Shimmer

I came across an unpublished draft today, when I went through the backend of my blog. I’ve written this down, but obviously haven’t known how to put it into context at the moment.

A conversation between a Red Cross Volunteer and a child in Smiley Club:

Vol: Who do you love the most?

Chl: My mother.

Vol: Why is it your mother you love the most?

Chl: Because when my father comes home he drinks and hits us.

This is something I experienced while in Armenia, it made quite an impression then and also now. What’s even more important to realize is that violence towards children isn’t just a problem in Armenia and developing countries. This is also happening in Norwegian homes.

As a fellow human, it is our duty to disturb when we see or suspect violence or abuse of children. The Norwegian Save the Children has a national campaign on this, and I hope you’ll look further into this.

http://www.reddbarna.no/forstyrr/

After my return from Armenia, my blogging has been close to abscent and this blog has just been rusting away with old content. I’ve decided to get it back to life.

It needs a new title, and some new content. Just to get startet I renamed it “glimmer”, and that’s what I hope it’ll be. I hope to shed a glimmer of light on things I think is important, but I have no ambition of being a frequent or regular blogger.

Last tuesday I had my end of mission presentation in Norwegian Red Cross, and it’s in a way a finalisation of my misson in Armenia. To those of you who weren’t there I have now uploaded the slides so you can hava a look at them. Be aware that this is only the slides, and it does not give you a very good impression of how my stay was. But it might be enjoyable to look at the pictures in my presentation.

I hope you enjoy it.

Youth Delegate, final presentation

This is just a short clip I shot on our way to Tatev this weekend. It was a fantastic trip and we had a very good hitchhiking experience. Here is a clip from one of the trucks we rode with.

Armenia Red Cross Youth started a pilot project called Promotion of Human Values this fall which turned out to be a success. I have written an article about this project which is now published on the IFRC Youth webpages.

It is never too early to contribute something to your community – that is one of the main messages of a project by the Armenia Red Cross youth. By promoting humanitarian values in two schools, the youth volunteers motivated 50 teenagers aged 12 and 13 to design projects that meet the needs of their communities.

The full article is found here at the IFRC Youth webpages, and a Norwegian translation is available at the Norwegian Red Cross Youth pages.

A good friend of mine from high-school in Norway, Thomas Skorpen, has started a fantastic initiativ. He started a facebook group a week ago named “I’ll give 1 NOK to development aid for every member who joins this group”, (translated from norwegian). In the last 7 days this group has been growing exponetially, and it’s still going. The member count is now at 26,581!

Update: The member count is now at 32,795!

Thomas keeping his head above water. [Unknown source]

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A rally participant cheering “Levon Levon Levon”.

I find it interesting to observe the run-ups to the presidential elections in February. Curious as I am, and slightly above average politically interested, I went to the second opposition political meeting on Friday.

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It’s about time to give another update on my rising career as an actor. As Tim points out in his comment on my previous post, I have been upgraded to, Mr. Hastings, one of the leading characters in this play. I really appreciate this part and I am having a lot of fun together with my co-actors during our frequent rehearsals.

Hastings and my dear Miss Neville

Our stage manager, Sonya, is doing a fantastic job, not just commanding us around stage and making sure I’m spinning my dearest Constance the right way, but also with sponsors and publicity for the play. The posters are printed and last night we put up a huge billboard by the Opera in Tumanyan street. The billboard in one of Erevan’s busiest streets gave me and my friend Jesse quite a reality check; we are having lead parts in a serious production!

Jesse, who plays the lead part, Mr. Marlow, in front of the billboard.

Expectations to the play are rising; billboards are put up, posters distributed and friends are getting excited. And we will these expectations; our performance is improving on every rehearsal, it is going to be great.

More pictures available at flickr. (They will soon be a bit better organized.)

It’s the small things that matters, like when she smiles and her eye twinkles. It is in many ways the same with a city; when I get to know it and notice all the small things, I sometimes fall in love.

One of these little things are the farmers selling vegetables and fruits out of their cars. They show up in the streets, back alleys and yards. And these two are quite often right across the street from our office.

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As millions of others, I have now commited the sin of starting a blog – stupid enough to think that someone might find it interesting.

For a fact, quite a few friends and acquaintances are asking me regulary what I’m doing these days. And I often end up telling them the same things, so quite frankly, this blog is a measure of effectiveness. I would love to share all my experiences and thoughts with those who are interested, and this might make it a bit easier.

But this blog presents another challenge in the fact that anyone can read this; I can’t go rambling on about private matters like I can when I’m writing solely to Jens or one of my other friends. – All the stuff I publish here might come back and slap me in the face a few years later. So you won’t get all my straight opinions about things and people irritating me, or all the hilarious stories about me being drunk or raving around yerevan; like the time I ended up sleepwalking in an Honorary Consuls appartment. – That you won’t get, at least not through this medium…

I hope you will enjoy it.