I'm sorry!

The last two months I haven't been able to keep you guys up to date. I really hoped to be able to write more from my stay, but I've had lack of inspiration. Unti I now read my fellow GoCY'ers blogs. I really admire them. To update with new articles as often as they do is a big job. And I send them my thanks. Their commitment is an inspiration to all.
I could probably write much more about my experiences. But honestly I've had some tough times. No work to do, lack of social activity, and staying to much in my building (because I work and live in the same one) led to a prison-like feeling. And some of these things took me by surprise. During the fall I had more then enough work and much more social activity (as you can see on my blog). But sometimes these tings happens. Different things in life will affect your everyday life, and for me it has been a valuable experience. I've always had people around me that I could turn to in case of difficult times. I do have those here as well, but everything is affected of different culture and settings. And so this year have given me new challenges and some of them I've handled okay, but some of them I can probably do better in the future. All in all I have learned and gained more knowledge and experince that will be usefull in the future.

I can just shortly give you guys a hint of what I've been doing the last two months.
I have been working some, mostly within the computer centre they have at the YMCA. I've also done some administrative tasks and giving some feedback. In my social life I've found some new friends in church. Every sunday we've been gathering and just talking. It has been really some good times, and I will miss them.
During the easter holiday my whole family came down and we had a great time! Experiencing some of the nicest places in and around Durban. We went on safari in Hluhluwe and saw lots of elephants, we went to some really nice restaurants, saw dolphins and sharks at Ushaka, enjoyed the beach, and much more. I really got to enjoy what South Africa had to offer with them, and I thank them for it.

Now it is 10 days left of my stay here in South Africa and I can only thank God for giving me the opportunity to see and experience this country, and to gain the knowledge and experience through my work here. He has truely blessed me during my stay.

Hope all of you are well and God bless you all until next time.

Vidar

Safari in Hluhluwe!

For the first time during my stay here in South Africa I went on a trip outside Durban! I suggested for some of my friends to go away on a safari, and they thought it was a good idea. So on friday me and Njabulo went to the airport to rent a car. I was clever enough to forget my passport so we had to take on more trip, but finally we got a car; the first car ever to be in my name (huge step for me:p). And it was a really nice toyota as you can see on the picture.
Around 16.00 we, as in me, Njabulo, Nathalie, Clifford, Mbuso, and Yoliswa, started our journey by driving towards our destination Cliffords dads house, where we were going to stay over. After an unexpected long, but fun, journey we reached the house at 23.30 and we all were ready for a good night sleep.
As we woke up the following morning and I was looking out, I realized that we were really in the middle of nowhere, but it was nice with the mountains around there and the small society that they lived in. We took some pictures and said goodbye before we headed on the road again towards our main goal, the safari in Hluhluwe National Park. We got there and for R90 we could drive around in the park the whole day. And in the park we were all excited and jumped in the car whenever we saw a new animal. Even when we saw the regular animals we thought it was fun. At the end of the day we had seen giraffes, zebras, baboons, impalas, and warthogs, to mension some. But the most interesting animals we saw was the rhino and a cheetah. Those are two of the big five that I wanted to see so I'm almost half way through. The rhinos we had a clear view, but the cheetah was hidden in the bushes. Even so, it was amazing!
After spending many hours driving around in the park we headed straight back to Durban, which by the way took us just about 3 hours (just a hint of how unexpected the trip up was).
All in all we had a really great time and we are already planning a new trip, but this time to Soweto.. Intersting! We'll see..

God bless you all until next time and enjoy the pictures below:)

I'm back!

As you all can see I haven't been updating my blog the last month.. That is because I've been back in Norway on a summer holiday to visit my girlfriend and my family.. I had one month without any work so I took the opportunity.. And it was GOOD! I landed on my girlfriends birthday and when she came to pick me up I knew this was going to be one of my best holidays ever! And it was.. I got to introduce her to my family and friends as well as spending time with all of them..
I thank God for that because it is not something everybody can do.. My thoughts are going to those who can't move anywhere in Gaza.. It is a sad time and we can only pray that things will get better.. Also my friend, Ragnhild, who was in a car accident.. She is a strong person and I pray God will be with her no matter what happens next..

Hopefully I will be able to bring better news next time I update here..

God bless you all until next time..

Beachvolleyball Tournament!

This weekend I joined in on a big event. Durban beachvolley club arranged a tournament with national television and R3000 in prize money. That was the first time I joined in for a big tournament like this, and it was great fun. However me and my partner didn't handle the heat that well so we didn't make it to the semifinals. It was around 40C in the sun and that is too hot when you are playing beachvolleyball. But the most important thing was that we had a great time and everybody came on tv! Also hands down for the guy who arranged it all, Lucky!

A simpler time!

Last weekend I didn't experince much, but I do have some experiences that I've gained through weekdays that I haven't told you about and one of them is about the simple life of South Africa.

One day the electricity disappeared and all I was stuck with was a candle. And apparently it will be more often because they have to save their energy.

The other simple thing is eating. I've found myself eating nothing but bread, and drinking water, several times troughout the 3 months I've been here. Also we have been eating just meat. We pay a prize for an amount of meat, they grill it, then we eat it while we are dipping it in salt. It couldn't have been done easier. But that's a part of the South African life, and I'm about to get used to it!

A small defeat, but for the greater good!

As I wrote in the beginning of this adventure I made a promise of experiencing new things every weekend. But during my first 3 months I've come to realize that there are to many factors that needs to work out before I can be able to do it. The availability of different people will not always be at hand, enough possibilities for each weekend might not be possible. But my biggest argument is my own availability. Recently I had the chance to go to Johannesburg for a weekend with a friend. But then I had to choose between work and pleasure, and my main goal down here is to be there 100% for my work. I was able to do something new that weekend, but sometimes work just have to come before my "crazy" goals. And to be honest I feel much better doing a good job, that is my purpose, then running around doing other things for my own pleasure.
Another factor is also important to think about. After it becomes dark it is dangerous to be outside, and even though I've been outside late, it isn't always a possibility. Like last weekend. I wanted to go out on saturday, but didn't have anyone to go with. So I had to stay inside. In a "desperate" attempt to have something to do I tried to put some norwegian mentality (at least a mentality that I know of) into the building. I where able to by some snacks just around the corner and gathered some guys to play some cards. My first intention was to learn them something new, but they quickly showed more interest in the one game they already knew; casino. We tried to play it, but they had to many distractions and didn't show the interest that was needed so I gave up. But no hard feelings. I was able to go to bed a bit earlier, and it was good. It is just one of the many adaptions that needs to be done.
I'm all well and no hard feelings neither towards them or missing out on one of my part-time goals. Hope my readers are okay with it as well!
However I will continue to do new things as much as possible, so who knows how many new things I will end up doing? Maybe in total it will actually be the same amount!
I feel happy about my conclusion and hoping you guys can too!
Take care of your possibilities untill next time!
Vidar

Tensing festival november '08!

This was maybe one of the better weekends during my stay so fare! Beause this weekend Durban YMCA was the host of a tensing festival. And the best part was that a group of norwegians were here! A class from Rønningen folkehøgskule was here on a visit and to join the festival. Every night throughout the festival we played cards. And it was so much fun!
The festival itself was also really good. Everybody who attended had a great time and what a show we put on! We had dancing, singing, drama and poetry, and everything we did had so much energy and joy behind it. An experience for life, most definitly. I will just send a thanks to all of those who participated. Thanks!

Saturday night fever!

This was not about the movie, but about the night fever of Durban. This weekend me and Mr. Thomspon went to the Suncoast Casino to see another part of the Durban night life, as I have experienced Skyy bar before. I must admit that I had a great time even though gambling is a bad thing, but I didn't spend money. So it was really just about being out there and experiencing new things. And also there were enough people throwing their money away anyway so I didn't feel guilty either. It was just a special atmosphere and everybody seemed to have a great time.

Out after 18.00!

Last weekend, Saturday 25th of October, I went to the cinema. It was a nice experience to go out and do "normal" stuff again. As you can tell I haven't been outside that much because it is to dangerous, but this time I just wanted to do something else then sitting on my computer. So I went and watched "Dangerous Bangkok". It was an okay movie, but the best part was to be outside. Hope you guys can enjoy your movies as well.
Vidar

Church in South Africa

I must admit that I haven't been to church much here in South Africa. In fact it was my first service. But hopefully not the last one. It was good to spend some more time with God. He is a helping hand in times of need. I do hope though that the next services will not be like this one. I normally think 1 to 1 1/2 hour service, I were told that this one might last for 2, but I ended up staying there for 3 hours and 15 minutes. A bit to long for my taste. However, it lasted that long because they had some visitors from Germany, two who were confirmed, and one who got baptized. With other words, a lot that was going on. But it did feel good to be at a service again and I'm looking forward to see other churches.
Hope you all are doing well and God bless every one of you.
Vidar

What a SHOW!

Sunday 12th of october, I went to KwaMashu which is a township of Durban. They have their own YMCA group their and they hosted a show. In that show they had drama, dancing and singing, everything put together in one big show/play. I can't really describe how good it was, but the story was based on a true story. It was about how people ended up living there after being chased from their home and to KwaMashu. Even though I didn't catch the whole story because a lot of it was in zulu, I still got the feeling of importance of that story. You could feel the tension in the audience as well as the laughter wasn't fare away.
The way of performing it was excellent and I really wish that there were more shows like that. I must say that this show was one of the best new experince I've had so fare and hopefully I will witness something like it once more time.
Until next time I hope you all will behave..
Vidar

My norwegian friends=)

I've been quite lucky when I ended up in Durban. This is because I found out that a married couple from my home town also were going to move to the same city. I even knew them a bit. And it is always good to meet up with someone that you know especially when it is a bit unexpected.
So on friday this weekend I were invited to have dinner with them. They even had some visitors from Norway and the whole evening turned out to be a wonderful event. I had such a great time and hope to see them some time soon.
Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but will come back with some other pictures later from their home..
Vidar

Durban dance!

My reason for writing last weekend's new experience this late is because I just haven't had the inspiration to write. But I hope to become better at it! And that saying I want to tell you about my last weekend.
Because last weekend I had my first night on a dance club here in Durban. Some friends of mine took me to Skyy Bar which is a dance club at the top of a skyscraper. And as if that wasn't enough DJ Cleo had his new CD release that saturday. DJ Cleo is one of the more successful DJ's in South Africa! Everybody knows who he is!
And with that kind of music playing I had to learn how to dance the Durban dance so that I wouldn't stick out! I must admit it was great fun. Some of the moves they did were brilliant, but to bring them and the dance back to Norway will be a revolution that I don't think I can do on my own. But inside that club everybody were dancing and to see them go crazy were both a lot of fun and also a bit scary. Some of them went a bit fare you may say...
I could say that I wish I had some pictures, but I would be lying. I don't think anyone would understand because we would look like chickens to you even though I think the dancing was cool. Even so I couldn't do it because the flashlight on my camera is broken. But I did try to get some pictures were there was no movement. Hope you can enjoy them instead :)
Vidar

Outside Skyy Bar

The casino

The city

The MTN-cup final!!

On the 23rd of September I joined a couple of my friends to a football final. The teams were Kaizer Chiefs against Mamelodi Sundowns. With approximately 55 000 africans on the stadium the evening was about to become wild! The atmosphere and surroundings were amazing! And what a match! Even though it was 0-0 after 120 minutes the chances they blew away were HUGE! I must admit that this was one of the funniest matches I've ever seen live. Especially because it ended in penalty shootout and the goal closest to where I were standing was used. I think the World Cup will be a great success down here if the atmosphere is the same.