Sports and bad weather

My sporty alibi asked me to drive him to his training this afternoon.
That meant to drive ten miles to Seida in Tana, to meet young athletes.
I felt how old, stiff and not so sporty I had become. I always feel this way when my son is training.
I scratched my chin with worry, when he made a hundred push ups.

Outside the weather was changing. And the road was very slippery. I had to drive very slow back home
And finally home I gave myself a beer. After all my effort was at least something...

Bad timing

I`ve got some bushes in my garden. They are very small. Not so easy for bushes like these to grow big in the Arctic.

Actually they are quite nice. With wonderful, yellow flowers.
But they come so late.
It`s like they are pressing very hard. In horribel birth pain.
And pressing...and pressing...
and THERE THEY CAME OUT!...
...just to see that it`s winther...

And before they manage to get inside again, they gets frozen into yellow ice flowers. Beautiful, but very dead.

I feel sorry for them.
And I get frustrated when I see that the rest of the world don`t care about my flowers.
Like these egoistic crows who fight about some food in the neighborhood.
I can understand why there is war in the world...

Great party

Funky Dudes

It`s so nice to have all these different people meeting. You might get a great party out of that.
And that`s excactly what we had this weekend.
Most of the artists in Vadsø came to participate in a local "Band aid".
It was everything from an old traditional mens choir, Liberian Gospelchoir, to lyrics reading, saami joik, Congolesian hip hop, funk, blues and rock.
Great party, indeed.
The Congolesian/Norwegian/Liberian hip hop-group Music Star

Vadsø Mannssangforening

Hymn for an Afghan shepherd

Strange things can happen.
Nemat was once an Afghan shepherd who watched 200 sheeps in the Afghan mountains. He could sit around for hours, entertaining the sheeps with a small guitar with only two strings.

Many years later he found himself in a Norwegian kitchen. One late Saturday night. In a party. In the Arctic, small town Vadsø. So far up north that he could not understand how far it actually was.
There he played a similar guitar. Suddenly together with a Norwegian guy singing Norwegian songs.

Then, tonight he visited this Norwegian. To practice for a concert the next day. Playing traditional, Afghan guitar together with an old, Norwegian hymn.

It will all happen Saturday 22.10 in Vadsø. Almost every musician in town will participate in a charity concert. To raise money to help women suffering from violence throughout the world.

Lot`s of music. And an Afghan/Norwegian mixture.

Crab success

We`ve had a crab festival this weekend, called Polar Spectacle. Eating these huge King Crabs and listening to a lot of music.
The first concert was "Verden i Varanger", "The world in Varanger". A mixture of very different cultures living in this arctic town, Vadsø. A Liberian Gospelchoir. An accordion group playing old Finnish, Russian and Norwegian songs. A rockgroup, Daap playing old, Nordic hymns. The African percussionist, Nasra Ali Omar. And the Norwegian folkmusician Unni Løvlid.
All mixed very well together, showing the culture of today.
Next day, Daap was warming up for their big model, Garmarna. A Swedish folkrockgroup.
Then Saturday a big Salsa happening.
Every concert with very many happy people. Filled up with crabmeat, music and enjoyment.