The Congo Kinshasa guys...

Our hostel (Ostra Real) is a school during the year...

At our hostel for the WYC, we were split up into groups of about 5 to share rooms with people from other countries. In my room was Julia, Nicole, Erin, Natalie, me, Pearlanne (I think) and four chicks from the Congo (DRC - Congo Kinshasa)

They all spoke mostly French and Lingala (I think - a native language).

I don't speak either of those, and my limited French was badly accented to their ears... so our conversations were very short...

Anyway, our Congo friends vanished on the second last night... their TYSs told us that they'd gone to visit friends and they'd be back, but noone saw them all the last day, or the last night... and they didn't make their bus to the airport (I was on the same one). At Stockholm airport I found out that 30 delegates had 'missed' their flights home from Sweden - all from Africa. The only Congolese people that went back were the TYSs, who had kids back home.

Now that it's been a little while since Sweden, I keep running into all these newspaper articles about the Congo (DRC). How so many of their mothers die in childbirth; how many mothers are themselves children - they are married young because their family can't afford to keep feeding them, or they've been raped during the ongoing conflict there. VERY low incomes, disease, famine, poverty, children being abandoned or even killed because their families call them 'witches' and blame them for their ongoing misery. Kids left to fend for themselves on the streets of Kinshasa, and third generation street kids, who will probably end up selling themselves like their mothers and grandmothers to die an early death from AIDS.

Sucks.

Check out this from Wikipedia:

The second Congo War, beginning in 1998, devastated the country, involved seven foreign armies and is sometimes referred to as the African World War.
Despite the signing of peace accords in 2003, fighting continues in the east of the country. In eastern Congo, the prevalence of rape and other sexual
violence is described as the worst in the world. The war is the world's
deadliest conflict since WWII, killing 5.4 million people.

Citizens of the DRC are currently among the poorest in the world, having
the second lowest nominal GDP per capita according to the IMF.

Funny, I don't blame them for jumping ship. I probably would've too. I also don't remember hearing about any of this on the news... out of sight, out of mind, huh.

We just hoped they didn't fall victim to the promises of some random jerk who will end up trafficking them, or forcing them into prostitution (or both). Apparently some may have family in Paris - I hope they make it.

A day in Stockholm

Monday July 19th

The day after the WYC. I was up till 3:30am last night. It stayed twilit all through midnight, and then it started getting brighter again :)

From our hostel, Ostra Real, I went sightseeing around Stockholm - to the Vasa Ship Museum, and to Skansen.


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This is the Vasa Ship. They made a big ship in the 1600's, which then sank on its' maiden voyage in the harbour because it's proportions weren't right. It couldn't hold enough ballast, so the first stiff breeze blew it over. A couple dozen people died.
When they finally found it again (people forgot where exactly it sank) it was in really good condition because the Baltic sea waters are muddy, not salty. It was well preserved, so they raised it in the 1960's or 70's ish, and fixed it all up, and learned heaps about history. Now the ship is in this museum.


This is Skansen. They brought together a whole lot of historical Swedish buildings from across Sweden, to make a park where people could walk around and see what Sweden used to be like. They sell great old style candy there.


A building in Skansen.


Another building in Skansen.


They had people demonstrating historical Swedish skills in Skansen, like pottery...


Unfortunately, I also got sunburnt. Oh, and had a great strawberry icecream.

In the afternoon, I went back to the hostel, and caught my bus to the airport...

A story.

Once upon a time, there was a random Hindu guy.

This Hindu guy was very religious. He prayed several times a day, regularly read holy books of varying descriptions as appropriate to his beliefs, gave to the poor, owned lots of cows, etc. This was a very holy hindu. He was such a holy hindu, that not only did he pray with his family and community, but also engaged his herd of cattle in various holy activities, as appropriate to, well, cows, and their level of ability. He walked with them, brushed them, prayed with them, and gave them Perrier to drink in their manger. These were therefore, very holy cows.

And it was to one of these cows that I referred, whereupon I commented on the experience of my very first ever, cherry from a tree. No supermarket necessary, and no truck or plastic box between the tree, its cherry, and my mouth. HOLY COW. It was amazing.

This is the pit...

...that came from the cherry...

...that came from the tree...

...um, that came from the house that Jack built? Probably not. Maybe Sven.

Lol, anyway, the other few cherries I ate were pretty ordinary - when I could find ones that bugs hadn't gotten to. They all had small amounts of yellow flesh.

But hey. First impressions last! And that first impression was SWEET!

A great conclusion to the covenanted time of silence we did at the WYC.

Hey, there's a dude! ....

During the open air on the Saturday, we were looking around the place - we were in the middle of Stockholm, and there were a bunch of cool buildings and stuff. As we looked, we came across a bigger than usual cool building, so I suggested we go get photos.

We saw some steps, and in order to get some shots of the front, we climbed some stairs. There were about 5 other people up there doing the same thing, and as I got near the top, the first words out of my mouth were...

"Hey, there's a DUDE!"

and then...

"Hey, there's ANOTHER dude!"

Both dudes in question were about 2 metres in front of me, in full Swedish royal guard uniform, holding guns with bayonets. We had inadvertently stumbled upon the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace.

Yes, the actual Royal Palace.

And yes, the Swedish royal family actually lives there, and yes, I swear they (the guards) were trying not to smile and stuff up their official duties as I came up with possibly the most (un)intelligent phrase that had ever been directed in their general direction.

But we did finally get our photos. And here's Courtney in front, next to the gate :)

International much?

The WYC had over 1000 young people from around the world - literally - I think there were 90 something countries represented, from Sweden (where it was held), to PNG where some delegates had to canoe for a week to get to the airport, and had apparently never seen a car before. Here's Courtney - making sure the Newfie (Newfoundland) accent was well represented. As well as Fraser, and Julia :)

This is me in the "Sally Ann" tent (Sally Ann - Fair Trade by the Salvation Army) with two Japanese Salvos. I was looking for those guys for AGES, honestly. And yes, they then had to put up with my badly accented Japanese... They were from Yokohama and Tokyo.

This is ummmmmmm funny chick, what's her name.... The blonde chick in the middle is REALLY funny, and an officer from the States... and I have forgotten her name. Anyway, she's talking with a delegate from Tonga (right), and Kenya (left) I believe - someone correct me if I'm wrong...

Open air in Stockholm on the 17th of July. Guys from... Zimbabwe? Somewhere anyway. Talking with a Swedish, Norwegian or Danish Salvo. You can tell cos of the "F" on his epaulettes. Everyone wanted the cool colourful oufits that many of the African delegations brought. Much awesomer than black and white :)

So yes. We were each given a Poken - think: electronic business card - that when you touched it to someone else's poken, they exchanged your profile information (which you had put on the website). So everyone could connect with people, and keep in touch by making sure they'd connected with your poken! Here's mine, and the website is http://www.poken.com/ . Everyone else pretty much got bees, which were also very cute :)

When you logged onto the poken website, you could see details for all the people you'd connected with since you last logged on. I don't know what the guys are going to do in places where they don't have easy computer access... kinda sucks.

The World Youth Convention... details!

So, here's some pics which will help tell the story, lol!

If you want to hear the speakers, go to http://www.raisedup.org/

This is in Aula Magna - the main auditorium where all the main sessions were. The lady is Brigitte Brekke - who organised the event. You can see the improvised mercy seat signs, and the drums at the back they used on stage as mercy seats when the front row was full.

This is General Shaw Clifton. I got dared to steal his hat, but as you can see - he wasn't wearing one.

Although he did wear a tie, and on the first Night of Death By Heat Exhaustion that we had in Aula Magna before they got the air-con working, he (wait for it...) took off the tie!!! Whoa! Then a heap of the guys followed suit. Good work guys :)

The three focus groups I went to for info and discussion on various subjects were all very good - Matt Clifton (UK) spoke on what we spend our money on; Graeme Hodge (UK) spoke about global poverty, and Adrian Kistan (Aussie) did sports ministry. My favourites were the last two, and they both gave me a bunch of stuff to follow up on in my research, which is great!

World Youth Convention

So yes, I am a last minute addition to the Canadian delegation to Sweden for the Salvation Army World Youth Convention. It gets very confusing explaining to people that I'm Australian, but with the Canadians, but at least it starts a conversation!

Today is the last day of our very short time here, but the weather has been good (a little too hot sometimes, but hey) and all the main sessions have been taped, so random people can watch them online :)

OH and Swedish keyboards have extra letters. I wonder if they'll show up...
å
ä
ö
cööl. this lööks reälly äwesöme. döesn't mäke sense, but hey. OH, there's ånother å...

I hope the letters still look cool, or this post will make very little sense!!

When I download my photos later I will put up some of the convention, and some of the Royal Palace that we found yesterday!

Hey dor! (that's goodbye in Swedish. Sounds like you're saying hi to a door, but oh well.)

See the WYC site at www.raisedup.org