The home coming seminar-a mixture of happiness and sadness!

Some months ago, a number of FK participants converged at Hotel Hadeland in Gran for a three weeks preparatory course, to prepare them on how to live and work abroad. It was all excitement especially from the south participants (the participants from Africa and Latin America) who were coming to Europe for the first time!

The period these participants spend in Norway ranges between 12 to 18 months, and as you read this, some of the participants their time is up! It’s time to pack their bags and head back to their home countries.
So as was the case with the preparatory course, even at the end of the exchange another course is held called the home coming seminar! This course is geared at helping participants to prepare for the likely challenges when they get back to their home countries.

This year’s home coming seminar was held from 12th to 13th May, 2011 at P-Hotel in Oslo. Unlike the preparatory course which was all excitement for the participants, the home coming seminar was a mixture of happiness and sadness. Participants were happy about going back home but at the same time sad that they were leaving their new found home! To some participants they were even sadder in the sense that this could be the last time they ever set their feet in Europe!
The seminar opened with participants sharing their experiences during their stay in Norway, and as expected they really had interesting experiences. They also shared the challenges they had a encountered, but most of the participants highlighted the winter season as their greatest challenge.
While addressing participants at the closure of the course, the Deputy Director of FK Mrs. Grete Thingelstad urged participants to be good ambassadors of FK back home in their countries and to transfer knowledge and skills they have acquired during their stay in Norway, which is one of the major objectives of the exchange program. Most of the participants will be leaving at the end of June, as new participants jet in and in some programs, this was the last round of exchange, as they look for another project in the future.
                                                                                            By Bernard Butare, FK Participant 2010-2011