Jorden rundt på 4 måneder

Kom bli med! Vi kan alle hjelpe noen!

2007-05-21T01:09:00.000+02:00

Heihei!

Nå har jeg vært hjemme i ca en mnd. Det var herlig å komme hjem, rart
å innse hvor mange ting jeg virkelig eier og hvor utrolig godt jeg har
det. Noen dager savner jeg det å reise, lære og oppleve så mye, men
jeg har heldigvis mye å se fram til.

De fleste har kanskje fått med seg at vi har planer om
(sammen med Boliviafamilien) å få bygget et pikehjem i Potosi i
Bolivia. Tomt og arkitekter er allerede på plass og arbeider med
utformingen av hjemmet.
Potosi er verdens høyeste by, og var engang den rikeste byen I hele
Amerika. Slik er det ikke lenger. I denne byen er det mange
foreldreløse barn på grunn av at mange av foreldrene har dødd I
gruvearbeidet. Arbeidet I gruvene er veldig viktig for byen og derfor
jobber veldig mange I gruvene.

Frelsesarmeen har bare et dagsenter der fra før, "Maria Christina".
Det er temmelig fullt, og det er behov for mer hjelp.

Litt om Boliviafamilien først:
Baste Fanebust er mannen som startet Boliviafamilien. Det hele begynte
med at Baste hadde et fadderbarn I en fadderorganisasjon som gikk
konkurs. Baste var sjømann I mange år og fikk se mye av verden og mye
av fattigdommen. Han bestemte seg da for å dra til Bolivia og se om
fadderbarnet og barnehjemmet som hun bodde på, I det hele tatt
eksisterte. Han fant bade barnehjemmet og fadderbarnet sitt. Han så at
her matte noe gjøres. Han startet med å finne faddere til barna, hos
venner og bekjente og arbeidskolleger I Nordsjøen. Det var starten på
Boliviafamilien som nå har over 700 faddere.

I dag er det sønnene til Baste, Øyvind og Frode som driver
Boliviafamilien som frivillige, dvs uten inntekt. Bastes gamle
arbeidsplass, Phillips Conoco, sponser med papir og porto, og ikke en
krone av inntektene fra faddere går til administrativt arbeid.

Annet hvert år reiser Boliviafamilien, sammen med de faddere som
ønsker, til Bolivia og besøker alle dagsenterene og barnehjemmene som
de støtter. Det nye barnehjemmet, som skal ha plass til 50-60 jenter,
skal stå ferdig i September 2008, til rundreisen i Bolivia.

Det er allerede flere større sponsorer som har meldt seg, og det er vi
veldig takknemlige og glade for. Men det er langt igjen enda.

Vi vil gjerne med dette oppfordre deg til å tenke over om du kan
tenke deg å være med å støtte dette prosjektet med noen kroner. Hver
krone teller! ;o)

Kontonummeret som er blitt opprettet spesielt til prosjektet:
Konto 6340 05 25511

Er det noe du lurer på er det bare å ta kontakt!
Ta også gjerne en titt på hjemmesiden til Boliviafamilien:
www.boliviafamilien.org

Ingen kan hjelpe alle, men alle kan hjelpe noen!

Thailand

2007-04-15T11:37:00.000+02:00

We met Rudi (Maritas boyfriend) at the airport, on the 6th of april. It was nice for them to finally meet again!

We spent our first 3 days on an island called Koh Samui. The airport was so primitive there..Watch the pictures! Here we met a lot of she-males (transvestites), Marita and Linn laughed, and Rudi puked and closed his eyes.

On day 4, we went to Koh Tao. Marita and Rudi went there to get the Divers License, and Linn joined to relax in the sun.. She had to work a bit more on her tan! The island was beautiful, it was like being in a postcard. Palms, perfect beaches, crystal-clear water and very warm!

We spent 3 nights there, and went back to Koh Samui. When we arrived there, it was Thai-new year festival. The festival is all about water.. Making each other wet is the point + getting painted with some sort of white powder which smells weird and stings a bit. In the beginning, all three of us hated the festival-idea, but it changed after a ride in a jeep! We got the opportunity to join 5 thai guys in their celebration! We sat in the back of their jeep, we got painted with powder, and we finally got the chance to throw water on someone.They asked us like every 5 minutes if we were happy, cause we didn't seem happy next to them. All in all, a very fun night, and the end of 2 days with constant water-fights!

We left Koh Samui and went to Bangkok! We thought the festival was over, but it wasn't , not in Bangkok. So we spent the entire day on top of our hotel, by the pool.
We are enjoying this, but we miss all of our friends, our family and our beds!
Now it’s only three days left before we return back home. In one way we really look forward to that, but we both know that we soon will miss traveling again.

Bankok

2007-04-03T15:39:00.000+02:00

We left Sydney after we’d spent eleven days there. We both fell in love with this city, and will for sure go back there one day. It was sad to leave, but as soon as we arrived Bankok, we forgot. This is a whole different world than Australia, and we like this world.
On our first day, we went sightseeing with a “tokk-tokk”, that was fun. We saw lots of temples, a 40meter high Buddha and we saw many people offering and praying.
Then we went to a shop and ordered two dresses each. We are of course very excited about the dresses!
Yesterday we met Yutika and her lovely friends. Yutika is Marita’s friend from when she was an exchange student in Norway. It was so nice to meet her again! We went someplace to eat. Her friends were just as sweet as Yutika herself. The people here are also very sweet, outgoing and easy to talk to.
Everyone should go to Thailand once in they're lives. :o) We love it here!
Happy Easter to everyone!

Our last days in Sydney

2007-03-29T15:57:00.000+02:00

The last few days in Sydney, we’ve been hanging around in the Harbour mostly.

We have visited the Sydney Wildlife Center and the Aquarium where we were aloud to touch a baby shark!! We have also been at the world largest Imax theatre.

Tonight we went to check out the casino in the city. It was huge and the building was enormous and very nice! But we weren’t aloud to go in. Not because of our age, but because of our shoes! We wore slippers. Hello, we’re backpackers! Don’t bring a lot of nice shoes…

So we find a spot where we could have a look into the casino, and we shot some pictures.

The first picture is our hotel room in Sydney…unfortunately not… :oP

One day in Manly

2007-03-28T10:31:00.001+02:00

Oceanworld

2007-03-26T15:25:00.000+02:00

After walking around in Manly, we suddenly saw an Aquarius. Spontaneous as we are (tihi, not), we decided to take a look. It was great. We saw the biggest turtles ever, large sharps and some snakes. We also got the chance to touch the reptiles. We look forward to visit an even larges Aquarius in Sydney this week.

After three hours at 5 star hairdresser

2007-03-26T04:28:00.000+02:00

We were walking along some street nearby QVB (it is hard to know where we actually are most of the time here…), and suddenly a guy came over and asked us if we wanted our hair done. Of course we wanted! We would get it cut and coloured for a special price since we were backpacker’s. So the next day at 11 am, we went to the 5 star hairdressers and got our hair done. We even got chocolate covered strawberries, wine if we wanted (we didn’t…) and some kind of Chinese massage in the head. It was awesome. Afterwards we went for a photo session in Hyde Park and to Starbucks to get a hot chocolate.

Seightseeing in Sydney

2007-03-26T03:01:00.000+02:00

Our first day in Sydney, we went for a Sightseeing Tour. We got to see a lot of the city, and we liked what we saw! This will be a great week!

Our last evening at Mana

2007-03-25T15:47:00.000+02:00

Our Norwegian friends left Mana one day earlier than we did. The last night was probably the best, so they missed something…

Many new people arrived the island that day, people from Scotland, Ireland, England and Sweden. So we felt pretty much at home. ;o)

We hang at the quay that evening, some of them played guitar and song lots of songs. It was really, really cosy! :o)

The next day we went back to Nadi where we changed our tickets and caught an earlier flight to Sydney.

Island Hopping in the Mamanuca`s

2007-03-25T03:07:00.000+02:00

One of the days at Mana, we went Island Hopping with Terje and Marthe, two boys from Argentina and two girls from Italy.

We got to see 5 other different Islands and beautiful resorts! We even got to take a swim in one of the pools in the resorts. It was so nice. We pretended we lived there for a while.

Fiji

2007-03-23T14:27:00.000+01:00

At our first day in Nadi, we met this guy who brought us to a small shop were they had a kava ceremony for us. That was interesting and very special. We got to learn a lot about Fiji and the culture. Kava is their national drink. No drugs and no alcohol, just natural ingredients.

We had to cover our knees, clap our hands once and shout Bula!

After drinking it, we had to clap our hands three times and say Vinaka, that means “Thank you”.

For the next days we worked at the Nadi centre for Special Education with handicapped children. That was a very special experience. Some of the children had been to the same classes for several years. They couldn’t learn to read or write, while others were quite smart pupils. They were all adorable!

The picture of the pool and the yellow houses is where we lived in Nadi. It was a nice backpacker place. We also celebrated Marita`s 20^th birthday in Nadi.

After we had been at the school for a few days, we went to an Island, Mana. We met two other Norwegians, Terje and Marthe from Trondheim. We stayed at Mereani`s backpacker`s Inn. They arranged a lots of games, Kava ceremony and dance shows in the evening. One of the evenings we also had a bonfire at the beach. That was so nice.

In daytime, we spent most of the time on the beach, swimming, sunbathing and snorkelling.

Dinseyworld

2007-03-12T02:48:00.000+01:00

We spent 3 days in Orlando with our friend Tine. It was great to meet her again, and we had a good time there. Since she is working in Epcot (one of the Disney parks), she got us into all of the parks for free ;o) Lucky us!

So we spent most of the time in the parks, some of the time in the shopping centre and some of the time in Tines car. She has got her own car so she drove us around everywhere.

We also sort of celebrated our birthdays in our own country. In Norway in Epcot (where Tine is working), we ate Norwegian food. Suddenly lots of the waitresses dressed in our national suit, bunad, song the birthday song for us, and we got each our birthday card with all of the princesses autographs ;o)

We also got to meet many of the famous Disney figures and many of Tine’s adorable friends!

We had a really great time there, and it was sad the night we had to say goodbye :o(

But it won’t be long till we meet again! :o)

Thank you Tine, for that you made it a great vacation for us! You’re the best! ;o*

Belize

2007-03-11T07:18:00.000+01:00

In Belice we spent most of the time on the beach in Placencia. Nice white beach and clear water. Placencia is a very small place with only one road and one sidewalk, lots of places to eat and drink and not much more actually.

We rented an apartment at Ponderosa Apartments. The owner, Stan was a really friendly man, huge and black with a big smile on his face.

It was very easy to get to know people. In fact we didn't do much. Some people just came over started to talk to us. Belicean people are very friendly and outgoing.

Actually we didn't do much. Just exactly what the Belicean people do every day. Chill out, hang around and listened to reggae music. We didn't smoke marihuana though, as everyone else did…

One morning we made pancakes for breakfast and invited our new friends over. The last evening they made us spaghetti as "Our last meal in Belice". That was the best spaghetti ever!

We spent 5 days in Belice, and it was great

Guatemala

2007-03-11T06:05:00.000+01:00

Last picture is from the beginning, and the last in the end…

We arrived Guatemala and went to Antigua to meet Marita`s friend Helene who had been in Guatemala for 2 months with her class. She gave us plenty of information about Guatemala and she also recommended we should travel to Belice.

So the next day we headed for Belice. It did take us a few days to get there, though. So the next night we spent in a bungalow in Rio Dulce. It was great except from the bugs… It was very nice there, like we were in a jungle movie.

From Rio Dulce (the town), we went by boat up the river Rio Dulce to Livingston, a small and cozy town by the sea. We went by a sightseeing boat and it did a stop by some kind of pool with VERY hot water! It was all natural. So we had to try to walk in it, though we almost burned ourselves.

We spent the day in Livingston on a not very nice beach. But we got a nice picture of a coconut…

Then we went to Belice (the post above).

When we came back to Guatemala again, we went to a hotel nearby Semuc Chempey. Early one morning, a boy and a girl from Switzerland, a guide and the two of us went to some caves. We wore only our bathing suites, some shoes and a candle in our hand. We had to walk, climb and swim in the caves for about 2 hours. It was very exciting, and a bit frightening wondering what could be in the water…

When we came out from the caves, we sailed down the river and back to the hotel in each our tubes. Those on the picture are the guys from Switzerland . Nice people.

We also went to Semuc Chempey. That's where we're bathing in crystal clear water.

One of the pictures is from inside a chicken bus, which are the local buses. They put way to many people in there, so there isn't much place for each one, but it is charming though.

The two first pictures are from the second last day. We went to the coast by the Pacific Ocean to see the black beach in Monte Rico. Monte Rico is a charming small town, and the black beach is amazing. It is because of the volcanoes that the sand is all black, it is from lava!

Our last day

2007-02-18T18:32:00.000+01:00

Our last day was probably the best one, but also a sad day.
Right before lunch, we were told to get in to the orphanage. They had ordered salteñas and bought coke and we all “celebrated” our last day. The girls had made us some beautiful cards were they had written their thanks to us, and we received presents from both the girls and the director of the orphanage, Carla. They all thanked us very much for our help and visit. We had also bought them each their present. New pants, skirts and hair accessories. They were all very proud and putted on the new clothes at once. Then we had a photo session ;o)
The pleasure is really all ours. We are so thankful for being welcomed so very well.
The tias (the women who works there) had made Cochabamba’s national meal for us for lunch. They were all so kind to us.

Surprise

2007-02-18T17:54:00.000+01:00

Surprise

2007-02-18T16:38:00.000+01:00

Later that day, we went to Ticipaya to go to the Internet. When we came home, the girls came for us and brought us to Casa Baste (the orphanage) were they all had dressed up in the clothes we gave them. There was a beautiful cake on the table with the letters “Felicidades Linn”. They wanted to celebrate Linn’s birthday together with us before we left.
So we had cake, Linn had to blew her 20 lights out, we got an other gift from the girls and they all danced for us. It was Linn’s best birthday party ever ;o)
We’re going to miss all of them very much, and we will for sure be back there one day!
Muchas Gracias para Siw y la niñas a Corazon Grande!

Corazon Grande - Girls orphanage

2007-02-16T21:26:00.000+01:00

Corazan Grande- Girl Orphanage
The girls here are so cute. And it was easy to get to know them. Almost from the beginning, they started calling us tia. Tia Linn and Tia Marita, which means aunt.
We’ve had a lot of fun with them.

Picture 1
Marita with Sasha (the dog), and the sisters Neida and Janeth

Picture 2
Linn with Janeth on her lap. Seems like Julia also wanted to join the picture.

Picture 3
Marita and Janeth

Picture 4
Jenny, Janeth and Neida playing on the rocks

Picture 5 and 6
Four of the youngest children were put on the carousel and some of the older ones worked hard to make it go around.

Picture 7
Janeth in her new clothes. Check out her beautiful eyes!

Corazon Grande

2007-02-13T22:07:00.000+01:00

This is, unfortunately, our last day at the GIRL orphanage in Cochabamba (some of those who have already seen the pictures, thought that some of the children were boys…).
We’re leaving tomorrow and it is very sad. We’ve had two wonderful weeks here with 13 girls from the age of 1 to 11 years. We don’t know the language here very well, but somehow we always manage to communicate with the children and the staff at the orphanage. We are so thankful for that we were aloud to come here for two weeks, and we would love to stay longer. The girls have been so good to us and so have the staff. We have already got to know them and to care for them, and we will for sure be back one day.

Picture 1
Jenny, Linn, Luz Clarita and Neida. All of the girls are in the 1st grade at school, and they really enjoy school. We arrived at Sunday 4th February, and on Monday the 5th, the started school here. They were very excited.

Picture 2
On Saturday we made waffles with cream and bananas with the girls. It was delicious! ;o) It is Siw, the grounder of the orphanage and Marita in the picture.

Picture 3
Siw and Patty with each their lolly on Saturday. Patty is the second youngest girl at the orphanage. She is about 2 years old. Siw is by the way from Finland and not from Sweden as we thought…

Picture 4
Luciana is the youngest of all the children. Linn felt in love with her at once, of course. She actually wanted to bring her home, but Siw wouldn’t let her…:op
She is only one year old. When she got here she was only six months old.
While we have been here, we have been so lucky to watch Luciana walk all by herself.

Picture 5
The dog, Sasha. The kindest dog in the world. The girls drag it in its ears, ride on it and tickles it when it’s asleep, but it never does any harm.

Picture 6
Marita and Neida.

Picture 7
Linn and Julia. Julia is 3 years old, and she started in kinder garden on Monday 5th February. She got a Winnie the Pooh backpack to use in the kinder garden, and she was so proud. She wore it several hours before she went.
Julia is Patty’s older sister and she is really looking after her little sister.

Picture 8
Alba (10) and Janeth (2). Alba is the second oldest of all the girls and she is very helpful. Janeth is the third youngest. She has two biological sisters; Neida (8) and Vicky (9).

Picture 9
Alba (10) and Linn, Neida (8), Heidi(8), Luciana (1) (carried by Linn) and Daniella (9).

Picture 10
Linn and Luciana. Both of them very satified ;o)

Visiting the boys orpanage in Viacha

2007-02-03T01:24:00.000+01:00

Since we are earlier students at Forus upper secondery school, we have learned a lot about the Boliviafamily. This is a Norwegian organisasion startet by Baste Fanebust. The first week in Desember we always collected money by making and selling things at our school. Today we spent the day at an orphanage in Viacha, where we witness what they do with the money from Forus upper secondery school. One thing they have done is to install some thing we didn`t understand, but it warmed up the childrens bedrooms.

This was a boys orpanage only, and we were shocked over how polite all the little guys were. The orphanage are droven by the Salvation Army. First they showed us around in the area and then we ate dinner with them. After dinner we got some time to talk to the boys,and they made a show for us by playing instuments and singing. It was really sad to leave them after some hours, we could really stayed there forever.

Visiting the boys orpanage in Viacha

2007-02-03T00:49:00.000+01:00

Four hungry boys

2007-02-03T00:30:00.000+01:00

Four hungry boys wanted to clean our havaianas shoes:) Insted we gave them breakfast.

A day with Plan

2007-02-02T23:29:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was the greatest day so far in Bolivia. 07.30 a big car came outside our hotel and picked us up. Inside the car sat to guys, Israel and Hans (our tolk). They had planned a great day for us to see what kind of work Plan is doing. We had asked to take a look in their health program, so Israel that is a doctor showed us around in one of the communities Plan works in.

First we spent an hour at a mother and child meeting. Here mothers learned how to feed their children, see the signes if the child is sick and how to communicate with the child. They also learned how to see the signes if something was wrong in their pregnancy. One of the problems in Bolivia is the hygiene. When children gets sick their parents take them to a healer or a witch for getting rid of the evil spirit. Plan tries to learn the families to take their children to a doctor to get some medicine, that way the child will have a chance to survive.

After this we went to two families for a check up on their children. The volunter has to do this in each family that has a child under 5 years old every month. That way the parents will learn how to understand if something is wrong with their child. Everything was so interesting and we learned a lot.

We spent the whole day with them, and it was the best day ever. We are so greatful for getting this opportunity and are so amazed by the work this organisasion do. The greatest thanks to Israel and Hans.

A day with Plan

2007-02-02T22:28:00.000+01:00

In La Paz

2007-01-31T21:52:00.000+01:00

We´re back in La Paz and there ain´t actually lots of things to do in the center of the city. We found a new street to walk and shop in yesterday. Though we didn´t bring to much money. We were very spontanous though, walking by a cinema, I asked Linn "Should we go to the cinema, maybe?". We went in, checked the prices, and the movies. I convinced Linn that Deja Vu would be a good movie. Ten min later we were watching the movie. It was great! So I hardly recommend it! Linn did not love it though. So she´s choosing the film next time. I can prepare for a romantic comedie....
Today we went to Tiwanaku. It is a museum and ruins from the Tiwanaku culture. It was interesting but really not anything for us. Eight hours with a guide and a gruop of people and a meal included. So today was probably our first and our last days on a guided tour during our travel around the world.

Copacabana

2007-01-30T18:26:00.000+01:00

Copacabana is a place to really relax and shop handmade things. I don`t think we have been shopping that much since we got here, as we did in Copacabana. Everything is so cheap in Bolivia, it`s almost to cheap. Like a very good dinner with something to drink on a fine restaurant cost like 45 nok. If you want cheaper food you can eat from 3 nok.

We had some warm days in Copacabana, and it was great to take some time away from the big city. If you are looking for a place to really relax and just do what you feel like, Copacabana is the place.

Isla del Sol

2007-01-29T19:25:00.000+01:00

We surrendered Isla del Sol. The greatest thanks to Leo and Pablo (from chile)for helping us with our large and heavy luggage. We had no idea that this island was only a mountain. We had a great time up there looking at the stars and every thing:) We lived among different kind of animals. There were no kind of store or cars as we thought, but it was nice and quiet. They only charge us like 22 nok for the room. In the pictures you can see the beautiful view.

Isla del Sol

2007-01-29T18:39:00.000+01:00

Kristine, Marita and Linn

2007-01-25T01:11:00.000+01:00

To get to know Kristine and AAsmund was a blessing:) We had so much fun together as you can see at the pictures. We spent three days at Kristine`s appartment, and ´we had so much fun. One day we spent at the beach, where we ate corn and drank coco. . . It was so great to use a day to really relax from nothing really.

Kristine, Marita and Linn

2007-01-25T00:38:00.000+01:00

More from Vila Estacion - The slum in Mogi

2007-01-23T17:26:00.000+01:00

Vila Estacion is the slum outside Mogi das Cruzes. Kristine is working on a project there, so she brought us to meet all "her children". They recognized Kristine quickly and the children started following us through the little town. Many of the families invited us into their houses. They was happy to get some visit.
We went for a walk with the children to a park. A very huge and lovely playground. They were all very happy to meet Kristine in the middle of their summerholdiday. And we were happy to get to meet them. The children were outgoing, they ran to us with open arms, hugged and kissed us.

The girl on the first picture, was actually one of the last girl we visited, but this visit made a big impression. She is multihandicapped. She can not walk, sit, crawl, eat or talk. She was laying on the floor all day, and her mother had to give her fluently food. This girl was their only child now. Thay had a boy before, who was also multihandicapped. He died when he was a teenager.
It was actually a hoorible sight to see this girl. She looked like she was five years old, but she was fifthteen. She was so skinny and helpless. At the same time it was so good to meet this family. Her mother was caring so much for her daughter and giving her the love that every child needs.

Vila Estacion - The slum in Mogi das Cruzes

2007-01-23T16:25:00.000+01:00

Abrac

2007-01-22T23:34:00.000+01:00

Abrac

2007-01-22T21:46:00.000+01:00

Mogi das cruzes

2007-01-13T19:16:00.000+01:00

We have now left Sao Paulo and traveled to a little town called Mogi das Cruzes. Here we are at the orphanage Abrac, that you might have read about before. The children are so great. The girls loves to do make up, so every afternoon they make us very pretty. Every child is so special and have so much to give. It`s a bless to be among them. They also loved the presents we gave them,jippi:)

There are two norwegians working here. Aasmund working with the children at Abrac and Kristine working with the children in the slum. For two days ago she brought us to the slum. It was so great to meet all these little people with so big hearts. We spent many hours there, and had a great time. It was special to see how they lived and all the dirt, but every one had a smile to give. . . We took many pictures, but it`s very hard to public pictures here in Brasil, because of the slow Internet. In a week we are leaving for Bolivia. The first thing we will do is public a lot of pictures, so hang on.

In the slum we drank some limonade they made for us, just to be polite. Yesterday we both became sick, something that wasn`t that fun. We are still not quite ourselves, but we will get trough it.

Bildene

2007-01-08T14:31:00.000+01:00

Vi skal ordne bildene senere, rette dem opp og skrive. Har stresset i timevis aa faa dem ut, slik at dette for holde for naa. Enjoy RIO

2007-01-08T14:04:00.000+01:00

Pictures from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo

2007-01-07T23:11:00.000+01:00

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Rio de Janeiro

2007-01-06T20:41:00.000+01:00

Hola!
Now we have already spent three days in Rio. It is great!
This is the coldest summer in years, only about 30 degrees...It is cloudy, but we do have a great time although.
When we arrived at the airport in Rio, our luggage was of course missing..
So we got 100euro each to shop the things we needed, and Air France will pay the bill :o)
Jandira met us somewhere along Copacabana beach and took us home to her apartment. The beach is right outside her apartment!!!
We met her husband, her oldest daughter and her husband and Jandira's nephew.
Through these three days, we have slept in Jandira's church. The pastor welcomed us warmly.
First day we spent some time with Jandira's family where we ate lunch, then we went to the beach and to the mall which was really huge.
Second day we ate breakfast at Copacabana beach. Water-and honeymelon.
After a few hours at the beach, we went to the Statue of Christ. We had a good view to all the parts of Rio de Janeiro. It was a bit cold up there, and very windy, but if was totally worth it!
At night, Jandira, her daughter's husband and a friend of their family took us out on a roadtrip. We got to see pretty much of the citylife.
Third day we went up the slum together with Jandira and the pastor from the church. The slum is all around the church we've lived in. To see all the poor and the ones that the church was helping, really touched us. We were lucky to meet two different families in two very different situations. Both of the meetings did a very huge impression.
Then we went for lunch at Jandira's house (very good lunch by the way), before Jandira took us downtown. From here, we took a tram-looking-thing up to the old city. The tram was about hundred years old, so the one we where in broke when we where almost halfway. :o)
One o'clock this evening, we are unfortunately leaving Rio. We are going to Sau Paulo by bus. Jandira helped uss to find a nice hostel in Sao Paulo.
We are very thankful to Jandira and her family for welcoming us, showing us around and taking very good care of us. Hope all her dreams about a new daycare will come true.

Pictures from Rio will be here in a couple of days:o)
In the meantime, write us some comments ;o)

Take a look at

2006-12-30T22:05:00.000+01:00

http://www.abracmogi.com/

http://www.boliviafamilien.org/

http://www.plan-norway.org/

Abrac

2006-12-29T00:17:00.000+01:00

Here are pictures from Abrac, the orphanage in Sao Paulo.

I love Plan Norway

2006-12-29T00:04:00.000+01:00

Today a lady from Plan Norway called me at my cell phone. She said that it was possible for us to visit Plan in Bolivia. This is so fantastic. I love that organisation and have a dream to work there sometimes in the future. She asked me if I liked to write, and off course I said yes. Writing is so fantastic and I just love it. She asked if we would write a report from the day we are with Plan. Off course I said yes, and I look so forward to do this. With my own words I can describe what I see and do. I can tell the world about my meeting with these people and try to get people to understand how important it is to help. I hope Marita will join me with this, and that it can be a project we have together. The report will later be published in Plans magazine and at Internett. I didn’t think this trip could be any better, but every day I wake up to another fantastic news.

This is not good news

2006-12-28T23:53:00.000+01:00

Bad news from Rio, our first stop. Yesterday criminal gang members went to attack the police. So far 18 people have been killed. Six people were burned to death when some gang members sat fire on the bus. Local media reports that the city has a war atmosphere. Next weekend we will be on a bus from Rio to Sao Paulo. I hope everything has calm down to then, and that we will travel safely.

2006-12-27T15:29:00.000+01:00

Next Wednesday we are on our way to Brazil. It is so close now, and we cannot believe it. We have so much to do, but we have known idea how to get the extra time we need. It has just been Christmas, and Marita gave her boyfriend Rudi a ticket to Thailand. He is coming to visit us there the 6. of April. We look really forward to that.

2006-12-20T13:14:00.000+01:00

The first picture is Linn and the second picture is Marita.

2006-12-09T21:50:00.000+01:00

WOW, we cannot understand that its only 25 days left. We will really miss everyone back home, and we wish you all could join us and see the world from another point of view. It’s going to be so interesting to speak with all these different people, and listen to their stories about a hard and unfair life. We hope to bring a little bit happiness with us, and maybe some hope and faith for the future.

2006-12-07T17:04:00.000+01:00

27 days left, we can’t understand it. One day we really look forward to this trip and another day we look at it with fare. It will be a challenge to be away from home so long, but also very educational. We will learn so much important about life and the value of living.

On Thursday I was talking with Tine on the phone from Orlando. It was so great to hear her voice again. I think she has a great experience over there, and I look so forward to meet her again. She has the plans ready for what we are going to do when we arrive Orlando. This is going to be four very busy days.

Yesterday Marita and I had a little Spanish lesson. I think we will understand a little bit in the different countries and be able to communicate. The Spanish language is so pretty, and I hope we will learn more of it among the road. We also made a list over what cloths, shoes and other stuff we will bring with us. This is so weird, because we will have lass with us now for almost four months, then two weeks vacation at the summer holidays.

Pictures and more information will come after the 3. of January. We will try to update our blog so often as possible.

If there is something you can always contact us on our e-mails:
linn_hansen87@hotmail.com
marita_bjerga@gmail.com

2006-12-07T17:00:00.000+01:00

Some practical information:
(This post will be updated when things changes.)

03/01-07 Stavanger - Amsterdam: 17.50 - 19.25
Amsterdam - Paris: 20.05 - 21.20
Paris - Rio de Janeiro: 23.20 - 07.35

• 07/01-07 Bus from Rio to Sao Paulo

21/01-07 Sao Paulo - : 15.45 - 17.30
- La Paz: 19.00 - 20-00

• 04/02-07 From La Paz to Cohabamba
• 17/02-07 From Cohabamba to La Paz

19/01-07 La Paz - Lima: 8.55 - 09.45
Lima - San Jose: 10.50 - 13.30
San Jose - Guatemala: 18.05 - 19.40

04/03-07 Guatemala - Miami: 10.40 - 13.40

• 04/03-07 Bus from Miami to Orlando
• 07/03-07 Night bus from Orlando to Miami

08/03-07 Miami - Los Angeles: 13.35 - 16.25
Los Angeles - Fiji: 22.30 - 05.15
• Because of the time different we arrive Fiji the 10. Of March.

24/03-07 Fiji - Sydney: 09.00 - 12.35

31/03-07 Sydney - Bangkok: 17.05 - 22-20

18/04-07 Bangkok - Stockholm: 00.45 - 06.05
Stockholm - Oslo: 13.50 - 14.45
Oslo - Stavanger: 16.25 - 17.15

Don’t be afraid to ask us questions!!!

2006-11-15T20:16:00.000+01:00

Må bare beklaga alle skrivefeil. hehe...

2006-11-15T20:11:00.000+01:00

It is know only 49 days left until our journey begins. Lately everything has been very hectically. Working, learning Spanish and the last preparation before the trip, I wish every day could last a little bit longer, just a few ours.

Let us look at some of our plans so far.

Brazil: In Rio de Janeiro we are going to visit a family. This family is going to show us around in the city. We are also going to visit a day care centre. We recently were informed that this day care probably must close down, because its not more money left. Many people will be affected if that happens. Children living at the street have no places to go too get food, caring and help. That little fait they had will probably disappear. Here in Norway some people are now trying to collect some money, and we have been asked to deliver it to this day care. We really hope everything will be fine, and that a miracle happens.

After some days we will take a bus from Rio to Sao Paulo. Here we are going to stay at an orphanage named Abrac. We look forward to get to know all those children we have heard so much about. We are so grateful to Mr and Miss Sevland for letting us stay at Abrac.

Bolivia: First we are going to stay fourteen days in La Paz. Here we will visit a home for homeless boys build through Baste Fanebust. Then we will take a bus to Cochabamba and visit Siw Broman. She works in Bolivia throughout the Baste Fanebust organisation. We are going to stay at her orphanage, but Siw will also take us with to some other orphanage and day care centre. We have good contact with Siw through mail, and already we can say this is a woman we admire and look up to for her good work with helping children. At Forus upper secondary school (were we both have been students) we used one week every year to collect money to the children in Bolivia. We then gave the money to Baste Fanebust, and he created a scoured home for several children in Bolivia. We are so lucky. We have still some money left after creating a student achievement last year at Forus upper secondary school. We are going to give the money personally to Siw when we are in Cohabamba, something that means a lot to us. After two weeks we will return to La Paz.

Guatemala: First we will try to get from the airport to Antigua. We have been told that staying in Guatemala City isn’t that safe. After some days we will visit an orphanage in Guatemala City. After that we will travel to the jungle and stay there for a week. Here we will be with the Indians. When the boys at the orphanage in Guatemala City turn twelve years old they are sent to the jungle to attend school with the Indians. We look so forward to meet everyone. Boys need a bigger place to bolt on then girls. They also need manly adults to teach them becoming grown men. That is the reason the boys are sent to the jungle for some years.

USA (Orlando): We will take a bus from Miami to Orlando the first day. Here we will visit Tine Åreskjold, a good friend from Norway. She is working a year in Disneyworld and we look really forward to see her again. We hope to meet Tinkerbelle, Donald Duck and of course Cinderella when we are in the parks:) Monday night we are going to be with Tine at a kind of party. We all need to wear some pink. We guess pink is the colour, tihi. This is a party for girls only. Yeah:) We have already ordered a hostel for the nights in Orlando. It is a one-stare hostel and we think that is kind of fun. We have never before stayed at a one stare hostel or hotel so this can be interesting.

Australia: In Sydney we are going to be tourists. Just looking around and relax. We are going to stay at a church, because that was the cheapest offer we got. Everything is so expensive there.

Fiji: We are now in contact with Sara Ringe who is helping us with all the questions we have about this country. She has been there several times before, and can therefore give us some advice. After some days, we will take a boat over to one of the islands and stay there for a while. Here we will try different water sports. But first we hope to work a few days at a school for physics handicapped children.

Thailand: Yutika will meet us when we arrives Bangkok. She will show us around in the city. For some years ago she lived in Norway, that is why Marita knows who she is. After some days we will travel to Changmai and be there for a while. It is possible we are going to visit one of Plan Norway’s areas, but nothing is really sure jet. But one thing is sure we are going on a jungle safari.

We are still in contact with different people, so who knows what more that will happen on our journey. The arriving day is getting closer and yes it is a little bit scary as well as exiting. It is a long time to be away from the people you love, but we both know everyone is still here when we return. I guess the three and a half mount we are gone, we will be a part of a fairytale. We will see and be apart of so much that we only have read about in the newspaper before. I guess everything will seam quite surrealistic.

2006-09-14T19:01:00.000+02:00

Vi har nå hatt en kveld med mye samtaler rundt vår tur som begynner og nærme seg. Så fort vi setter oss ned og begynner og snakke kribler det i magen. Vi begynner og marke at tiden går fort og at et lengre opphold borte fra familie og venner nærmer seg med stormskritt. Mange spørsmål gjenstår å få svar på, og mye må vi nok ta på sparket. Dette kommer til å bli en opplevelse for livet.

Fremover vil vi prøve finne en del alternativer til overnattinger i de enkelte landene. Vi skal ikke bestille noe på forhånd, men det er litt greit å vite om forskjellige steder før vi reiser, slik at vi har noe i bakhodet skulle det bli problem. Vi får stadi tilbake positive tilbakemeldinger fra organisasjoner og andre mennesker. Alle er så utrolig hjelpsomme. I Bolivia har vi måttet ta noen valg allerede. Vi skulle på Casa Alliansa og besøke en del barnehjem. Vi hadde også tenkt å ta en ukes tur til Cochabamba for å besøke en utrolig engasjert dame, Siw Broman som driver barnehjem. Vi ville også der besøke Baste Fanebust sine prosjekter pga det var noe vi i tre år på Forus vgs samlet inn penger til. På Casa Alliansa har de fått ny sjef som sier nei til besøkende på barnehjemmene, vi må i så fall jobbe der i en måned. Vi har derfor bestemt oss for å kun benytte oss av overnattingen der i noen dager, og heller ta et lengre opphold i Cochabamba og være på barnehjem osv der. Vi har også planer om å besøket et fadderbarn:)

I Brasil skal vi antagelig bo i en kirke når vi er i Rio. I Sao Paulo har vi god kontakt med Kjell Magnor Sveland som er aktiv i barnehjemmet Abrac. Det er nok denne mannen vi har hatt best kontakt med de siste måndene. Han er veldig positiv og gir oss muligheten til å tilbringe så lang tid vi vil på dette barnehjemmet med barn fra 8 til 20 år. I dag fikk vi vite at vi kan få bo på et rom nært barnehjemmet eller på barnehjemmet, (er ikke helt sikker), noe som er veldig positivt for oss. Vi får kost og losji den perioden vi skal tilbringe der for 200 kr hver.Det er kjempebillig og vi føler oss overveldet. Vi er så takknemlige og gleder oss til å møte alle.

På Fiji har vi funnet noen steder vi kan bo, men er ennå på jakt etter steder. Vi har vært i kontakt med Sara Ringe, som har vært der allerede fem ganger. Hun gav oss mange tips, men skal gi oss mer over mail.... slik at der vil vi fortelle mer senere.

Ellers så prøver vi spare så godt vi kan. Vi jobber begge to i flere jobber og dagene blir lett fulle. Men det er kjekt også, for det er så verdt det. Men vi må bare innrømme, vi savner skole og den rutinen der ganske ofte... :)

2006-08-30T11:02:00.000+02:00

Så er det på tide med en liten oppdatering igjen.
Vi har en del under kontroll nå, som dere sikkert har fått med dere, men enda er det ting som er usikkert. Oppholdet vi trodde var ordnet i Rio, viste seg å bli vanskeligere enn vi trodde. De vi skulle bo hos hadde ikke muligheten til å ha oss der alikevel, men tilbudde oss å ta inn på et hotel i nærheten slik at de kunne vise oss rundt om dagene. Vi håper på å få ha kontakt å møte denne familien når vi er i Rio, men vi er ikke fristet på å bo på hotel til 300kr natten, det blir litt i dyreste laget. Vi satser på å snart finne noe annet.

I dag har vi skrevet mail til Barnehjemmet vi skal til i Sao Paulo, dette gleder vi oss veldig til. Vi får alltid fort svar på våre mailer og har nå god kontakt med dem. Vi har også tatt kontakt med misjonsalliansen i Bolivia for å sjekke at alt er slik det skal, Sos barnebyer og indianerne i Guatemala. Nå er det bare å venter på svar:)

På søndag som kommer skal vi sette oss ned og gå gjennom alt, dvs at neste uke kommer en skikkelig oppdatering over hvordan ting virkelig ligger an.

Det er ganske rart å tenke på hvor fort dette siste året er gått og at det nå bare er fire månder igjen:)

2006-08-17T08:21:00.000+02:00

Først og fremst må vi beklage for å ikke ha vært verdens flinkeste med oppdateringer, men dette skal nå forandres. Vi vil også væriere litt med å skrive norsk og engelsk. Nå i denne planleggingsprosessen går vi over til norsk, så får vi se hva vi gjør når vi reiser.

I sommer har det vært en hektisk tid med mye jobbing for å tjene penger. Men vi er begge med godt mot og på god vei til å lykkes. Vi har også hatt mange baller i luften denne sommeren. Vi har blant annet hatt to møter angående turen. Det første møtet var med Eli, en venn av oss. Hun har vært et halvt år i Brasil og kunne derfor gi oss mange gode tips. I Brasil må du ikke finne på å vise at du har undertøy på deg, da er det bedre å gå uten. Du skal heller ikke vise bh stroppene, ty da til blanke eller ta dem av. . . merkelige greier. Vi fikk se mange bilder og kunne ikke annet enn å fryde oss av glede over det vi skal være en del av. Vi kommer først til Rio, og Eli har allerede skaffet oss en lokal familie vi skal få bo hos her. Når vi så kommer til Sao Paulo skal vi være en stund på Kjell Magnor Sevland sitt barnehjem, noe vi gleder oss veldig til. Trenger vi steder og bo har Eli flere kjente vi kan ta kontakt med. Brasil begynner nå å komme i rute.

Neste møte var med en venninne av vår tidligere medie lærer Trud Bu. Ingunn, (hun vi var i møte hos) har de siste ti årene vært frem og tilbake i Guatemala. Dette er et land hun virkelig liker, men ba oss være svært forsiktige. Folk kan være litt slue, og det er ikke alle man skal stole på. Hun gav oss flere tips om hvor vi burde være og hva vi burde besøke. Hennes barnehjem som ligger i Guatemala City drar vi nok ned og besøker en dag. Barnehjemmet drives av nonnene der og skal være et av de beste i landet. Til nå ser vår tur i Guatemala slik ut:
Ankommer 19. februar i Guatemala City. Drar med en gang opp til Antigua, en by som er litt tryggere. Her blir vi noen dager, før vi tar turen opp til jungelen og skal være hos indianerne der. Dette fikk vi vite var så nært jungel livet vi muligens noen gang ville komme. Vi har nå vært i kontakt med indianerne her, og de har ønsket oss velkomne. Her er det ville dyr som springer rundt og mye farlig som lysker i buskene, slik at for vår egen sikkerhet skal vi bo på et hostels nær jungelen. Indianerne i jungelen drivet et skoleopplegg for tenårings guttene på barnehjemmet i Guatemala City, og det er dette vi skal få ta del i. Vi gleder oss virkelig... Det blir to travle uker her.

Vi har også snakket på telefonen med Helene Austrått, som kunne si mye positivt om Guatemala. Hun gav oss også tips om å dra på en vulkantur, noe vi virkelig skal vurdere.

Ellers har vi mye i ilden for tiden. Vi er i kontakt med forskjellige organisasjoner som er velidig positive til å ta oss i mot. Noen av dem er:Feed the children, Sos barnebyer, plan Norge osv. Vi har nå fått kontakter i alle land vi skal til, og om ikke så alt for lenge er nok hele reisen så si klar. Vi skal da legge ut en oversikt over hvert land.

Søndag 3. September skal vi hat et møte bare oss to, og se hvordan ting ligger an, etterpå vil det komme en ny oppdatering her. Takk for alle kommentarer:)

2006-06-10T22:44:00.000+02:00

The ticket is now paid and there is no way back. We are really going for it. These days we are finishing our last year at upper secondary school. It’s kind of sad actually. We are really going to miss all our good friends, but we know we will always stay in touch:)

It is only six months left:) JiPpI

2006-04-08T22:59:00.000+02:00

We have now got or travelling date from Kilroy. We are leaving Norway and hading to Brazil on January 03. 2007. Here is the list over our travelling dates Kilroy gave us.

3. Jan:    Stavanger - Rio De Janeiro
21. Jan: Sao Paulo - La Paz
19. Feb: La Paz - Guatemala
4. Mar:    Guatemala - Miami
8. Mar:    Miami - Fiji (ankomst 10. Mar)
24. Mar: Fiji - Sydney
31. Mar: Sydney - Bangkok
18. Apr:   Bangkok - Stavanger

We are now in contact with different kind of people, who is going to help us a little bit on the way. Now when we know when we are arriving to the different countries, everything is so much easier. We can start planning what we are going to do when, and order places to stay.

More to come

2006-03-31T09:35:00.000+02:00

This is our first post on our blog. We want to say that we will try to write in English, though we now we aren’t any clever in writing English. The reason is that this blog shall be readable for everyone, both our Norwegian friends and those people abroad whom we are going to visit.
The preparation has already started, and we are happy for every positive respond we get. The flight-tickets are ordered soon, we are communicating with Kilroy travels. We have also been in touch with different organizations and persons who are willing to help us. We have been welcomed to different orphanages too.

It is about nine months until we start our journey, but our journey has already started. The planning are as well as exciting.
This is our route so long:

Brazil 3 weeks,
Bolivia 4 weeks,
Guatemala 12 days,
Florida 8 days
Fiji 2 weeks
Australia 1 week
Thailand 3 weeks

In Bolivia, we get to stay in a centre owned by “Misjonsalliansen” for a whole month. In Florida, our very sweet friend, Tine, will fix a place for us to stay, and she will fix us some free-tickets to Disneyworld.
These are the only things we know for sure by now, but we are in contact with several other peoples. If you, who are reading this now, know any places for us to stay, we appreciate if you contact us.

Our first post, have to end with thank you very much to all those who are helping us and supporting us during this planning and during our journey!
We are very thankful and grateful for every support!
We hope this will be a big adventure for us. We look forward to meet people and experience other lives than ours.