Great trek to tromsø

Last week on friday i took a flight to tromsø to attend the Red Cross youth autumn camp. The flight lasted about 2 hours, which is nothing to compared to the almost 20 hrs you would spend by train.

making a snow angel

Before my trip i had heard a lot about the north; like how cold it was, and how they had a lot of snow, and i just couldnot wait to check it out for myself.

together with the sudandese delegates chris & ahmed

The camp for this year focused on human traficking and the ongoing project of supporting the human traficking campaign in Nepal.

Red Cross workers in the role play

I also made a presentation about Rwanda as a country, Red Cross in Rwanda and how the youth volunteers there work.  I also participated in på flukt(on the run role play),which was quite intensive though it lasted for just 6hrs!!

Crossing the border in role play

The volunteers were great, and we had a good time in the cabins because i also got to see the youth delegates from sudan, chris and ahmed after a long time so you can imagine how much we had to chat about!................

Chris(sudanese delegate) & I

Tromsø is absolutely beautiful and like they say" pictures say a thousand words!!"

Work without play makes Kenneth a dull delegate

"Work without play makes john a dull boy" goes the common english saying. This sunday fify and i were invited to Oppegard youth branch for an activity which is dealing with young assylum children.

                                                                  Playing hide & seek

These kids were so cute, young and so full of life! i kept asking vibeke the redcross youth leader if these kids were actually from the assylum because i had a completely diffrent mentality of depressed, sad and worried kids.

          eating pop-corn while watching a movie

We had alot of fun with the kids, played games, ate pop-corn, watched a movie, the list is endless. In the begining it was kind of hard for us to interact with them because they hardly speak any english and you know "jeg snakker litt norsk", but that is also one of the most amazing things about children, the fact that they just want to have fun, and enjoy themselves and dont really care about what language you speak and where you come from.

                                      enjoying the movie

Having fun with these kids on sunday reminded me of that time when each of us was once a child, when you are so innocent, sweet, crazy, and always have some body to take care of you.

                                                                                                                                  play time!!

Wouldn't we all love to re-live those moments just once? kudos to oppegard red cross volunteers for giving these kids an opportunity to just be kids and have a goodtime!!

Old is Gold!!

Last week, on tuesday we had the honour of being invited to the lørenskog red cross branch which was celebrating the 60th anniversary since the inception of the besøkstjenesten activity. The besøkstjenesten activity is basically an activity which involves care for the elderly or "senior citizens" as they are respectfully refered to.

mama Toril making a speech

In this activity, volunteers either go to the homes of the elderly people and have a one to one chat with them by talking to them, visiting them and getting to give them company or the red cross branch can organise activities like trips to the museum and other fun things where the senior citizens living in the homes of the elderly are invited.

senior citizens having  a chat

Just like any other anniversay we had speeches from the branch leaders, a presentation about the activities of the redcross especially in war ravaged areas like afghanistan, congo, sudan, rwanda(after 1994) e.t.c which had some very emotionally moving scenes. We also enjoyed music and lots of cake!! Just before we left, one of the "senior citizens" told me " thank you for coming and now you have witnessed for yourself that elderly people in norway have a good time" and honestly, i couldnot agree more!!