Official opening of the norwegian embassy in Lebanon

Picture taken on "by the way" here you see Camilla and I with the Norwegian flag in the back ground.

We were invited for a celebration, it was the official opening of the Norwegian embassy in Lebanon, the embassy was opened the 22^nd of October 2007, and the ambassador will be approved when the new president is elected and approved her, inshallah, I hope that this date will come very soon.

The opening took placee in a Norwegian owned pub called “by the way” where they actually sells Norwegian waffles. It was a big surprise for me that there were so many Norwegians in Lebanon, I guessed there were around 30 Norwegians in this country, but after I talked to the internship (that turned out to be from Ålesund) there are as many as 70 people here.

It was strange to be surrounded by so many people speaking Norwegian, and I must say it would actually be more comfortable to speak in English. It was served food with a loud speaking crowd present. We mingled around and tried as best as we could to talk to many people. The most people living and working here are on different missions through helping organisations, like for example Norwegian refugee council, the UN and ect. It was really nice to meet Norwegians again, and it temps for repetitions.

A trip down to south Lebanon

Tuesday was the big day, when Camilla and I finally could take the trip down to south Lebanon. We have been travelling around big parts of the country before, but unluckily we haven’t made it to the south. We were invited for a whole day where we first visited a school around a 15 minute drive away from Bernt Jbeil, where the Red Cross Youth had made a theatre about environment for the kids in the school. The school had been bombed during the July war and the Red Cross had helped the school with new equipments.

The trip went further on to Bertn Jbeil, where we visited a medical social clinic. They offered doctor and dentist services for the local community. This was the only medical clinic in the local community, because the hospital was not up running yet.

We went to a small village on our way back to Beirut to visit some relatives to one of those who came with us on the trip. There we got tea, sweets and fresh almonds, the hospitality in Lebanon is incredible, and specially when we come out on the countryside. I feel I am getting really good care of, and I feel warmth deep in to my heart.

On our way back to Beirut we stopped in Nabatiyeh where we ate some lunch. Then we once again were back in Beirut, where we spent the rest of the day babysitting a little puppy named Oleo, Ann Katherines dog.