Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Advent in Nepal


We are getting ready for Christmas. Work has been busy for both of us in December and there have been so many social events and a lot of fun for the children as we are waiting for the 24th. The last week before holiday there were Christmas shows both at Filip's playgroup and at Ada's school, which were great fun. Except Filip pretty much refused to sing and dance when he saw mom and dad in the audience.. We all look forward to celebrating in Nepal for the first time, although it will be a new experience without any of the rest of the family with us.

Happy holidays everyone!

Here are pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lasse.storholt/Desember2009#

And some video clips too:
http://www.youtube.com/user/psychols
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKRzIvCX7Fw

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Visit to the Far West




The pictures speak for themselves. Needless to say there were many impressions and a good reality check to get out and see how so many people live and struggle to make a living. Ada was fantastic on the trip. She really enjoyed it, no complaints and cheerful all along. Proud mom!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lasse.storholt/FarWestNovember2009#

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Tilbakeblikk på to uker i Nepal







Flere bilder kan dere se her: http://picasaweb.google.com/lasse.storholt/FavoritterDashain2009#


Da er vi kommer til den siste kvelden her i Kathmandu, og det er på tide å se tilbake og oppsummere hva vi her opplevd:

-Vi har hatt fine turer i flott natur, en av de første dagene var det en opplevelse bare å skulle kjøre opp til Hatiban,der turen skulle begynne. Alle fire barna var kjempe flinke til å gå selv, det var både varmt og bratt, så det var bra innsats av alle fireJ
-Terje har vært på to fine sykkelturer, og det har gitt Terje flotte opplevelser og se landsbygda på nært hold.Der sitter smilene løst, og det er en roligere stemning enn i byen.
-Jentenes høydepunkt har vært ridetimer på Ada sin rideskole.Der fikk hver av jentene sin egen hest og egen lærer, og de gjorde ulike øvelser på hesteryggen. Veldig lærerrikt og moro for småjentene.
-Thelma sitt mål for ferien var å lære seg å svømme, og etter utallige timer i svømme bassenget på Sunnit, har hun klart det. Hun har hatt en god inspirator i fisken Ada , som er mer under enn over vannJ
-Vi har også hatt fine ”feriedager”i Pokhara og i Bengnas :en ny opplevelse å bli fraktet med båt til hotellet slik som i Bengas. Flotte steder og i Pokhara ble det også anlednig til shopping,Terje fikk seg fullt slalom utsyr for en rimlig penge.
-Vi har også blitt guidet rundt av Lasse og Kristine på ulike steder som er verdt å se: Stupaen i Budanatt, handlegaten i Thamel, tempelet i Patan Durbar Squere.
-Det må også nevnes at bare det å sitte på i en bil el taxi her i Nepal er en opplevelse i seg selv. Det å bruke bilhorn er noe ALLE gjør HELE tiden, og det er helt utrolig å se hvor mange personer som tar plass i en bil eller en liten buss. Til og med på taket er det god plassJ
-Mye god mat er blitt spist ,og mange nye smaker og våre nordiske smaksløker har fått noen sterke opplevelser. Terje og Caroline fikk sammen med Lasse og Kristine oppleve å spise en 12-retters middag på Dwarikas. Noe absolutt alle som er i område bør unne seg, både maten og omgivelsen er helt spesielle.
-Skolen til Ada har vi fått besøke, og Thelma var så heldig at hun fikk lov å tilbringe hele dagen sammen med Ada og klassen hennes. En stor opplevelse og få lov å ta skolebussen fram og tilbake. En imponerende flott skole, og gøy for alle å oppleve” Fabulous Friday” på Lincon School. Da var hele familien på scenen,en stolt Ada som presenterte hele gjengen.

Ja som dere leser har inntrykkene vært mange, og opplevelsene stått i kø. Vi takke for to flotte uker her sammen med dere, en ferie helt utenom det vanlige.Det har vært spennende å se hvordan dere lever deres hverdagsliv her i Kathmandu og spesielt impomerende å se hvordan både Ada og Filip har innrettet seg her.

Det varme klima og de gjestfrie menneskene, samt god hjelp i” huset ”og selvsagt dere fire kommer til å være dypt savnet når vi er tilbake til høstmørke i Norge.

Mange klemmer fra Thelma, Mina Mathilde, Terje og Caroline

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Reiseopplevelser fra oppholdet i Nepal fra 29. Sep. til 12. Okt



Dette er vårt andre besøk hos Kristine og Lasse med ca. 1 års mellomrom, og nå sammen med Caroline, Terje, Thelma og Mina Mathilde.
Vi var nå tilsammen 4 voksne og 2 barn på besøk, og bedre vertskap å komme til finnes ikke.
Vi har på nytt opplevet et land med flott natur og hyggelige mennesker. De små har hatt glede av hverandre hele tiden og det er godt å se for besteforeldre.
Etter 4 dager i Kathmandu med daglige besøk ved bassenget på Summit fikk vi også med oss en fin tur opp til fjellet ved Haatiban (1700 moh). Suveren utsikt over byen og fjellene omkring. Terje og Lasse fikk med seg en lengre tur opp mot ca. 2200 moh mens vi andre returnerte til kafeen etter å ha vært oppe på nesten 2000 moh.
Et av høydepunktene for ungene var riding hvor alle hadde sin egen ridelærer.
Flott vær hele tiden og på søndag reiste vi til Pokara med fly og dette var spennende for de små.
I Pokara var vi innlosjert på Hotel Barahi hvor vi levde i luksus med flotte rom og badebasseng. Handling i byen og tur opp til den store Stupaen som lå på 1100 moh fikk vi også med oss. Vi hadde en fin tur opp til toppen som lå ca. 300 meter høyere enn byen.
På tirsdag reiste vi til Begnas Lake hvor vi ble hentet i båt og padlet inn til det fine Begnas Resort. Langt fra leven og bråk med apekatter i trærne og små frosker i svømmebassenget. Mye regn fikk vi på natten og hele dagen etter men dette la ingen demper på oppholdet hvor vi hadde hotellet for oss selv.
Returnerte til Pokara på onsdag og tilbake til Kathmandu på torsdag.
De siste dager i Kathmandu har gått med til bl.a. besøk i en sjarmerende landsby syd for byen og besøk i Patan hvor vi fikk sett de flotte templene.
Vi har hatt et fantastisk opphold, hjertlig takk for oss og vi lengter allerede tilbake.
Hilsen fra stolte besteforeldre.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

It's puja time!


The national Dashain festival makes the peak of pujas! The cars again got blessed at the embassy to mark the holiday and are hereby insured against any bad happening by all good sprits. This can be seen as the Nepali time of thanksgiving, the monsoon is over and the harvesting is done, so it's a time to celebrate and enjoy good meals and time with family.

The puja is an interesting ceremony that seems to have become a practice by a mix of religions, although originally a Hindu ritual. Incents are burned and tikkas are given by a priest who is hired to makes sure everything is done properly. Normally goats and hens are sacrificed too, but we managed with a coconut. It can get messy otherwise! As you can see the cars are nicely decorated and drive around like that for days afterwards. The chancery and me too got blessed with a tikka. Namaste and happy Dashain!

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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Riding to Nagarkot




As new members of the Windhorse Riding Stables in Kathmandu, we thought it would be great to join their two-day trip to Nagarkot this weekend. It is located on top of one of the hills near Ktm (apx 2000 m altitude). We drove just past Gokarna, and got picked up there by the instructors and horses. Lasse took his bike up and down.

It was a beautiful and fun ride. I am so pleased that I still remember how to sit on a horse, and sometimes even make it do what I want.. It got better with more practice and by the end of the trip I couldn't go fast enough. Ada got to ride also, and is very excited that she will continue to take lessons with Cecilie who already has been riding for a year.



Saturday, September 12, 2009

Annapurna Round on bike 2009

http://picasaweb.google.com/lasse.storholt/BestOfAnnapurna2009#

Annapurna Round on Bike, it was 11 days of biking and 12 total(1 extra day travelling back from Pokhara). Very nice trek, and also on bike, but some tough sections with lots of push/carry. Going over the top(5417moh) was really a great experience.. and doing the downhill 1700 down to Muktinath was extremely fun:)

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Daytrip to Haatiban


Here are some shots of the hike we took at Haatiban this weekend. It is nice to get out of the city from time to time. Fresh air and nice views are much appreciated when you are mainly stuck in traffic, exhaust and bandas the rest of the time.

Ada's big thing except for starting school again this week, was to loose her front tooth, with some help from her dad who 'accidentally' pulled it out eventually: http://picasaweb.google.no/lasse.storholt/August2009#
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Friday, June 5, 2009

A weekend in Hong Kong

Lasse's birthday present to me this year was great; watching the kids while I could go to Hong Kong with girlfriends for the weeend! Camilla, Marianne and I had the best time. Much appreciated after a busy few weeks at work. Here are some pics: http://picasaweb.google.no/lasse.storholt/HongKongKristine#

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Saving a man from the mountain


On duty we can expect to get any kind of distress calls. The embassy is contacted by Norwegians who have got themselves into all kinds of trouble. This time a famous climber had gone missing on Mount Everest, and it created quite a bit of drama since he went all alone, without oxygen and without sherpas. I first received the message that he was missing between 8300 metres and the top of the highest mountain in world. A search and rescue team was sent out and could not find him at any of the camps where they were hoping he might be. At least if he could be expected to still be alive. 24 hrs later, he was found by some sherpas and brought down to Advanced Base Camp on the Tibetan side. He was transported, in a pretty bad shape, on a yak:

The embassy assisted the evakuation and tried first to get a helicopter to rescue him at 6500 m, but the weather was so bad that it couldn't take off. Not to lose time, friends from the Norwegian expedition http://www.everest09.no/ drove all night with him in a Jeep to the Tibet-Nepal border where we had an ambulance waiting to pick him up. They made a tremendous effort to save a life. And they succeeded!
It was an intense couple of days for me as well, and a huge relief to visit Jarle Trå at the hospital when he finally got there and could receive medical treatment. In the picture, I am with Lars Oma Erichsrud, Petter Nyquist and Stein Grønnerød. Much impressed!

Ada visiting Ayushma


This is the note I got from Ayushma, Adas friend, when I was picking up Ada after her visit. I got a small shock when I read it, but Ada was not hurt and they where both smiling and playing with other things. The funny thing is how honest these kids are in the way they communicate, so sometimes the things they write or say can seem very dramatic:) The best part about the note, I think, is how she explaines that Ada did not just fall, she rolled:)
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Monday, April 13, 2009

Punk is back

Filip got a new haircut today,
so now he can take on the world with his new wicked look!
















Love the barechested-with-only-a-tie look.
This is what is defined as an informal outfit I think.





















Ffffffilip!
























I'll smash this little Nemo fish in my hand.

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Thursday, April 9, 2009

Missing tooth


Ada has lost her first tooth!
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The perfect crocks










For those who know how obsessed Filip is with the Lightning Mc Queen, you can imagine that he was pleased when we found these shoes. The other thing he has discovered lately is 'crocks', looking very much up to his big sister who wears them all the time. What a perfect combination!

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Monday, April 6, 2009

Hail storm










Check it out! We got hail coming down from the sky like small ice bombs the other day. This was a very unusual experience. All of a sudden we heard a loud noise, the wind had picked up and the house almost started shaking. Then we heard the hail slamming against the windows and to the ground. We were all amazed and ran for the camera. Even Ada got excited. She was very brave and didn't get scared, I would if I were 5 years old I think. Filip managed to sleep through the whole ordeal. Even more impressive.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Hilsen fra Marit og Andreas

Hei alle sammen,

Et fantastisk møte med Tinemor, Lasse, Ada og Filip i Nepal og ikke minst Hans også som ”bor” og studerer her akkurat nå. Jeg som ny her her skjønner etterhvert at Andreas har vær her tidligere. Det viser seg at veldig mange kjenner igjen den ”eldre mannen” med den lille lyse pjokken i bæremeisen som var her for ca 1,5 år siden.


Vi har opplevd varme og støvete dager, kjølige netter og usedvanlig hyggelige mennesker. Hjemme hos familien Storholt har vi fått kulinariske retter laget av Ram som er en kokkemesterlig begavelse!


Vi var også så heldige at vi fikk komme på middag hjemme hos ambassadøren, Thor, hvor vi traff noen som viste å være naboer med kusinen til Andreas i Kristiansand – Eva på Eftervåg. Verden er liten!


Den største opplevelsen var å være med Ada på Fabulous Friday på Lincoln School. Vi ble veldig imponerte over kunnskapsnivået, og lærerne, på 5-årstrinnet. Bestemor Marit, fikk også være med på foreldremøte hvor Ada viste fram hva hun gjør i klasserommet i de ulike fagene.


Reklamen lyver for øvrig en smule. Vi var på weekendtur til Nagarkot, og bodde på et fint resort på en høyde utenfor Kathmandu hvor man ellers kan se hele Himalaya-fjellkjeden, men denne gangen var de bare tåke. Vi var vel akkurat like skuffet som de som kommer for å se midnattsola i nordnorge.


Takk for oss! Vi håper å komme igjen til jul. :)

Bestemor og Moff – Marit og Andreas

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Happy Holi

10.03 was Holi Festival in Nepal, and everyone goes crazy throwing water and color on eachother in the streets. People standing on rooftops trying to hit everyone on streetlevel, groups of teens on motorbikes clashing together in color fights, but most of all a fun time for the kids. Kristine and Andreas got hit by some blue bombs as you can see from the pictures below, while Hans and I had to walk from Dubar Sqr Kathmandu through small alleyways towards home and was hit by massive amounts of water and different colors. :) See link below for more pics.








More here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lasse.storholt/ColorFestival#






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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Being audited

Kristine just completed two weeks of tending to visitors from the Office of the Auditor General of Norway. No less than five of them. Not only were they doing a performance audit of the Norwegian development assistance to Nepal. They had choosen education, which is my main responsibility, and one of 'my' NGOs. So needless to say that this has occupied a lot of my time lately. Of course we had to show them the real situation in schools and villages in other parts of the country as well. This time, the field visit went to Banke, Surkhet and Dang. Here are some pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lasse.storholt/FieldtripFeb2009

Getting to select UWC students from Nepal

After I came to Nepal I got in touch with my "3rd year", Dinesh. So nice to catch up on what has happened during the last 18 years (...!) and gossiping about our classmates etc. But it turns out he is the chairman of the National Committee for United World Colleges here as well. So while some people are still living close to the UWC in their endavours, the best that the rest of us can do is to try and keep in touch with a few of our friends from school. [Although, Facebook does help in that regard these days.] I therefore felt very privileged when I was asked to join the interviewing panel for this year's batch from Nepal who are competing for 6 scholarships. We did 50 interviews last Saturday. It was amazing to see the motivation, high hopes and already truly impressive accomplishments of pretty much all the kids who made it to this round. We brought the shortlist down to 15 and will have social interaction and debates etc in a couple of weeks to make the final selection. It's very exciting to be a part of it, and I am of course learning a lot about what 16 year olds in Nepal are concerned abouth these days. This experience has reminded me so well of all the great things about UWC and brought a lot of fantastic memories back. Also, meeting other UWC alumni in Kathmandu is of course great! Kristine

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Christmas in norway

Finnaly we managed to write a few words.. We came back from a long Christmas vacation in Norway a few weeks ago, so I thought we could post some of the pictures. So many things has happened since the last blog post, so I'm not sure where to begin.

We were 5 weeks in Norway visiting friends and famil and we had lot's of fun. It was nice going back to Norway, but very cold.. :) , and dark..

Chrismas eve we spent at Kristine's parents, my parents and Hans was also there, the
25th we where at my parents with the same group of people pluss my sister and her family, and we had lot's of fun. Filip and Ada really enjoyed playing and just seeing their grandparents again, and ofcourse their cousins Thelma and Mina!

We met so many friends for the rest of the stay, so itæs impossible to mention everything, but one of the highlights was the trip to Trysil the last weekend with Caroline and family and Terjes brother and sister in law. Going skiiing again(alpine at least) was lot's of fun, and is something we miss down here.

I'll post some more pictures with a link soon.

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