Den danske Ambassadør, Stig Barlyngs tale


Honourable Member of Parliament
Resident District Commissioner
His Worship The Mayor of Jinja
The Local Council Chairman
Annette, Kurt, Søren og Simon
Invited Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen.

We are gathered to-day at Kiira Primary School in honour of Thyge, who on 4. October 2005 lost his life on the beautiful but also treacherous River Nile, very close to here. He was only 23 years old, and had a whole and probably very exciting life in front of him.
But it was abruptly ended when thr obviously very strong, athletic young man with friends playfully tested one of the small rapids just a few meters from the shore. The unpredictable strong current dragged Thyge to his death. It is agreed that Thyge became the victim of a freak accident.

Ambassadøren
Stig Barlyng holder en meget smuk tale til os og hele forsamlingen.This tragedy was also the beginning of a chain of events that have offered a number of us present the privilage of getting to know Thyge's remarkably strong family. The way they close to handle the targedy and the deep sorrow at the loss of a son and brother is truly extraordinary and deserves mention at this occasion.

Immediately upon receiving the sad message of Thyge's disappearance, and knowing well the likely outcome of a search, they made arrangement to go to Jinja. They arrived in Entebbe with the knowledge that Thyge had been found drowned. That message had reached them at a stopover.

The family claims that the tranquillity at the site where Thyge drowned, the fact that they could literally see the place from their bungalow at Nile Resort, the meeting with Thyges friends from the tour, with the many people at Bujagali og Jinja who spared no effort in assistenting the search for Thyge, and the fact that they in a relaxed way could get to terms with the tragedy by talking and reminding themselves constantly of the many good memories from Thyge's eventlul life, contributed a lot to the healing process and to get to grips with the tragedy. As outsiders we were invited to listen in and allowed to share with the family in the memories of Thyge.

And we learnt to know about a young man with an iron will to explore, both the world and himself. Anything challenging had to be tested: Gymnastics, swimming, diving, skiing, mountaineering, river rafting. His curiosity was equally limitless. Wherever he went he had to learn everything about the local community and living conditions of the people he met. He documented everything in his diary and with his camera. Althrough his stay at Bujagali had only been short, he had already explored the surroundings and decided to give something back to the community that he had exploited with his demand for knowledge.

His tragic drowning prevented him from doing it, but truly amazing family decided on the spot 16 months ago that they would fulfil the promise. They requested mourners at Thyge's funeral in Denmark to deposit money on a special bank account named: Thyge's School Project in Uganda intended of buying flowers for the grave. Thyge's many friends and family did not listen too well to that request: Although they contributed handsomely to the school
project fund, they also brought and brought flowers for the funeral and here we are. The result of all that is Thyge Hall " a new library building here at Kiira Primary School, Family members returned to Uganda last summer to mate arrangements for the project, and
they are here again for the official commissioning. But not only for that. Thyge's older brother Simon, who is so very much like Thyge - both in looks and in mentality - is staying at Kiira together with a friend 'for a few weeks as teacher trainee interns, as part of their
training in Denmark as a teacher. It is Thyge's tragic death that has brought this small miracle about. We should all be grateful that fate allowed us to be partners in this venture. That we have been granted the privilege of learning to know a truly extraordinary family, bestowed with an inner strength that is rarely seen.

Let us pay tribute to the memory of Thyge.

Thank you.

Ambassadørens bil.
Søren stiger ind i Ambassadørens bil - på Kiira Primary School.