A brief summary of the last weeks

After spending some time in the Tibetan area in Western Sichuan, I went south through an amazing mountain landscape. The roads were clinging to the steep mountain side as we climbed peak after peak. I'm sure one should have been a bit worried on roads like these, but I was too busy admiring the the scenery to worry about anything at all.

I went straight down to Tiger Leaping Gorge with two guys I had randomly met on my way down. In the Gorge, we met up with two Canadians and two Russians that we did the 8 hour trek with. The four first hours were straight up, and I mean straight up!

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Climbing up I was exhausted, my legs were shaking and I didn't think I was gonna make it. But as I reached the top and caught up with the others, it was all worth it. The views were stunning, the sky was blue and the sun was shining (got the first sunburn of the trip) and life was beautiful sitting on the terrace of halfway lodge and just looking at the sky!Happy to arrive after a long day hiking

The Canadians wanted us to come to Lijang with them to attend a traditional Naxi wedding. And who can say no to such an offer? The wedding was amazing; food, beer, cigarettes and more food. Naxi dancing - and yes, we were dancing with them - parades through the streets, traditional clothes and a really cool naxi priest that wanted me to marry a swedish guy. I kindly refused and the festivities went on untill late. We were sitting around a big fire, drinking and playing games. The game was simple, the person who got the red scarf thrown at them, had to sing a song. I sang a norwegian drinking song and everyone laughed.

parading through the streets in Lijiang

I think this guy was some sort of Naxi priest

I ended my stay in China in a town called Yangshuo. It's a major tourist spot, but still, really beautiful. Just 10 minutes outside the town by bike there is no one around but the farmers and their animals. It's a peaceful place and I enjoyed hanging out and just relaxing there for a few days.Boat trip on the Li river

Now I am in Hanoi, Vietnam! It's a bussy and noisy city. There are scooters and motorbikes everywhere and it is way more crowded here than in China. And it's still a bit cold, but just for a few more days now. I'm going on a three days cruise in Halong Bay over christmas and then I'm goign south. South to sun screen weather and flip-flops. To beaches and fresh fruits. The mangos here are heavenly!

Oh beautiful day!

I wake up to a clear blue sky and yet another beautiful day. I am 3600 meters above sea level, the sun is strong and makes the days in the mountains livable compared to the freezing nights.

There is supposed to be a nunnery in a village not far from where I am and rumours has it that it is an amazing place. My curisosity is triggered and after a few minutes on the village square I find myself in a car with five tibetans heading to the nunnery in Ani Gompa.

The front seat I share with a tibetan guy, and in the back there is a munk and two old woman. They are heading there to pray and have decided to take me with them. We cruise along the dusty and bumpy road, tibetan music is flowing from the stereo and everyone is singing along.

Arriving in the village we are dropped of at the monastery. I walk around the temple with them, turning the praying wheels looking at everyone and listening to people chanting "om - mani - padme". It all seem magical in a strange way.

people praying

I leave the people I came with as they head up to the hills to hang up their praying flags. As I walk down through the village I say to myself that this is as beautiful as it gets. I can't really explain it, not even to myself, but I instantly fall in love with the place. In between the houses there are small paths leading through the village. People are getting on with their daily lives, walking with their animals, a woman is trying to crakc hole in the ice on the river to wash her clothes. Outside the houses people are sitting and drinking tea, women brush their long hair and braiding it while they look with big eyes at the strange withe girl that walks around taking pictures of everything.



A lady smiles at me and tells me to follow. She leads me to her home, a small one room building of stone and mud, she takes me inside and makes me sit down. The fire is burning and the tea pot is already warm. Tea and cookies are served and after a few minutes her husband joines us. We share no common language, but we manage to have some sort of conversation. She refills my tea cup time after time, there is a constant warm smile on her face that makes me feel so welcome.

After about 45 minutes I have to leave them and find my car back to Tagong. The woman goes to the back of the room and picks up a yellow, home made bracelet that she gives to me and insists that I take. I try to find words to show them how grateful I am, I can't find any, but I think they know. They stand by their door and waves me goodbye as I head down to where the car is waiting.

I walk with a smile on my face and I am truly happy. I would do everything again, good and bad, just to get here. It is moments like this that makes it all worth it!

Tibet

I never made it to Tibet, or, at least not the region that the Chinese governement defines as Tibet. But let's make one thing clear; you don't have to go to Lahsa to experience Tibetan culture!

As early as in Russia I met travellers that recommended me to go to the tibetan areas in Western Sichuan. And since it is really expencive and a lot of hassle to a travel permit and tour guide and every thing you need to be alowed to travel to Lahsa, I decided to head up into the mountains in Sichuan and explore some of the many tibetan villages that can be found in this area. And it was definetely not a bad decition.

I left Chengdu early one morning headinbg for KangDing where I had my first encounter with TIbetan culture. Even thoug it was only a seven hour bus ride, the differences were obvious. Beautiful women with long black hair in thick braids down to their waists, big and bright jewlery in every color and traditional tibetan clothes. The men, on the other hand, are the cowboys of the east. Most of them have long hair hanging loose under their cowboy hats, big leather jackets with a purple or yellow scarf around their waste as a belt. And of course, the motor bike. Western Sichuan is definelty China's Wild!

After a few days in KangDing (making christmas cookies and putting up christmas decoration with the family that ran the hostel I was staying at) I joined some other travellers and we went higher up in the mountains to a village called Tagong. Here the modern buildings are replaced by stone houses with colorful decorations around the windows and the doors. There are no Chinese to see any more, and the well used " Ni Hao" is replaced by the Tibetan "Tashi dale". This is truly TIbet.

The surrounding nature with hills, never ending grass land and snow capped mountains in the horizon is stunning. The hills are covered in praying flagsand tibetan writing.It's beautiful, there is nothing more to say about it! We spent a whole day just walking around, wandering the streets and looking. The people, the nature, the village, everything was just so different from anything else I've seen in China. It was just like entering another country.

I love what I have seen so far, and this is only the beginning of my TIbetan experience.

Observations at the train station

Sitting in the waiting room at the train station I feel totally alienated, like I'm from another planet. It is smacked with people, peasants with big bags, students heading home for the week end, families are having pic-nics every here and there. The smell of instant noodles, tea and sweat is everywhere.

I write to make the time pass, and people are constantly looking over my sholder to see what I am doing. I wish I could just be a fly on the wall observing people instead of beeing observed by everyone.

It's not a very colorful place. Most people are wearing black, grey or green. Only two people stand out. A lady in red hurries by with her husband behind her dragging their bags along. Her hair is put op on top of her head and she is covered in too much glitter. She is a true character! And then there is the little girl all dressed in pink. She stops, looks at me and gives me an honest smile without any curiosity. She was the only one. Most people just stear at me like I'm a freak show. ANd sometimes I fell that that's exactely what I am.

Then comes the train, and I am of to a new destination.

Oh Crappy day!

I woke up early, quite exited about the day that lied ahead of me. I was in Datong, and was planning to go see the hanging monasteries outside of town. After checking out of my hotel (that was way too expensive for my budget) I headed out in search for the bus station.

Datong is a grey city. It has tall apartment buildings and industry, there is nothing really charming to it. On top of that is was about minus 13 degrees and loads of snow everywhere, but this didn't really bother me that early in the day, I was still optimistic and looking forward to the Hanging Monasteries. Everywhere I went, on every side walk, road or open space, people were shovelling snow, hacking on the ice to make it easier to get around the town. Even the military was joining in. Two men in the front were carrying the Chinese flag, while the rest followed behind with shovels, spades and brooms over h\their shoulders. A great way to use the military if you ask me!

After some time I found the bus station, and with my guide book in hand I go looking for the ticket office. I found a lady that appeared to be selling tickets, and pointed to the name of the place I wanted to go. "No, finished" she said and shook her head. A crowd had been gathering around me as I was trying to explain that I really wanted to go there. Everyone around me were of course taxi drivers, and they all offered to take me there, but for ridiculously high prices. I politely said no, and told them that I wanted to take the bus, but according to them, the road was broken and the bus had stopped going. Only taxis could take people around. But the price was too much for me, I couldn't do it.

The only reason I came to Datong was to see the Hanging Monasteries, and now that seemed impossible. And about here, the day starts getting crappy. I decided to go to the train station to try and get a ticket out of Datong as soon as possible, but of course, the night train was full so I had to wait another day. Great!

I couldn't afford to stay at the same hotel one more night, so I looked up the budget accommodation in my guide book and went out looking for them. One of the two hotels mentioned was closed down, the other one was impossible to find. The taxi driver dropped me of at a street he claimed was the right address, but of course it wasn't. So I was left searching the streets for this hotel. People kept sending me in different directions, pointing to this big fancy hotel or just shaking there heads saying no-no. I just couldn't find the place.

After about an hour walking around looking for the place with my big back pack, I gave up! I took a taxi and went back to the first hotel. It was about 3 pm and the day was already a total failure. Going back out in the cold was out of the question so I curled up in my bed with a book. Eventually I fell asleep, and when I woke up a few hours later it was dark. I realised I hadn't eaten anything all day, so I went out and got some instant noodles and a bottle of red wine I was planning on enjoying in the hot tub in the hotel room. Did I feel sorry for my self? Oh yes!

It all sounded like a good plan until I realised that the water boiler in my room didn't work, the bath tub was filthy and the bottle of wine had 4% alcohol and tasted like bad, sweet grape juice. I couldn't even finish one glass of it. So I went to bed hungry and angry cursing Datong!

Bye bye Beijing

It's time to head south. Time to escape the cold. I've been wanting warmer weather since I left Norway more than two months ago. But Siberia was cold, Mongolia even colder, and now it's snowing in Beijing. Apparently I am not doing a great job in escaping the cold.

But I've loved every second of my trip so far, even though it's been pretty cold. And Beijing, wow, I don't even know where to start. What a mesmerizing city!

There are loads of things to see and do here, things that are sort of mandatory when you are in Beijing. But to be honest, I haven't done much of that during the three weeks I've been hanging around the city. I never really felt like it. Too many Chinese tourist groups with flags and matching hats for me to feel comfortable entering the Forbidden City. Too many people, too crowded, a bit claustrophobic.

What I have done a lot of is wandering around in random hutongs, small cobble stoned streets and stone houses with small and beautiful carvings on the roof. Looking at life, taking in the colors, the smell og street food, the people bustling about with their lives, old men sitting on the stairs playing Chinese chess and people hurrying by on their bicycles and looking at me as a stranger that had gotten lost in their neighborhood. And sometimes that was the case, but I couldn't care less. I enjoyed it!

The parks in Beijing are also amazing. So well organized, with loads of weeping willows, flowers, bamboo and rivers peacefully floating through the maze of green. It's a wonderful hide out to get away from the noise of the city. The parks are alive in Beijing. In any park you will find groups of people practicing tai tchi, or doing ball room dances or aerobics. People are singing, not for money, but just for the fun of it. Others might be practicing an instrument or preforming a play for anyone to watch and enjoy.

All in all, Beijing is a wonderful place to spend a few weeks. Even after 3 weeks here I'm not tired of it. I know that the city is a place I will always remember with joy and it's a place that my heart will always want to come back to.

A hike into history

The Great Wall of China. The mother of all walls. And yes, it is as amazing as people claim it to be!

I left Beijing early one morning and headed north towards the Wall, to a part of the wall that is very little restored, but that has some of the most amazing views you get on The Great Wall. After a few hours of driving I arrived at Jinshanling. It was cold outside, but the sky was as clear as it can get, and I was lucky to escape the never ending fog and pollution one finds in Beijing. Getting up on the wall was a 2 km hike straight up. The Wall is built on mountain tops and stretched from peak to peak as far as I could see in both directions. On the top a stunning view met me, but it would only get better and better the further I went.

My destination was 10 km away, and it is not easy to hike The Great Wall. It is constantly up and down from peak to peak so steep that you sometimes need to use both hands and feet to get up the remains if the stairs that once used to be there. But oh, it's worth it!

As I reached the highest point of the hike, my legs were like jelly and layer after layer of clothes had come of becaus all of a sudden I wasn't that cold anymore. I stopped for a few minutes to catch my breath and to take in the beauty of what surrounded me, still finding it hard to believe that I was actually walking on a wall constructed more than 2000 years ago I ask myself how they got all the stones on top of the mountains to construct the wall.

Unfortunately I can't stand like that, admiring the wall, forever so I start the descent towards Simatai and the zippline that is going to take me down the wall, across the lake and back to the buss that awaits to bring me back to Beijing.

Imagine

Imagine waking up to a sunny day in Mongolia. You have a day of horse riding ahead of you on the shoe of a lake in the northern parts of the country. Even though it is a clear day and you can't see a cloud anywhere on the sky, you put on all you have of warm clothes and makes sure that your jacket is properly zipped up so that the freezing wind won't sneak in under you scarf.

You help your guides load the pack horses before you climb up on your own horse and the group sets out into the nature. It doesn't go fast, you have all the time in the world to enjoy the nature around you, the colors and the quietness. The wind blowing in the threes, the birds that sings and flies away as you pass by. It is a wonderful change to the Russian minivan you have just spent three days in.

After a few hours you stop for lunch. You all enter into a ger where you are served home made bread with cream and sugar and a salty milk tea with butter. According to Mongolian hospitality, travelers can enter any ger on the country side and they will be served whatever the family has to offer. It is great!

As the day comes to an end you arrive at the ger where you will spend the night. It's already pretty cold and you hurry inside the warm ger, help yourself to s cup of tea and relaxes a little bit before dinner. You have to keep the fire alive at all times, if not all the heat will go out through the big hole in the roof that they have to get light in the ger at day time.

Going to bed you put on your thermo underwear, scarf, glows and a beanie before you climb into your sleeping bag and pull the blanket over you ready for a good night sleep. In the middle of the night you wake up and can't really feel your toes anymore. It's dark, the fire has gone out, you really want to get up and start it again, but you can't get your self to get out into the cold ger so you try to fall asleep again. And eventually you do.

Morning comes and the ger gets brighter and brighter as the sun rises and slowly you wake up in minus 2 degrees Celsius to yet another day on the horse back in he Mongolian country side.

The Mongolian country side

After a few days in Ulaan Baatar, we left the capital to spend 11 days on the country side. There were 5 of us and our wonderful driver Bataar. He became our Mongolian superman fixing everything from the car to making sure us vegetarians didn't get meat. "2 meet, 3 no-meat, I fix!"

Amarbayasgalant monastry

Horse riding at Khovsgol Lake

Moron city

Mother and child

It started snowing in the mountains

Bataar, our Mongolian Superman!

A Mongolian Ger

White Lake

Gandan Monastery, Ulaan Baatar

The temple

beautiful old lady

Children and dhows at the temple

Praying wheels

About Mongolia and broken passports

First thing first, I'm having a great time and Mongolia is exactly how I imagined it to be. Driving through the country on bus, looking through the window all you see is endless steppes and hills with the occasionally grouping of trees. Every now and then we passed a ger or two and hurdles of hundred horses or goat and cheeps. And as the sun was setting in the late afternoon the landscape got a golden glow before the moon and the stars appeared on the sky.

I've always heard that Ulaan Baatar is the ugliest city in the world. It's definitely not beautiful, it is big, noisy and polluted, but it has it's charm. Compared to the Siberian cities, Ulaan Baatar is a lot more vibrant and I can feel that I'm getting further south. Ulaan Baatar is strange in a cool way and I really like it!

When it comes to the broken passport, that's a different story. Ever since I entered Russia, the front page has been getting looser and looser. And as I arrived at the border between Russia and Mongolia it was barely hanging together and I was pretty close to not beeing allowed to enter Mongolia. Luckily a Norwegian consulat consulat was opened a month ago here in Ulaan Baatar and they were optimistic about getting me a new travel document to get to China where I can get a new passport. And as they said " worst case scenario, we'll just have to smuggle you out of the country!"

Lake Baikal and the Olkhon Island

Walking into the Big Empty Nothin

Erik and Vegard are the two dots on the top of the cliff

The Village

Julianne and Lake Baikal

The Trans-Siberian Railway

I've always dreamt about the Trans-Siberian railway. Taking the train for days, living on board and travelling across Russia's grass lands and forests It's also one of those things I can't really explain why I've wanted to do. To me it has seemed as something magical.

And in fact, it is something really special about it. You feel the train transform into a small community of its own and you feel that you and the people around you belong there.

We didn't get our own compartment because that was too expensive, so we shared a sleeping wagon with around 50 others. I was of course lucky enough to end up next to 4 drunken guys. They were drunk from the moment they entered the train until they left it. 9 in the morning they started breakfast with a 2 and a half liter bottle of beer and the evening was ended with vodka. Bottle after bottle. Oh yes, those Russians knows how to drink! They were noisy, nasty and played really loud music when the rest of the train wanted to sleep. Wonderful!

Luckily the lady sleeping below me was very nice. She shared her grapes, her tea and a little bit of everything she had. That is the spirit on the train, people share! My friend Julianne ended up next to some great people. They took good care of us, were really eager to teach us some Russian. We played cards, drank tea and laughed a lot since we didn't really understand much of what was going on all the time.

All in all the train was a good experience.Reading a book or listening to music while looking out the window seeing the landscape fly by, the old ladies selling food and beverages on almost every station, playing cards and drinking tea. It's magic in it's own special way.

The train

Ladies on the stations selling a bit of everything

River cruise in Siberia

We are sitting by the river in Tomsk, watching the people passing by, the fishermen that doesn't seem to be getting any fish and talking about how warm it is here in Siberia, almost 20 degrees today. There is a big, blue and rusty boat next to us playing really loud music. As we sit there, people start to get on the boat and I say: "Let's get on!" My friends get up and we run towartds the boat. Getting on we realise that we have no idea where the boat is going and how we are going to get back. Pretending we are on a river cruise we enjoy a bottle of beer and sing along to "Winds of changes". After about half an hour, the boat makes a huge turn and head back in the direction we came from.

It was in fact a river cruise.

Long live impulisve actions!

Autumn colours in SIberia

It's strange how important the weather is. At least it is to me.
When we came to Tomsk, a city in Siberia, two days ago it was grey and cold weather. I immediately didn't like it very much.

The second day here I woke up to a marvelling sun and a bright blue sky. The autumn colours got a golden glow from the sun and Tomsk changed for me. Tomsk is not a very big city, but as the guide book says, it is one of Siberia's most likable cities. It is packed with wooden houses with the most incredible carvings.

Street in Tomsk

I felt I stepped back 200 years in time as I took the bus with to French guys to a village outside Tomsk. It is a gorgeous little place situated next to the river. The landscape is as flat as you imagine Siberia to be and it is completely quiet except for a few dogs barking as we pass and the old woman and men harvesting vegetables from their gardens. Next to the bus stop some old ladies sit with buckets filled with onions, cabbage, potatoes and carrots, along with milk and dried fish that they sell to people passing by. The people in the village are farmers. The woman are wearing skarfs on their heads, long colorful skirts covered in dirt from the feelds and the men have old hats, big muddy boots and always a cigarett in their mouth. It's been long since I've seen a more idyllic place than that!Kolarovo

Siberia is beautiful in autumn, especially when the sun is shining!

Underground Moscow

In Moscow you have to go under the road to cross it. And at the end of the main street in Moscow there is one of these crossings. Almost every night there is a concert there. Live music at the underground. One late evening we we headed down there to see what it was all about. Lots of people dancing, singing and of course, drinking beer and vodka. We got a bottle of beer at the kiosk and joined in on the party. Dancing and having fun with the "underground-people" of Moscow!

Moscow

I stayed in Moscow for 5 days, and I didn't really do all that much. There was a lot of relaxing, sitting in parks watching people pass by and enjoying the warm weather.

Moscow state university

A small church. I love how small golden churches everywhere

An old lady somewhere in Moscow

The red square


Moscow is one of those cities that I can't really explain why I love. I just do.

St.Petersburg in pictures

early morning

fun
The Winter Palace

2 and a half liter beer

Tallin, Oh Tallin

Tallin was amazing. And that was all thanks to my wonderful host Olga! She invited me into her home and her life for the weekend and I absolutely loved it.

There was a street festival in Tallin that week-end, and Olga took me there. Workshops, exhibitions, salsa, music, food and concerts. And, as on every descent Estonian festival, there was a Street-sauna. And it was hot, burning hot! But still, it was fun, you can't say no to a street sauna when you have the possibility to enter one. We walked a lot. And I love walking in unknown cities. Seeing most parts of the town, the suburbs and the other areas where Estonians acctually live, not only the touristic parts. We talked and walked and met people everywhere before we finished up with the street sauna and a beer or three. It was a perfect day!

Next day it rained. It rained heavily all day long, but that didn't keep us from going outside. Walking around until we were soaking wet to the skin, we went to her favorite cafe where we tried to dry of and enjoyed a cup pf hot chocolate. The cafe was a lovely little place set in an old basement in the old part of town. The music was calming and the atmosphere great and we sat around for an hour or so before we went back into the rain.

We ended our day at the house of a friend of Olga. Watching all the 3 "Back to the future" films, eating cakes and drinking tea after tea. It couldn't have ended any better than that!

Had it not been for Olga, Tallin wouldn't have been as great as it was. I didn't see that much of the typical tourist stuff, but to be honest, I couldn't have cared less! That is not what is most important to me. It is not what you do and what you see that makes a trip worth wile, it is the people that you share the experiences whit that matter. And as I told Olga; both in sunshine and rain life is beautiful when you share it with beautiful people. Olga is one of those wonderful people that you will never forget. Thanks!

Et c'est parti

First day on the road. I arrived in Riga this afternoon and have been wandering around a few hours now. Riga is just as I remembered it, wonderful! The fairytale houses, the small streets and the lovely old ladies selling woolen socks and necklaces in front of the big church. Just gotta love it. One thing that still surprises me is how the Latvian women manage to walk on 10 cm high stillettos on the cobblestones that Riga is coverd with? Seriously don't know how they do it!

Wandering around the city I realized what I have embarked on. A year of travelling and new experiences, new places and new people. I'm gonna be away for a year! I have always considered the typical tourist to be the ones walking around with a back pack and a big camera around their neck, and I have always sort of disliked it. But today I found myself being that person, I guess I just have to get used to that now..

Anyways, since I've seen it all before, I quickly ended up in an Irish pub for fish n' ships and a pint of good beer. That is never wrong no matter where you are in the world!

Gotta go now so I wont miss my bus to Tallinn!

Promise to write more as soon as I can and I promise to post a picture of an old man playing the flute with pigeons on top of it. He was sort of charming in his own way..

It all starts in..

...Estonia
Then comes Russia - Mongolia - China - Tibet - Vietnam - Cambodia - Laos - Thailand - Mexico - Guatemala - Cuba - El Salvador - Honduras - Nicaragua - Costa Rica - Panama...

Where it ends, I still don't know.

Only time will tell.

So..I'm leaving again

In exactly 1 week, 1 day, 9 hours and 20 minutes I am leaving again. This time I don't exactly know where the road will take me, what I will experience, what I will do or if I would like it. But still, I am going.

A few months ago I had decided to move to England to study Swahili and development studies. But my friend wanted it different. She called me one day and said: "hey, wanna take a year of and travel the world?" I knew she was serious about it, so I said yes, and here we are. I couldn't refuse such an offer, I definitely would have regretted saying no.

I would rather regret something that I have done, than something that I didn't do, so here goes. A one year long journey. First going east, than south before crossing the pacific ocean and then going south again. We haven't planned much more than that, and that's how we like it. We take what comes and see where the road leads us. I am exited about it, I really am. But I'm also a bit scared. Having no idea what to expect, what to wish for or what to fear one has to be a bit scared, right?

Stay tuned, and you will see where I end up and how it goes.

It never leaves you

I've been home in Norway for more than two months now, but I'm still thinking about my Saharawi family, my friends in the camps and all the other wonderful people I met there. I think about them every day.

I could be sitting in the library at the university reading French grammar when suddenly I'm back between the small sand houses walking to feed the goats with my Saharawi cousin, drinking tea with some friends under the Saharan starlit sky or making food on the gas stove with my mother who is wearing the most colorful melhefa you could imagine. The memories keeps coming back, and I think back on the time I spent in the camps as more and more important. I didn't see it when I was there, but I think my stay has shaped me in more ways than I thought at that time. It's difficult to point out exactly how, but definitely in a positive way. I am sure of that.


Some days when the stress gets to me here in cold Oslo, i miss how life went slowly in the camps. I miss peoples friendliness, how everyone always had time to make tea and talk to you if you stopped by. I had never thought that I would miss the camps and life there. But I guess everything is possible when you get some perspective and distance from them. It's no secret that I had though days there, because life is not easy for anyone in the camps. But today, I mostly remember the good times. It's the good days that make the strongest memories, and those are the memories I'm left with after spending 3 months in El Aayoune.

This is one of those experiences that will never leave me, that will never stop to affect me. And I will never forget. I will never leave the Saharawi cause until they get what they have the right to. I will always care.

I guess many people would pity the Saharawis, but I don't. Mostly because I don't think they would want that. I think that they want the world to see them as proud and strong people. Because that is what they are! They are incredibly strong, beyond anyone I've ever met before. They have been strong enough to survive 33 years in the middle of the desert. And they will survive another 33 years if that is what it takes to get their freedom. They will never give up!

Mosjøen