Meeting Citizens abroad

A few days ago we visited our favourite internet cafe in town. Inside there is a cool and quiet atmosphere. I sat down, connected my computer to the network and I was soon absorbed in trying to log on to my internet bank. This have proved to cause me great difficulties while I am in Uganda. A slower internet connection than the standards I have got used to while I was a student at the University of Bergen is of course in itself challenging. The biggest issue have though been that my internet bank requieres java software to run the log on process. A software most Ugandan internet cafes seems to lack interest in installing on their computers. Therefore it has consumed a lot of effort and time to manage my money affairs in Norway from Uganda. While I pulled out my visa debet card the other white guy seated next to me turns his head and ask me: Er du norsk? (Are you Norwegian?) And he continued with telling me: Eg så at du har et norsk førerkort. (I could see that you have a Norwegian drivers licence). After giving an rather surprised and entusiastic answer we started to talk.I soon learned that they were a team who have travelled to Uganda to make a documentary about a child project their organisation were supporting. When they had told me what was on their hearts about their project they also showed true interst to what I were doing. So I told them the essentials about the exchange program and FOCUS Uganda. Meeting fellow norwegians abroad in a rather unlikely place was of course a nice and surprising event. Even more surprising was the fact that these two young men were from Loddefjord. When I told them that I lived at Juvik on Askøy before they became even more enthusiastic than before. Because as they said: It is only 10 min with car from where I live and I have been on Askøy many times. After some good talking about Bergen, our projects and much more time for departure arrived and we wished each other good luck with the rest of our stays in Uganda which were going to be a few days for some and five months for another one.

Ole-Johan
caughing in Uganda