Immigrants: Work and learn

Unique in Norway, unique in the world?

Josephines Kafe... in Stavanger.

Providing education for 15 immigrants in a reallife work environment. Once you get in you're only allowed to speak Norwegian (the students that is).

It is pointed towards adult immigrants without any previous school-experience. They learn by doing, and graduated immigrants are living proof this is a rewarding project.

While they learn by doing whatever has to be done in a Kafe-restaurant, customers enjoy cheap meals. Ours was even for free ;-)

I'm happy!

C ya !

Old town, new town...

Clowns can deceive you. Clowns will deceive you.

Norway isn't all about open spaces, fjords and mountains.
I'm sorry, so sorry...

The stavanger region is a city region.

Before the new town, there was an old town. Strange, isn't it :-).

But very nice...

Clown keeps deceiving you. The buildings are in very bad shape. Stavanger is investing a lot in modern architecture, but they might want to hand over some funding to keep this old town in shape...

Clown not happy :-(

1968

Splendid, excellent, magnificent, eyecatching, modern, industrial, metal, glass, shapes, spacious, curved, straight, light, dark, ...

If you like architecture, visit the oil museum in Stavanger...
If you do not like architecture, visit the oil museum in Stavanger...

I will once go back to create a decent image of this wonderfull building. For now, i'll just focus on the content.

Oil is what made Stavanger wealthy. Oil is what makes Stavanger wealthy today.

This amazing structure showcases it all:

-History of earth
-Use of energy
-alternative sources of energy
-Positives and negatives regarding energy use and oil
-Where to find oil
-How to find oil
-How to drill for oil
-Safety and disaster
-Oil products
-technology
-3D-movie
-...

Grandma, grandpa, mum, dad, son, daughter,...

Entertainment for all. Both in English and Norwegian. Did I mention the excellent support by the museum staff?

Visiting a museum in Belgium, you're sometimes considered to be an intruder in a world of piece and quiet. "My chair is comfortable, my coffee is close, so bugger off..."

Not so here... A question, any question, staff will answer before even asking.
Unlocking the door to an interactive exhibit? No problem, sorry to keep you waiting...

Clown is a boy. Clown likes technology. Clown likes big things. Clown likes big things in small.
Clown is happy. Clown sees plenty.

Scale models provided by major oil companies. Boats, oil rigs,...
Amazingly detailed, even interiors are completely visible.

Why use scale models if you can have the real thing?
Drilling heads anywhere between 90 and 22 (?) cm.

Me like, Me feel, Me take picture...

1968

This is it, the first drilling head ever to smell oil beneath the Northsea in 1968.
A modern dinosaur.

alexander kielland

Major disaster. All about it throughyour favourite search engine.
Wanna learn? Put some effort into it ;-)

The platform was recovered. The faulty part is on display in the museum.
The tv-screen is of normal size, so this is definitly not a scale model...

A black picture about a black day in oil history...

The disaster was the starting point for extensive safety regulations.
A lot of rescueing materials are showcased in the museum. SUV's are common things, even on national geographic channel, but ever heard of an underwater helicopter?

Come to Stavanger, it is right here !

Museums are ever so boring...

Nope, museums WERE ever so boring...
Wednesday 21 february UIS treated us all on an excursion, in which we travelled through the local countryside. On the way we also visited the jaermuseet, about farming in Norway.
More info to this through your favorite search-engine :-)

Farming? What do farmers need?

Air to breath and money to spend...

So how do they make money?

By cultivating farmland ofcourse.

Farmland in Jaeren is mostly situated at the valleybottom. In this area the ground isn't very rich in nutriënts so they use fertilizers. It is very rich in rocks though...
The reason there is an extensive array of farms is the jaeren area is densly populated, so there is a market to sell farming products. Remember transport is not easy in this country, so being close to the client is obviously an advantage...

The key mission of the museum can be read by enlarging this image. Yep, wanna learn, put some effort into it, hehehe...

Free jewelry?

Yep, all provided for...

Ofcourse i was among the first to discover this, so no queing for this clown...

The jewel is a plough blade, which you have to make yourself.
First activate a robotic arm to hand over a metal plate. Afterwards it's manual labour to shape the plate... Rut (right) is in the middle of the process, tightly pulling the lever to cut, bend and shape the blade...
Caitriona (left) is cutting a hole in the blade so you can attach a ring or string...

Glass houses? Greenhouses?

Yep mister, yes ma'am.
A functioning greenhouse in the middle of the museum.

In Belgium there are about as much greenhouses as regular houses...
Over here there are less...

Again, self-provising as they wanna be in this cold country, they want greenhouses.
Madman or plain common sense? Make up your own mind...

Turning around, cow guts...

All about feeding cows in a modern farm. The black platform is completely interactive, if you want to be active, that is...
Storing food in the silo, getting it out to the cow,... It's all possible...

In the basement, Norways most modern farming machines?

Boys toys are ofcourse provided for:

But why wander around in the museum, when UIS provides you with free drinks and snacks?
Yeah girls, proof is in the picture...

On the bus there was a lot of talk about the long stretching beaches in Jaren country. So afterwards, a short stop.
Man, guess they must be crowded in summer. 200 People per square meter?

My interest was however pointed towards the atlantic wall left from WOII...

If they all come over to my home country they may see a proper beach... And if we visit the spanish people there might even be some palmtrees too...

Anyway, clown is frozen. Clown is cold. Clown is hungry.
Clown hops on the bus...

C ya!

Kvernevik: Blocking the sea...

Tuesday, 20 february 2007
Hikers log: first entry:

transport: bus nr. 3- Madlakrossen > kvernavik ring.
weather: freezing cold: equivalent temperature: about -17°C
destination: Kvernevik beach hiking trail

This weak a foreigner is staying with me. A very strange guy from Belgium, who accidently happens to be my cousin. However we visited some nice places before, i wasn't planning on taking him there. Limited time, so visit as much as you can, sounds reasonable, doesn't it?

So, to Kvernevik, nearby and totally different scenery...

The first image brings a bright orange in the otherwise grey and brown scenics. It's obvious this guy isn't out to catch a whale... I am not talking about the size of the boat, but it's obvious he forgot his harpoon at home. fishing grounds in the direction he's heading aren't recommendable either; Lungfish can survive on land, but on these rocky shores the only thing you can find might be a whale washed ashore...
Than again, he might be out on a whalehunt ;-).

Not exactly the E39 highway, but not as much traffic. Actually none at all, not even a bug, it's obvious bugs are intelligent enough to stay indoors at these temperatures. So who's stating humans have higher intelligence? Say again, can't hear you...
Anyway, the hiking trail at Kvernevik. Nice? No: just plain beautifull...

When we walked for about 20 minutes we finally saw what the fisherman was out for. Clear blue water and a bike. Again, a cultural difference never encountered. In Belgium most people just get a bike at the local bikeshop. But they never mentioned me bikes grow near the Norwegian Kvernevik shores. I did hear about about oyster farms, but bikes, no, that's a completely new encounter...

Continuning this log, hiker enters the following:
Rockx, rocks and rocks. As mentioned in an earlier post: hoppedihop from rock to rock.
The black item top-left is not a troll, however much you would have liked it to be. Trolls are generally considered shy, so they disappear before even canons fastest AF-system can get a lock.
Just click the image and enjoy this point of interst: a piece of chain, accompagnied by some nameplates. Pity, jeg snakker ikke Norsk, so we haven't yet figured out what it's all about...

And here again, the hiking trail. This would have been a nice slope for wheelchairs. I knew i forgot something back home...

Oh, the statue is getting closer, or rather he other way around, hikers moving closer to the statue...

Walking back to Ugleveien, we passed by two lakes, and one of them treated us with this scenic picture. Any mathematician able to figure out the distance to the mountains? They're always moving away as we get closer but i'd really like ot go there:
anyway: care to figure it out: focal length: 82 mm on fullframe SLR...
This is a nice image, think i'll be heading back out one day ot get a proper panorama...


Next post in this log following soon. Gonna take care of my visitor now.

End of log entry.