Friends forever

On a special day now 5 months ago, this picture was taken. The girls in the photo are representing my gang of girlfriends from my hometown where I grew up. We were tight back then, in high school. We were a group of 7-8 girls and we called ourselves
"the gang". Cheezy? But so good to have someone you are so comfortable with. After high school we spread all over, and we dont talk on the phone every day or meet all the time. We meet when we go home for summer or Christmas. We have also started a tradition called "gang get together", which have been arranged on two different cities in Norway. Those who are able, travel there, and we meet and have a smashing weekend together.
This picture is taken on my wedding day. For my wedding, it was really important that I was able to get guests from all sides of my life, and I invited all the gang for the wedding. 5 of them made it, and I'm SO happy they came! I had friends there from uni and from my time in Ghana, but these friends are the oldest, the ones who come from where I come from, and who knows my whole background. And they looked SO hot all of them!

Here we are, the 7 of us. On the 7th of December.

Not Expect Power Always

And maybe expect trouble when you abuse a single plug. But when that is the only plug you have in your little single room in Mangoase, what can you do? Get a lot of extensions and plug in everything you can. This is me and hubby's creation. It went well, but I guess it wasn't the safest electrical fixture... :-) When in need....

6 things are connected into the little poor plug.

On December 6th.

High 5

Here is a picture that is capturing 5 important people in my life.

From the left, friend Vero, my nephew Gaute, on his grandma's lap, my MOM, me (come on, we all know we are important in our own lives) and another friend, Guro.

The picture is taken on my birthday this year. We went to eat out and came home to our humble apartement to eat cake. And for grandma to spend quality time with her nephew!

5 nice people on the 5th of December.

quatro

4 little Norwegian angels in their traditional wear, captured on the beautiful 17th of May this year. At a celebration arrangement, traditional folk music was played and dancers performed Norwegian traditional dance.

But someone else also wanted to join in and stole the show. So cute.

4 little angels on the 4th of December.

Nutrition

Lately, I've been doing quite alot of exercise, been going to the gym about 4 times a week, getting up in the morning to run to the gym, and eating as healthy as possible. It has paid off small small, in both kilos and centimetres. One of my new eating habits consists of eating a new type of bread, healthier and without wheat flour. It's made from rye and sunflower seeds and bran (?) and... whatever. Supposed to be healthy. I don't know how much it has meant in my life, but I bake them myself and I baked 3 today, on the 3rd of December.

Hall 3

Hall 3 will always have a special place in my heart. I only spent 5 months of my life there, but it was a very significant part of my life. Hall 3 is the student block on the Dar Es Salaam University Campus, where they put the female exchange students, together with female Tanzanian students. I did one semester of my bachelor in African Studies in Tanzania in the fall of 2005. In Hall 3 I built up a relationship with my current husband. I spent 5 months in the same room as a classmate. We shared toilets and bathrooms with all kinds of girls. We had friends upstairs and downstairs and the first floor. We had a balcony with view to the Indian Ocean. We had monkeys and bush babies visiting us veeery close. And we had water shortage. In Tanzania I experienced the most extreme water shortages I have experienced during my times in Africa. Considering we were so many sharing toilets I guess it was much more noticable.

Today it is the 2nd December, therefore the picture has to include 2 things (and they have to be of the same thing). These are the two sinks on our floor that was the first place to stop on the way back to our room from lectures or town. Specially my roomate Kine went straight to the sinks when returning to the hall (especially when it had been no water when we left the building). Usually I heard her angry or disappointed shout: Hamna maji! (No water = Swahili). But sometimes you could hear an excited shriek, following by Kine rushing into the room, ripping her clothes off and heading for the shower. You'd never know how long the running water would actually run.

At night during shortages, we left the taps open, so we would be awaken by the water flowing if it happened to come. And when it did, we got up, collected water and took a shower. At 3am.

Should I repeat the fact that I love water? But I also loved Hall 3 in a funny kind of hatred-ish way.

Countdown to Christmas

Ok, Maya, you guessed it. My project up to Christmas Eve (which is the day mostly celebrated in Norway, and the day all the children look forward to), is an advent calendar. I don't know if this is a Western or a European or Scandinavian tradition?
It's anyway a tradition which includes a calendar that has 24 days. Or numbers. Some parents make 24 little gifts for their kids that they wrap, and the kids get one gift each day up to Christmas. Some calendars are mass produced with a chocolate each day. On TV they have a special advent series for the kids, that also has 24 episodes. In the kindergarten where I work, we have a calendar of gingerbread cookies. One kid gets one each day up to Christmas.

So this is my big secret - I'm having a blogging calendar. It is gonna work like this:
Each day I have to put a picture with an amount of things on it referring to the date we have. Terrible English explanation, but you understand! So we start today with picture number 1, on the FIRST of December, it's a picture of ONE thing, And this is not just a picture, it's a QUIZ!

What is on the picture?! Anyone? :-)

(By the way, the pic is copyrighted to my friend, Mario!)