Noosa and Christmas in a foreign country!

20.-22.12.13

My friend Daniel and I took a road trip to Noosa, about an hour and a half drive up the coast. We stayed at a beautiful resort, in an awesome apartment. Best birthday and Christmas gift! We went for a hike in the national park, ate at restaurants and sunbathed at some of the most beautiful beaches I've seen. He showed me around at the places he and his family use to come to while they go on vacations there. We made some awesome breakys too.. On Saturday night we went out to the Backpackers Bar not so far from where we were staying and got to speak to some cool backpackers there. It was an awesome night! The next day we drove back to Warner and enjoyed the hot weather by the pool.

One very good self cooked breaky!

At the Noosa National Park

Going out to Noosa Backpackers Bar

23.12.13

We took a road trip up to Kondolilla Falls. Kondolilla means falling water in Aboriginal. Kinda cool, except there was no falling water when we got down to the actual place where it was supposed to be.. It was too hot and dry for there to be enough water for it. Not complaining about 35-40 degrees!! But the woods there were so beautiful and exotic!

One huge tree!!

Lookout point at Kondolilla Falls 

Magical forest

We stopped by a small town called Montville on our way back. Looked in some cool souvenir shops and in an open gallery. And we also stopped by a lookout point by the road where we could see so much of the beautiful area around the Sunshine Coast.

Lookout point near Montville

 And happy birthday to my youngest niece, Solveig, who turned 1 on the 23rd! Love her!

24.-26.12.13

The 24th didn't feel like Christmas Eve at all! It started out with me shopping at a huge mall, buying some Christmas gifts for people back home and some stuff for my self. Then back in Warner I had a short talk to my dad in Norway, they had just started the day, my nephew was eating his third breakfast while the others were waking up and getting ready to celebrate the day with the family. While that was going on early in the morning in Norway, I was about to have my very first Aussie BBQ with the Turner family. Was an awesome dinner, but it didn't feel like it was Christmas. So we went for a drive to look at some Christmas lights that people had put up on their houses. We found a church full of lights, with a huge light angel on the lawn in front of it!

Wouldn't exactly find this in front of a church in Norway..

On the 25th however, I was woken up to a lovely family breakfast with egg and bacon and opening gifts with Daniel, his parents Phil and Vicki and his sister Bianca and her daughters Isabella and Charlotte. I had brought with me some gifts for them, a book about Sørlandet, the southern part of Norway where I have spent most of my life living in many different towns, an other book with the Norwegian folk tales and two beers from Nøgne Ø. I also got some nice presents from them, loving the PJ's! 

Before noon the rest of the extended family with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were arriving with food and gifts for the secret Santa gift arrangement they had. when it was time for eating everyone sat around a long table out on the patio. That's when i felt like it really was Christmas. That's about the same time it took me to feel like it was Christmas when I was in Cameroon too, at the dinner table.

We ate a buffet with mostly cold food, like salads, cold turkey and chicken and hot creamed potatoes. 

The Christmas Day dinner with Daniel's family

I never did celebrate Christmas with other traditions than what I'm used to from Norway, because when I was an exchange student in England I went back home to Norway for the two week holiday. And in Cameroon, we celebrated with the other Norwegian missionary families there. I was really lucky to get the chance to celebrate it with a family like the Turners! Really thankful for being so warmly greeted and included into the celebrations!

The day was also of course spent by the pool as it was still really hot outside! 

Boxing Day was much like Christmas Day, except there were fewer people there and it was a bit more laid back. Phil had told me that they use to have this tradition of playing cricket on Boxing Day, but we mostly spent it in and by the pool, it was too hot to play so nobody thought about it. However when everyone had left Phil remembered that he had told me I would get to try it out he got up and found the old cricket bat and brought Daniel and me out on the lawn to play. It was fun! Especially when I managed to hit the pall with the bat on my first try! Ha, ha.. never thought I'd manage that. Haven't played anything like it since high school! Cricket is one of the most popular sports in Australia as I understand it. I can't say I understand much of the rules though.. It did make sense when they explained it, but I can't remember anything now.

In the pool on Boxing Day

Daniel showing how it's done

The dog, Max, was great at fetching the ball!

Not so stylish myself..

I hit the red ball! Woo getting the hang of this!

Fun passtime activity 

A Christmas trip worth remembering! Thank you so much to everyone that made it so, I am truly grateful for all the hospitality!

Johanne Teresie

Springterm at Hald!

Since we came back from our internship places we have been spending the last 8 weeks together at Hald.
It has been a great time with allot of humour, hugs, excitement, information work, and interesting classes in the Big Hall.

The first week back we had alone with the Norwegian Focus and Connect students, it was a great debriefing week. I remember I was so glad to come to Hald as I was not so prepared to be home at my parents' house for the first weekend. The second week the internationals came back and we got some time before the Act Nowers came back as well.
The time left at Hald this spring was spent preparing for the different theme nights: Asian and Serbian night, South American night and African night. And also the Hald-day had to be planned carefully.One weekend in the beginning of the course we had a weekend together with just the Connectors, and it really brought us closer to each other and I'm really grateful to them for making it an amazing weekend!
We also had allot of time off to spend together. So we played cards and watched films and series on the big screens in the Big Hall. Me and Gregory, the one year volunteer from Brazil, decided that it was time to renew the boardgames at Hald so we went down town in Mandal one afternoon and searched, and came back with a Ticket to Ride game and a Settlers game. And it was a hit! Everybody were playing them all the time after that! And I love the games!

On 17th of May there was allot of activity at Hald. There were many girls with bunad - Norwegian national clothes, and all the boys were suited up. We watched the childrens parade, ate allot of ice cream and ate hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. We had activities around the school which involved dancing, throwing balls on cans, running with potatoes, and jumping in bags races! It was really fun! We also joined "Folketoget"- commoners parade, where we danced, drove the Strømme Stiftelsen car (a sheep) and played drums. We won the first place with a prise of 1500 kr!! That was amazing!

When the information week started the students spread all around Norway. As we did not leave until the Saturday I spent some hours watching "How I met your mother" with Gregory in the Big Hall while we ate some ice cream from 17th of May. I went to visit Sara-Jeanette in Asker together with JP, Sophie and Henry on the Saturday. There we did some information work about Cameroon with presentations in the schools which her sisters attend. We also had a Cameroon night with some of my friends in Arendal and enjoyed a weekend of summer there.

The two and a half weeks of school after that went by so fast, first we had preparation for the Hald-day then we had the African night, where we all went to the beach where we sat on the sand and all the Africans (Norwegians and international) had made food and prepared a role play for all the others. It was a great night! I had allot of fun!

On the 9th of June many of the students went into Kristiansand and had a stunt there with outfits and placards to get the people aware of the different people in the world and that we should all see each other and care about each other. There were many people who stopped and cared and thanked us for the job we were doing.

On the 13th of June it was time for the Graduation party and the last night we had together. We had a nice dinner together and Åsmund and Namphueng were leading the night with entertainment, speeches and coffee and cakes breaks. It was a wonderful ending to a fabulous year! I will never forget it!



This has truthfully been the best year of my life! I will carry it with me for  the rest of my life.
Johanne Teresie

The last weeks in Cameroon as a Hald Student

The last few weeks in Cameroon went by so fast, that I did not prioritise sitting on the computer and writing on the blog, but now I have got some time again!

In the chappel after morning prayer

After the last blog post we did sleep at the orphanage and there we got some couscous and some sauce I had never tasted before but it was ok. After this we played cards with the kids and joined in on the activities they had. It was a nice evening. We slept together with the girls in their dormitory and got one bed to sleep in. The morning after we joined the kids on the morning prayer in their small chapel. There they sing and pray every morning before breakfast and school. We were invited up to the Korean missionaries for breakfast and sat there together with Samson, one of the other workers at the orphanage. 

Rebecca and Blanche playing Ligretto! "It's fun!"

Yves and Mossa enjoying the easter holiday

The weekend after, 23.-25. March, we went on a trip to Garoua with the Gospel Singer. That was an amazing weekend! It started out with a meeting at College Protestant for preparations before we were going away with the bus, and also a last fast prayer for the trip. We desided in the last minute to drive a car up there instead of taking a local bus. 

Simplice, me, Kristian, Bassané and Sara-Jeanette

So together with two others from the choir we squeezed into the Aasens car and drove the 4 hour long drive up there. That is something I have gotten used to when we have been in Africa; we fill up everything, church benches, cars, motor taxies, and car taxies and so on. But when we arrived and got settled in inside the buildings connected to the Sion church in Garoua we finally got some food before the choir had a concert in the church.
As we did not know all the songs we were told (at the last minute) that we would join the audience instead of singing with them. The performance was very nice and there were allot of people watching. But as the Saturday was the big day for them they hoped that the audience would be bigger the day after, when the big concert was going to be. 

Unpacking the bus outside the Sion Church in Garoua

The Saturday started out with a good breakfast, some classes and before dinner we went to the concert place. After they were finished practicing we took a motor taxi together with one guy from the choir each to Medoubass’ aunt and ate couscous there.
Sadly there were only a few people who came to the concert that evening due to too little PR. But therefore we got to join in on the last few songs! And it was very fun! 

Gospel Singers concert on Saturday 24th of March 2012

After the concert we went back to the church, and as I was really hungry after not eating for several hours I joined Kristian, Abbou and Bassané in walking down to a fish bar close by. But unfortunately we came there right after closing time, so we had to get into town to get some fish. So therefore for the third time that day I broke the rules (!) and took a motor taxi. We ate fish from a stand on the side of the mane road, and sat down at a bar where we bought big sodas for each of us.
The fish was really great! It was definitely one of the best fish meals I have ever had, it may be because I was so hungry, but I do not want to admit that... We joined some of the other choir members at another bar where we sat and talked for a while before we went back by motor taxi to the church. So during that one weekend I managed to break the rules four times...oops?
The day after we sang with the choir on two sermons in the Sion church, and then we got couscous with gombo sauce, which is one of the greatest couscous meals I have ever tasted!
We travelled back to Ngaoundéré, and had a short stop in Ngong, where the rest stopped to sing for the inhabitants in the village, but as we cannot drive during the night we had to continue. 

Abbou and Martial

On Monday 26^th of March we were invited to celebrate the graduation of Martial, a band member in the choir. We ate and sang and listened to some speeches that his friends and family had planned for him. As all other events in Cameroon it lasted for a long time, and after 3 hours the real party began. They had put all their chairs and sofas outside, and moved a big loudspeaker into their living room where the guests started dancing. And as we were there, many of the boys came to ask us to dance, it was fun, but we went home quite early I think, because we heard they had kept going until 5 in the morning!

The two last weeks we spent with the kids at the orphanage, our friends at the mission station, walking around the area we lived in and enjoying our last time in Cameroon as Hald students.
And we actually managed to experience the first real rain before we went back! It was so good to feel it and see it. And with the rain, the mangoes were finally ripe. So I got to climb in a mango tree and pick my own fresh mango! Amos, our contact person, arranged a diner with Foumgbami and the next years Hald students from Cameroon and some old Hald student, at the norwegian missionaries house together with some of our friends, both norwegian and cameroonian. We also learnt how to make makkala right before we went back to Norway.

Good bye diner, f.l. Helene, Kristian, me, Simplice

Together with the next years Hald students

Learning how to cook makkala

Last biblegroup meeting the evening before we travelled back

I really miss it now, the people, the country, the food, our parrot Aco, the fruits, the jobs. Basically everything, and that means that I have to go back sometime!

Johanne Teresie

Everyday life in Ngaoundéré

After living here for five months now I feel like this is home, and that we have a day routine for each day even though no day is the same as the last one.

On Mondays I try to wake up early, even though we do not have anything on the schedule until two o'clock in the afternoon. Then we get a ride from the one-year-volunteers to the orphanage and stay there for about four hours.At Rainbow Orphanage we play, paint and draw together with the kids. And I like it very much! Last week we taught them a card game called Bellow 15. They loved it! And it actually worked playing with them, although some of them had never played with any cards before.We also watched Charlie and the chocolate factory on the big TV they have. It was really fun and the kids also enjoyed it!

Today we're maybe going to sleep over there with the kids. I am looking forward to it and we're probably going to eat couscous with them again. Last time we did that was when Pernille was visiting. She is Sara-Jeanettes friend and a former Hald student who lived here two years ago. The couscous we got then was with gombo sauce, which is a bit slimy and kind of brown green, but it was really good!! It was the best couscous I have had so far! So I am looking forward to going back and being with the kids over there.

On Tuesdays we usually have a day off to study the curriculum for Hald. So with the books we go down to the pool and read for several hours there in the sun. We also go for a swim or just hang out with the friends we have made here. In the evenings we join the Gospel Singers practise which lasts for about two and a half hours each time, if not for three when they have allot to talk about after we're finished.

Wednesdays and Fridays we work at Centre Socio Ménager, which as I have said before is a school for young girls that are either married or are without any education or have not finished their education for some reason. I am teaching the second and third year girls in English. It is a bit of a challenge, as they are almost the same age as me. But I try to be strict when I need to, and I try to engage them in the lessons I have. Even though they aren't so interested in learning English. Most of them have never gone to school before, and therefore they do not read very well in French or in English. So some of the lessons we have spent reading some text from some schoolbooks I brought with me from my old school in Arendal.
I have also been teaching them how to use a computer, but for some reason the three computers they had that were working have crashed down or something. So we have not been teaching them this for about two months now.

On Thursdays I work at the Direction Central for the assistant to the bishop, pastor Foumgbami. He gives me some documents that I have to write down on the computer. I have been writing some of his speeches, but lately I have been documenting and sorting out the numbers and names of all the newly baptised children and adults in the congregations out by the Tello village. Last time I also wrote an explanation of the conflict that has been going on in the church here in Cameroon for about three years now. EELC, the Evangelic Lutheran Church in Cameroon, has had a group that has split up from the rest, and has tried to keep the old name the Evangelic Lutheran Church of Cameroon. But I won't go any deeper into that conflict now, maybe I will do it in an other post, maybe..

In the weekends we enjoy the life and hang out with friends, play cards and watch films. We also sometimes attend the sermons in the Millennium church on Sundays and sometimes we have choir practises in the afternoon if we have a concert coming up.

Johanne Teresie

February, defilé, Maroua and moving!

Playing board games

In the beginning of February we went on a picnic with the choir to a mountaintop not too far from the mission station. When we got to the top, some of the members had brought with them some board games and cards. While they played with this others played different clapping games and childrens games. It was fun to get to know some of them a bit better too as we're not so social at the choir practices on Tuesdays.
After eating together we had a competition in bible verses and making songs. It was really fun although my group didn't win.

Childrensgames are fun!

Picnic with the Gospel Singers

The 11th of February in Cameroon is dedicated to the youth. The week before the schools practise marching because this day means marching on the Place de L'Independance infront of the Lamido and the governor. Sara-Jeanette and me had bought some dresses to wear on the day and went marching together with Centre Socio. The day reminded me allot of 17th of May celebration in Norway, with candy and marching and singing.

The new outfit

The teachers at CSM

In the evening we grilled and ate at the house where Kristians brother and friends were staying together with some Cameroonian friends. It was really good, and I have figured out that I like the planteng bananas quite much so I'm definitely going to miss that when I go back! I have to find it in a shop in Norway now so I can make it at home..

On the 17th we went on a trip to Maroua together with the missionary family, the old volunteers and the missionaries going to Mali. The trip was part of a Missionary Meeting so as well as seeing the town and enjoying the hot weather (38 degrees in the shade!)  we had a bible study class and a meeting with two people who work at the Christian university there. We also visited a leather tannery where we saw people working with their hand in acids all day to make the leather fine enough to sell, and a house arrangement which Jan Martin, a volunteer working for NMS, helped construct many years ago.

Biblestudy

Holding up a boa snakeskin

The trip was just for a weekend, so with a 9 hours drive back and forth, we only had one full day in Maroua.
The road was pretty good, with several wholes here and there, but as it was asphalt it didn't take forever to get there. On the way back we had some difficulties as it got dark and Bischler punctured a wheel because of a big trailer that didn't stay on the right side of the road. But all in all we got safely home.

On Monday the 20th we had a meeting with two women that had flown up here from NMS Stavanger. The theme for the Missionary Meeting was youth. So therefore we had been given a task to find out what we can do to get youth engaged in mission. There were many good ideas that were discussed and we had a really nice time. We were lucky to get the opportunity to be a part of this!



In the end of February we were told that we are to move to another flat, so after packing all my things we moved over to number 9. I like it very much here! It is a really nice flat. I changed rooms with SJ so I have the small room now, and it is also very nice. Pity that we are only staying here for little over a month now..

I am really glad I have had the opportunity to live here. I like it very much and have made many friends who I'm going to miss allot! Wish I had more time here now. But for what it's worth I'm going to make the most out of it, and come back here one time! Either just on vacation, or maybe even as a volunteer or a missionary. Time will show..

Johanne Teresie

Gadjiwan 20. - 22. January 2012

On the 20th of January we were invited to Gadjiwan to visit Solbjørg. So early in the morning that day the boys, us two girls, the driver and two African women who are from Gadjiwan went on what turned out to be a six hours drive.
As Gadjiwan is a small village way out in the bush west in Cameroon, the road leading to it is quite bad and bumpy.
So squeezed into a car, the eight of us had a really nice time and were even fortunate enough to see some wild monkeys running over the road!
The last 25 km. (which is about 15.5 miles if anybody wondered..) took 2 (!) hours, that says a bit about the condition of the road..

Beautiful African sunset in Gadjiwan

When we arrived in the little village we were shown to a house where we were staying for the weekend. Solbjørg and her visitors are fortunate enough to be able to get electricity from solar panels. So for a certain amount of time each day she has light in her house. The others in the village do not have the technology to have electricity, or even water.
The water is in wells and the light is provided from torches or candles.

After eating a great dinner and a really good cake the youth, Solbjørg and Erik Sandvik who had joined us went on a visit to a neighbouring village to deliver a mattress to one of the pastors there. We sat on the back of a pickup truck and had a blast driving to Mayo Balèo on top of the mattress, however the way back was a bit more painful and bumpy!

Kristian, Runar, me, Andreas and Sara-Jeanette on the back of the pickuptruck

On Saturday morning we went into the village with Solbjørg and visited some of the families that live there. We did not get to speak allot with them as there are very few people there that speak French, so most of the things we managed to say in Fulani/Fulfulde was: good day = sanou,  how are you/ fine = djamna, djam, and thank you = ossoko.
It was very nice seeing how they lived together there. The small houses that were made of dirtbricks and straw roofs looked quite cosy, but it was dark inside most of them. But why stay inside in the dark during the day? People were mostly outside chatting to their neighbours while sitting on their homemade stools and porches leading up to the houses.

Woman making peanut butter from scratch

One of the families we visited had a man who was digging a well right outside their house. He did not know for sure if there was any water to find, so hopefully the hard work was not for nothing.

In the evening we were invited to a neighbouring village. We visited the Muslim leader of the village and an other family. We were served couscous and makkala and sat on the floor while eating the latter.

Erik Sandvik and the village leader

There was another reason for us to be there that evening an this was to show a Christian film for the inhabitants of this village. The film was a Nigerian Catholic made film but as Solbjørg said it is still Christian so it would make do. The film was shown on a TV that was placed on top of the pickup truck with great speakers and an aggregator that made it all possible as there was no electricity. A man sat next to the truck with  a microphone and translated the French into the mother language of the villagers. This meant that the film was paused several times to make sure the most important parts were translated properly. And if there was something funny show it was rewind and played again and again and again. And each time was as funny as the first!!

The TV that was used for the christian film we saw with the village

It was an amazing experience to sit there and watch this little screen together with maybe about 100 other people seated on the ground around us. As they knew that we were not used to sit on the ground for that long we were given plastic chairs to sit on.

On Sunday morning we went to the church in Gadjiwan and experienced a different kind of sermon than what we are used to in Ngaoundéré. With only Fulfulde and Péré as the spoken language, we did not understand so much more than  the bible verses that were read as we had bibles in French and Norwegian with us.
After the sermon Solbjørg served Couscous and some leftovers from the delicious cakes she had served us that weekend.

We were really lucky to be invited to visit her, and we had a great time there! While we weren't visiting Solbjørgs friends or eating her delicious cakes we were playing cards or hunting down the enormous rats that lived in the attic over our house we stayed in.
This was quite an entertaining adventure in it self! The boys took turns in trying to sneak a peak at the great beasts by climbing up on weakly mounted chairs. Kristian threw a makkala up as bate so that the beast would attack something else than him when he lifted himself up there. Andreas managed to take some better pictures up there than what I was able to.. But Runar was not as keen on this risky game we had going as the rest of us were, but he had to take a look as well.

BATE! = Makkala

Kristian taking a careful look up in the attic

No giant rats were seen though... so the knifes the boys got from Solbjørg were not put in use yet... But we could hear them over our heads when we went to bed, probably having a feast over the makkalas that we had thrown up there!

After dinner and church on Sunday we drove home again. This trip was mostly spent on trying to get home to the last minutes of the football game the boys had been talking about all weekend. Which was "unfortunately" not possible as we had a stop in Tignère where we visited a sibling of one of the madams we had with us in the car.



All in all, it was a great trip! And we were given the opportunity to see the life in the small villages of Africa. Without electricity, water, TVs, computers, Internet and even mobile reception they live a completely different life than what we do in Norway!

Johanne Teresie