Ruben bloggar frå turar, innland og utland: Norwegian Constitution Day Celebration in Lusaka, Zambia, AFRICA!

Sunday May 18th

Yesterday, Saturday May 17^th, it was exactly 200 years since the Constitution was written in Eidsvold, Norway. Every year we celebrate in our own Norwegian way, which contains of a parade for adults and children, a band playing Norwegians songs (during the parade), singing the Norwegian anthem, eating Norwegian food, playing games, eating ice cream, adults having a glass of champagne for breakfast, and speeches. This year I’m spent the Norwegian National Day in Lusaka, but if you think it would be completely different, then you are sort of wrong!

Thursday

All my fellow Norwegian volunteers from the Livingstone area came with the bus on Thursday (which was a bit dramatic when the bus bashed a woman and killed her). We had dinner at a Indian restaurant on the first evening, and it was really good to see them again, some of them I haven’t seen since the week in Cape Town in December. On Friday I worked at the ZAAA office while they enjoyed the opportunity to do some shopping at bigger stores than what is available in Livingstone.

Friday

In the afternoon, at 16:00 we were invited to the Ambassadors home, where a lot of VIP people, so I must say we felt a bit out of fashion when we didn’t have any suits to wear. Anyway, it was free flow of drinks and lots of Norwegian salmon and cheese, which was absolute amazing! The whole thing was very formal and there was speeches and small talk. All the big partners of Norway had their own stand and presented what they were doing and how much the Norwegian support meant to them. We all had a great time, and at around 20:00 we got back to the Backpacker, and had a bottle of Amarula before we hit the bed. Our volunteer group has gotten a lot more “connected” over the past 5-6 months, even though we haven’t seen that much of each other. I really enjoyed their company.

Saturday May 17^th!

I woke up at around 6:30 and had a shower before getting the coffee ready for the girls. I came in to Anja, Anita and Idas bedroom with (who had requested) 3 cups of coffee and Amarula (the African liquor). Soon we all gathered at the eating area where we had watermelon and champagne while listening to Norwegian songs on the iPad. Perfect start of the day

At 8:30 we got into a couple of taxis and drove to the Ambassadors home, where the celebration would happen. It all started with some speeches and the flag being raised to the tunes of the Norwegian anthem. Then we went around the block for the parade, which took about 30-40 minutes, it was quite hot so I think it was good it wasn’t too long. All the Norwegians in Zambia were invited for this celebration and there were countrymen I had met, and not met, before.

After the parade we had food, a lot of Norwegian food! Even the Norwegian sausage with crispy onions which is so typical for Norwegian summers. Afterwards we got seved cakes and muffins while the kids’ activities was going on (us, the sports volunteers were in charge) like sack-jumping, ball throwing, potato-on-a-spoon race and team-ski competition. The “Team Ski Competition” was really cool, it was two pieces of wood with 4 straps on each piece, and 4 people had to go together, were team-work is crucial to stay on their feet and more importantly, to win. Great fun in the nice Zambian weather.

At 13:00 Ida (volunteer in a village in Livingstone area) and I went with two other Norwegians to the International School of Lusaka to participate in a run. After our breakfast we had been drinking nothing but water to make sure we were hydrated. The race we participated in was a 3 hour race, and the whole concept is to run around a 1 km track as many times as possible for 3 hours. When we got there I noticed that there were not many local people, so I eyed the chance of winning. We started at exactly 14:00 and it was very warm and sunny, making drinking water very important while running. There were other runners there as well, doing the 6 hour run and the 24 hour run, both individual and team (but they had started earlier, so we all ended at 17:00)

I started off very quickly and had the marathon in Kilimanjaro in the back of my mind, but compared to this run, I hadn’t done any running-training at all. After 30 minutes and 8km, I asked if I was in the front, and was told that I was indeed. It gave me a massive boost, and at the first hour I had ran 14km. At 2 hours I had about 26-27 km, and was told I was leading with 7 laps, I “cruised” the last hour which was rather painful and finished with 38 km in just less than 3 hours. All in all, a very good result. Ida, my colleague and friend finished with a strong 28 km. We stayed for a bit (had no choice, we could barely walk!) and tried to gain some energy before the trophy ceremony. The winner of the female runners was IDA! She won it in front of 2 other Norwegian runners! All top three runners from Norway on the Norwegian National Day! I got 1^st place in the men’s discipline and got the same trophy as Ida. We drove back to the backpackers and had some painful showers (all the blisters burned!) before having a well-deserved beer on the bed. All the other Norwegians had started the party at a friend’s house and after a bit of recovery we got there to join them. They were all very impressed by our efforts and we had a great evening. There were some Norwegian nurses stationed in Livingstone for the past 2 months who was joining us as well. In bed at 01:00 and very tired.

The past 3 years I have been in the UK during the Norwegian Constitution day, and I haven’t celebrated it in any sort of way, so it was fun to finally do so again. I felt very Norwegian, and proud to be from my country. The running was a spontaneous thing I decided to do earlier in the week which ended very well. Next year I hope I will celebrate the National Day in my home country, but I will never forget this day, when I celebrated it in middle of Africa.

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