Friday 19 July 2013

A Luta Continua...

You realize that after two months of being in this country, everybody expects me to behave as if I have fully adjusted to the Kenyan Culture. They expect me to behave in a completely Kenyan way but the reality is time away has changed me and though I may seem like someone who has adjusted well, the reality is deep within I do get lost. I feel like I neither belong here fully nor to the Norwegian culture I lived in for a while; Call it identity crisis I guess.


For instance, the other day I visited a high profile journalist in Kenya in what was to be our first meeting. We had been communicating for a while over phone and Email but had never really met. I dressed up in what I felt to be the most comfortable way in the July sun in a polo neck T-shirt and a trouser and happily placed a back pack on my shoulders and went to meet him. This was quite something different than my usual jeans and T-shirt which I was used to in Norway. He was not impressed with my dressing style though as he later told me. He must have expected me to be more in a suit and without the back pack. He told me, after a while of course, that the moment he saw me, his first impression would have been to send me away as I did not look the part. My only saving point was the confident and re-assuring manner in which I presented myself from the handshake to the talking, he said.


A friend of mine whom we were together at Hald International Centre told me that I may never feel fully at home here because ‘’ part of you will always be in Norway.’’ I agree especially after this past weekend I spent some time with a former Hald student from Kenya. He tells me there are moments he really does feel lost and even after many months of being here, there are things he has never fully adjusted to like the noise in the buses here. It has helped though to have such understanding friends as Eva, Steve and Grace to hang out with and share our experiences with.  And also being occupied with my new pet project iRead Kenya (http://ireadkenya.blogspot.com/) has proved helpful but this is a never-ending struggle though to adjust and so a luta continua (the struggle continues).

Friday 28 June 2013

What next?


It's exactly two weeks since I arrived in Kenya. It was sad leaving all the people I knew behind at Hald, close friends I had come to consider family. It was painful to part, so painful that I cried. I never cry during times of saying goodbye but somehow this time I broke down especially looking into the eyes of some of my close friends. I remember how, after having hosted the final Hald dinner, it hit me hard that for some, if not most, we may never meet again on this side of heaven. Oh the reality of Celine Dion’s song, Goodbye's the saddest word I'll ever hear.  Deeply, painfully heartbreaking.


It took me a while to adjust. Many awkward moments followed. For instance, at one time, I was disturbed by the loud music in the bus; we call it ‘matatu’. I even wondered how people could handle that much noise. You should have seen the look on my face when the bus conductor asked for my bus fare. For ten months, I had gotten used to using a bus card. Luckily for me my brother was bailed me out by paying. Grace, my teammate, at one point even stretched her hand intending to push the stop button in order to tell the driver to stop but then we have no stop buttons here. That’s the entry culture shock.

I spent the first one week lost in thought staring into space thinking that I am dreaming to be back here. I have had a dream at least once every two days involving the moments at Hald International Centre. I had to take a weekend away with my caring brother and mother who helped me release all that was in my heart. Several talks with friends here and abroad have also been helpful. In order to help myself adjust, I have deliberately placed myself in the thick of the culture where I have no option but to adjust. It has helped a bit. I still find it a challenge to fully adjust though. I miss the moments and the people at Hald. I have changed, people have changed, the world around has changed. But we have to move on…

So what's next? I am presently searching for a job in accounting and finance even as I lay down plans to study masters. I have also narrowed my focus to two projects I will be pouring my heart to: The first involves establishing a community library in my hometown and the other involves providing support services to small and micro enterprises. Change involves boldly taking a step at a time you see. Keep it right here for updates soon on how we can partner in these two projects as we strive to make the world a better place. One last thing: And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream [Martin Luther King Jr.] 

Saturday 8 June 2013

Fired up, Ready to go!

This morning I was reading an article on re-entry title Reverse Culture shock and I came across this quote from Victor Hunter, an American who was reflecting on his last days in England:
“Today I must say goodbye. Goodbyes are important. Without a meaningful goodbye, an effective closure, there cannot be a creative hello, a new beginning and hopeful commencement… In saying goodbye to each other and to current ‘home,’ we are able to greet and affirm the new hope and anticipation. We affirmed the new journeys yet to be taken, as individuals and as a family.”
I paused and thought of my ten months’ journey in Norway that is coming to an end this next Wednesday evening. Wonderful memories flood my heart and soul. These ten months are full of definite highs and lows. There are days I felt like taking the next flight home and there are days I have wished more days can be added to my stay here. I thought of how I have changed, the friends I have made, the expectations back home, the difficulty of leaving a place I have called home, the anticipation of re-entry joys and challenges and what to do next after Hald. As I thought through all this and in spite of the fear within, I feel confident enough to say I am ready for the next challenge in life. I do not expect an easy re-entry but at the very least I am prepared.
If I were to summarize the last ten months in just one word, I would say transformative. Transformation like rain or tax has been inevitable for me. I look around at all the Hald students here, 80 plus from different countries, and I see changes in them. Most have had changes that seem to have almost permanently registered in their lives already. Changes abound in thought patterns, convictions, faith, world views, preferences, love and life. Yet one question remains even as we say goodbye in the next couple of days: Is the positive change sustainable in the long? We have to wait and see
Back to my quote above now. Sadly yet inevitably, it is time to say goodbye. Words fail me at such moments as these and as Celine Dion once sang, “Goodbye's the saddest word I'll ever hear…Someday you'll say that word and I will cry, it’ll break my heart to hear you say goodbye.” But this we must do if we are to move on to the next stage of life: I must leave. It is time to wrap up the transformative journey with a goodbye and as I do so, I feel a grin on my face, a broad smile on my cheeks and a sense of satisfaction in my heart as I look back on the ten months. I almost sense in my heart an echo of Paul’s words, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 
I would not be completely honest if I do not include the fact that I also sense slight fear in my heart as look ahead. What does the future hold for me? I do not know but one thing I do know for sure is that I feel like I am on the edge of a precipice ready to jump off on the next adventure. Goodbye Norway and I will never forget. Fired up and ready to go!

Monday 13 May 2013

A beautiful adventure...

My teacher told me to draw a picture,
Of my best experiences in my norwegian adventure,
I choose to write a poem instead,
To tell of my  awesome tread

I have a lot to write about,
Now where do I start,
Do I start with the people in the bus,
Who like to have their space always,

I could tell of the beautiful nature,
And the refreshing frisk luft,
Not to forget snow and sun,
And best of all the lovely fjords and rivers.

We could make a cabin trip to the moutains,
And there resplendent nature awaits,
A back to the old days experience,
Always awesomely refreshing

I could write of rainy Bergen,
Tell of Terrific Trondheim,
Rejoice in Windy Mandal,
Or smile with Noisy Oslo

I will stop there though,
I must tell of slalom skiing,
The joy of going dowhill with speed,
And enjoying norway’s best kept secret.

If you miss a bus never mind,
The next one will get you by in a while,
But you may be late for a date,
And that makes a Norwegian sad

Well there is always more to tell,
But I must plan another time to say it all,
Cheerio

Note:It has been two years since I last wrote a poem and today i decided to refresh those skills by penning the poem above on my Norwegian adventure




Thursday 18 April 2013

Eureka!

This is my final week in Trondheim and in fact I am just 72 hours away from leaving for Mandal this Sunday night. It has been an awesome time in Norway in general and in Trondheim specifically. I have thoroughly enjoyed working especially among the high school students here. You can imagine then the feeling of having to say goodbye to the precious moments of sharing with the priceless high school students. 

Archimedes'  Eureka Moment
Being my final week, I visited one of the schools called Thomas Skolen for the last time. I had been requested to share my walk in Christianity and I took a few minutes to share on how I had become a Christian as a first year at the University after being an atheist and agnostic for a while. After I had finished sharing, I invited questions from the small group of students I was sharing with and the only question I was asked has stayed with me to this moment: Why am I a Christian? I gave the quick reply that my Christian faith makes the best sense of the world we live in and that it is because of the love of God which He has personally and powerfully poured in me through Jesus Christ. 

The answer was sufficiently what I had in mind but later I couldn't help but wonder if there is a better reason why I am Christian. The question has hung in my heart ever since that day until tonight as I read John Stott's reply to a similar question in his book Why I am a Christian when I finally had my Eureka moment.  The deep question I was asked found an even deeper answer. I am a Christian because Christ had been pursuing me in love and found me and I yielded to Him and I have found rest in Him. John Stott sums it best when he puts it this way: 
Why I am a Christian is due ultimately neither to the influence of my parents and teachers, nor to my own personal decision for Christ, but to ‘the Hound of Heaven’. That is, it is due to Jesus Christ himself, who pursued me relentlessly even when I was running away from him in order to go my own way. And if it were not for the gracious pursuit of the Hound of Heaven I would today be on the scrap-heap of wasted and discarded lives


It is such questions like this that make me think deeply about what my beliefs are during my last 8 months in Norway. My faith and beliefs have been deeply challenged and deeper convictions have formed as I have had the chance to explore the Christian faith and its alternatives. If that was all I came to Norway to do, then I might as well have surpassed my targets by far. 

Thursday 21 March 2013

Inspiring Ålesund...

So this past week we broke from routine to travel to Ålesund for an inspiring one week working with students. It turned out to be much more than I bargained for. It was a great opportunity for me to meet inspiring young people who love the Lord passionately and want to live their faith in the high schools. The conversations and chats were truly encouraging. There is this one young lady I met who rejoices at having a weekly meeting where two of her teachers join in as they sing, pray and share together. 

We attended a Friday evening youth service at a nearby church where one of the laget workers, Anders, was speaking. We went bowling though before this service and, I must say this, it was my first time bowling yet I managed to be number three of four beating Anders, a seasoned bowler. Notably, I had started out by hitting nothing in round one but after ten rounds I was number three! How's that for a novice! Lesson: never give up too soon but race to the end. 

At the service, I met some inspiring youth who school together and love Jesus very much. One of the boys, Joseph, is half Norwegian and half American. His parents were missionaries in Mali until a year or so ago. He stayed one year in France to learn French before going to stay in Northern Mali. He told me that it pains him to see the present situation in Mali where some rebels have taken over the northern part of the country and implemented Sharia law. He and his brother regularly chat with his friends back in Mali some of whom are experiencing the wrath of the rebels and is happy to note that most of them are safe. He is many miles away from them and can do little but pray for them. His faith in God seems undimmed by the events in Mali. At the end of our conversation, we did pray together. 

The laget staff in Ålesund and Trondheim
A few minutes into our chat and a classmate of his joined us. He is from the Philippines where he was raised in a foster home before being adopted at a tender age by Norwegian parents. He does not speak English at all but is very fluent in Norwegian. We have to use Joseph as our translator. The young man looks very eager to chat with me on life and faith and even wished he could speak English so we could converse more deeply. At this point, my heart is moved as I had, a few weeks earlier, lost the energy to learn more Norwegian. I feel this energy to learn come back like a flood and I make a mental note to learn more Norwegian when I get back to Trondheim. The young man finally asks how I came to know God and I share with him how I used to be an atheist in high school but came to commit my life to God as a first year student at the university when a fellow school mate shared with me on what it means to have a personal relationship with God. 

Sadly, time was not on our side and soon we had to leave for a friend's birthday bash. The awesome time I had in Ålesund with those 13 year old boys will forever be etched in my heart. As for the Norwegian language, I now have renewed zeal and passion to learn it lest such glorious learning opportunities pass me by. 

My Teammate...
... and I In Ålesund

Wednesday 20 February 2013

The Balancing Act...

Having been in Norway for half a year now, i would rather expect myself to have gotten used to the culture and to have fully adapted. So it was a rather rude shock this weekend when i noticed a brief but quite educative cultural difference. We had gone on a trip to the vasfjelletkarpellet, a retreat center in Trondheim  for an inspiration weekend together with 20 students mostly drawn from NTNU, the Norwegian university of Science and Technology. We had a lovely time of Bible study, reflections, playing games in the snow and making lunch in the snow.

Later in the afternoon, I tugged along with some other friends as we went skiing. On a side note, I really do enjoy skiing and is one of those things i will dearly miss. One of the ladies at the retreat decided to join us on the trip. She is from Belgium but staying in Norway presently. We were left behind with her as the rest of the people were quite fast in skiing. She decided to play in the snow and my natural instinct was to take care of her by just skiing near the place where she was playing. When we got tired, we headed back to the retreat center where we engaged in an animated discussion on women, men and culture. 

What I later realized as we chatted was that my instinct of taking care of her may not have gone down well with her as she thought I was looking down on her and not treating her as an equal. Further discussion revealed that we had different concepts of what it means to take care of a lady. We managed to reach an understanding on this but i could not help but notice how seemingly innocent actions can be misconstrued to mean other things especially when we look at them through the eyes of our culture. Was I to do the same thing I did to her in Kenya, it would have been very much perfectly acceptable to most ladies. But now, in a different culture, well, it means something else.

I have noted a few actions like helping a lady carry her luggage are most times deemed as not treating her as your equal even when done in good faith. Again, seeing a female visitor off to the Bus stop is something i have rarely seen here. Most of the time, everyone parts at the door. So now I am left with a difficult conundrum to solve: How do I act within the parameters of treating ladies as equals and at the same time be eager to help whenever necessary without seemingly appearing chauvinistic?

Monday 28 January 2013

The Interview

Today for my blog, I decided to interview one of the students I work with here. Marie Lowzow is a fourth year student at NTNU studying Architecture. She loves buildings and is almost always talking about one. She also has a passion for meeting and interacting with people. She is both a Norwegian and American citizen and has German roots. She has interacted a lot with Hald students for several years now and I wanted to hear her experiences with them.

Meet Marie Lowzow
Mokaya: I remember the first day we met you told me that you always look forward to meeting the new Hald students every year. Why are you always eager to meet with them?
Marie: Well, meeting up with Hald students is always fun. they have this sense of curiosity and the ability to ask lots of questions. I like listening to the questions and answering them. for instance, when you first arrived here, you had many questions on snow. For example, you asked me what we do when there is lots of snow on the streets and I was happy to explain on how the trucks shovel the snow away. I like the honesty and sincerity of their questions too 

Mokaya: What impact have the cross cultural interactions with Hald students had on you?
Marie: I have grown in my appreciation of  things i take for granted sometimes. They have also helped me see my country with new eyes. For instance, it was when you said how lovely it was to sleep in a sleeping bag that I realized what a good thing it is to have one and sleep in it, something i usually took for granted. By interacting with them, I get to see tour country and it's culture in a new way.

Mokaya: What do you always look forward to seeing the Hald students do?
Marie: I always look forward to seeing them the first time they go skiing and they see snow. The child like smile on their eyes and faces is fun to see. The falling and standing up while skiing is always fun to watch. These are rare experiences for me to see what it really means to see something for the first time by a person who is my age mate.
Marie and I during my first cabin trip

Mokaya: Tell me some interesting experiences you have had with them?
Marie: Last year we had two students from Nepal. One day my fiance placed his hand on top of my head as a sign of affection. We didn't know that in Nepali that meant that he was pushing me down and looking down on me. You can imagine my surprise when the two students explained this to me later.

Mokaya: Final thoughts...
Marie:Keep the questions coming. They help me discover more about our country.


Saturday 5 January 2013

Christmas in Kristiansand...

Were I to summarize my Christmas time in Kristiansand in one word, I would say awesome. I spent Christmas in Kristiansand for Christmas at the home of a former Hald student, Åsmund Skomedal. He studies Math and Physics at NTNU Trondheim and we work together in Laget. We left on the night of 21st December by train but not before having a lovely meal at his cool boat, where he lives, near the Train station. The journey took around 13 hours and we arrived to a windy and snowy weather. It remained so and grew worse for the next two days. But as they say in Norway, det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare darlige klæer [there is no bad weather, only bad clothing].

Shoveling the snow away
We warmly welcomed by his lovely brother, father and mother and were later joined by the eldest brother who recently got married. For the next few days, I had a real taste of a warm home as I experienced the warmth and friendship and fellowship of being in a family. We watched football, read very few pages of books (what did u expect with all the fun around), shoveled the snow away from the driveway and walkway, slid downhill on the snow, jumped off the roof of the house into the snow below, built snow castles, had snow fights, cooked and ate, received visitors and even managed to go skiing. I look back with longing and satisfaction over the things we did.

Fire in the snow
Christmas here is actually family time. So the whole family met on Christmas Eve (Jule aften) to dance around the Christmas tree and exchange gifts later. Before this we had ate a special meal of Pinnekjøtt for dinner (It is delicious to say the least). Tradition here is that the father prepares it and this day was no exception. Everyone received a gift but none could beat the sleeping bag I got. Earlier that day, we had visited åsmund’s grandfather in the elderly care centre. We had some nice rice porridge for lunch and then left together for church near the care center.

On Christmas day, we went to church and were later joined in the evening by another family with whom they had been friends with for many years. It was lovely listening to the parents tell of the stories of their children when they were young. Throughout my stay there, I enjoyed the close family feeling I got and especially the conversations over dinenr and breakfast. I realized that the Skomedals had a tradition of meeting up with other close families during the Christmas period for dinners. On the day after Christmas, we went skiing and made fire in the snow and cooked food in the fire and ate it there.

To say that I had a lovely time is a huge understatement. This remains the best true taste of Norwegian culture that left my heart and mind touched with love and care. I extend warm thanks to Skomedal family for making my Christmas time last year the loveliest and warmest I have had in years.  It felt sad when I had to leave for a new year’s camp in the north but takk for fin tid!