I had to leave work early on Wednesday to catch the train. The train went to Vegårdshei, a pleasant town 3.5 hours from Oslo. Vegårshei is perhaps not a place I would normally visit for a holiday or other reasons, but there I was in this "winter wonderland". We were looking forward to meeting the people we had spoken with on the phone and seen on TV, but had never met.
Now we were finally here, and one by one met the members of the Moland family. Time flew, and after a quick pizza we drove to the church in Tvedestrand. Preparations for the concert in support of Tjosdolv and Joshua were in full swing. We found seats for ourselves in the middle of the church, feeling a little nervous that we would be discovered by the journalists we imagined would be there. Fortunately there was only one, and there were no interviews or photographs. Dead on 7p.m. the concert began, introduced by Anne Jeanice Lie, who had arranged it. It was a fantastic concert, a mixture of Christmas music, requests, and a fantastic dance performed by Tjostolv's sister, Kari Moland.
Tjostolv's mother Mathilde Moland spoke movingly about the service held in the prison in DR Congo, and about Tjostolv and Joshua's initiative in setting up "Inmate to Inmate".The biggest and best surprise was at the end when Anne Jeanice called a man up on to the stage - a representative from the Dina Foundation. The collection was counted up and it came to a magnificent 15'784 kroner. It was hard to hold back the tears, as I knew this would be more than enough for the soap and at least ten board games if not more. What a fantastic Christmas present! On top of that I saw that 2'275 kroner had come into the prisoners account as well. I am so grateful for this. A big thank you to everyone!
Hannah French December 17th 2009
