Tasi Tolu refugee camp

One of the illustration from my diploma work in
Tasi Tolu refugee camp

Master of...

Six years of university studies are soon to be traded in for a piece of fancy paper stating than I am fit to be a landscape architect. What a strange sensation that brings. I am at a piont where I honestly believe to have chosen the best profession in the world. During these years I have learned that landscape architects actually can play an important role on many arenas, and that we have a great responsability when it comes to creating better living conditions for the inhabitants. Our strength lies in our ability to see the entity, to work in the interface between the physical environment, nature and human needs, seen in the light of historical tendensies and future development.

Landscape architecture is so much more than what i had forseen 5 years ago. The experiance from my master thesis in East Timor and the AHO Studiocourse in Tanzania before that has given me increased confidence that we have the power to make a difference - if we want to. The arena in which we work on is, however, less important. It is the opportunities and responsability that they provide that encorage me. Now time will show if my arena will be in a slum dwelling in Nairobi or in the urban fabric of Oslo. No matter where, I hope that the learning process will never stop, and that my entusiasm will grow together with my experiance as a professional landscape architect.

Dili from a distance

The intencity of the three weeks in Dili are starting to release the pressure from my shoulders. It has been nearly one week since we left Timor, and it is time to dig into the data material collected. The following weeks will be intense, as deadine is getting closer. Looking back, what is the essence of our findings?

Before leaving for East Timor we had this idea to study refugee camps and eventually, in my case, come up with a design wich can improve the security in the camp. We were soon to discover that all the tented camps in Timor are closed. They had for a long time been replaced by a number of transitional camps with another structure and living conditions than tented refugee camps. As the transitional camps are more similar to what can be descibed as "normal" settlements, I soon found them very interesting as study objects. It turned out that camp like these are not exclusevely for Timor, but similar projects are found in other countries. In addition, they are planned by NRC, so drawings and background materials are easily accessible. A comparison study of three of these camps will therefore form a part of the case study. What are the physical differences? Do these differences effect the level of securtity in the camp?

Further, we have done 27 interviews, several of these with former residents in the camps. It is clear that they have very different views on the security situation, yet they seem to share a common understanding that widows and single head of households are more vulnarable than others. In addition, domestic violence is a huge problem, not only in the camps, but in the society in general.

The residents themselves seem to explain this as a private problem, caused by frustration due to lack of work and low activity level. There has been several programs in the camps that focus on this in particular, and the establishment of kitchen gardens seem to be one of the more successful projects. This activity has given the women (in particular) a chance to earn money, a social arena and new skills.

The men are activated occationally, whenever there are work to be done. There are little or no sports and spare time activities avaliable. Several expresses a wish to be activated more often, and state that they would participate if such aminities were to be offered in the camps. They even claim that this might release some of the tention that often leads to internal conflicts and domestic violence.

These statments encourage my work, as my theory is that the physical environment can affects ones behaviour, and at the same time reduse the possibilites of criminal actions. I realize, of course, that in such a complex context a great variety of sollutions are required. Yet, I am gaining confident that physical design must be considered when planning the security in camps.

To-do-list

Mission accomplished: Case study completed.

Upcoming missions: Analyze, understand and reproduce large amounts of data. Read relevant litterature. Consult supervisors regarding all the confusion in my head. Be stressed by lack of time to deadline. Conduct brain surgery. Bore my friends to death with tragic stories from East Timor. Freak out over lacking data from East Timor. Consult my partners in Stavanger and realize the value of our joint cooperation and common knowledge. Use this knowledge in a meaningful way. Produce an innovative and excellent diploma project. Win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Effektivisme satt i system

Etter et par uker i felt er det på tide å oppsummere våre erfaringer så langt. Stort sett kan det utrykkes i et ord: venting!

Å ikke ha full kontroll over egen tid er det som preger dagene. Hjemmenfra er vi stort sett vant med effektive dager, og oversiktiglige avtalebøker. Her er vi avhenginge av at assistenten vår (som for øvrig gjør en fantastisk jobb med sitt enorme nettverk) gjør avtaler for oss. Vi er avhengige av at folk vil møte oss (noe de som regel vil) og at de ikke avlyser eller utsetter avtalen en halvtime før (noe de som regel gjør…)

Dette resulterer i spennende dager, men også mye tripping og usikkerhet: får vi snakket med de riktige personene, disponerer vi tiden vår riktig, hva om vi kommer hjem og innser hva vi burde ha gjort og hvem vi egentlig burde ha snakket med. Ønske om å utrette masse øker presset mentalt.

Vi merker nå likevel etter to uker at kunnskapsnivået om Øst Timor generelt og campene spesielt begynner å nå et interessant nivå. Vi diskuterer kontinuerlig oss imellom, og med våre ulike ståsted beriker vi stadig hverandres perspektiv.

Det er en stor styrke å være tre, også fordi temaet vi studerer bringer med seg mye elendighet. Vi møter sannheten hver dag gjennom rapporter og dokumenter, men også gjennom de menneskene vi møter og jobber med. (Men når man graver i møkka så kan man ikke klage over stanken.)

Dagen i dag viste seg tilslutt å bli den mest produktive til nå. Seks intervjuer på en dag. Forrige uke hadde vi syv i løpet av hele uka. Neste uke skal vi jaggu frese på. Har planen klar. Effektivisme satt i system. Jadda!

Visual impressions

Saturday in East Timor means another bumpy ride into the mountains. This time the destination was the opening of a village school built by the NRC. And such a big events demand for a real celebration!

When we arrived, the whole village was dressed up in traditional clothes waiting to start the party. Alfredo and his crew were special guests of honour, and the speaches lasted for hours in the local language tetum. As my tetum is rather limited, I decided to document the impressions through my camera lense instead. Enjoy!

Hunting chickens with the ambassadors wife

When walking around in Dili one doesn´t meet a lot of norwegians, in fact there are not that many living here. Yet, a handful met at a the Norwegian Ambassy thursday night. Among the invited were Gunnar Stålsett, representatives from the "Students Peace Prize" NTNU, and a mysterious chicken.

As we are soon to discover, these people are all here because of their warm interest in helping Est Timor back on its feet. This young country (they got their independence in 1999) with its extremely young population (50 % of the population are under 16 years old) do not have the experiance neccessary to rise after years and years of war and conflicts. The timorese people live in poverty, yet the nation has the right to large oil ressourser offshore. This will, hopefully, contribute to a rising wellfare among the timorese people, and not end up in the pockets of the elite. The government has decided to seak international advices, and the norwegian experiance with the oil fund is now working as a model for how they might place their income from the oil industry.

A part from contributing to the nation building, some norwegians are very involved in the peace processes in East Timor. Last week, a group of young students from NTNU arranged The Students Solidarity Conference, in cooperation with the first winner of the Students Peace Prize, Laureate Antero Benedito da Silva. The participants were former winner of the Students Peace Prize. Their goal is to create a network among the organizations, so they may be a future support to each other.

One of the veterans when speaking of peace-work was also in Dili last week. Gunnar Stålsett, a close friend of the former Nobel Peace Prize winner and president of East-Timor, Jose Ramos-Horta, shows a deep interest in the people of East Timor, and seems to be a regular guest in Dili.

We all had the pleasure of meeting him, the students from NTNU and other norwegians in Dili, all inspirering us with their daily work. Yet, for some strange reason, I will forever connect this evening at the Norwegian Embassy in Dili with a two-legged creature, as the night ended with a garden-excursion led by the ambassadors wife, hunting around for a chicken. According to her it loved to be skratched on the back, and was a quite remarkable bird. Well, we never found it, I guess it didn´t skratch that night, so I just have to take her word for it.

Cause talking about commitment, nowone could beat the passion in the eyes of the embassadors wife while hunting for chickens in the garden.