Mirjam Haenen

It will never let me go

Thu, 22 Jan 09 00:53:15 +0100

After being one of the first volunteers (2 months) at MOP in 2007, I had to go back one day and see 'my' kids again. 1,5 year without their smiles, hugs, love, jokes, honousty and enthusiasm was too long:). That day arrived the 23th of december 2008 when I could celebrate Christmas and New Year at Mother of Peace!

So you probably wonder if I am happy I went back? How many things have changed and what still was the same? If I am going back again and again and again and....?

Let me start by confirming that I am very happy I went back! It was a bit scary, since you are not sure how it will be and the memories I had were so great, you don’t want to dissapoint yourself or MOP. But going back was one of the best choices I could have made. Thank god the children still recognized me and were happy I returned:). The great memories I had, became real-life again and even greater memories are in my head now!

A lot of things have changed, mainly tangible things: a new church, theatre, bigger and better homework room with computers, new offices, new houses for the families, a playground etc. All very good ofcourse, but mainly focussing on giving the children a joyful day and controling their behaviour. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that, on the contrary, I think the children of MOP are having a great time! But there is a reason for their ‘strange’ behavior. The things that they have been through and the bad impact that has on them, will not dissappear with tangible things or short term happiness. It might only go away with long term attention, love, and even therapy. And precisely that last need, costs a fortune. That is why Mother of Peace continually needs all the support it can get! Because otherwise the one thing that will always stay the same is the fact that these children will never be able to deal with their past. And only by being in peace with your past you can start looking forward to the future.

The title of this blog is ‘It will never let me go’. Because once you have experienced volunteering with kids, it will never let you go. And that's a good thing, it ensures you don't take things for granted and makes you happy to be part of such a wonderful project as MOP. It makes you appreciate the good things in life more and makes it easier to deal with the sad ones. Everybody that has volunteered or worked with children will agree with me that it is very intense and hence so beautiful. Children are pure and manage to get into your heart and never ever go out again! So yes, I will probably go back because in the end it is the love, enthusiasme and smiles of the children that makes it all worth while!

But first I am going to enjoy being home in The Hague. Travelling is very nice, but it is also relaxing to come back home and just be in one place. It makes it easier to travel, knowing there is an appartment, a home, waiting for you.

Below you will find a last (well, at least for this year:)) overview of some pictures and links to movies made at MOP.

The money I got from my great donors went amongst other things to: swimgear, healthy food for the gardeners, an outing for a caregiver, a remote control for a t.v. (housemoms need to relax as well), a well deserved treat for the 2 long time volunteers so they can give it their best all year round, and school money! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HELPING MOP!!

Lots of love,

MJ

Movie 1: Sliding!
Movie 2: Sanele is falling a sleep (the end is the best!)
Movie 3: Jumping off some tires
Movie 4: You wanna piece of me, hehehehe?!
Movie 5: Surfing according to a housemom
Movie 6: Skydiving
Movie 7: Bye bye!

Splash & Skydiving

Wed, 07 Jan 09 21:30:13 +0100

Finally the sun has pleased us with some frequent visits over the last couple of days:). So it was time for some wateraction with the kids. Sometimes kids are very easy to amuse. Ingredients:

*Water
*Soap
*A slide
*Some foam

Result: Splash!!!
Extra result: the foam (that we didn't knew we had) was cleaned very well by the kids afterwards and can serve perfectly as yogamats;)
Extra extra result: The children get very tired:)

I also did something that was already a while on my 'what to do in life list' but for which I have been way to scared: Skydiving! I decided to face my fears and jumped for joy today! I don't think I have ever been so scared in my life. But it was a great experience. They also made a movie, which is to big to upload here, but which you are more then welcome to come and watch!

Tomorrow we will take all the kids and the housemoms to the beach and on friday I will already fly back to Holland (which I heard was -21 C degrees yesterday....I leave Oslo, but the cold follows me to The Hague..).

Looking forward in seeing you all soon!
Cheers,
MJ

Picture 1: Smile
Picture 2: Ready for sliding
Picture 3&4: Weeeeeeeee down it goes!
Picture 5: All nicely in a line
Picture 6: Cute feet
Picture 7: Water anyone?
Picture 8: Getting tired
Picture 9: Sleepy
Picture 10: Sleeping beauty (notice the text on shirt:))
Picture 11: Brie, MJ, Wilma enjoying a glass of welldeserved rose
Picture 12: The 'airport' or should I say weiland?
Picture 13: Still smiling
Picture 14: Mmmm, do I really wanna do this?
Picture 15: Are you as nervous as I am?
Picture 16: No, I am not nervous at all!
Picture 17: No way out!
Picture 18: Really its me:)
Picture 19: I made it, here is the proof!

Time flies!

Mon, 05 Jan 09 14:29:07 +0100

Just a short update on life on the flip site.

Time is flying by, there are still so many things I would like to do, but I only have until friday... But I am enjoying every minute of it!

The kids are really behaving extremely well, they listen much better and help out a lot. Even without asking they start cleaning or help you find your keys. And I think they realize that it benefits them as well, since it so much easier to organize outings, games, swimming lessons etc. Some of you mentioned you like my pictures very much and that they were even artistic. Well, most of them were made by the children! I wouldn't have dreamt about giving them my camera last year, but now they know that they should treat it carefully, give it back when I ask to do so and are capable of making the most beautifull pics! Then it is not about how I see them, but about how they see eachother. So you can really look via there eyes to the world.

I would really like to thank you all for the messages on my blog, its great to read them and very motivating. So keep on doing that:) To answer some of your questions:

* Stine: Yes, I am doing yoga myself as well:) Both teaching and being tought by some of the extremely flexible children:) This morning I wanted to skip a class and didn't tell them we would have yoga, but they were banging at my door at 6 o'clock in the morning, because it was time for yoga!

* Chris & Mai: Leanne and Berrie dropped by last week and it was very nice to see them again and show them around Mother of Peace. I believe they are enjoying SA very much!

* Jetske: Dennis and Geartje also dropped by yesterday. Very nice to finally meet them in person. I hope we can meet for lunch before I leave. They say 'hi' to you too.

* Mom & Dad: Calling me tonight after 19.00 is perfectly fine. Is it really snowy and white in Holland?

Now I am off again to give my camera to the kids and hope we can bring you nice pics soon again!

Take care,
MJ

Pictures!

Fri, 02 Jan 09 12:12:52 +0100

First of all: HAPPY NEW YEAR! May 2009 bring you lots of love, happines, health, fun and much more!

No long story from me this time, things are going very well. I think the pictures will speak for themselves and show it. Enjoy :)

Love,
MJ

Picture 1: All in one tire
Picture 2: Pretty girl
Picture 3: Handsome boy
Picture 4: In the pool
Picture 5: Diving
Picture 6: Almost diving
Picture 7: A bridge over troubled water
Picture 8: Yoga
Picture 9: Miss, I like the sleeping excersize of yoga best:)
Picture 10: Playground
Picture 11: Playground thinking
Picture 12: In the grass
Picture 13: Jumping!
Picture 14: Beautiful faces
Picture 15: On the swing
Picture 16: Playing netball, very competitive!
Picture 17: Tired
Picture 18: Walking home after a day of playing
Picture 19: Working in the vegetable garden with a beautiful dress
Picture 20: Hungry, eating a sausage!
Picture 21: New years eve with the volunteers
Picture 22: Toasting to the new year together with Wilma

Same, same but different!

Sun, 28 Dec 08 13:15:11 +0100

It is good to be back! It is very nice to see all the kids again and it feels like I haven't been gone for 1,5 years. Besides the fact that the children have grown older, some of them went back to their families and some new ones arrived and Mother of Peace has had some very good changes.

I am very impressed by the homeworkroom, computerroom, theatre, English classes, new houses, new church and offices. It is all very professional. However these things are all material things. And despite the fact that these are all in place, some of the same problems and challenges still influence the behavior of the kids. Of course these tangible things need to be in order to help the kids, but it feels like now is the time to start focusing on the causes of the challenges instead of healing the effects.

Thank god MOP has some incredible people working here. I am very impressed by two of them: Wilma and Brie. Both were volunteers last year, who after returning in Holland, couldn't quite let go of Africa. So they decided to go back for 1 year! The best thing to happen both for the kids and volunteers is to have a person there for a longer period!

It is their enthusiasm, understanding and love that makes me feel like MOP will survive! It will not only be a safe heaven for abandoned and abused children, but also a place in the community for people to get educated and get work. And it needs people like Wilma an Brie that devote a year of their life to make sure there is a continuation of projects that start up and volunteers that come. Wilma and Brie, keep up the amazing work!

So what have I been doing these last days? I played soccer, went to swimming lessons, we did a treasure hunt, went out for dinner, celebrated Xmas, did yoga with the housemoms and older children, watched a movie and danced! I had the luck to arrive while there was a bunch of great and active volunteers here! They even organized gourmet on Christmas day, so it was almost as being in Holland…almost that is... We were with 12, but unfortunately most off them left yesterday, so its four left. Next week a new group of active volunteers will arrive.

About the donated money, you probably want to know what I am doing with that. I have to tell you that the children here get loads and loads of presents during Xmas already. They are a little bit spoiled when it comes to material stuff….It is almost as if the material things need to compromise all the difficult things they have gone through. And we all know it doesn’t work that way. So, it is of no use now to give them even more presents at this point. I have the feeling that the children get enough, but the people that are here for the children sometimes are overlooked. For example, the gardeners. They clean the place, make it look beautiful with flowers, and are always friendly and helpful. They hardly have/get any money. So Brie brought them a Christmas box with healthy food for their family. And I decided I want to help financially with that. Then we have the housemoms, that hardly exercise and are a bit down lately. We are going to do yoga with them in the mornings so they get energized and happy again. We need an education video and mats for that. And the caregivers sometimes need a pad on the shoulders, so we sometimes spoil them with a night out (picture with the strawberry daquaries:)). And then there is still money left, which might even go to a ‘boring’ cause: the water bill.

Weather-wise it is unfortunately not as sunny as I hoped... We have had some good thunder and lighting, which you can look at via this link. The electricity at MOP is out at the moment, so it is cozy at night with candles. But they do expect better week next week, and they better be right because on Wednesday it is time to ride some waves and go surfing!

Keep you posted and talk to you later!

Love,
MJ

Picture 1: how many volunteers fit in a taxi?
Picture 2: a bunch of kids
Picture 3: Big smile and a bit shy
Picture 4: Yoyoyo, Thobile and MJ in da house:)
Picture 5: Out with caregiver Nuh
Picture 6: Remember the little, very sick boy I was holding in my arms 1,5 years ago?
Picture 7: The same boy, very cute and happy! Doing very well!
Picture 8: Foodparcers for the hard working gardeners
Picture 9: The gardeners&me.

How will it be to see them again?

Sun, 21 Dec 08 18:06:52 +0100

So exciting to go back to a place that has tought me so much last year and still gives me a lot until the day of today. A place that to some extend changed my life. How will it be to go back? How much will have changed? Do they still know me? Will it meet the expectations I inevitable made the last weeks?

I don't know.

But I think the best way to approach it, is to just let it happen. Let it take me by surprise, not think about it too much. Enjoy the moment. That is difficult however, I have wanted to go back for a while now and of course I am imagening how it will be...

I am sure, however, that I won't be dissapointed. Mother of Peace is a little place of stability, hope, joy and peace that children need. It is about people giving and receiving love and taking care of each other. In a way it is a place where the Christmas spirit is present all year round!

So I am bit tensed, impatient and excited to go and I can't wait until I see them all again. And although I won't be with my family and friends during this Christmas and Newyear, I know you understand why I choose to celebrate it in South-Africa this year and I will be with you in spirit!

I am overwhelmed again with all the support I received from you! Thank you so much! You truly understand the GIVING spirit of Christmas! So I hope you will also enjoy the GETTING part of it soon:).

Have a merry Christmas and I will update you soon (with pictures!) about my arrival at Mother of Peace.

How will it be to see them again....?

Love,
Mirjam

Back to South-Africa

Fri, 14 Nov 08 11:07:40 +0100

Dear weblogreaders,

long time no speak! But do I have some great news to tell you:)! I am going back to South-Africa!

I will see 'my' kids again and celebrate Xmas and Newyear with them. The 23th of december my plane will touch down in Durban and I will have untill the 9th of january to give (and receive) all the love, hugs and kisses from everybody at Mother of Peace. I hope 18 days are enough for that;)

And ofcourse I will not go without a plan. December is traditionally a time of giving and receiving. And I am sure the kids and housemothers will receive lots of nice presents from the volunteers, their family and supporters of MOP. But I am not sure if the children ever had the ability to GIVE a present away. They have so little themselves that giving something away is hard. They compensate by giving all their love, kisses and hugs, but it must be nice for them to give away a present. Don't you agree?

So my plan is to collect money, and with that give the children the possibility to GIVE a present away. They will all receive a small amount of the collected money and we will for ex. join them to the mall, where they can choose and buy a present FOR SOMEBODY ELSE. So all the children will buy presents for another child at MOP. I am gonna ask them to write a little poem or make a painting attached to the present. And then on Xmas day we can all sitt togehter and they can all enjoy the spirit of GIVING!

What better present is there to give during Xmas, than to give somebody the opportunity to feel and enjoy the spirit of GIVING? We all know that is feels so much better to GIVE a present than to receive one. Why? Because of the smile on a childs face and the happiness giving brings.

Help me do this! For 5 euro you can let one child have the experience of GIVING. Please donate to:

NL:
ABN AMRO: 607567538
NO:
NORDEA: 60341088189

and write in the subjectfield GIVING.
Thank you.

I will keep you posted!

Mirjam

HI! This is my weblog about my volunteer period at Mother of Peace in South-Africa

Thu, 29 Nov 07 13:49:45 +0100

In May and June 2007 I lived and worked as a volunteer at Mother of Peace, a project related to the organisation Be More. Mother of Peace houses children that cannot live with their family anymore. Sometimes because they have no parents, sometimes because they have been abused or abandoned.

As a volunteer there are all sorts of ways you can help: play with the children, help them with homework, teach them basic skills and just be there and have fun!
I can truly say those 2 months changed my life and it was an experience I would recommend to everybody! On this weblog you can read all about it.

To make sure that you will find what you are looking for on this site you can choose one of the following:

Read about my experiences in South-Africa

Learn more about Mother of Peace

If you want to donate money

Would you like to know more about me

Would you like to contact me

Please remember: 'The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step'.
Will you make that one step today that will make a difference?

Mirjam

If you want more information, contact me!

Sat, 11 Aug 07 18:40:48 +0200

To my great joy I still see lots of visitors reading my weblog every day even after my volunteer period in South-Africa has ended :-)

I don't know who you are, maybe ex-volunteers, maybe future-volunteers, maybe funders, maybe just curious websurfers, but I want to let you all know that it would be my pleasure to give you more information when needed!
If you want to talk to me or email me with specific questions or just want to know more about my volunteer period, just send me an email:
mhaenen@gmail.com

I will do my best to give an answer to your questions or help you with anything you want to know. I know it might be hard to make the desicion to go abroad and hope my experienc can give you some honoust insights and help you with making that decision!

Take care,
MJ

My last day in South-Africa

Mon, 16 Jul 07 23:12:31 +0200

It seemed like yesterday when I was writing my first weblog about going to SA...and now this adventure is already over!

The goodbye was hard, I tried not to cry, but had to. I preferred the children to remember me with a smile on my face, but when the floodgates open, they open! So with tears in my eyes I was leaving Mother of Peace.
Some of the kids and housemoms wrote me a farewell note, which was so sweet. One of the children didnt want to give me a hug, as if she new it was going to be the last one... It felt like I was abandoning them and that was the last thing I came here for. Then again, if the goodbye would have been easy, the experience wouldnt have been so great as it has been! Despite the warning of my volunteer coordinator there is one thing I failed big time: Do NOT get too attached to the children. I got attached to them and to the housemoms and caregivers and everybody concerned with MOP. It made the goodbye hard, but the experience unforgetable.

But life goes on... time for some serious backpacking. Although it feels a bit strange to focus mainly on having fun, spending money, party and experience the luxourious site of SA, it probably is the best thing to do! My first stop was Coffee Bay where there was so much to do, that I had hardly any time to miss MOP. I went surfing, hiking and enjoyed the backpackers life along the East Coast of SA!

At the moment I am in Cape Town, where tomorrow my flight will leave to India (via Bombay, Bangalore to Mysore). Cape Town is great and there is something for everybody. Or, like in my case, there is everything for somebody (me)! I went winetasting (the pictures show you how many tasting I had), went up to Table mountain and abseiled down (not scary at all), did some shopping, drumming, took a trip to a township including church session (very impressive) and drove to the Cape of Good Hope (including a visit to the pinguins).

From now on my Asian adventures will be posted on www.mirjamhaenen.whereareyou.net which is also accesible via www.mirjamhaenen.com

If you were on this mailinglist, you will also be on the new one, so no worries, I will keep you posted.

By the way, my African phone number will no longer be valid, so please use my Dutch one again: +31623406991. My Norwegian one doesnt work.

Take care,
love,
hug,
MJ

Saying goodbye...

Tue, 03 Jul 07 22:02:31 +0200

The time has come to say goodbye. I knew it was coming, but how can I ever be prepared to say goodbye to 55 children, 20 housemoms, colleagues, fellow-volunteers and all the other people I got to know here?

The last week has been full of fun (and the sun is back!), we went to a musical of the Jungle Book, had a goodbye BBQ, with lots of singing and dancing and I went for dinner at one of the houses! There was also still work to do, mainly consisting of follow up phone calls to the people that visited the Open Day. I need to make sure that we not only create awareness, but also get some funding out of them!

On Wednesday (tomorrow) the inevitable will happen, giving 75 hugs and saying 75 times ‘bye, hope to see you again soon’… I keep saying to myself that it is a good thing that it is so hard to say goodbye, it means I had a great time! It truly was an experience of a lifetime, which I would recommend to everybody. You do not only have the possibility to make a difference in other people’s lives, they will make a difference in yours too.

What I have learned here in the last 2 months will stay with me the rest of my life. And it is so diverse, from learning more about diseases like AIDS and TB, to experiencing a culture shock and adapting to a totally different lifestyle. I never experienced such a difference in emotions and feelings, the one day everything was great and I felt on top of the world, the other day I was down wondering if abuse would ever stop. Ethical questions were daily business, for example: Should a child of 8 that abused somebody else been put into jail? Does it make a difference if that child is being abused itself? Do you act the same towards children that hit other children because they don’t know any better? Do they receive the same punishment as children from a ‘non-hitting-childhood’?

To everybody who might still be doubting about whether or not to go abroad as a volunteer, I have just one advice: GO! It is the best way to experience another culture, because you are interacting with the locals. There is no better feeling than realizing you can help others! There is no better reward than a smile on a child’s face! And it is truly fulfilling to make a positive change (how small it may be) in somebody’s life. And changes have been made, it is great to see how much more helpfull, smiling, open, happy, sporty, social and outgoing the children and house moms have become. Just because they get some extra attention and are taken seriously. The other day a 14 year old girl walks up to me and says: ‘MJ, I will cry when you leave’. Just like that, without any warning, they are open and honest and tell you how they feel. At that moment I was sure that I must have done something right.

Without sounding like a Wimbledon tennis champion, I do want to use this opportunity to thank some people. I can not compare Mother of Peace with any other projects, but I feel very lucky with the MOP director, volunteer coordinator and administrative manager. They have been supportive, gave good advice, were helpful, let me do my thing, were funny and made the best coffee! A big thanks to Gavin, Linda (and their children), Byron and Heather. I am happy I chose to go to MOP. The diversity of the project attracted me most, I could play with the young kids, make homework with the older ones and have meetings with the house moms. MOP children, caregivers and house moms also a big thanks to you for being so open and giving me a chance! Thanks to the security guards and dogs for keeping the area safe and thanks to my fellow-volunteers for the relaxed evenings to reload the battery. Also a word of gratitude to Be More for matching me with South-Africa and Mother of Peace. Last but not least, thank you, reading this weblog, for following my every step and keeping me in touch with Norway and Holland! Mmm, I think it did sound a bit like I just won an Olympic medal...

So now it is time for 4 months of backpacking, I can only hope it will be as great an experience as the last 2 months have been! And who knows, I might be back again next year!

I will keep you posted & let the pictures speak for themselves!

Love and hugs,
MJ

Raindrops keep falling on my head.....

Wed, 27 Jun 07 10:16:54 +0200

Drip, drop, thunder...

After all your messages about 2 weeks of rain in Dublin, 15C and rain in Holland and jalous remarks about the ever shining sun in Africa, I thought you all might wanna read that it can also rain in Africa! It was very much needed, due to a dry winter, but I do prefer the sun! Currently it feels like if I am on a camping in the Dordogne in France (you know those nice holidays were it could rain for 13 hours straight and you have to swim to get to the toilet and wonder why o why you went with a tent and are not sitting in a rented appartment in Ibiza)
It is like snow in Holland, nobody knows what to do! Daycare is closed, because the kids just not show up....appearently a 500 meter walk through rain is impossible. Nobody goes to work, roads get hard to drive on and the toilet doesnt flush anymore. So my morning wasnt the best one here, cleaning the toilet.

So what do best on a rainy day than write on your weblog?

One week from now my volunteer adventure will be over and my travel adventure will start. I have mixed feelings about that. A part of me really wants to travel and experience as much as possible, the other part wants to stay here and help. So for now I am telling myself I will just come back here every year for 2 months and keep in touch with Mother of Peace! That is the plan know, but I do realize my opinion can change after the travel adventure is over. It is just to hard to determine what a year from now might bring, but it is definately also hard to say goodbye to everyone.

Yesterday we had the Open Day at Mother of Peace and it all went well. Fortunately the rain decided to wait one more day so for the walk around the area we didnt need any rainboots. The showup was good, around 50 people came, devided over 2 sessions (one in the morning and one in the afternoon). Now some follow up is necessary to get the commitment we need.
No pictures this time.... cant put pictures of a rainy Africa on my weblog can I!

Okay, I am off, have to make a phonecall to the weathergod now....

All the best,
MJ

Sometimes it feels that the only thing different is the colour of our skin….

Mon, 18 Jun 07 17:04:42 +0200

It amazes me time after time how open and friendly the South African people (and especially the Zulu people) are. Comparing my place in the group now and 1,5 months ago, makes me realize that I really am part of the Mother of Peace community. They have taken me in and accepted me without any judgement or conditions. ‘Come as you are’ seems to be the motto and it doesn’t matter if you are white, black, Asian or purple. I can already see that the other volunteers are welcomed as open as I was and can only wish for them the same great experience. I sometimes look at my skin and am surprised that is hasn’t turned black yet, as I feel such a good connection with Zulus
I also realized how much I learned in the last 8 weeks. I know almost everybody’s name (a big task here ), can explain about the Zulu culture and the part HIV/AIDS plays here, I can differ between the cries of the children and know which ones are fake or real and I learned that people in SA or Norway or Holland or wherever don’t differ that much from each other. Besides some cultural differences we all have the same needs and values. We all need food and love to survive, sleep and health to stay fit, play and fun to develop and education to get a step further in life.

Saturday the 9th was such a good example of how nice the volunteers, the kids, the house moms and the other locals are working and partying together. We organised a party night for the whole of MOP, to celebrate birthdays, play games and dance! It was unbelievable to see how excited everybody was! We even danced on the table…(without consuming a drop of alcohol). Last week we also took the house moms out to go bowling. None of them had ever done that before and you should just see them throwing the balls on the lane… After bowling we went in the bumper cars (bots auto’s) and called it a night.

I am not sure if you heard about it, but there is a mayor strike going on in SA at the moment. All the people working for the government want a 12% increase in salary and only getting 6,5%. So they decide to strike, including the doctors at public hospitals, the teachers, the public transport, everything that has a slight link to government. That means that our kids have not gone to school for the last 2 weeks. Going to a public hospital is not an option, people are blocked at the entrance and some even die on the doorsteps. Private hospitals still operate but are only affordable for white people. The same counts for private schools, although also they have to shut down because they receive threats from the strikers. Doctors that do want to work have to go to their job in normal clothes, otherwise risking the fact of being murdered on their way to work… Lets just hope coming Thursdays negotiations will end it.

Besides all this us volunteers still enjoy our weekends! We went one weekend to a Zulu village, where we learned more about how Zulus lived before. We also danced with them and got some marriage proposals on the go! Normally a Zulu man pays 11 cows to his future-wife’s-dad, but the salesperson in me made sure my father will at least receive 14 cows !

Last weekend we went on a Safari to Hluhluwe (pronounce SloeSloeie). It was really nice to see the rhinos, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, buffalos, zebras, worthags (kind of pigs) and elephants in real life! It was less nice to stand up at 5.00 o’clock in the morning and seeing Impalas (antelopes) in every bush we passed Most animals were close to the car and sometimes we saw a mom dad and little baby giraffe, zebra or rhino passing by. So cute!

We rented our own car and it was an interesting experience to drive on the left side of the road… It all went well, but some hilarious situation did occur: entering the parking lot on the wrong side, doubting were to enter the highway and trying to find the gearshift on your right hand site. Besides these difficulties our car had an anti-hijack button, which means it stops driving within 3 minutes after starting the car if you don’t turn off the button. This button is hided away somewhere in the car and hence really easy to forget… A lot of times we were almost about to push the car (thinking the battery went dead) but then realizing it must have been this hijack button that made the car suddenly stop. Eventually we got home save and sound.

The coming week my major focus will be to get everything organised for the Open Day at MOP the 26th of June. Companies from the community will come and see what we do. The aim is to create awareness about MOP and to evaluate funding possibilities. Besides that we will start teaching the children ourselves, to compensate for the education they are missing due to the strike. There is an outing to the circus and the beach and there are new challenges literally arriving every week. Last week a 9 months old baby was brought in and taken care of by us volunteers for 2 days, before going to a house mom. We were all mothers for a day and this child has probably been hugged 24 hours a day! But he needed it, he was all weak and sick and tired and was in so much pain he couldn’t sleep. He was very tiny for his age and had no strength to cry. Luckily he got a bit stronger the last days when he lived with a house mom and other children, but eventually we had to bring him to hospital. He wasn't able to keep food in and got to week to stay at MOP. According to the doctors his condition is improving, but it is a difficult situation. Let’s just hope he recovers and will be with MOP again soon!

Last but not least I would like to give you an overview of what I have spend and what I will spend the sponsored money on:
Books for the homework room: the kids are reading much more now and are improving their English
Outing with the house mom: this really reloaded their battery and gave them energy to take care of the kids. Besides that it was good for group building
School sports uniforms for the kids: keeps them warm in the cold mornings and makes sure they have some decent clothing for school
A computer for the volunteers and the kids: the volunteers can use the computer for fundraising activities, making flyers and personal use. We can start teaching the children to work on a computer, so they have an advantage when they go to high school and can use the Internet as an information source

Thanks to your generous donations there is even money left to be used on other important things.

Pictures:Partynight
Bowlingtechnique 1&2,
Bowling succes&failure,
the bumper cars and a group picture
Zuluvillage
Safari: Sunrise, the volunteers and the animals (sometimes hard to seperate)
Beach
Me and our 9 months old baby before hospital
Random jump picture that I like
Quote of wisdom

Take care,
MJ

Already half way in SA…..

Thu, 07 Jun 07 14:43:46 +0200

Time flies when you are having fun and that I have! The last weekend of May Inge (fellow volunteer) and me went on a weekend trip to Lesotho. Lesotho is a Kingdom that lies as an island in SA, totally surrounded by it. It managed to stay a separate country mainly because its boundaries consist of high mountains (circa 3000 meters). Everybody kept on warning us to bring warm clothes, because at night temperature drops below 0? C. For all the Norwegian readers this is not cold at all and sounds more like the beginning of spring, but for South-African and Lesotho standards this is winter at its top! To be sure we packed our hats, gloves and an extra fleece sweater and were on our way!
We stayed at Sani Lodge, just on the border with Lesotho but still on the SA part. This is a true backpacker hostel and an ideal place for me to get used to a backpackers lifestyle. The first night was actually very cold, but a fire and some extra blankets did the trick.

On Friday we went of on a two-day trip into Lesotho. ‘We’ consists of: Inge, Matthew (the crazy and funny guide), Adam (American guy), Nathan (also American) and myself. Although it was a randomly formed group we got along really well, especially because everybody loved playing games (card games and drinking games) and loved to sing! After driving through Drakensberg, the Sani Pass (see pictures) we entered Lesotho. It had snowed a couple of days before, so we actually hiked in snow (a little bit of Norway in the Southern Hemisphere).

In the afternoon we arrived at an original Lesotho house, where we were going to spend the night. Before going to sleep a trip to a traditional village was organised. You can see on the pictures that the rural areas of Lesotho are a couple of decades back into time when compared to Europe. Dancing and music is a big part of the Lesotho culture and very impressive. After seeing how it is done, we had to try ourselves as well, which was more difficult than expected…the picture says it all! After a fun night, close by the fire, playing the Moose Game (an instant hit, go to Norway and ask Stine if you want to learn) and some chatting a well-deserved rest was next.

The next morning it was time to visit a traditional healer and go horseback riding!! According to the healer my ancestors are making sure my travels will go safely and I should keep on smiling. After this great news you can see on the pictures how relaxed I am sitting on the horse…

On Sunday Inge and me did a 5 hours hike, which was a bit hard after a Saturday night at a backpackers hostel talking with people from all over the world! It made me look forward to my coming backpacking trip even more.
On Monday evening I was ‘home’ with my kids again and I missed them.
Thankfully they missed me as well. This was the last week that I had them all for myself, because now I have to share them with 4 other volunteers. The new volunteers arrived last Monday. I showed them around and we went Zulu dancing with the kids on their first night! We talked about what has been done at what still needs to be done and ideas just kept coming. The new volunteers are super enthusiastic, full of energy and ready to role up their sleeves! Just a couple of ideas we want to realize:

Next week we will take the house moms bowling!We will use some of the given money to buy track school uniforms for the kids, so that they are not to cold in the winter mornings
Coming Saturday there will be a party night for the kids, with games, presents and maybe Singstar...
We continue to help out in the day-care and are finally able to split the group into smaller subgroups, giving all the kids the attention they need.
We will organise an Open Day at the end of June at Mother of Peace.We started with the ‘Sponsor a Child’ programme, where companies and private persons can pay a fixed amount per month to enable housing, feeding, counselling, education, medical treatment etc. for the kids.
We will clean out some of the storehouses and go through all the stuff inside to be able to divide the very valuable from the less valuable things.It is really nice to be with five people now, because so many things can be done!

I am sure this month will be very productive and helpful to Mother of Peace. Hopefully the volunteers after us can pick this up, so we get continuity in these projects and make a difference!

Just in case you are wondering: I am still very happy I made the choice to volunteer and go to Mother of Peace! Of course it is hard at times, but it is great to experience that at times were I might feel a bit down, the kids come to me to ask what is wrong. And that is just a hart warming overwhelming feeling. That those kids, with all their own problems, also take care of me by bringing back a smile on my face when needed. And then we all forget about our worries and pick up a hockey stick and play the bad feelings away! I attached a picture of the area of MOP, to give you an idea.

Do you remember me writing about the little boy that had just come to MOP? The one that didn’t know how to make a laughing sound? Well, he knows now! He is laughing a lot, running around and looks so much more happy. It is great to see how 3 weeks at MOP have changed him so much for the better! That makes it all worthwhile, see the last picture to know what I mean.

Mirjam

Adrenalin is pumping!

Sun, 20 May 07 18:32:40 +0200

After some relaxing and refuelling days at the beach last weekend, I was ready for another week at MOP. It definitely consumes energy to interact with the kids at the day-care, help with homework and communicate with the housemoms, so in my weekends I try to do as less as possible and reload the battery. But although I try hard to plan nothing, at the end my weekends are busy too: Indian banquets at the Indian Church (see picture 1), beach visits, writing letters with the kids, cleaning my house and updating my weblog.

Last week was an interesting week with adrenaline pumping through my body:
First of all the teacher of the day-care was sick for 2 days so I was in charge! Fortunately a chair dance and a puppet show kept the kids pretty quiet. I even came around making motherdaypresents for all the housemoms (see picture 2). A bit to late, but better late then never, right?

The housework room is up and running and had a successful first week (see pictures below)! Kids came, sat down and made their homework and left happily telling others about this ‘magic room’ (you go in with a blank paper and come out with your homework done!). In the beginning mainly the younger kids came to work on relatively easy projects, but as time went by I found myself trying to solve mathematical equations like: (x?+3x) -2(x?+3x)? - 8 = 0 Without any books for support (they leave them at school) I wish my dad could fly over to help me on this one... It’s a relief to know I will have the books quickly, since I am sure after a bit of reading it will all come back to me...

Apparently 2 drop-in hours a day are not enough to help everybody with their homework, since I had a housemom on my doorstep on Wednesday morning at 06.00 o’clock! They stand up at 0.400 o’clock everyday, so for them 6 am is decent timing… For me it’s not! Although still partly in my REM sleep, I decided to help solve a biology problem about Ph values. But I did made clear that this was a one time favour.

On Wednesday evening all the volunteers were invited to join a policeman to see ‘Durban-by-night’. In other words: drive incognito (no we are not tourists or the police) through rough areas and see the stuff you are not supposed to see and go into areas you should NEVER go into by yourself. We drove past the Nigerian mob, the pick-up places for loverboys, the hookers (some were pregnant and still working), the drug dealing places and got an explanation about this site of South-Africa. It was scary, really impressive and I was happy to arrive save and sound back at MOP. As you might realise no pictures were taken, so you just have to go there yourself…or not.

Thursday was another school day for me. I joined the kids up to Inkwali primary school for a sports day! This time I was armed with my bag of hockey sticks! In the middle of the school buildings there is a little field surrounded by higher pavement, ideal to play hockey on. After explaining one rule (no high sticks) I let 18 kids play a match, boys against girls. Although I expected an unstructured crowd running after a ball, I just wanted to let them get excited about the sport. And it went great! Some of them had never seen a hockey stick in their lives before, but immediately knew how to use it and handled it great! See the pictures for an impression of innebandy the South-African way (including a game of hockey here at MOP with the younger kids).

The rest of the sports day consisted of a match of netball for the girls and soccer for the boys against another primary school. Because they assumed (wrongly) that I have a lot of netball experience I was named assistant coach. I learned here that it is better to go with the flow than to argue, so decided to go along with it. After a last tactical training and team picture (see below) we went on our way to the other school. Transport in SA is slightly different from that in Europe and also slightly less save…It is mostly a question of how to fit 20 kids into a minibus suited for 10 kids (see picture)! Since I am coach (and teacher and white) I could sit relatively comfortable in the front. The trip was great, driving along the sugarcane fields, very loud music, kids singing and collecting dust on arms, legs and hair along the way. We arrived save and sound at Singele primary school were a crowd of kids was welcoming us. I am sure some of them had never seen a white person before as they were all staring at me. This might also had to do with the fact that I came out of the bus dancing to the beats of ‘Jazzmans’ rhythms!

After a welcome ceremony with lots of singing again (it’s great), we went of to the sport fields. My debute as a coach was unfortunately not a big success since we lost… but the atmosphere was super! Next time we will be back with hockey!
The drive back in the minibus was as exciting as the way towards the school and again I was an oddity (white people normally NEVER take minibuses, since minibuses are not considered save modes of transport) and stared at by everybody we passed. Then again having a white person in your minibus gave the ‘Jazzman’ loads of status, so he needed to make sure everybody we passed got to see me (i.e. honking all the time, loud music and shouting)!

Last Friday I had another housemother meeting (see picture) and the input of the moms is increasing. Via this way I would like to thank Linda, the previous MOP volunteer, for making the room for the meetings. I heard you did a lot of effort to clean and decorate it and I just want to let you know it is used a lot now and it suits the housemom meeting very well: Thanks!

Friday was also the last working day for 4 Bobbi Bear volunteers, so we had a little goodbye ceremony. It made me realize that time flies here and that there will also be a day where I have to say goodbye to all the kids. That made me really said, because I feel I already made a bond with so many of them. So after 2 months I expect it to be really hard to go. But for now I will have to focus on the time I am here, the time I can help them! So I give them as much attention as possible. The little ones started calling me Aunty MJ, which is a cute way of saying a name.

A new boy (around 18 months) arrived not long ago and he even calls me mama… it makes my day when he starts smiling every time he sees me (see picture). He knows how to smile but he doesn’t know which sound to make with it. If I tickle him his whole face lights up but the sound he makes resembles that of a snake’s SSSSSS. I think he never had people around him before that laughed, so he just doesn’t know how it sounds.

Below I also put a picture of an example of a ‘house’. As you can see it consists of 2 housemothers and about 6 children (and sometimes an own child of one of the moms). It is often a combination of ages, ranging from 2 till 16. By the way, the 3 little ones sitting on the chairs are really sweet and with the girl in the middle I have a special connection. It is hard to explain, but there are always children that just mean a little bit more to you. It is not only me, every volunteer will have 2 or 3 kids they connect with a bit extra.

That’s it for this week, ciao for now,
MJ

Work in progress....

Sat, 12 May 07 14:04:11 +0200

Hello!

Finally I got some time to sit down behind the computer and write to you about my experiences! We had some problems with the Internet connection so my apologies that this message took a bit long to get posted online… But your waiting is rewarded with a long weblog in return!

The first 2 weeks have been full of activities, observing, meeting the kids, getting to know the housemothers, learning about South-Africa (SA) and its culture and hanging out with my fellow volunteers (yes they liked my pasta-pesto-salmon special :-)). I hardly know where to start, my head is so full of things to write about. I will try to keep it structured, but hereby the warning, it might be a waterfall of impressions… Okay ready? Here we go:

I am settling in here quite well and getting used to the African way (if you can do it tomorrow don’t do it today ;-)). Helping out in the day-care is my main activity in the morning. As structured this is run in Holland and Norway so unstructured it is run in SA. Try to imagine the following:
19 kids with one teacher
Mainly Zulu, hardly English
These kids are not used to structure and only listen when shouted at or when the teacher uses ‘the hard way’
When it comes to food, it’s survival of the fittest
Some rubbish is lying around on the outside playground (and the kids just love to have everything in their mouths)

So there is definitely room for improvement. And although the situation is far from perfect, the kids make it all worthwhile. Nothing matters when you look in their dark brown eyes. You don’t need a fancy building, lots of toys or computer games to help these children. A hug and some positive attention is most they need. And they are full of love, trust, happiness and intelligence themselves! It is sometimes hidden far away inside them, because of all the bad things they experienced, but when you play with them, hug them and give them the love they deserve it will come out!
And although the day-care has its shortcomings it is still a way better place for the kids then on the streets or home alone. And we are working on making it a better place! So far the people of MOP realised 3 playrooms (including toys), running water, electricity, toilets, a Jungle Jim, a teacher and food. Soon this will be added with beds for an afternoon nap, more toys, books, more people, better playground, improved hygiene and a good structure without shouting (they finally start to listen to me a bit) and know the difference between a ‘thumbs-up’ and a ‘nonono-finger’).

From Holland I brought some hand-puppets and I got some more here, so a hand-puppet-show is going to be in the day-care program soon as well.
In the afternoons I go to the housemothers and work on the homework-room. After my first introduction with the older kids they soon came asking me to help them with their homework.
So I join them to their homes and find that homework is made on the floor, in the living room, with loud music, mom cooking and the 2 year-olds running over the paper all the time. It is not hard to understand that this is by far not the best way to make homework. Hence I decided to make the older kids a homework-room. It is gonna have desks, pencils, books and other reading material, posters and it is going to be quiet!
I will make it a ‘drop-in’ room where the kids can come during weekdays from 15.30 till 17.30 to make their homework and I will be there to help them or correct mistakes.
I will use part of the donated money to buy books. Not only books to read for fun, but also the textbooks they use in schools, so they can make their homework properly.

Last Tuesday I went to one of the primary schools to get a feeling on how it is going there. The idea was that I would just walk around and observe. I felt a little bit hostility from the other teachers in the beginning, as if I was going to spy on them and tell the principal what they do wrong, but after explaining that wasn’t the case they became more open. In fact, before I knew it, I was part of the teachergroup! At 10.30 o’clock I was standing in front of a class explaining fractions (1/4 = 25%) and doing English hangman (although I didn’t draw a hanging man, but a crocodile eating a man).
The kids referred to me as Miss MJ and The Teacher, which I quite liked:-) We also played football and basketball outside and the best part was when the kids taught me how to do the Zulu-dans! It is unbelievable how good they can sing and dance, they are born with rhythm. The principal of the school asked me if I could come everyday… I agreed with here to come every week. I can teach a class whose teacher is away and in the afternoon I will start with my innebandy (indoor hockey, although played outdoor in SA). The school and sports field are on top of a high hill, from where we have a great view and can see the sea! I couldn’t wish for a nicer field to play hockey on!

At the end of the day the principal asked me to compare her school with Dutch schools. By explaining her that, I realised (again) how lucky we are. Our schools have electricity, running water, 1 classroom per class, individual attention for the kids, breaks (they only have 30 min break on 6 hours of class), books, food… well you get the point, they don’t have anything of that.
While driving from and to the school we pass a lot of small houses (huts) were most families live. They don’t have running water or electricity and the kids often have to walk 1 hour to school. Because the MOP children do have all that, they are often seen as ‘the lucky ones’. It is a strange world…although the MOP kids cannot live with their family and have been abandoned or abused, they do have good living standards and a ride to school. This seems unfair to the other kids and make the MOP kids in their eyes luckier.

I got a look into some of the MOP children’s files here. That was a call to reality for me. First of all because there is hardly anything known about them, so their files are pretty empty, it is as if they have no history. The only info is about the parents, siblings (known or not known) and diseases (HIV positive or negative and TBC) and often consists of a few lines including:

MOM: died
DAD: died

Pfff, that makes you think. Although I know a lot of these children are orphans or lost at least one parent, when it is written down it makes it more real. Just two lines, but of mayor impact for these children.

A lot of people in SA live in a hut where up to 10 persons are cramped into 1 room without ventilation, which makes TBC (tuberculose) a big problem and Africa’s most deadliest disease. What about HIV/AIDS you might think? People don’t die because of HIV/AIDS. As you might know it destroys the Immune System (while making itself stronger) and gives other diseases a chance to kill you. If AIDS is progressed really far, even a small flu can mean you die. For anybody who wants to know more about HIV/AIDS, I am for sure willing to explain it to you, but it is to long a story for on the weblog.

Besides all this hard work, I also relax and have fun :-). Last Saturday evening all the volunteers had a BBQ at Deon’s (Bobbi Bear coworker) house. A ‘Braai’ as it is called in SA. The food was yummy, but the best part came after when Deon’s sister came walking into the room with SINGSTAR!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes, I thought I wouldn’t be able to play it for 6 months and there it was in a little town close to Durban, Halleluhja!

On Sunday I went bowling the SA way. It is done outside and resembles a combination of curling and jeux de boules. It starts at 08.30 in the morning and that is also the time the bowlingpeople start drinking! We were done at 14.00 and headed out to the beach, where I tried to conquer the waves… I came back defeated by the sea and with a high respect for the current and waves of the Indian Ocean. It’s something different then ‘de Noordzee’.

SA is a beautiful country, can’t wait to see more of it! I am planning a weekend to Lesotho, a weekend with safari, and a bunch of weekends with beach and surfing. Besides that I am working on my tan, which should work with 28 degrees and clear blue skies! In the morning I have the sun directly on my house, which results in a nice breakfast with enough warmth to get me started. During the day I often think I got a really brown skin, but after a shower it seems disappeared (which might have something to do with the dusty roads).

So I am getting accustomed to living here. I only have to get used to the sun coming up really early, but also going down at 18.00. And the church bell ringing every morning at 06.30!!! One other thing about SA is that they make jobs. For the things we would do ourselves in Europe they have a person: packing your groceries, looking after your car, putting petrol in your car etc. Well, it prevents the people from doing crime and keeps them of the street. In general the people I meet are lovely and open and willing to explain you everything about SA long and interesting history. So more on that will follow.

Below you can find some pictures of the kids at the day-care (ohhh, ahhh) and my bowling adventure with the beach afterwards (including Deon and Inge).
Last but not least, thanks for all the reactions, it is really nice to read them and stay in touch with you all. Keep them coming!

Hope all is well on the flip side,
Cheers,
MJ

First message from South-Africa

Tue, 01 May 07 12:35:11 +0200

Hey all!

First message from South-Africa: I arrived save & sound in Durban after some easy flights, good connections and not to much stress J I actually made my first friends on the plane to Johannesburg already: Esther and Rebecca (see picture). Two 76 year old best friends that just traveled through America and back. Rebecca lives in Zimbabwe and Esther in Cape town. She gave me her number just in case I get lost there. She guessed I was an only child and didn’t want my mom and dad to be worried about me traveling alone in Cape town, so I can always call her (and she recommended me doing the wine tours, although I think she liked Johnny Walker better, since she brought 2 taxfree bottles home with her:-)).

The first impressions here at Mother of Peace are too much to all write down, but in short, it's a roller-coaster-ride of new things: The kids seam really nice (I had some brief first encounters yesterday) but it doesn’t take a psychologist to see they come with baggage…..either they have been abandoned, have HIV/AIDS, been raped or found in a bin. The area I live on is pretty remote and
I live in a house by myself (the 3 other MOP volunteers will arrive in 4 weeks), which I actually find perfect. It gives me time to rewind, forget work and get used to this culture in my own paste. I have my own bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and livingroom (see pictures). No need to get worried about me getting lonely though, the kids are just a couple of meters away and my projectmanager promised to drive me everywhere I need to. Besides that the 4 Bobbie Bear volunteers are my neighbors. Tonight I will cook them my ‘famous’ salmon-pasta-pesto dish to ‘buy’ my way into the group J

Right now I am in this huge department store, half an hour drive from MOP. How remote and quiet it is there, so noisy it is here! And like all the backpack books tell you, you can buy everything!! I just bought the game Memory and a ‘how-to-learn-the-alfabet-with-animals’ card for the kids. Tomorrow the first working day will start (it’s also labourday here, so everybody is free) and I will meet all the kids. I am really looking forward to that and hope to have a good plan by the end of the week for my 2 months stay. I can see there is a lot to do, but the trick is to pick your projects and use the energy were it helps most.

And before I forget, I also have an African number now: 0027 734715939. That’s the number you have to call from Holland, but I think it works from Norway too! Feel free to text or call me!

Okay, my time here is almost up, until later,
MJ

'Alle beetjes helpen......'

Tue, 03 Apr 07 18:14:56 +0200

is a Dutch saying that describes how everybody can make a difference! Every little thing helps, either in the form of material, money or a motivating word. It is truly heart-warming to experience the enthousiasme and support I get from you all!

With only a month to go untill the start of my volunteerwork I am trying to let as much people as possible around me realize the situation in South-Africa. And I try to make you realize that also YOU can contribute in one way or another! Just some examples:

The parents of the children of Daycare Ot&Sien are helping me by donation money. It will make it possible to for ex. buy books, pens, musical instruments and much more. A sportssupplier and the International Floorball Federation are donating hockeysticks and balls and helping me to distribute them to South-Africa, so that the kids can play this great sport!My Mom and Dad are creating awareness about the project by talking to everybody that wants to hear it (and doesnt wanna hear it ).I receive motivating words from lots of people around me, who come up with good ideas on how to help the kids even more. If you wanna contribute as well, please do so ! Let me know your ideas, talk about this with other people, become a volunteer yourself or donate some money:

NL ABN Amro account 607567538 (Mirjam Haenen).
Or from Norway on my Nordea account: 60341088189

Please write donation 'Mother of Peace' in the subject field.

I am not even in South-Africa yet but I already have the feeling we are all helping so much! Thanks for that and keep up the good work!

Hugs,
Mirjam

South-Africa here I come!

Tue, 06 Mar 07 13:12:09 +0100

Countdown has started, minus 2 months before a plane (with me in it) will land in Durban and I will make first contact with the South-African soil. A big adventure, which I look forward to a lot, but which also means leaving my comfortable life in Oslo. I moved here after finishing my studies to do a half years traineeship. Because of the nice friends I made here, the good job, the beautiful nature and the easy life I saw no reason for leaving and 6 months turned out to be 2,5 years.

But currently I do see a reason to leave: a project called Mother of Peace. While living my comfortable life in one of the richest countries in the world a feeling of how unfair some things are divided became stronger and stronger. Via a colleague I got to know about Be-More and the ball started rolling. And here I am writing my weblog to get you updated, interested and involved with the volunteer work I am about to do!

So what will I do? Close to Durban, in Lower Illovo, lies Mother of Peace. It is the home of about 50 children, babies to 18-year olds, that have been abandoned, have been sexually abused, have lost their parents or that can no longer live at home for another reason. The children live in small cottages, each with a housemother to take care of them. I will help together with other volunteers in raising and taking care of the kids, in all kinds of ways. Making homework together, bathing the young ones, playing games, teaching each other things, sporting, playing music and much more. In addition to that, we will help training the housemothers and teach them certain skills: daily structure, child raising, taking care of the children, and so on.

Via this weblog you will frequently find new stories, read about my adventures, see pictures about the people I am going to meet, in short it is your direct gateway to South-Africa!

Ciao 4 now & I will keep you posted! MJ

A short introduction

Tue, 27 Feb 07 09:23:00 +0100

Hey,
Thanks for visiting my weblog! Here you will find updates about all the things I am about to experience. But before posting messages, pictures and stories you probably wanna know a bit about me?

So for the people who don't know me personally, a quick introduction: My name is Mirjam (MJ) Haenen, I am 26 years old and about to make 'a trip of a lifetime'! I currently live in Oslo (Norway) were I work as a Channel Manager for a software company. I studied Bedrijfswetenschappen in Nijmegen (Masters Strategy and Marketing) and my passions are: snowboarding, tennis, travelling/experiencing other cultures (suprise:-)), innebandy and ofcourse drinking coffeebaileys with my friends!

Well, now you know me a bit better, let me tell you about my plans: Starting the 1st of Mai I am going to make a 6 months trip which will look something like this:

1ST OF MAI - 1ST OF JULY:
volunteer work in Durban, South-Africa
www.mirjamhaenen.ishelping.net

1ST OF JULY - 15th OF AUG:
traveling in South-Africa

15th OF AUG - 31ST OF OKT:
traveling in India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodja, Laos, Vietnam and China. www.mirjamhaenen.whereareyou.net

After this I will return back to Oslo to start my 'normal' life again (see www.mamut.nl/mirjam).

Because pictures can say more than a thousand words, I will let the images speak for themselves so you will have a reallife impression of me....!
Greetz, MJ