Don't send us back to the war!

May 31st, 2007

Here you can watch and listen to news on NRK (Norwegian television) regarding the Asylum march:

Norge i dag - 29/05
Østnytt - 29/05
Opplandsnytt (radio) - 29/05 13:03

May 29th, 2007

During the trip, we send pictures directly from mobile phone. Currently they are only avaliable on the Norwegian part of the page, but you can click here to view them.

May 29th, 2007

Early this morning we went from the Eystein church at Dovre, along the pilgrimage road, which is almost parallel to E6 towards Fokkstua. About halfway, we met journalists from NRK Hedmark and Oppland, who interviewed Hashim. This was sent on local news at 6:40 pm, and on Norge i dag at about 9pm today. Both programs are avaliable at NRK Web-TV.

Here at Fokkstua we live at the farm of Lauritz Sønstebø. We put up our tents and made a fire on one of his pastures. Today we sat around the fire and played the Dambura, which is an Afghan string instrument.

Tomorrow we are going further to Dovre. We still haven’t decided wheter we are going over the mountain and down, or if we are going along E6 - we’ll have to see the weather and such tomorrow.

May 29th, 2007

Today we had a resting day. We have now walked every day since the 19th of May, and since we decided not to go up in the mountains to Ryphusan, we were one day ahead of schedule. Therefore we decided to be in the Eystein church for one more day.

This fitted actually pretty good, since it snowed here last night, and today it has een raining a lot.

In the afternoon, we got a visit from Finn Wagle, the bishop of Nidaros, and one of his friends. They had walked along the pilgrimage road from Oslo, and the meeting between pilgrims in this church was very nice. We discussed politics and humanitary cases. He also learned us a couple of hymns from the book of hymns (416 and 733), and we drank tea togheter, and wished them good luck on their trip towards Trondheim.

    416. Alltid freidig når du går veier
Gud tør kjenne, selv om du til målet
når først ved verdens ende!

Aldri redd for mørkets makt!
Stjernene vil lyse;
med et Fadervår i pakt
skal du aldri gyse.

Kjemp for alt hva du har kjært,
dø om så detgjelder!
Da er livet ei så svært,
døden ikke heller.

The bishop of Nidaros also wrote a letter that he gave to us before he left. Here is a translation from Norwegian to English:

Eystein church, 28.05.07

Dear Afghan pilgrims and fellow walkers,

Thank you for sharing your life and destiny with us all in such a public and challenging way as it is done through this pilgrimage wandering from Trondheim to Oslo.

May you meet much kindness, understanding and hospitality on your journey, like every pilgrim need. May the journey give you much joy, you who live in a situation characterized by lots of hopelessness. And may you meet lot of both generousity, humanity and commitment from human dignity from the rich Norway, in a time when the situation in Afghanistan is getting harder.

Here in the Eystein church we met eachothers as pilgrims - you on our way southwards and me on my way northwards. It made a big impression on me to meet you. I wish you good luck with your journy southwards, and I am greeting you with the old greeting: God’s peace and all that is good!

Finn Wagle
Bishop of Nidaros

After this meeting, we ate dinner, relaxed, massaged sore muscles, played cards, song, played music and gathered new energy for the next day. We had a deficied in the economy, but then we put some of our private money in the common account which is used for covering expenses connected to the march, like food and other necessitys.

Several of us has gotten a cold now.

Tomorrow we are going to walk from the Eystein church towards Fokkstua.

May 29th, 2007

Today we sat around the fire and barbequed food, and dansed in a circle around the fire. Several of us sayed up to 00:30am. The day after we went further to the Eystein church. Most of the day we walked along the E6, but the last part we walked the pilgrimage route over the mountain and downwards to the church. The Eystein church was built in 1969, and is located about 1000 m.o.h.

In the Eystein church at Hjerkinn we were greeted by Hans Jakob Dahl, which is a priest at Dovre. He had brought with him a greeting from Solveig Fiske, which is a bishop in Hamar.

Here is a translation of the letter she had written in Norwegian:

The bishop is greeting the Afghans              25.05.2007

Dear fellow wanderes

Your are welcomed into Hamar bishopric, which is including the county of Oppland and Hedmark.

You are walking along a pilgrimage road where people have been wandering in several centuries, on their journey towards Nidaros (Trondheim), to the place where Olav the Holy is burried. He was the one who brought the Christianity to Norway for about 1000 years ago. Since he was considered as a martyr for the Christian faith, people has though several centuries walked the pilgrimage road towards Nidaros/Trondheim, either as penance for illagal actions, seeking aid for sickness or other distress, and to achieve mental and spiritual piece and rest.

You are walking in the oppsite direction of what many other pilgrimes did, on your way to Oslo to protest against Norwegian governments deportations of Afghans. Like many other pilgrims earlier were dependent on help and suppord along their journey, we now have a wish to show hospitality and solidarity with you along your journey through the county of Oppland and Hedmark.

I hope that you will be greeted warmly, and I wish you God’s piece further on your journey towards Oslo - and on your wandering through life.

Kind regards,

Solveig Fiske
bishop

In addition to H. J. Dahl, we got a visit from a journalist from Gudbrandsdølen Dagningen and Journalists from Ariana Televiosn. Ariana Television is an Afghan TV-station that is avaliable through sattelite TV.

The church is not very big, but we are allowed to use every room. Today we made dinner on a cooking stove outside the church. For dinner we ate chicken soup. After the dinner, we had to clean a few sores, and then people went to sleep. Both between the bench, in the middle, the gallery and the sacristys were people sleeping. It was a little cramped but it was ok.

May 29th, 2007

Today people were very tired. We went togheter and looked after eachother. Today we had a little event in the centre of Oppdal. One of the Afghans played the Dambura, and we sang. The sang was about refugees. After, Zahir talked about the kindness of the people we met.

Some of the people from Oppdal, walked with us today. There was also some people from Trondheim here, who are joining us for the weekend. Two of them are from Iraq.

Everyone is not sleeping at the same place today. Most of us are sleeping in tents a little south of Driva station. But earlier today we had to send some people back to Langklopp farm to pick up some equipment that we had forgotten there. Helene Wessel said that we were welcome to sleep at her farm if there was not room for everyone inside the tents. Several of us the went to her farm by car, and were served sodd, a dish from Trøndelag in Norway, and waffles.

The rest of us are sleeping in tents south of Driva station. The landscape here is beautiful, with tall snowcovered mountains, trees with green leaves and the river Driva.

May 28th, 2007

Early today, people from Oppdal came to us and followed us downwards from Langklopp gård. In Oppdal we went to Oppdal menighetshus. Here we were served Afghan food. After the dinner, we got a visit from Berit and Kari from the URO-patrol in Trondheim. Later that evening, we were singing and playing music.

May 28th, 2007

Today we had to leave Rennebuhallen at nine, because the building is also used as a school. We went down the Riksvei 700 and stopped a bit away from Berkåk and ate breakfast there.

After, we left the Riksvei 700 and went south. The stopping place for the evening was not completely decided, but after some time we made contact with Helene Wessel from Langklopp gård.

When we arrived Langklopp gård, we were given a very warm reception. Helene Wessel was a bit worried in the start, wheter or not she had indoor sleeping space for everyone, but this were solved by us sleeping in three different buildings on her farm.

May 28th, 2007

Today we had the longest part of our march as of yet. After breakfasst in Meldal samfunnshus, we went to Berkåk. The trip to there was about 38 kilometers long.

In Berkåk we slept in Rennebuhallen.

May 28th, 2007

Today the trip went from Skaun to Skvorkmo. Leif Syrstad joined us on some of the distance to Skvorkmo.

Dayreport from Amin
Today people were a little tired, because it was the third day of the march. People have been walking for one and a half day. I hope it will be better, because they had not exercised a lot earlier, and the shoes were not goot. I hope we can arrange with new shoes for tomorrow.

Today we went to the mountain. There were some snow where we walked. It was very beautiful. We like the green nature. We met lots of nice people, and this made us happy. After one and a half hour, we came to a school. There pupils and teachers greeted us and gave us limonade. Everyone were happy about this meeting. After, while we walked along the road, we met more nice people that waved to us.

The weather today was also very good. After two hours, we took a break. Now we have arrived Skvorkmo, and we are here at Årlivoll school. Two of the local people came here, and they had a pair of used army boots and woolen socks, which they gave to us. We think this was very nice. Now one of the marchers are playing music on a keyboard and everyone is relaxing and enjoying the music.