Sunday, November 25, 2007

SOME PICTURES IN VENNESLA

being in vennesla is another interesting thing just like
in mandal,but hey,the first cut is the deepest.
this is my memory of friends while still together in mandal
but this time we had gone to kristiansand.

being in vennesla does not mean i don't meet friends.i meet
them every Monday and Tuesday when i go for Norwegian lessons

i guess i also have time to hang out and take
some cool walks in vennesla.



i work with handicapped people and we make fun
and job alle sammen(all together).




Rafael is my work mate at wood work.he comes
from Germany.





in vennesla we don't only cut wood but we
also pack fruits inside a store.







i do take my time to rest when i get back
home and listen to some moving music that
drive me to a sleep.






every Friday we go to McDonald to eat pizza
and drive down to kristiandsand town just for
fun.








while at work i don't work nonstop but i also have to
rest and drink some strong coffee.









cutting wood is fun










i do work also in samkon school as a teacher of English and
also tell about my beautiful country Uganda and these are
some of my students.we look cool.












of course i don't walk up to kristiansand on
my feet but i wait for a bus at the bus stop
because its the only place that busses stop.
its different with my country where busses
stop anywhere as long as you say,`sebo maso
awo'which means sir stop there.and they will
stop even when there is no buss stop.



































Saturday, November 3, 2007

JOSH IN VENNESLA

Life in Norway looks very different from that of Uganda everything looks to be new to The environment, climate and the social life of the people is absolutely another world to me I mean the food, dressing and the means of transport is not the same with that of Uganda. For my first six weeks I was staying in mandal where life was boring for a week since I was still new in town but after some time when I got used to the environment and meeting people from different parts of the world most especially people from Peru, Bolivia, Brazil,Norwegians of course and same people from East Africa like Kenya and Tanzania who are my neighbours. I really felt at home though some time I would become home sick looking back on the friends and the lovely children in child restoration outreach that I was missing since I grew up knowing them as my sisters and brothers. And here comes another moving moments when we were to go to our practise places in different towns of Norway and also the Norwegians were to go to the southern countries. I felt there was something that I was going to start missing that was my friends at hald since we had become one family and now I was to go to Vennesla were I had no friends with no idea of shopping places than I knew at hald or Mandal.On the day of departure, I almost cried when seeing my friends leaving. My first day in Vennesla was the most boring moments that I have ever experienced in life. The place was very quiet with few people in the centre and this made me ask myself questions where the people in this town? Have they got a party to attend and how many people live here? It looked like some place that have been attacked by rebels some few minutes before my arrival. On getting used to a place, life started changing in vennesla.Its no longer a boring place than when I just got here. I have managed to make new friends and this is through football, right now I have ten friends that I play football with and what a nice moments that we have after playing, we sit down to relax and talk together ourselves what we like doing I mean hobbies. They some time invite me to their homes to watch movies also we ride bikes around vennesla.
While in vennesla I go to Samkom School on Tuesdays, wednessdays and Thursdays. I teach English in grade five, six and seven and some time I teach about my country Uganda and tell them about Africa since Uganda is in Africa. The schools in Norway different from that in Uganda. the population in class is less than that of Uganda here 18 to 20 pupils in one class with two to three teachers managing the class but in Uganda you find more than hundred pupils in one tiny class room with some time one or two teachers managing the class.Another amazing thing is that children some time don’t respect teachers while the teacher is teaching.
The pupil does what he feels like doing in class while the teacher is teaching.
We also work with mentally hand capped people and at fast I asked myself what I was going to do with this people, I was a bite scared since in Uganda, most hand capped people are left to move in town and be in garbage places. This made me ask person in charge of this place what type of work I was to do here. He told me that we actually don’t work I mean he said there was no work but the most important work here is to make this people happy, they need care just like any other person. What I learnt is that people like this should not be seen as useless people since they never wished to be like this they should be given respect, care and love but they should not be considered as useless people in the community like the way they are treated in my country Uganda. This is the most thing that I enjoy doing in my practise place is to be with this people talk to them and to bring smiles to their faces.
I live in an apartment with Moses from Uganda and I enjoy being with him since we come from the same country and same project. Finally, I dearly enjoy being with my contact family since they are so caring to us and I truly a appreciate them for the wonderful things they are doing to us.
Joshua.Life in Norway looks very different from that of Uganda everything looks to be new to The environment, climate and the social life of the people is absolutely another world to me I mean the food, dressing and the means of transport is not the same with that of Uganda. For my first six weeks I was staying in mandal where life was boring for a week since I was still new in town but after some time when I got used to the environment and meeting people from different parts of the world most especially people from Peru, Bolivia, Brazil,Norwegians of course and same people from East Africa like Kenya and Tanzania who are my neighbours. I really felt at home though some time I would become home sick looking back on the friends and the lovely children in child restoration outreach that I was missing since I grew up knowing them as my sisters and brothers. And here comes another moving moments when we were to go to our practise places in different towns of Norway and also the Norwegians were to go to the southern countries. I felt there was something that I was going to start missing that was my friends at hald since we had become one family and now I was to go to Vennesla were I had no friends with no idea of shopping places than I knew at hald or Mandal.On the day of departure, I almost cried when seeing my friends leaving. My first day in Vennesla was the most boring moments that I have ever experienced in life. The place was very quiet with few people in the centre and this made me ask myself questions where the people in this town? Have they got a party to attend and how many people live here? It looked like some place that have been attacked by rebels some few minutes before my arrival. On getting used to a place, life started changing in vennesla.Its no longer a boring place than when I just got here. I have managed to make new friends and this is through football, right now I have ten friends that I play football with and what a nice moments that we have after playing, we sit down to relax and talk together ourselves what we like doing I mean hobbies. They some time invite me to their homes to watch movies also we ride bikes around vennesla.
While in vennesla I go to Samkom School on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. I teach English in grade five, six and seven and some time I teach about my country Uganda and tell them about Africa since Uganda is in Africa. The schools in Norway different from that in Uganda. the population in class is less than that of Uganda here 18 to 20 pupils in one class with two to three teachers managing the class but in Uganda you find more than hundred pupils in one tiny class room with some time one or two teachers managing the class.Another amazing thing is that children some time don’t respect teachers while the teacher is teaching.
The pupil does what he feels like doing in class while the teacher is teaching.
We also work with mentally hand capped people and at fast I asked myself what I was going to do with this people, I was a bite scared since in Uganda, most hand capped people are left to move in town and be in garbage places. This made me ask person in charge of this place what type of work I was to do here. He told me that we actually don’t work I mean he said there was no work but the most important work here is to make this people happy, they need care just like any other person. What I learnt is that people like this should not be seen as useless people since they never wished to be like this they should be given respect, care and love but they should not be considered as useless people in the community like the way they are treated in my country Uganda. This is the most thing that I enjoy doing in my practise place is to be with this people talk to them and to bring smiles to their faces.
I live in an apartment with Moses from Uganda and I enjoy being with him since we come from the same country and same project. Finally, I dearly enjoy being with my contact family since they are so caring to us and I truly a appreciate them for the wonderful things they are doing to us.
Josh.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

MY LIFE IN NORWAY

My first time to come to norway, everything looked very different from that of my home country uganda.i met new people,new enviroment,new dress code that made me ask many questions like why are people dressing in the way that never existed in uganda.My first experience was cross the road i mean i really enjoyed crossing the road through the zebra cross.cars would stop and you can walk at your pase but in uganda you do that you are crashed
because people don't keep the road rules.Also my first time in Norwegian church was interesting with absolutely different from that in uganda.here people don't dance,jump and shout in church which looked some how boring to me because i was used to the ugandan way of praising and i was surprised to see the majority in church were the old group of people and i asked why the youth had gone but latter i was told youth think church is boring.Another moving thing was that out side the church there were many graves and i was afraid to go in because in uganda there is nothing like that.So everything is different from that of uganda.






Monday, September 24, 2007

MY LIFE ON THE STREET.


The street was another hell that existed during my stay in the streets of mbale in uganda.but i called it a home because i had no where to live in since i could not bare the situation of my new father who only wished me suffering.Well, life on the street was not easy because to get the bread of the day was between live and death.we used to do all kinds of evil ways to get food.i used to steal poeple's money,clothes to sell,food from the market and i remember some time i would be arested and beaten up seriously but still,i would go back because it was the only way to survive.I also used to beg from Mbale taxi park and some time in th post office which was risky.One day i was slapped by this man whom i aked for money and what he did was to spit on my face and told me that i was hopeless and that he was not my father neither he is was not the one who brought me on the street.While on the street, i used to take drags and it reached to a point whereby i would not last for an hour without drags.i was forced to take drags because of an able to cope up when i was abused by the poeple and also i took drags to enable me survive cold at night in a way that if i take them,i would be taken by a sleep up to another new day.The police was another big obstacle that i encountered during my stay on the street.At night they would beat me up and make me walk with them the whole night.some time they would take a way the money from me that i had,this forced me to sleep in broken pipes and in the grave yard since they were afraid of going to the grave yard.Fighting was part of my life,i always fought my friends when they hurt me and we always sheded blood every time we fought and no one could seperate us.people would just stand and cheer us because we were seen like animals fighting.My food was more than left overs.i picked food from the gabbage which some time had lasted for two days but still, i would eat it.this food was mixed with ciggaretes,broken glasses and some time with poeples saliva.People called me all sorts of names like chokora which is a swahili word wthat means some one who picks from the gabbage and eats everything that comes across him or her,maungu which means some one who is hopeless and has no future in his or her life which to me is a lie because right now i have a bright future a head of me.finally my thanks goes to everyone who has taken a step a head to support street children.really if it wasn't by your helpful hearts, i would not be sharing my life experience with people and also i would like to tell people out there that are adictated to drags that drags are harmful to our health and if you think its hard to get out of drags,thats a lie,my brother,sister,friend, you can make it i mean you can stop it.if i managed to get out of it,then you too can manage.Is just that we need to make decissions for ourselves and listen because if you want to be somebody and if you want to go somewhere,you have to pay atention in a way that i did.being on the street to me was like being in darkness where you can not see anything. i could not see my future and i didn't see one time myself in Norway but when i got time to make decissions and listened,i started seeing my future and now i am in Norway.Hey look its not late for you too.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

MY LIFE IN AND OUT OF THE STREET OF UGANDA

  • I am Joshua Mukulu,20 years old,a ugandan by nationality,an orphan and a student in a high school.It was not my wish to be on the street but it was because of the an bearable situations tha forced me to abandon my home.We were five children in our family and i was the only boy.

In 1990,my home village was attacked by the rebels in northern east of uganda.my four sisters including my dad were killed and this forced my mamand i to move to the eastern part of uganda where we settled in one of Mbale slums called Namatala.In namatala life life was hard for us.we lacked shelter,clothes and food.I remember my mam and i were living in a small hut and used to have only one meal which was super.This forced my mam to get another man who latter became her husband,this man never at any time liked me maybe just because i was not his biological son.He always punished and put blame incase something went wrong at home at times he could tie me under a tree and beat me without mercy. This happened and my mam could not say anything like protected me because she was affraid of being divorced incase she tried to protect me.A feeling developed inside me that i was a mistake to my mam.One day i was sent to the market to buy flour and on my way,i lost the money without my knowledge and getting home,i was beated up seriously and this i felt i could not handle.I decided to go to the street and met some friends whom i knew before and they helped me how to cope with street life.

Life on the street was not easy but since i had no other alternative, it was a place for me to call a home.We used to pick from the gabbage like food,help people to carry their things from the market and we also used to beg, i remeber the first day i started begging,it was at mbale taxi park wherei asked one of the passengers inside a taxi for money.This man opened a side mirror of a car slaped me and spat on my face,told me that he was not my father and was not the one who brought me on the street.I really at that time the ground to open and swallow me.that was a day i have never forgotten in my life. i feeli could just meet this man a gain just to tell him that it was not my wish to be on the street.We also used to take drugs glue,petrol and marijwana. we used this drugs because of the cold at night,forget the stress of the day and to chase a way fear of being affraid of sleeping at the grave yard because at times we were attacked my police men at night who could beat us and took way the small money we worked for during the day.We also used to sleep inside broken pipes.

One day i and my friends were picking from a gabbage when this two ladies came to us but when we saw them, we got affraid thinking they were police but they talked to us in swahili language telling us not to ran.Is then when we got the strength of facing them .They told us of the up coming project called child restoration outreach(C.R.O).How it was going to help us since i really needed help, i decided to go with them and some of my friends but others refused to go.

Life in C.R.O,On getting to c.r.o we were given water to bathe and new clothes then food with some counselling.fro the project i would go back on the street since they did't have a partment for us to sleep.So i could go to the project in the morning and in the afternoon i would go back to the street.After some time the project went a head and talked to my mam who accepted me back home after she divorced the man since he never wanted to see me in his family.then latter my mam was given some money to start a bussiness of selling charcoal and we had a meal of the day and some money to take care of our needs.From that time my mam became an inspirational to my life she brought back the smiles that i missed during my stay on the street. In 1994, i was taken to northroad primary school wherei started my primary one.Joining a primary school was so interesting but i used to walk on bare feet and other children would laugh at me. I remember one day i had to go back to the project because i was embarrassed by one of my classmate because i was walking on bare feet but the project staff strengthened me by telling me that one day i would also put on shoes until i get fade up of puting on shoes.this really made me give a deaf ear to people who looked on my feet and laugh at me.I got popular at shool when i joined the school football team and athletic where i was the best and other children started admiring the talents that i feel would have been destroyed if i was not helped.This is when i came to realise that i have a future.when i joined school, i was performing well in class better than other children whom their parents were financially stable. I joined my secondary in 2001 and joined high school in 2005 and competed in2006 though it was not easy for me because my mam was sick so i had to go school and came back to take care of my mam.But she could not make it,she pased a way in june-16-2006.though she has gone, i have a story to tell of a good mother she was.I am to join university next year when i get back to uganda and i want to become a social worker because i want to work with street children. help them the same way i was helped.

My reason of sharing my life experience is to urge people helping C.R.O and other NGOs not to give up.go a head you are saving lives,talent and great people of the coming nations.my great thanks goes to STROMME FOUNDATION for supporting c.r.o to help street children have a bright.I am not a shamed to say, I AM A PRODUCT OF YOUR HELP.who knows that i would come to Norway maybe i would be dead if it was not for your help.MAY GOD BLESS YOU.

Joshua Mukulu.

My reason of sharing my life exp