They are doing an amazing job

Plan is a charity organization, and helps people (especially children) who live in povery and/or discrimination. They work in 66 different counties, all over the world. Their slogan is ''For children, with children'' which pretty much describes their work. Every year Plan gives thousands of children the opportunity to go to school, better or establish a medical support in small communities, give people clean drinking water and so on.

Plan is also an organization that offers ''far-away-adoptions.'' This means that families here in Norway pays a certain amount of money every month to Plan, and the money is used to help a child somwhere go to school or give they whatever help they need. It's an absolutetly amazing idea, and for most people in this country (and other many other rich countries) it's such a small amount of money that we don't even notice it. And still, it's lifechanging for the child that recieves the benefits of it.

My own famliy have been doing this for a few years now. Our frist ''far-away-adoption'' was a girl from Paraguay. Her name was Alicia. We frequently recieved pictures of her, letters she wrote us, and information about her and her family and how our money helped her. Through the years our money helped her go to school for a while, and it contributed to get clean drinking water and a sewage system to her village. When she turned 18 last year she was no longer a candidate for the program, unfortunantly, so we now have a new ''far-away-adoption.'' His name is Charles. He is 6 years old and lives on the street in Uganda. We still recieve pictures and information about him on a regular basis, but we're not yey as ''close'' with hime as we were with Alicia.

Right now, Plan has a campaign going. It's about discrimination of girls and women all over the world. A part of the campaign is the ''I gave my face, and got a pink one back''-slogan. By uploading a picture of ourselves hundreds of Norwegian girls show their support of Plan, and their opposition of forced marriages and female disrcimination.

Thank you, Plan, for doing such inspiring work!

This is my pink face!

!Tone

A clear evening sky!

For the first time in months (because of clouds) there are stars on the evening sky. I absolutely love the stars. They give me some kind of calm, relaxed felling, like they'r watching over me or something. And still they are so clear and far far away. They're a mystery, but still so familiar. I would dare to claim that if the time and place is just right, stars are the most beautiful thing in the world! ...No, never mind that. I would have to say the universe as we know it.

Magdalen and I used to sit outside and watch the stars at night, when we were younger. I remember especially one time, when there were no other lights around, the ground was covered in about half a meter of snow, and the sky had norhtern lights falshing a little. We brought blankets and hot chocolat outside, and just sat there... Talked about boys, gossiping, giggeling...

When I really think about it, that's probably part of the reason why I love the stars so much. I have so many good memories that include them. I associate them with something good and safe. I could tell you about at least six or seven, right now, from the top of my head! But I won't cause I have to go to bed! Tomorrow's electionday over here, and as a first time voter, I don't wanna mess anything up because I've been blogging all night...

! Tone

A strong urge to travel

For the past year and a half (almost) I've been on the move a lot, but the last three months it's been way less. I have not been farther away from home then Bergen since I got home from the US, and I'm feeling a very strong urge to go somewhere! I have so many plans and ideas, but unfortunantly I don't have the money (or the time for that matter). My biggest wish at the moment is to go somewhere warm and sunny, which would be such a comfortable change from the grey, wet weather I'm dealing with.

I even had to buy a new pair of boots yesterday, because of all this rain!:)

But next summer... Next summer I'm getting out of here for a while! Inter Rail is the plan. For those of you who don't know what Inter Rail is, take a look here:
http://www.interrailnet.com/

My mom did this several times when she was my age, and she keeps telling me it's the most amazing way to see Europe.

I'm going with my amazing girlfriends, and since Mari and I both have other friends all over Europe, we might just stop by some:) It'll be great!

! Tone