Month: February 2015

Despite my wonder whether I should have droned on and on about my cough yesterday, it did stimulate an email from my friend Matt, from church (whose family is returning to Tanzania this fall). He is suffering from the same cough 9 time zones away. But now, I have someone to pray for in the midst of my discomfort, as it makes me more empathetic with Matt’s. (The Apostle Paul talked about this in 2 Corinthians 1.)

I was able to work from the desk and with a mostly clear head today, and so I was able to be quite productive. I’m so close from finishing the first draft of chapter 3. I was hoping to send it to Jean and Marv 2 days ago and have revisions for Knut by the end of the week if possible or at least by early Monday, when Knut returns from Madagascar. He really needs time to read it though. So, I’m pushing on tonight.

I did take a run to the airport due to the generosity of Tina. However, Elenn missed her connecting flight in Amsterdam. Anya and I arrived at the airport and no Elenn! I hadn’t set up my Norwegian phone to get email, so I tried to start there. It wouldn’t connect. I tried three times, adjusting settings that might help the connection. The 4th try worked to read that she had missed her flight. So, we went back home. I have to catch the last #9 bus at 8:14 to take the 33 minute ride to the airport and wait an hour for Elenn’s plane to arrive. At least I can work on my laptop. Then we’ll take at $60 taxi home.

Now the good stuff:

Anya had a fun time playing indoor field hockey (a contradiction in terms!) with a wiffle ball. She had a blast. Anya actually made a full week of school! Yea!

On the way home, she went to the store and picked up some needed groceries.

But the buzz is this dress. What colors is it?

Ok, I see them as white and gold. Anya sees them as blue and black. How bizarre.  Here’s more information, that I haven’t taken time to read.

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/

So we had a good conversation over this as well as who we would cast instead of Russell Crowe in Les Mis.

Feel free to skip my whining about my battle with the flu and just go to the last 2 paragraphs about Anya. She’s way more interesting!

While I thought that maybe I had avoided the full brunt of this flu, the cough is pretty bad, not the worst I had (which actually was the night before Eric’s first brain surgery). I just can’t stop that little tickle in my throat. I’m even half way through that thyme extract cough syrup, which works well for about 8 minutes; about the time the horrible taste goes away. I’ve sipped a gallon of honey lemon tea, sucked on cough drops constantly–switching between the citrus and anise Fisherman’s Friend, and have breathed steam coming off the hot pot half a dozen times this afternoon alone. I’ve tried sleeping propped up with a pile of pillows, which seems to help a bit, but I still slept only half the night for the past two nights, and this evening is not looking good. My intercostal muscles (the ones between your ribs; I was pre-med once upon a time) are sore from a marathon of coughing. Ok, I’ll get well soon.

It has complicated life. There is little food in the house and little cash. Norwegian grocery stores need that computer chip (not the magnetic strip), so I’m waiting to get my Norwegian bank account set up for my research fellowship stipend. Knut should be back from Madagascar on Monday, so perhaps that will be the first opportunity. Until then, I can draw cash from some–but not all–ATMs with my Capital One card, so there is 0% foreign transaction fee. My BofA Visa (Alaska Airlines miles) is a 3% hit.

Another complication has been writing from bed between fevers and naps. It just isn’t as conducive as the desk set up with wireless keyboard. I think this afternoon was the last fever, so this is a good sign.

Tomorrow, my sister, Elenn’, arrives from Pakistan, where she goes for 2 months every year as a physician at Tank Christian Hospital, not too far from the Khyber Pass. So, I was going to take the bus and meet her, and then take the bus home, as the bus stop is about 2 blocks from our house. Ok, the house is 2 blocks uphill, but I planned to bungie her bag to my wheeled duffel bag and take my time. However, if I’m not much better tomorrow, that would do me in.

So, Tina to the rescue. I asked Tina if she’d be available and willing to help with an airport run. She is so kind. I did calculate a one-way taxi ride for the 14 miles, but $60+ was a bit of a deterrent. You see why the wheeled duffel on a free bus was appealing!?! My flexi pass on the Kolumbus system allows me to take 1 adult and up to 3 children with me after 5 pm and on the weekends. This is great for Saturday trips to the mall and Sunday trips to church.

Enough of my sob story.

Anya was off to school by herself and came home saying  volleyball in PE was actually enjoyable (compared to volleyball in high school in Bellevue). First, they didn’t keep score! She said, “These are teenagers!” incredulous that they weren’t the hyper competitive teenagers on the volleyball court in Bellevue. Then, she said they were very encouraging of everyone. Wow! Is this the socialism of Norway at work? Now, remember there are still very competitive folks out there–especially at the World Ski Championships in Sweden!

Finally, for the week after Easter break, the 9th graders spend an entire week in a job shadow or introductory career practicum experience. Due to Anya’s limited Norsk and our limited network, there are few options for us. So today, after getting approval from her teacher, I emailed the librarian and archivist at MHS and asked if there would be a possibility for her to help out. It would give some practical experience in preparation for what could be an on-campus job during college (despite MHS’s non-standard cataloging system). So, let’s see if that works out. If not, about my only other connection is Tina’s mom who is an administrator at the Stavanger Cathedral. That would be a fascinating location, but less career path opportunities, unless, “theology mom” and ministry rub off somehow!

Not too much exciting here with more fevers and flu. Anya has been very helpful.

Years ago–actually 2007–I attended my first Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion conference in San Diego. This is a HUGE conference with about 12,000 people in biblical and religious scholarship and academia attend. I was invited by my roommate, Beth, to attend the Oxford reception, as her doctorate is from Oxford. As she was chatting with friends and faculty, I sat with Jane Barr, the widow of James Barr, who had recently passed away. I believe she was visiting friends in California and so stopped by to see all her late husband’s colleagues.

As we were chatting, she relayed in a most distinguished British accent, “Oh James, I didn’t want him to worry at all about the home front; the cooking, the cleaning, the children, yes, I took care of it all.”

I realized that I will never be a James Barr–in so many ways–but with the reality that I was working and taking care of the home front. I don’t have the luxury of having the minutia of life managed by someone else to free me up to optimize my potential.

Now, I am glad that I have a primary role of being a mom. Anya is great joy (most of the time) and we typically get along well (not without bumps). I love the moments when Anya is oozing with commentary and perhaps spinning on the wood floor or singing songs from Broadway musicals. What joy! We’re pretty good travel partners too.

However, this sabbatical is a bit of being able to focus more on the work of the dissertation (when I don’t have the flu). I’m not working, I have less responsibilities at church and around the home. I don’t have a big social life here. And life slows down when you don’t have a car and have to walk and/or take the bus. It has taken a bit of time to figure out new systems and get in the groove. I was just feeling in the groove when the flu hit. Lord, have mercy.

Between fevers, thick headedness, and blahness, I tried working on the 75 pages of transcription (single spaced) from the 2013 interviews with my Maasai research participants with my annotations, color coding key concepts, and adding citations to the dissertation. I got only 1/3rd of the way through. Maybe I can get half way before the end of day.

I just saw an Economist video describing why the flu shot was only 23% effective this year. In case you’re interested, here’s the link:

http://www.economist.com/multimedia?bclid=1242934274001&bctid=4069229650001

Unfortunately, while so diligent in staying healthy while taking care of Anya, the flu hit me now. The good news is that I don’t have to take care of Anya, and I don’t seem to be hit as hard as Anya was. After a poor night of very little sleep, I’m still not able to focus much. I did some reading and watched a documentary I had on Maasai women made by a British anthropologist in the 1970s.

So, Anya went to school and off to the store to pick up some after school. It isn’t quite on the way home, but adds about half a mile to the walk home. Her friend from school went with her, as the store is not too far from her home. Anya was introduced to some Norwegian candy, which pleased her.

Did you realize that the World Ski Championships are going on? Here’s the link: http://www.fis-ski.com/ Today, the USA women earned a silver and a bronze for a total of 2 medals. (Yes, Norway is in the lead with 11 medals.)

I think this is the first day that I didn’t leave the house. Now, previously, I had spent all day in the house, but at least I put shoes on to walk the eight steps to the mailbox. Today, Anya didn’t want me to walk her to school, and she got the mail when she came home.

It was probably good to be inside as I have developed a sore throat and cough. I guess I get to use up the Norwegian cough syrup that Anya wouldn’t touch!

Anya is back to school. A friend had looked on line how to be welcoming to Americans. One item was don’t swear in front the Americans. I don’t have much to compare with between average American and Norwegian conversation, but this is good.

I spent most of the day going over my 54 pages of mostly single spaced transcriptions from the 2012 interviews with my Maasai research participants. This review with a fine-toothed comb helped me add specifics and broaden the sources for what I had drafted–and revised and revised and revised. I’m in one of the most spiral writing projects of my life. The hope is that at the end, it still has a sense of linear progression through the argumentation!

Tomorrow, I’ll go through the 2013 interviews in the same way, as it seems to work; it is thorough though slow. I guess that is good for the process. Fortunately, I’ll have Jean’s and Marv’s critiques and then Knut’s final weigh in, to help me understand how to revise it again!

I have some summary charts too, but I’m not sure if they will be utilized. I’ll let Knut give guidance.

Three tangential tidbits:

1) The Norsk word for the day is gjennom (YEh-nom, or how I hear it) which means “through,” as through the street or through the mud puddle

2) What is the product in these cans?

On dog food cans, you find dogs. On cat food cans, you find cats. What’s in these cans?

3) I counted at least 3 hail storms today, then multiple times of rain and multiple times of blue sky!

You proved my pattern wrong! Saturday for the past 2 weeks had the lowest readership (again, I don’t know who). But yesterday, I had the 2nd highest readership yet with 28 visitors! Welcome!

Sunday morning started with getting to the bus to go to the International Church of Stavanger, which meets at MHS. It is a wonderful multi-cultural worship in English. When it was time for the children’s song, the front was filled with about 20 kids from many different countries. Anya said, “Wow! It’s the opposite of Cross of Christ!” with our few kids and limited ethnic backgrounds.

Some of the worship leadership team was hit with the flu, so we were encouraged to sing loudly, and we heard a guest pastor from Norway, who just returned from Myanmar.

After worship and some fellowship, we walked from MHS to the center of Stavanger via Gamle Stavanger (Old Stavanger), which is quite picturesque. To prove it, here’s the picture.

I saw in the paper that one of these houses is for sale, but I’ll pass.

At the harbor and city center, we stopped for a Sunday treat, Dolly Dimple’s pizza. For $38, we had a “large” cheese pizza (probably medium by American standards) and 2 sodas with free refills. However, we also had window seats with a great view of the harbor at a mellow time of day. (Things don’t seem to pick up on Sundays until about 2:00 pm.) Here’s the view to my left.

We will welcome friends here on July 2, as their cruise will port in Stavanger that morning. Then, it might look more like this:

Knut says that the cruise industry likes Stavanger because of the deep water port right into the center of the city. They don’t have to bus people into the town.

As I looked out the other window, a bit to my right, here’s my view of the Stavanger Cathedral from the restaurant.

As we sat and dined (and tried to get our $5.17 worth of soda with refills), the weather changed from sunny to rainy to light hail to rainy to sunny to more hail to sunny. The joke is that if you don’t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes. Being close to the ocean means changes in weather, a bit more milder winters, but also there is quite a bit of wind, which is biting cold in the winter.

We caught the #3 bus home–a new route for me. As we were departing from the downtown bus stand, it made sense as the bus stop is closer to our house than the #2 route. Typically, I take the #2 bus, because I get on it close to MHS. So it makes sense to stay on the same bus instead of switching buses, waiting for the bus in the cold and wet.

Since this was a new route, I wasn’t quite sure where to get off. Usually, there is a display and audio that goes through the litany of stops. (I practice my pronunciation–in my mind–against the audio listing each next stop.) So, I got out my phone to see the map. With GPS, 4G, and the bus app, I can actually watch the pointer move along the road. Unfortunately, I misread the small print and got of at Tornerosevein instead of Tronesveien. We had a 3 km (1.86 mile) walk that was a little chilly, but with a good view of the fjord.

We’re home and warm with left over pizza in our fridge. We had a good walk, in spite of the early bus stop.

Anya is back to school tomorrow. With her sickness and winter break, she’s only had 4 days of school since January 23!

Starting at the end of the day, we just finished watching A Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly. (Did you realize they played husband and wife in the movie Noah too?)

So, when I opened up my blog page, the “dashboard” has a graphic showing how many visitors per day over the last 2.5 or so weeks. I pointed out that Saturdays are the low days (which will be you folks). Now this became funny as John Nash’s schizophrenia in A Beautiful Mind is represented by his obsession with finding patterns. She’s not concerned yet, but I may be loosing a bit of touch with reality on this PhD journey. Good thing that Anya is here to keep me sane, obligating me to get out and about.

So, we did today. We walked to town and had lunch at McDonalds for $28. Norway is second place on the Big Mac Index at $6.30. It was #1 until the Swiss Franc was unpegged from the Euro in January. But if you are in Ukraine, you can get a Big Mag for $1.20.

http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index?fsrc=PS/cemea/ggl/gen/big-mac-index

Our walk about led to us discovering several shopping areas that are connected by skywalks. We did a bit of grocery shopping, as I need to keep a steady supply of small groceries that can fit in my backpack on the way home. Anya won in her appeal, and I bought Kinder Eggs, which are banned in the USA.

Lastly, we figured out how to recycle “pante” plastic bottles. It is estimated that Norway recycles 93% of all plastic bottles. A 1.5 litre bottle has a $.33 deposit on it, which is paid and then either refunded or donated to the Red Cross (and entered into a lottery). We donated to the Red Cross this time, but we didn’t win the lottery. (Is it really a lottery if you didn’t by a ticket, but were given a ticket as an incentive to donate to the Red Cross?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFxy1TgXMz8

More writing and less reading today for me, which focused on the Maasai worldview and hierarchical power structures, wrapping up with Kimaasai words and concepts for curse.  Eng’oki is where sin and curse are basically synonyms. That’s different from my worldview, where if I sin, I don’t expect some malevolent curse to strike my health and well-being, much less that of my family.

Anya finished an essay on sacrifice for her online English course. I couldn’t talk her in to do it on a Maasai sacrificial ritual to remove curses. Go figure.

At the end of the day, when there is additional bus fare (after 1700) and my mind is mush, we took off for Ikea. It is about 3 Km away, but not too far of my normal bus route. We had dinner and dessert. The menu is quite different from USA Ikea, as there is no chicken strips! We shared a chicken fillet cob-type salad and Oreo cake with sodas for about $15.

Fortunately, the rain had stopped as we walked about 1 Km to the big mall where Anya wanted to get some tapioca at the Asian grocery. Happy New Year, and welcome the year of the goat! We also picked up a few grocery items. I spent about five minutes contemplating all the options of honey, trying to figure out what everything means. I went for what I know and supported the Norwegian honey business.

Anya is being a good sport putting up with some very boring days on school holiday doing her online English course and some Netflix shows while I work. So, a trip to Ikea was a way to give her something to look forward to. Is it kind of sad when Ikea is the highlight of the day?

We were home all day. I only walked outside to get the mail. I now have my bank debit card. The PIN came separately, but it was in the same mail box, so I’m not sure how secure it really is coming “separately.”

I finished Once Intrepid Warriors by anthropologist Dorothy Hodgson. There were finally some glimmers of hope: 1) education in general, but especially for the women due to limited gender roles in a traditional society, narrowed even further by “development,” and 2) the opportunities for women to have community through the Christian church. These are over simplifications, but my brain is too tired to do more with them.

Then I read a paper by Fr. Gene Hillman on Maasai Religion, broadening my sources and some details. He had some more Kimaasai names for the Maasai creator, Engai, and specifics on blessings and curses. The examples written were in the blessings category, which is probably good that I’m not learning Maasai curse words!

I did a bit more writing, broadening my sources, and then started on Naomi Kipury’s Oral Literature of the Maasai. These are the stories that relay myths related to cosmogony and cultural roles of men and women, i.e., why women no longer have cows, relaying that they were too focused on their children and the cows wandered away. That’s why men own the cows. Hmm.

Anya was able to Skype with her friends, Annaliese and JaLynn, tonight. It is wonderful to have the ability to easily keep in touch and have a highlight to a long day of not much else exciting. She did finish her essay on a poem that she had to analyse for her online English class, and she is doing a bit of typing up quotes for me. She gets a bit of income, and I save time typing up quotes from books.

Anya’a classmate, with whom she went to the movie last night, is off in Bergen to discuss her upcoming confirmation with her grandparents. Confirmation is a rite of passage here, where youth get their bunad (traditional dress). They are quite expensive, often reaching $4,000! Here’s an example.

However, the traditional colors and designs are geographic specific. Here’s the bunad for our area, Rogaland.

And the young men get male versions:

Curiously, because confirmation is a rite of passage, even the atheists have a confirmation. I wonder what they confirm? (Atheists are called humanists here, which is an incongruity with too narrow parameters of this word.)