Thanks for the ride!

 Then the final day arrived. I wear worn clothes and a tired head against OR Tambo International Airport. Know that the captain will be on transit stop in Istanbul. Know that the Gardemoen Norwegian airport is ready for landing tomorrow. I think it waits two children and a few buddies. I think the lady has the BBQ on.

It was further from Oslo to Johannesburg then I thought. It was more lonely than I thought. But it worked and it became a bigger success than I thought.

The idea that came up over a nice moon Sætre was that a guy who collectsshirts should cycle to the World Cup and make a big symbold to create awareness for @refugees and UNHCR. The football family delivered. Media was curious. There were over 2 billion who saw, heard or read about a bald man on a bike and he said a lot. He said, "they are 41 million displaced let us help" Messi, Rooney and Gerrard has signed the shirt - maybe you the fans will support " He have gone deep in some places and told that "Dadaab Camp has 270,000 refugees and those who did not come there was killed on the road, and that it is 5000 new ones every month coming from Somalia, we must do something" ...
 In some places it was only placed tabloid headlines and small words like "Viking Biking for the Refugees" but it's okay, maybe it is a man in Hamburg or Glossop who was thinking; "If he sweats for a year then I can probably do something too ..."

Many memories.
I remember the nerve in the body 20 June 2009 and the views of the sea, it began to rain and then I had my first puncture. I remember the truck drivers in Lappeenranta / Finland who thought I was a total idiot who was doing the cycle and robbery path towards St Petersburg. I remember teh railworkers in Gatchina who gave me shelter in the old traina, served vodka and stories from the revolution in a homemade sauna. I remember Ibrahim in Wadi Halfa / Sudan who served coffee and talked about the man on a  motorcycle, which was eaten by monkeys. I remember everything, it's a lot, and it is written down on small patches. Maybe the patches will book?

If it shows up one with a good pen then it will be a book. I have only one untrained Bic pen, but writing even if the main author does not appear. In other places the feeling is under control. There are photos. The pictures should be hung on walls.
The final report will be sent in two copies. One of the Norwegian Refugee Council / Oslo. One of the UNHCR / Geneva. The headline is either "It worked" or "What was it I said." The last I use to those who did not believe me. There were and are very understandable.

I'll probably do it again and hope you will join that tour as well. Perhaps we should take away the macho bit that is "man alone on the bike struggle forward" might take on board another organization that needs attention. Maybe do it with the skateboard, or balloon or with a Tuk Tuk ....

The shirt will create more before the year is over and it's rumored that the Norwegian Refugee Council will make some events & other until the TV campaign in the fall of 2010.

I turn of the head, the brain I switches off for a week and thank you for the ride.  Will update the blog whot memories. To take forward the pictures that were not shown and the stories that were not told. So I thank you and those who participated until I was home.

If you are reading, then you'll get rose and a big thanks. If you shared the content on Facebook or Twitter;  you'll get  two roses. If you made a separate blog about the case or discuss it with your neighbor over coffee table, you get three roses. If you donated some money to the UNHCR I'll give you a bucket full of roses.

If I met you on the road and you was one of them shouting; "come on lad yo'r doing great" I am eternally grateful. A little phrase means so much when you'rdown and tired! One sentence gives power to a whole day. It gives hope. Whether you are tired, but lucky and returning to Norway. Or if you sit in the Kakuma camp on the border of Sudan, in the fifth year and hope you come out of the refugee camp and home to your country ... ... ...

Attention. What a little child asks and requests from the first moment. Attention. What the commercial companies needs to sell. What you want when your boyfriend looks out the window when you come in with a new jacket and and a new haircut. The Kakuma and Dadaab camps are hoping for attention..

Thank you for your attention.!

Bjorn Heidenstrom, looking foreward to Norwegian brown cheese and skim milk. But first, a BBQ with good friends and I will stand there to Dovre falls .. ;-) ( you have to google it..)

PS! Hope to see you see you sooon again. I'll put the stories untold and the phots not shown out until the next vision...


Bjørn
Written on Thursday, 15 July 2010 16:48 by Bjørn

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