One school + three organizations + one govt. branch = one fantatic (yet confusing) year

You're going to Peru? But you're also going to school? And you're also doing the peace corps? AND you're representing Stromme Foundation? These are questions I've gotten a lot. And the answer to all of them is YES. Here are a few words of clarification..

Hald Internasjonale Senter is the name of the school I'm going to. Through this school, three organizations organize exchanges with their respective partner organizations in different countries. Young Norwegians are sent out to work with the partner organizations, and the partner organizations send young adults to Norway to work here. For six weeks at the beginning and the end of the 6-7 month exchange, we are all gathered at Hald Internasjonale Senter. The three organizations working through Hald are the Norwegian Mission Society (or NMS), International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (or Norges Kristelige Skole og Laget), and Stromme Foundation (or Strømmestiftelsen). I will be representing the Stromme Foundation while I work with their partner organization, La Restinga, in Iquitos, Peru.

All of the programs are sponsored by the Norwegian equivalent of the peacecorps, FK (short for Fredskorpset), which receives it funding from the government. FK provides financial support and guidelines for Hald Internasjonale Senter and many other exchange programs like it. In 2000, FK changed their approach from just sending Norwegians abroad to requiring that all their programs included an exchange. Far too often, international service programs implicity or explicity sends the message that the Westerners have all the answers and the competancy, which pacifies and disempowers the recipients of their help. FK's vision is that developed countries (including Norway) need the perspective and help of people from developing countries just as much as the other way around.

Snapshots from Hald so far

As part of the year at Hald, there is a 6 weeks course both before and after our stay abroad. This takes place in the small city of Mandal in southern Norway. Here, all 70 students (30 internationals and 40 Norwegians) are gathered to prepare and learn from each other before heading off to our respective work sites all over the world. You can see where my fellow Norwegian students' are going by clicking on the links to their blogs on the right. The internationals are from the organizations that we're going to, and getting to know them has been a great way for us to learn more about their respective languages and cultures. When the Norwegians leave October 1st, the internationals will go to their placement sites all around Norway to work in kindergardens, churches, youthgroups, etc.

We have been at Hald for about 4 weeks now, and it has been a fantastic experience so far. We've had classes from 9am to 4pm pretty much every day, learning about everything from microfinance, to leadership, to gender and climate change perspectives on development, to cross cultural communication, and personal growth, just to name a few. Outside of class, we've had lots of fun adventures including:

- trips to the beautiful nearby beaches, where many of our African students corageously learned to swim in freezing Norwegian sea water.
- fun danceparties, where our Brazilian friends have introduced us stiff Norwegians to a whole new world of ways to use our hips!

- a weekend trip to the mountains, including some trusting activities, like being blindfolded while walking through muddy paths, rocky hills, and crossing small rivers -- which was not made any easier by the language barrier!

Included below are some pictures my fellow student Helge Lauvsnes (who is going to Tanzania) has taken so far. Enjoy!

Copyrights

For those of you wondering how I learned to make such sweet blog headings, I'm sorry to dissapoint you that no crash course in photoshop could teach me how to do that. This is completely and entirely the work of the multitalented Tyler Hauger (aka my fantastic boyfriend).

PS: Tyler is in Jerusalem working for the Lutheran World Federation this year and you can follow his blog at www.tylerinjerusalem.blogspot.com

Welcome!

Let me start by saying hello and THANK YOU for all of you interested in following my blog! I'm really excited to share my experiences and thoughts with you! I hope to write freely and honestly about everything that this experience entails: making friends, getting to know a new culture and language, learning about development and poverty, learning about myself, practicing what it means to "love your neighbor as yourself"--and probably failing over and over again!

A word on language:
Since there are both Americans, Norwegians, and people from other countries reading this blog, I thought it would be easiest to write in English. Not only because this is the language that most people understand, but also because after six years in Minnesota, I speak better English than Norwegian! So I apologize to all of you for whom reading English might be more of a challenge -- I will do my best not to use too many difficult words. Also, if it's any consolation, I will be severely language confused this year, trying to juggle Norwegian, English, and Spanish, so I'm guessing there will be a little bit of all three languages on my blog! :)

Thank you again for being interested - I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with you through letting you know what I'm doing and feeling. My hope is that my reflections will inspire you, provoke you, make you laugh, make you think, and make you appreciate the small things that gives life meaning!