The last thing I talked about as the night before election day, when I chose to go home instead of sleeping outside the parliament. When I wrote those lines, I had just left the camp and was planning to spend the night before the election at home. When I left them, they had my tent, three banners a tabek with five big chairs around it and I thought that the camel woman, the Danish doctor and one grown up Oslo activst would be able to handle it all.
When I came back the next morning, most of it was gone. What as left were two smaller tents that had been used as storage space. I called the doctor with the mobile he had provided me wit (he had given out a mobile to just all of us that stayed around the camp). He called me down to the train station; “we have taken down your tent cause we didn’t have enough people; we’re gonna rebuild the camp tonight”.
At the train station is his car, his two dogs and two Norwegian activists. They’re waiting for the evening newspaper “Aften Aften” to arrive and write about their plan of taking homeless people to the polls.
10 AM:
We need to make flyers and drive to the activist house O27 to use the copy machine.
10:30 AM:
I’m leaving in order to attend a small protest against Italy’s decision to not let soem Iraqis enter Italy for a conference on Iraq’s future
11:30 AM:
Back at the place where Slump City used to be. Now everything is gone. I call the others, but they say that they have most of it and that we’re just going to rebuild. Birger is driving around and apparantly tries to make people vote for the Red Voting Alliance – and is making headlines. I’m going home to do some computer work.
1 PM:
The news about an election party has by now been spreed on A LOT of email lists and it has been announced on one of Oslo’s main acitvist news sites. However Birger calls me and asks me to come back to O27; he wants his mobile back. And the plans about an election party have been cancelled: “you know, I really need to see my patients. […] I told them I’d be away for 2-3 days, and no it has been a week,” he explains. I gather I have to accept the situation, and so I ask for my tent. “Is that your tent out there,” one of the office emloyees at 027 asks, “I saw it lying out there this morning,but I wasn’t quite sure what is was.” And yes, it is my tent. Apparantly they have thrown it out on the side alk some time during the night. Birger apologizes a bit, before he takes his two therapeutic dogs back into the car and rushes of to Bergen.
Later on that day I hear rumors about a woman having lost teeth at the camp during the night, but the rumors essentially never substanciate.