Role model
“I have chosen to work as protector for a number of various organisations. First and foremost because I think, that it is very important, that your focus isn’t to narrow. It is important, that you mean something for different types of people from various backgrounds. That you are a role model to the largest possible part of society. I want to touch as many people’s hearts as possible.
I have had many strong experiences during my travels as protector, and after 9 years, you can’t just call attention to one of them – you can’t. But one experience, that really touched me deeply, happened, when I visited a very poor area in the northern part of Thailand, in Chang Mai, February last year visiting with UNICEF.
We visited a small family in the jungle, the parents were in the beginning of their twenties. Beautiful, beautiful young people, who had a 3-years old daughter. She was the sweetest child, and she was running around smiling, but they were so poor, and both her mother and father had the HIV-virus.
When I talked with them about their wishes in life, the father said, that he wished for to cows, because he would really like to be able to provide for his family. And you thought, it was fantastic, that they still kept their pride. They weren’t just asking for money or were angry at the system or the society, because they had been struck by disease. And than they of course wanted to wish the best for their daughter, but the reality probably is, that they won’t even be there to see her finishing school. They are young people, whose future has been stolen.
It was really tough, and I felt so helpless. Sometimes you are in a situation just to listen, and you don’t have an answer all the time. You have to try to be the best support as possible. And try to be as humane, as you can. Try to understand the other ones world to be able to feel, how unjust the world is.
I can remember, when I came back to the hotel. Felix was 5 months old at that time, and he was brought along, because I still breast-fed him. Everyone in the family wanted my attention, and Joachim wanted to know, how my day had been, and I can remember, that I just went to the bathroom, locked the door and had to be myself for a while.
Sometimes … I have to come to terms with everything, I have experienced. That is clear. But I also have to storage it in some “rooms” in my brain, so that I can draw on the experiences, when I need it. It is not enough for me just having experienced those things. I have to able to use them for something. I have to see, if I can do anything. It is very important, so that others stories are told, and if I am able just to touch one persons heart with my experiences, what I have seen, then I have reached at least one of my goals.”
Private
Have You never had the desire to “unplug the line” (Chatleen: “ by me, I really don’t know, if you can use this expression in English 
) and make a cancellation at an official arrangement?
“No. I have never desired that. Never. But of course I have had the desire to go in an airplane and fly to a desert island and just lie there for some hours. Forget everything about my everyday, forget everything about my responsibility and the ones, who want my attention, forget everything about the time and expectations. I wouldn’t be human, if I didn’t say that.
And it is important to “recharge the batteries” (Chatleen: “ by me) sometimes. To say: ‘Now I have had enough. Now I have to just think of myself.’ Then I am with my children, have dinner with some girlfriends or my husband and chat about the past week.
But it is also important to have a private side, on which everybody doesn’t know everything. If you haven’t got that, than who are you? I am a human being with several facets, and of course the public shouldn’t see them all. It is clear, that I have to keep something to myself. Something for my family and something for my friends.”
How do you retain a private side in Your position?
“I don’t think, that I chance, when I am at an official arrangement. I still put forward the same standpoints, with the same principles, thoughts, ideas. But you have to think carefully. Where you sit, which situation you are in. Of course you can allow yourself to be more relaxed and straightforward with friends, than when you are at an official engagement.
When you are an official representative, well, then you have to “deliver”. You are in the limelight. You have to think carefully, before you say anything, and you can’t just ask a stupid question.
It is tough to be in the limelight. When you know, that the amount of hours you spend at a place, you can’t just sit and relax and shake your shoulders a little, if you are tired, or take a few minutes break. When you are in the limelight, than you know, that you have to do your best from all angles. Both the internal and the external. And maybe your body feels a little “tight”, but you can’t just stretch yourself a little. All the time you have to think: ‘How would I like, that people see me.’”
To be continued...
- afterall I can only improve my english skills 
