For et ORKH

We sit in a circle and wait anxiously for the roll of tape and marker to be passed around. Tear a little piece of tape off, write your name on it, stick it to your chest. Hello, Maria! Hello, Marius! Hello, Hilde! The freshly made waffles are looking good at the back of the room and people are rummaging around with the papers they've received. Taushetserklæring. Tjenesteforsømmelse. This is serious business. This is about life and death. This is Oslo Røde Kors Hjelpekorps.

I read snippets of an article yesterday, describing a search and rescue operation and the dilemma the Tom, Dick and Harry rescuer has. Do you take a day off work to run around in the forest looking for someone who took the wrong turn? Or do you dutifully go to work, cash your pay check in this financial crisis and hope someone else found her? The article was a plea to employers to give their employees time off (preferably with pay) to go search and rescue. Because what if it was your daughter, your spouse, your friend lost out there?

When I worked at Starbucks we got four paid hours off a year to do something good for the community. We gathered one Sunday in a park outside Melbourne and planted trees. I got to hold my first 6ft snake and I had a blast. That's one way of doing it.

When I sat at the meeting last night, listening to people introducing themselves and telling why they wanted to join ORKH there was a few recurrent themes. The wish to help, the social part, getting close to nature, and last but not least, people started getting damn sick and tired of that old couch.