Misses the Warm Culture

Shariza Murebwaire, born in 1956, ushers us into her house in the village of Brandbu on a summer day in 2009. She’s offers special sandwiches and shows folk art from her Africa. She is a little tired because the evening before she was in Oslo to work at a concert arrangement. That income goes to a campaign (the One Dollar Campaign) to build a home for youth in Rwanda. She is very engaged in her homeland issues and sits on the steering committee for the Rwandan Dyaspora in Norway.

Shariza Murebwaire from Rwanda makes Norwegian-African food in her kitchen in Brandbu. (Photo: Karen Bleken/OAM).Shariza is originally from Rwanda, but was born and grew up in Congo. There she was educated as a nurse and midwife at the Kaziba Hospital run by Norwegian missionaries.

She came to Norway for the first time in 2003 to participate in a conference on midwifery. Her 12 years old son was with her. He had destroyed two teeth and the midwives in Kongsberg had collected money so that he could get them repaired while in Norway. During the time they were here, unrest grew in Congo. Mother and son sought asylum in Norway and spent the first two months at a reception center in Kirkenes in northern Norway.

- It was difficult to live at the reception center and share everything with strangers. I didn’t like Norway the first year and cried much, tells Shariza.

She had two sisters in the Gran municipality and received permission to settle there. For someone who had always worked a lot, it was a challenge to be only at home.

Shariza sitting for the nursing exam in Congo. (Photo: Private/Archive).- I experienced it as depressing. I was healthy and wanted to work.” Finally she went to the refugee consultant and said that she would do whatever it took to get back into employment. The midwife got her an internship at the hospital in Gjøvik, and her first job was at the Brandbu hospital. She still works there.

She is committed to fulfilling the requirements for becoming a midwife in Norway but hadn’t yet accomplished this when the interview took place. She said that it was complex.
- It seems as though the authorities don’t trust that we immigrants can do something. We must constantly work to convince them and are constantly evaluated. So it is to be a stranger.

In spite of this, Shariza gets along well in Brandbu in the Hadeland area. She has good friends, has learned good Norwegian and is well integrated into the Norwegian society.

- I forget now and then that I’m not Norwegian, and patients at the hospital forget that also. But you have to work at it to become integrated, to participate in society.

Still things are missed…
- I miss friends and the warm culture. It isn’t so difficult when you can go and visit now and then. But, I dream of growing old in Africa.…

Listen to Shariza talk about the importance of having a job: