Mountain climbing in Norway!
I had never thought of it until I came toNorway, that people can actually just climb mountains for fun. Actually I don’t remember my father ever telling me that he went for a mountain hike or something like that. My first experience was last year inMbale,Ugandawhen the Hald students who were in “Pearl of Africa (Uganda)” last year invited me to join them in one of the peaks ofMt.Elgonthat is in the boarder ofKenyaandUganda. We just climbed up and down again then that was the end of the day. On our way, the local people living around kept looking at us and maybe thinking what we were going to do there.
Then in my second week at Hald we went for the “blu tur”. I was placed in a group being led by Gregory. “Everywhere we go……” was the song we sang as climbed up the mountain. As we climbed, we played some team building games like blind-folding your partner and leading them down the mountain in order to build trust among the teammates. We also had to talk and share our life stories with team mates. It rained the whole way up and down but I enjoyed it.
At another time, it was at a retreat with the BKS retreat at Voss. The other experience was in our second week inBergenwhen me and Evans were invited by one of the students called to join her and some other friends to one of the mountain tops called “Ulriken”. We climbed the mountain just for fun and made some pan cakes at one of the flat areas. I was so happy for having joined in this trip to the mountain top because at the end of the day, I had interacted and made friends with those that came with us.
In all these times that we went mountain climbing, we met all different ages of people from toddlers to bent-backed almost tired old people whom I thought that fall down before reaching the top but still moved on at snail speed to the top. With young babies being carried by their parents on the shoulders while the older ones are left to walk on their own, they also climbed the mountain. Some children who according to my culture should not be brought out of the house until they are much older were also being taken for mountain walks. This was amazing to me.
In my countryUganda, it is very rare to find people who climb mountains just for fun. Many people seem to be too busy and think mountain climbing is a waste of time and energy so they would instead something doing something “more productive” than just climbing a mountain. But it is also because the topography in my country is generally flat with a few mountains so few people have interest in mountain climbing.
I am told that even inNorwaymany years ago before the discovery of oil, most of the people were poor farmers who did not look at mountain climbing as important and left it for tourists who came from other parts of the world. This may show me that beforeNorwaybecame rich, there were less Norwegians climbing mountains but now it is a culture among the Norwegian people to do so.
I did not like it in the beginning but now as I write this, I have already gone to 3 mountain peaks namely Floyen, Uliriken and Rundemanen out of the 7 that are around Bergen and am looking forward to even climbing the other 4 peaks left. In the evening, it was nice to have a view of the beautiful city lights ofBergen, football fields, part of the ocean near the city, the traffic, the organized streets and buildings from the peak at Floyen. I love this and I hope I can still continue mountain climbing even when I go back to Mbale inUganda.
MY EXPERIENCES, OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS IN NORWAY - ''the land of the midnight sun'' 