Month: March 2015

Off by bus to the Stavanger International Church. The guest pastor was from South Africa, currently living in England. So the pastor, Joeli, played the piano for the worship team. This Fijian pastor is a rugby coach (with massive shoulders) for the International School and used to live in the Seattle area I’m told. During passing of the peace, I met Lindsey, who is from BC Canada. After the service we talked more. She is in a social work masters which spends a semester in each of Norway, Sweden, Ghana, and Spain (if I remember correctly). Wow!

During the coffee hour (which they really do well with good food and interaction), I talked with women petroleum engineers. One was from Venezuela and the other was from Szechuan, China. The former was married to a Brit and the latter married a Norwegian.

We had been invited to Marta’s home for dinner (the American MK who grew up in Madagascar and married a Norwegian when she returned as an adult). Her daughter just finished her masters thesis for a school in Brussels in international migration. She’s had a summer job working her way up to supply chain/import & export for mostly the petroleum business contractors, so she’s hoping to do supply chain for disaster relief for international humanitarian organizations like Doctors without Borders or International Red Cross. Our host family also invited 2 other American expatriates, another, Kari, who married a Norwegian. Kari is a teacher in the ungdomsskole level, which is Anya’s level. She was so kind and gave Anya her phone number and invited her to call or email with any questions. The afternoon was just a comfortable time in a new friend context. It really was nice.

Marta drove us home so that Anya could go over to her friend’s home and work on a school project. We walked over in the rain. Anya could get us mostly there, but in housing developments where every house looks the same, it is great to have a smart phone with GPS and a map app! I left Anya, walked home, found the place on Google maps and found a more direct route for when I walked back to get her. I’m pretty sure I walked a 10K today (6.2 miles)–all in the rain. I’m glad for my rain pants and found a pair here to borrow for Anya.

I haven’t checked my work email in several weeks and was going to tonight, just as Anya texted to come and get her. So, saved by the text! I guess I need to view it and see if there are things I should be aware of. Sigh! Tomorrow!

With blessings,

Beth

Anya wanted to spend some more time exploring Stavanger yesterday. She likes the city with the mix of historical, quaint, Euro style, and shopping. She packed a lunch, and we headed in to town on the bus. (Remember, she is free on my bus pass on evenings and weekends!)

It was a beautiful day, with just a bit of chilly wind while we had our lunch at Valbergtårn.

This watchtower, built from 1853-55, is beautiful…

has a beautiful view of the harbor.

We explored the city and checked out several shops. We found the chocolate and candy store! We left with some candy but no chocolate!(I’m trying to limit its availability!) Though I did see a 4.5 kg (9.92 pounds) bar of Toblerone! (My favorite!)

Part of our exploration was learning where there are public toilets in Stavanger. Most stores, even multi-floored stores, don’t have restrooms. The malls aren’t as well supplied–or signed–as we are used to. We did check out the public toilet at the waterfront for 5 kroner ($.61), which was cheaper then when Anya really needed to go by the bus stand for 10 kroner.

We found some nice Norwegian sweaters at the thrift store, but we don’t have space to add stuff. There are some nice ones for about $25-37. We saw some great outdoor gear at the sporting goods stores. The high prices are a deterrent. However, if there is something that we really want, we’ll buy it during our last 30 days, as then we can submit receipts for reimbursement of the 25% sales tax. I have to figure this out though. I now have a Norwegian bank debit card with my fellowship stipend (just accessible yesterday). But the tax reimbursement has to go on a credit card in order to be reimbursed. Perhaps they won’t reimburse my Norwegian bank debit card?!? I’ll have to ask the tax office at the airport the next time I’m there, which will be next Friday to pick up my niece who will be visiting.

It was nice to finally have my debit card, as Norway is not cashless, but most transactions are done with debit cards. Even the offering at church allows for making a gift with a debit card! Instead of putting cash in the basket (checks aren’t used here), they go to the back with a card reader to make an offering! In Africa, there is a processional offering to the front with cash, but also often giving eggs, bags of farm goods, or even a chicken may be presented at the auction after church. Here, the processional offering is to the back with plastic!

With blessings,

Beth

Today, most of my day was spent with NVivo software for analyzing the transcripts of my interviews. It lets you code text with categories and themes for bringing together visually content from many documents (other media too, but I used it for transcriptions. It allows for close reading and analysis of the text (with multiple labels), and then to be able to compile them and recall them–and go back to the greater context–in a very intuitive way. Kudos to the engineers who made it very intuitive.

Anya spent most of her day with Edgenuity, her online English program. She was a bit overwhelmed from the week thus far and needed a day to decompress–though I pressed the Edgenuity.

Back at home Anya has chores that she does as part of our family that are just expected. Then, there are other chores that she does to earn some money. We don’t have as many chores here, but there are things that can be done to earn some money. This also lightens my load to work on my dissertation (as Jane Barr still hasn’t shown up to do my chores). So, Anya is now doing all the laundry and earning some kroner.

In the evening, we streamed Awakenings with Robert De Niro and Robin Williams on Netflix. So, we had an online day today. Tomorrow, Anya wants to go to Stavanger and walk around. She likes the city and there are things to explore. Though I have hopes that Anya and I will both have an hour or two of school work after breakfast.

Life continues (and my cough).

Anya was off to school and was the one designated to make the smoothie in Food and Health class. She received the invitation to her friend’s confirmation in May. That is cool. In PE, they played soccer and volleyball. Anya said she actually enjoyed volleyball (which I played in high school and have been eager to play with Anya, but she has avoided it). In soccer, she said she was one of the better players, but she intentionally passes to everyone–strong and weak alike–as she hates is when she’s playing with stronger players and they don’t pass to her.

I spent my morning reviewing my word counts in response to yesterday’s Maasai research group review and a few comments. I emailed Knut to seek clarification and practical guidance. We’ll meet on Monday after he’s back from Oslo. I was a bit discouraged after yesterday, but a bit of clarification helps.

So, I worked on learning NVivo software for qualitative research text analysis, which I’ll use to analyze my Maasai informants’ transcripts. Then, I reviewed all the transcriptions that are currently in Word to determine the categories and themes that I’ll set up right away. If I have a plan, then I don’t have to retrace my steps and do it again.

In the mid-afternoon, I took a break and walked with Anya to find the post office on the other side of downtown. She was sent a care package from the youth leaders at Newport Covenant. How cool! It had cards, a couple magazines, a journal, and a hand knit scarf for Anya. This is so thoughtful and comes at a great time.

The evening had more NVivo prep, as there is a free 30-day trial on the software, so I’m wondering if I can get it done in 30-days or need to pay the $120 for the student rate. A good analysis with NVivo should help chapter 4 go with greater efficiency–that is if I don’t take too much time learning the software! Let’s hope this pays off!

At the end of the day, I was figuring out Anya’s high school graduation requirements, as I need to email her school counselor and registrar about getting her registered for the fall. The good thing is that she’s ahead of the curve with earning credits!

Sweet dreams!

Beth

I took off for MHS right away, studying 1 Samuel 1:10-19 on my iPhone while on the bus. The Maasai research group does an hour of Hebrew together, so I prepare the special vocabulary, review some strange verbs (Hithpael with a metastasis), and practice verbalizing. I arrived and checked out the books from the library that were going to be discussed.

Holter, Contextualized Old Testament Scholarship in Africa (2008) and Kinoti & Waliggo, The Bible in African Christianity (1997).

I read a couple essays in Kinoti and Waliggo and took notes, and then scanned the other articles or chapters over the morning hours. After a quick lunch in my office, we gathered at noon. We are skyping with one of the research group who will be doing a post doc (her PhD is from Germany), as she has not received her visa yet from Norway.

We got through our Hebrew (relieved that I didn’t get verse 11 which was really long) and glad we didn’t get beyond what I had reviewed. Then Knut reviewed the books. I realized again how informed and connected Knut is. He’s been doing African study since 1995 and knows so much of the history and OT researchers. In a previous year, I had a question about John Mbiti, and Knut said, I’ll send you his email address and ask him. He’s a friend and just recently sent me a newsy letter about how his family is doing. John Mbiti is an icon in African theology!

The last of the 4 hours was a discussion about my chapter 3 which had been provided earlier. I was affirmed, but also given helpful insights to improve the chapter. Here’s the dilemma. Most people don’t know about the Maasai culture and social structures, but my paper is not an anthropological study. So, I have to draw upon the “existing literature” of respected scholars to give an overview of the culture and social structures, because my research is built upon an understanding that I have of the Maasai–not a complete understanding–but enough to have a deeper and more authentic dialog. So, I need to get my readers up to speed. But it can’t be too many pages, or else, it isn’t my dissertation. So, basically, it is too long and needs to be edited. The part that I believe is least strategic for the research question was a part Knut asked me to add. So, I’ll ask about what he things about deleting this added section. It was good that I wrestled with it, but it doesn’t add much.

During the session, Anya arrived, having taken the bus from Sandnes. She hung out in my office and then we walked around downtown Stavanger. Anya thinks this is cool. I do too. There is an interesting mix of 1000 year old history, 150 year old buildings, modern buildings, and cosmopolitan life and shopping, with a picturesque waterfront with a varying display of ships. When summer tourist season is in full swing,  the harbor will be filled with cruise ships and the waterfront will be filled with street-fair booths.

Anya then joined the youth of the Stavanger International Church. There are only 3 teenage young women all 13 and 14. They are going through the Youth Alpha Course. She enjoyed it, and it was good to have time with youth in English and in a youth group setting which is comfortable. The international panorama with just 7 people (a couple parents too) was stimulating–even for Anya.

While she was in the session, I was in the lobby looking at the TIME magazine to get caught up with news when my PhD student colleague, Marit, showed up. We know each other from 2012, and she is a warm and endearing woman. Most Norwegians would not be described like this, and while I have the pleasure of other colleagues at MHS who are wonderfully kind and gracious, there is something about Marit. She is a Salvation Army pastor and trained spiritual director, so there is an empathy from her soul. We had an enriching conversation, where I found out about a prison ministry that she started 2 years ago with another pastor (male), where 8 men go on retreat for 21 days to a retreat center. The men are loved and nurtured and come back transformed. They continue meeting monthly for a year. The prison staff have commented that not only are the prisoners transformed but that they start to change the ethos of their groups. Amazing. She has her 3rd retreat starting June 8, so put it in your prayers.

Anya met Marit at the end of her session, and it was great to meet a Marit. Anya chose this name for her Norwegian camp last year. Now we know that Marit means pearl.

I’m tired. I’m humbled by Hebrew. I’m challenged by the re-revision of chapter 3. My cough hasn’t totally gone away, and it seems in the evenings it rears its ugly head. Yet, I’m renewed by conversation with Marit and the lilt that returned to Anya’s step this evening.

With blessings,

Beth

Today, Anya was off to school. Her art teacher appreciate’s Anya ability to sew! It almost feels that Anya has become one of the teacher’s pets. However, she still misses Miss Colleen from Tillicum Middle School–a great art teacher!

I worked on Hebrew in the morning, as the Maasai group is an Old Testament group, and Knut wants to make sure we’re all keeping in the Hebrew text. He realizes that the Africans will go back and be OT teachers at a seminary with their PhD or postdoc, and thus, they will be expected to teach Hebrew. So, Knut wants to help prepare them. How wise!

I hope I prepared enough verses. The Old Testament vocabulary is so large and there are many words that are only used a few times, so they are not in my standard (read limited) vocabulary–like razor. We also read aloud, so I want to keep honing my reading skills. There are so many little marks (pointing) and some marks look identical but have different sounds or some are vocalized while in some situations they are silent! Hebrew keeps me humble!

I am reading a 1979 doctoral dissertation written by a Dutch Catholic priest who worked about 14 years with the Maasai. I scanned most of his dissertation from the archives page by page in 2012 at Makumira Seminary in Tanzania. Now, I’m putting them together in a document per chapter, but if you’ve ever worked with OCR scanning, it isn’t very accurate. I can make it work for my purposes, but it is cumbersome. Then, I have to glean a little from a lot of stuff. His dissertation is sometimes ethnography and sometimes a collection of songs/prayers/blessings, and sometimes like a travel journal. He does add some insights (a bit too much detail on the male circumcision ceremony) and corroborates my Maasai informants and other anthropologist sources–with just a couple things that I wish were not divergent.

Anya and I took a break with the Project Runway All Stars finale. A good distraction and something fun to talk about. Afterwards, I asked her which of the final 3 designers she would want to design a collection for her. She wanted the 2nd place designer, Sonjia. She would be easy to work with too!

Hey folks, anyone interested in trying out recipes online that are purported to taste like a Chipotle chicken burrito? If you find something, please let me know! I like their medium salsa. Any “tastes like” recipes around?

Sunday morning started with a cup of tea and writing some personal emails as the sun shone over the hills on the other side of the fjord. Then we took the bus to church, while Anya gave me the update on her time with her school friend watching the Eurovision competition. This is a big thing in Europe. Here’s the Wikipedia description:

Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and radio and then casts votes for the other countries’ songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world… (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest)

Anya said that she got her friends to laugh, as she in jest asked if the Vatican City submits and entry. The others thought it was hilarious thinking about the pope or the cardinals singing! Who knows, Pope Francis is great at connecting with the people!

It really is a joy to worship in an international church with so many countries represented. There was an African girl–about 4-years-old–who was moving to the music so freely with hand motions that looked like they came from an African choir, like I see in Tanzania.

After the worship, we had tea with one of the few Americans, who is helping me learn practical ways to support Anya in her language immersion experiences. Marta is from the US, but live part of her childhood in Madagascar, returned after college as a missionary, and fell in love and married a Norwegian agricultural specialist. Now they live in Norway. They were gracious to offer a ride home, driving past the ships in the Stavanger harbor and then down the fjord to Sandnes. What a blessed koinonia connection.

Anya and I went out for lunch. We learned that the “lunch menu” at the steak house is not available on Sunday, so we had a dinner that was about double what we experienced on the lunch menu, and we actually liked our lunch menu options better. I guess we are not very fancy people.

It was a nice day to get out and walk, so I sometimes feel silly taking a Sunday afternoon nap, but after staying up late to walk up and get Anya and walk her home, it was good to get a nap.

The rest of the day was some planning for travels and visits. My niece and colleague are coming in a couple weeks, so we’re getting our heads around a visit. It will be Holy Week, so there are some holidays from school. Some things will be closed for the holidays and some tourist things will just start up again. Fortunately, there are some good tourist brochures, websites, and information offices, but it is humbling hosting people when I barely know the options and don’t have a car.

I’ve thought of renting a car if needed, so I spent a bit of time of my Sabbath looking at Norwegian traffic rules. Do you know that almost every intersection that isn’t a round-about is an uncontrolled intersection where a car coming from the right has priority (unless marked otherwise)! It seems weird that what feels like a more major thoroughfare does not have the right of way but has to stop to let the car from the right enter. In addition, drivers are almost militant in stopping for pedestrians! So, drivers have to be very attentive. Finally, Norway has a very strict alcohol with a 0.02% limit. The guideline is not to drink even a sip and drive–or not to drive for 12 hours having a drink! The road signs are very different too.

Check out the wikipedia page! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_signs_in_Norway

With blessings,

Beth

It’s Saturday, but I’m trying to chip away at this dissertation. I’m revising chapter 3 with the notes from Knut’s critique. He would like to share this chapter with the Maasai research group, so I hope to have it done tonight to email the PDF to the group. Then they can have time to read the pages prior to Wednesday’s meeting.

After lunch, I took a break and walked with Anya down to an apotek (drug store) that had Burt’s Beeswax cuticle cream. This is a British chain, as the Norwegian chain doesn’t carry the cuticle cream. We stopped and picked up some groceries, which was our most expensive grocery shopping yet at about $60. As I only buy what I can carry, it usually is about half of that, but with Anya and some hospitality chocolates to buy, it tallied up.

Anya picked up some more yarn as well, so she has something to do while she is listening to her online English course videos.

The weather was a beautiful spring day with crocuses showing their colors around the town.

I did some online bill pay, a bit of cleaning, and back to plodding along on the dissertation.

Anya walked over to a friend’s house as there is something about the Eurovision competition that is being televised. Thus, the chocolate for the gathering. I’ll find out more about the music and gathering on our walk home. She’s going to text me to walk up to the area where her friend’s house is, and then walk back together. I better load more money on my cell phone (“mobile”) just in case. I recently received a text that I was running low on kroner. (I had to cut and paste the Norwegian message into the Google Translate app to be able to figure it out!)

Plodding along,

Beth

This morning I took an earlier bus to MHS for a library orientation for new PhD students. While technically, I’m not a new PhD student, it has been over 3 years since I had a library orientation, so I figured I could use some help remembering and learning what is new. This session was informative and helpful. And there is a new online search program, with some new features. Have you had access to a “virtual shelf” where you can see the titles/authors (and book covers for some) which would appear on the physical shelf next to the searched book.

And it is good to have a personal connection with two of the library staff. One used to teach immigrants at Anya’s school, so she’ll be a good one to network with for ideas about how to support Anya in her language learning [or with whom to network {for Elenn’s sake}].

One of the “new” PhD students. Marit, is one I know from the Philosophy of Science course I took in January 2015. She was also renewing her library acumen. We were chatting a bit, and part of this was my “I’ll never be James Barr” (see Feb. 25 blog) spiel as we have to cook, clean, and take care of the children as well as work and do a PhD. We were pondering if our increasingly egalitarian society will limit these mono-dimensional people, who only have to focus on their work as they have a servant spouse/wife at home. Then Marit relayed that in Norway, intellectuals (like James Barr) aren’t really highly valued. There is a higher value on pragmatic work that benefits the greater good. I find this extremely fascinating, which I will be pondering for a long time. I think she said that this is what my adviser, Knut, said in this introductory PhD start up course, so I want to chat with him about this. (Knut is also the Prorector for Research.) We meet on Monday, as I laid out some pragmatic questions about my dissertation after the qualitative research course this last week.

One related issue to the Norwegian value of pragmatic work is also the Norwegian value of egalitarianism. So, when a student here is conferred with a PhD, there is no formal “dressing ceremony’ like Oxford University has. According to my friend, Beth with a D.Phil. from Oxford, you aren’t really finished until you go through the “dressing ceremony” where you come out of a room in your academic regalia (the fancy robes with the velvet swatches on the sleeve and the fancy hat that isn’t a mortar board). Like these faculty.

In Norway, there is no academic regalia, as that isn’t very egalitarian, and now I know, it also is contrary to the Norwegian higher value on pragmatic work for the greater good. (Now we could argue, did intellectuals like Newton, Einstein, Marie Curie, Alan Turing, and Rosalind Franklin, not have a huge impact on the greater good?!?)

Knut says that they have had to develop some sort of regalia for some students from Africa, as some are expected to have this visible sign of status within their culture.

A final note on a pragmatic value I have. On that night when I met Jane Barr at the Oxford Reception in November of 2007 (see Feb. 25 blog), I also met one of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) professors, Dr. John Day, who is the world’s leading expert on Molech (the idol to which they sacrificed babies). You can read his book on this, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament (1989). While a curious topic, I realized that I wanted to research something that has some significant value for the church today beyond scholarship, since sacrificing babies to idols is not done. (If you want to argue about other kinds of human sacrifice to other kinds of idolatry today, the cognitive leap is too wide for scholarship, but an underlying principle of the sacredness of life could be found. However, this principle would be found in other texts that would be less oblique.) I’m grateful for these scholars (my bibliography!), and have come to know the brilliance of a few personally. However, my research endeavors to build bridges of understanding across cultures on biblical texts. In light of all the ethnic and religious conflict, I do hope to contributed to the greater good by demonstrating the value of learning from other cultures, helping to develop better methods for doing so in biblical studies, and strengthening the intercultural relationships within the church.

Plodding along,

Beth

Both Anya and I were home today, doing school work at home. Anya needed a day to de-stress from all the immersion, and do some work on her own pace.

I worked through understanding what was written about 3 early encounters with the Maasai, including German missionary Ludwig Krapf (1810 – 1881) in 1854; Scottish explorer Joseph Thomson (1858 – 1895) in 1885-19002; and British explorer and colonial administrator Sir Harry Johnston (1858 –1927) in 1902. The most intriguing is Thomson’s. (Here’s the link to the full text: https://web.archive.org/web/20050425150608/http://www.geocities.com/olmorijo/thomson_preface.htm). Note, this is definitely a colonial mentality and not so politically correct in dealing with the “savages.” But it does give a sense of an early Indiana Jones-like adventure.

A walk to the grocery store for some vitals (Nutella, peanut butter, Wheetos cereal, and milk) gave me a bit of exercise. I went to my bank to see if my PhD stipend had been deposited yet, but it was closed at 4:25 pm and the ATM had only a Norwegian interface. So I took a picture with my smart phone, came home to Google translate, typed in the Norwegian words to learn the translation, and then I made electronic flash cards on Brainscape. This iPhone app and internet website syncs in the cloud, so I don’t have to type all these words into the iPhone. Now, I know which word to choose to check my balance!

With blessings,

Beth