it. There is a barbershop not far where some of the guys next door and I watch the Manchester Unite games. The atmosphere there is phenomenal!

We have had some time to get to know the city, but also the mountain that watches over it. A few weeks a go we had a spectacular hike to the top with Sam and Simon. We started early in the morning to avoid rain in the afternoon.

We also got to spend a weekend in Kampala where we visited the lovely act-now girls Eline and Astrid. We had a great time and they showed us around the capitol!

Sam, simon and me.

 Played some cards with some children living at the top of the mountain.

 We had to climb down a "ladder" on the way down

Our house

The view from the roof!

The pearl of Africa

If you were to tell me a year ago that I would be sitting in a small town in Eastern-Uganda, where the electricity goes on and off each day, with a rooster right outside my door waking me up at around 6 a.m. every morning and going to work as a volunteer at a centre for street children you would be exactly right. This will be the new reality for the next seven months of my life. I have spent the last six weeks at Hald International Centre in Mandal were I am a student at the Act Now programme, before leaving for Uganda.

 I have been so fortunate to represent The Strømme Foundation(http://www.strommestiftelsen.no) and FK(http://www.fredskorpset.no/en/) as a volunteer at the Child Restoration Outreach(CRO) in Mbale, Uganda. This centre mainly provides education by paying the school fees for 400 students and rehabilitation classes for street children. Approximately 70 kids attend a rehabilitation class of one year, where I will be working, before being sent off to school.

I arrived in Uganda ten days ago and am starting to realize why it is said to be the pearl of Africa. With extremely beautiful and lush nature and a friendly people it certainly lives up to its name. I will continuously update this blog with pictures and my experiences in for you to follow.

CRO where I work