The journey has been long with lots of mixed emotions, learning curves and gaining tremendous work experience in Norway.

Upon Arrival, in Norway, we had plans that were aimed at putting our names in the books of those who have worked hard and diligently in making PULSE a great success. As things stand, we believe without a doubt that we have left a huge footprint of positivity and dedication towards our work. By so doing we have great convection that we have accomplished our mission with all the challenges that we have come across.

Our stay in Norway had unforeseen challenges. Thinking on our feet and out of the box had to be done. During March 2020, the PULSE team just like the rest of other organizations around the world was affected by the ever-growing pandemic of COVID-19, which led to changes to our year plan. We had to come up with new innovative and exciting ways of working so that we can be fit for the purpose of delivering our tasks. The pandemic brought lots of anxiety and uncertainty in terms of not knowing what the future holds for the project, but with the assistance of our management, we came with lots of ideas to execute our tasks, mostly which were digital tasks. We managed to deliver seminars through digital space successfully.

Our challenge was not knowing when are we going home to South Africa as we were told that our contract was going to end in July 2020. To add to our challenges, we were notified that flights going to South Africa were suspended to curb the spread of COVID-19. Our hard-working management team successfully achieved to save our contracts and they managed to get us an amended contract so that we continue working when we arrive in South Africa.

During July 2020, we were notified that we will go back home to South Africa through a repatriation flight, after many attempts of getting us flights to South Africa. As planned, on the 1st of August we boarded our flight to South Africa from Amsterdam. When we arrived in South Africa we went to a quarantine where we were checked daily if we had symptoms of COVID-19. We stayed at the quarantine for 10 days and I am glad to announce to you that we are healthy and negative from the COVID-19. On 11 August 2020, we were discharged and all four of us are now in our homes missing Norway.

We are looking forward to resume work after our holiday as our amendment contract will be starting.

writen by

Jacob Mhlapeng