JOSH'S LIFE AND ADVENTURES IN NORWAY.......

COMING BACK HOME.

2009-12-07T23:13:00.000-08:00

Coming back home was something i wished for during the strang moments in norway
but my last month in norway, i felt norway was i home i would never want to walk
away from but.heeeeey,i was just dreaming because even if at that time a miracle
was to happen, it would not stop me from saying bye,bye norway. on the last day we
had a farewel party and i remeber the last song of our presentation that opened
the doors of everyones eyes tears traced down on every handsome and beautiful
faces.to me its always fresh on my memory.i wished if the ground would open up
and swallow me so that i could remain.that night, no eyes fell a sleep because it was
the last,i mean the last smile,talk face to face.i wished tomorrow would delay by
some months but in the next blink of my eyes,the bus to take us to the airport
appeared in its white colour.i then knew i was just dreaming and accepting was
then before me.but i never wanted to get to the bus actual i was not alone because
there were other poeple who were just forced to enter the bus.everyone was now
trying to force out the last tears from their eyes but at that time sak li remained
as a fun hero in all of hald.i smiled when i looked at sak li rejoicing because he
was going home and making people smile with his funs.on getting to the bus still
people were crying and after a distance the driver was in the same moods crying.
no wonder why they say where two or three are gathered,God is in their midst.i noticed
that the driver felt the pain and the tears his passengers were going through...
when we got to uganda,i felt the same thing i felt when i got to vennesla when me and
moses tried to walk around in the small town that we were going to stay for
six months. i felt the people who chose vennesla as where we will be taking our practse
from ,were unfair.well,came out from the airport and there was one man i knew
as our project driver was waiting for us.we got to uganda at 8pm but it took us good
african time to get to bed.we actually slept at 1 am is when i then realised i was back
to african time.i was hurt because i had got to norwegian time.7 is 7 and not 9.on geting to
the hotel we were meant to stay,i could not sleep because there was this dog in the
neighbourhood barking and i was shat up..... i then dont know how i was taken by
asleep.we woke up in the morning for break fast and it tasted strange.the bread and tea
at that time i expected brown bread and cheese but i remembered i was back in
uganda where brown bread and cheese never existed.
it took us long time to cope up again with ugandan life and upto now life for me
is still hard.

VENESLA, JEG ER IKKE KLAR FOR ADJØ

2008-04-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

Well,well for sure iam not ready for goodbye.all i have seen,learnt,felt can't let me learn off Venesla. this week is my last stay in venesla and if any body could enter inside my heart,he or she would tell how much i still want to be in venesla.at first venesla to me was the opposite of this but because time changes what we hold in our hearts,i want to be in venesla. Today was my second last day at samkom skole and it was not the not as usual since i was to say goodbye to some classes most especially the young children in grade two. I was speechless because they all felt i should not leave.they had written some letters for me in norsk and in english,how iam to them. i was really touched by their drawings of me.i didn't want to read them at their sight because my eyes would have started raining.i put them inside the bag and read it from home,i cried after reading every letter and drawings.some wrote'josh du er kul, jeg kommer til savne deg,ikke går,huske meg'.all these has never prepared my heart for goodbye.jeg må sier at unnskyld meg jeg har å og jeg kommer til savne dere alså.Adjø!

I COULDN`T BELIEVE THAT I WAS THE ONE IN THE PHOTO DROWNING IN SNOW.

2008-04-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

I WAS SURPRISED

2008-03-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

Having come from a winter that seemed not nice to me since i cuold not do anything nice like playing football outside, to a nice sunny days without snow, today it surprised me. i work up late today since its a easter holiday which means no working. it was about 12 p.m when my friend Moses wake me up to tell me what was going outside. i asked him what is the matter because i was still enjoying my a sleep with a nice dream, do you really think i can tell you what was my dream all about. forget it...... he told me that its snowing outside. i thought it was only a joke because since last month we had no snow at all. it was only sunshine with clear skies. never did i expect to see snow again untill i get back to my little warm country without snow. but only to pull out the window catains, Moses was true it was snowing. i really wanted to cry but had to cry inside my heart. i never wanted to get outside my house but i heard children playing from outside. since i do not have some photos of me playing with snow, i asked Moses if we can take some. he said sure. we dressed on our vennesla bokusa and we out to take photos. Moses had to come back to the house because it was cold for him. i decided to make some snow balls and other young children joined me and we started throwing balls to each other.it was funny to see me play with young children. people watched how we played and it was interesting chasing after each other. after playing, we decided to make a snow woman and this is how it looked.

I CAN SEE CLEAR NOW THE RAIN BOW IN THE SKY

2008-02-10T10:02:00.000-08:00

I can see clear the rain bow in the sky after
A long period of darkness even as early as
3:00 p.m, you would feel like going to bed since
It was night before the real night. This would
Be normal for the Norwegians but for a person
Who has come from a country where darkness
Falls at 8:00 p.m, this will be strange. Now I can
Feel the sun and the clear clouds in the skies and
Now Darkness falls at round 6:00p.m not so strange
Like in the early November where I could go to bed
At 3:00p.m and by midnight, I was a wake with no
More sleep, watching movies was the only thing
Could think of that time of the night.
My life has never been the same since I came to Norway
I have learnt a lot from the people, environment, and climate
I really believe this is going to be part of my life and my country.
Life here is cool and I hope some time I will come back to
Norway.

2008-01-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

ME AND"GOD JUL" AS THE MOST COMMON SUNG SONG DURING DECEMBER IN NORWAY

2008-01-17T07:34:00.000-08:00

December was the most interesting month for me here in Norway. Why am I saying so, because all the time there was a song being sung by all the people in Kristiansand including the e-mails that I received from my Norwegian Friends had this same song
Called “GOD JUL,GOD JUL” The first time I heard this word god jul I was totally confused since I didn’t know its meaning and also when people said this song to me, I would just look at them and didn’t answer anything. Then one day and bed Hus sorry this
Word may seem new for you but the Norwegians know it. Well it’s a small church that most youth in Norway like going since they look a church as a boring place. The reason as to why they like going to bed Hus is because there is no much preaching and also they have some games in this place including café. I have been to bed Hus and its fun to there. Well a friend of mine said to me god Jul I asked him what is the meaning of this song called GOD JUL? He then told me it meant merry Christmas. Is when I came to understand the meaning of god Jul and then I also started singing this chorus of god Jul.
Christmas celebration in Norway is different from that of my home country Uganda. At least in every house in Norway you would see a sign of this song that I didn’t know ‘god Jul’ including the compound showed the Christmas time. Every house had lights and Father Christmas and how is it different from my country? In Uganda Christmas is celebrated on 25 of December and decorations is on 23 of December and not every one can afford to decorate their homes with lights and Christmas tree. Here decorations start in November and every home has decorations.
I and my family contact went to church for prayers which were very brief compared to that of my country. It was full of god Jul songs and a short verse from the bible about the birth of Jesus Christ. We then went to my family’s home for dinner and guess what it was, it was a whole turkey. We sat around a big table and we were about ten people I was then served my pierce of turkey including Jul soda. After eating this innocent turkey, we sat down and had some ice cream. The most interesting part was the time for receiving our Jul gifts. The gifts were lied under a Jul tree I was surprised to see that the gifts were to be opened right then. It looked so blue for me and Moses because in my country you open gifts at your home. Since we were adopting the Norwegian culture, this was part of it and I got my gift and opened it to show every one but what I got you can not show it to other people most especially the elder people. I never wanted to show it but they asked me to show them and guess what it was? It was under wear and woman who was sited to me got a G-string and she held it with her to hands almost to my face and said I like this and I was what!, in my country such things are personal and they can not be showed to public. That day I and Moses got many gifts from friends including bed Hus. Jul was really nice for me.

THE FACES OF HALD STUDENTS

2008-01-07T06:37:00.000-08:00

MY FAST TIME TO EXPERIENCE A REAL COLD

2008-01-07T05:09:00.000-08:00

This could be the hardest time and month for me where everything was cold including myself. Norway is really a cold country and I find it very hard to cope up with for having come from a very warm country. I had never experienced such cold before coming to Norway. If there is a month during my stay
Here that I had longed to get to Uganda just to sit under a warm sunshine for just a minute and then come back should be in December. The cold was more than I couldn’t hold in vennesla; I could not do things that make me a real Joshua, things like playing football. Singing, taking walks that I started doing when I just got to vennesla before it was damn cold. At first things were moving in a golden cup because I could play football, walk and meet my friends.
One other thing that made me home sick was the ground was slippery since I had to walk for 20 minutes from a buss stop to my house. My bad day was when I was going to work and I had just come out of the house and I slipped falling with my ass on the ground.oh, how I longed to go back in the house to sleep but I had to go to work. At school I was playing with the children a round the compound and I fell again, this time I wanted to cry but since the kids were a round me laughing at me, I had to join them by laughing but inside me I was actually crying. Last month I got complications that made me get many a assumptions of what was going wrong with me but never came up with the main cause even when I went to the doctor still he could not tell what was wrong with me than telling me that I was okay but still I was getting the same complications. but after some time of endurance, i started marking snow balls and guess what?... i now enjoy eating snow...... interesting. i have come to understand that time changes assumptions i thought there was no fun during snow but believe me now i know how nice is to have snow. I used to tell moses that there is no need for me to buy a fridge if i was a citizen of Norway. i would just put whatever i need to get cold in snow for some minutes.

SOME PICTURES IN VENNESLA

2007-11-25T05:02:00.000-08:00

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.

JOSH IN VENNESLA

2007-11-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

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.

MY LIFE IN NORWAY

2007-09-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

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.

MY LIFE ON THE STREET.

2007-09-24T11:51:00.000-07:00

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.

MY LIFE IN AND OUT OF THE STREET OF UGANDA

2007-09-11T07:38:00.000-07:00

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