Month: March 2015

Off to school for the both of us. The 9th graders were back from their high school visits. I attended the last half day of the qualitative research course. This last day was on analysis, which is where I am in the process. In addition to strategic information, I found the professor’s presentation fascinating with both a reflection on his work in Cameroon and an integration of several of the theories he incorporated. This included a discussion on grounded theory, which is more of an inductive approach versus deductive. It was an interesting example of archival work and fieldwork integrating theories for compelling outcomes. The results are in his book, Communication and Conversion in Northern Cameroon: The Dii people and Norwegian Missionaries, 1934-60, Leiden: Brill 2009, 244 p.

PhD students gather at couches for lunchtime fellowship. There were only three of us today, but the conversation was interesting (for us) as we discussed liturgical reform in the Lutheran church in Norway, Tanzania, and the USA, the representative countries of us three PhD students. While it may seem ho hum for many of you, consider the “worship wars” that many churches went through. Then add the Norwegian Lutheran church, which until about 2 years ago, was a state church. Pastors are still paid by the state, but so are the rabbis, imams, and others. The liturgy is to be honored with a close following in every church which has its pastor paid for by the state. Thus, no contemporary worship allowed! In Tanzania, the Pentecostal movement is exploding, so the influence upon the Lutheran church is significant. However, the Sunday morning liturgy is again followed conservatively, while evening prayer services are developing in some Lutheran congregations which have a charismatic feel. (Charismatics are Pentecostal in style but remain within their non-Pentecostal denomination, like Lutherans and Roman Catholics.) So, fascinating for me, but I realize not for all.

Anya continues to be immersed in Norwegian language learning. I can’t imagine the challenges of language learning with the expectation of understanding content in so many different classes. Imagine all that vocabulary!

With blessings,

Beth

Off to school! Anya’s class had 5 males and 2 females today, as it was the day where most of the 9th graders go off and check out high schools. From what Anya tells me, students here have to apply to their preferred high schools. This was a day to go and visit them. So, it was a mostly do what you want day. Afterwards, Anya did some of her online English course.

We went to the big mall for a dinner and groceries. Anya has been missing Chipotle, and today it was renewed yearning after trying a Mexican restaurant. Our small chicken burrito and chicken enchilada with 2 sodas came to $43 at a restaurant where your laminated place mat is the menu, one orders at a counter, and picks up food when ready at another counter. (I can’t figure out if a tip is required at these places!?!) We’ll stick to making our own Mexican food at home.

Today’s lectures on qualitative research were done by two women, who both are fluent in three languages. The anthropologist is lecturing in English, which is her third language, after Norwegian and Malagasy, as she grew up in Madagascar. The other did her PhD after living in Thailand for eight years.  I can’t imagine teaching any level in a second language, much less a PhD lecture in one’s third language. Out of the whole group in this English-medium course, I am the only native English speaker. (Though I did have some sort of a mild-British pronunciation from my early days in Hong Kong. When I was 6 and we moved to St. Paul, they sent me to speech therapy to get rid of my funny speech.)

All the gaps have been working on revising chapter 3 of my dissertation. I made some “drinking chocolate” in the appropriate mug.

 

With blessings,

Beth

Anya walked to her school, and I bused to my school. I walked right off the bus, hung up my coat, found the room, sat down, and things started. My day was filled with a PhD seminar on qualitative research for theological PhD research. There were about 8 of us. The introduction was review for me, as I read about this to fill this knowledge gap. However, I was able to ask specific questions from the anthropologist expert pertaining to my research during the break.

The lectures continued after chapel and a staff lunch time with the weekly announcements (mostly in Norwegian), except to introduce the Australian guest lecturer in systematic theology. The afternoon’s qualitative research lectures were more helpful for me, as there was more discussion about the analytical and theoretical phases, which is where I am now. There was also an introduction to nVivo qualitative research analysis software. This is the real reason I wanted to participate. I was a bit disappointed, as I believe that I can do this with my Nota Bene software with Orbis key words and searches. However, the nVivo software is much more friendly with a pleasing interface. So, it wasn’t the cosmic software I was hoping for.

Anya went with a friend and a her friend after school to a park in the area. Fortunately, there was no rain today–at least this afternoon. Now it is raining heavily and very windy. Sandnes is the end of a fjord (though a small one), and it seems that fjords act as wind tunnels channeling the wind through the steep-sided trough. (Since my elementary days on the prairie of North-central Montana, I have come to be annoyed by wind.) Here it is windy enough that I have to sleep with earplugs to not be awakened by the powerful gusts.

For dinner, I made pot-stickers (actually the steamed ones, but I don’t know how to transliterate the Chinese words). I had planned to make them for Elenn, as part of the pork hospitality, returning pork into her diet after her 2 month forced fast in Pakistan. But with being sick and some other special events (including Elenn actually cooking), the pot-stickers didn’t get made.

In the evening, part of my work was picking out Maasai names to give to my informants. Anonymity is required by the Norwegian research regulating body, but today in the seminar, it was suggested that a fictitious name is preferred to informant #7 or informant X. I wanted names that had acceptable meanings, so I didn’t end up with a name meaning “son of the witch doctor.”

I’m also informing some friend in Tanzania that Anya and I will still be coming this July. My home church’s mission team has had to cancel the travels for this summer and postpone them to 2016 due to some serious health and family issues. However, Anya and I had already purchased our tickets, with plans to meet them in Amsterdam and fly down together to Tanzania. So, we’re figuring out plans for our time there and the people that we want to visit. We will make sure to attend our friend, Pastor Nangole’s retirement celebration.  However, other plans are up in the air. Perhaps there will be some connections for Knut’s Maasai research project, but we are still pondering about this recent vacated time.

With blessings,

Beth

For Elenn’s last day, she offered to take Anya and me on a fjord cruise. We had actually scanned the calendar, and this was the open day after my return to health and after the PhD seminars. Previously, we looked at the forecast and thought there was a chance it wouldn’t be raining all day. So, I notified Anya’s teacher that she wouldn’t be in class, and we bused to Stavanger.

We arrived and found out that we were the only three pre-registered, and they require a minimum of 15 to go. We were talking with a couple from London, and together counting the passengers. At 10 minutes to departure, we were up to 13. So, we were thinking about buying extra tickets to make it go. Fortunately, enough showed up, and we took off.

We had amazing weather! Blue sky with just a few clouds, requiring us to dig out our sun glasses. (I was hopeful and packed them). We ate a picnic lunch on board with wonderful scenery.

The 3-hour cruise included a pause at the base of pulpit rock, one of the most famous tourist hikes, with close to 400,000 visitors each year! The 1096 foot elevation makes it a nice hike in about 4 hours round trip. (I plan to do this in early April when my niece visits. Right now the tourist trips aren’t offered during the off season.)

At the end of our trip, we visited the beautiful Hengjangefossen (waterfall).

We got so close that the crew could collect this pristine water for us to drink.

We got right underneath!

And got wet!

Even on our way back to Stavanger, the clouds started rolling in, and a light rain started. How fortunate to have the stunning blue sky on most of our cruise! We headed home, stopping for a bit at some tourist shops, and Elenn cooked dinner. (For those that know Elenn, this is truly a miraculous transformation in the past 6 years!) After dinner, we watched Becoming Jane, with Anne Hathaway, portraying Jane Austen in this biopic. Then, Elenn finished her packing.

We were up a bit early for a 7:30 am pick up by Tina’s husband, Alessandro, and youngest son. We are so blessed by this family! Tina was off with her oldest son at a judo competition, but made sure we had a lift to the airport.

After being dropped off, I went in with Elenn, and because of a bad knee, she had wheelchair accommodation. I was able to go through security and be with her right up to the gate. Though, we made a detour through duty-free and picked up some Skittles for Anya. We haven’t seen them in the shops outside duty-free.

I took the bus back home reading some Maasai ethnography, continued with laundry, catching up on emails, and walked to the store in the rain with bottles to recycle. (About 2 grocery bags of non-collapsed bottles was redeemed for $6.10). To and from the store, I ventured out trying new roads (including the Edvard Munch road) and paved footpaths. I’ve learned to wear rain pants for these outings, and despite the rain, I saw some beautiful and colorful houses with some nice views of this fjord, which ends at Sandness.

Wow! My last post was March 1. A lot has happened in the past few days, so here’s the news.

Monday, March 2: Elenn started me on antibiotics, as she was concerned about bronchitis. The cough began to decrease (I’m almost 100% now). I felt well enough to take Elenn to the petroleum museum in Stavanger. I learned a lot! Elenn said it was “boring” (note the drill bit in the photo). You may also benefit by knowing that Elenn loves puns. I call it punishment!

On the way back to the bus, we stopped at my favorite tourist store in Stavanger, and Elenn picked up gifts for her family. I helped her find–and talk her into–a beautiful Norwegian sweater on the sale rack! It was a good deal. We finished watching The Hundred-Foot Journey and really enjoyed it (though I recognized the cultural dimensions were simplified, i.e. no clear religious references.)

Tuesday, March 3: Elenn and I went to visit a family friend, Miriam. She is still in her home on an island just north of Stavanger. It is connected by a bridge and the bus goes close to her home. Miriam brought out her wedding photo album, where my mom was maid of honor, my dad to the photos, and we saw a picture of cute Elenn in 1969 (and the back of my head). Miriam was Elenn’s favorite “auntie.” In the evening, I took Anya to the mall to do some grocery shopping, and she found an amazing price (even for Norway) on some black jeans that fit her. Elenn didn’t go as she wasn’t quite well.

Wednesday, March 4: My first night of sleep with more than 4 hours in a row! I actually slept 9 hours and felt like a new person! I went off to a supervision with Knut. He critiqued my chapter 3. He is so gracious in his critique, but he is very constructive and descriptive as to how to strengthen the argumentation. I feel so blessed, especially after an afternoon of a PhD seminar. At the seminar were 22 people, and 10 were from outside of Norway (Ethiopia, Madagascar, Brazil, Tanzania, Romania, Germany, USA, etc.) The keynote speaker was Harald Hegestad from Oslo, who has been working with empirical research in theological studies. I have read a short book on this, but I learned more on the rationale, benefits, and limitations during his presentation than the book. There was some good conversation too, which helped see the application for various students and their research.

Then two students presented some of their research, which was then critiqued. The first one had a bit of a harsh critique. That’s when I was so grateful to have Knut, as Knut helps guide his students with more than what some of these students are getting. So, they are not focused (4 research questions is unwieldy, Knut honed me down to one in my first month) or using the right approach for the research question. It was nice to interact with many PhD students, and Tina brought me home at about 9:00 pm to collapse into bed.

Thursday, March 5: The seminar started again at 8:15 am, but I couldn’t help get Anya ready for school and be there on time. I joined at 10:00 and heard 2 paper presentations with critique. One woman is doing a PhD project on the confirmation programs in the  Makane Jesu Church in Ethiopia, where she is from. One church she interviewed had the smallest class of 50 and the largest class of 700! Can you imagine a confirmation class of 700! Yes, Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing Lutheran churches in the world! Currently one out of every five Christians is in sub-Saharan Africa. By 2050, it is estimated that this will be one of every four!

After the seminar, the Maasai research project met for 1 hour of Hebrew Bible reading from 1 Samuel 1. Then my sister, Elenn, arrived to join us for the discussion of a book on the history of development in Maasailand. (Yes, Elenn made it on her own by bus!) After this Maasai discussion, Knut opened up the missionary museum and showed us some interesting things, but more importantly, gave us a bit of narrative of the history of the Norwegian Mission Society. At one time, the NMS ran the postal service in part of Madagascar as a service to the people. Knut is showing Elenn the NMS postage stamps.

We bused home, talking with the head archivist, who knew of my father’s work with the Lutheran Literature Society for the Chinese by name and newsletter! What an amazing mind. The MHS has one of 2 private archives which are supported by the government of Norway for the cultural and historical value. They ave 400,000 photos from these remote former “mission fields” going back to the late 1800s, so some researchers come to look at the photos. Knut said even those studying climate change compare the environmental changes from these photos.

Then we ended up meeting the head archivist at the bus stop and riding with him about 10 minutes. He stated that many of these photos are being archived in a joint project with Yale and a few others, which are stored at UCLA. Crazy! This little school in an impressive network!

Elenn then offered to treat us to dinner. Anya walked downtown to meet us at the mall close to the bus stand. There is the Big Horn Steak House in the mall which had a lunch menu that served late (dinner menu in another area). The food was reasonable for Norway at $18-22 an entree, and they all were very well prepared. My steak sandwich was beyond my expectations, so I was quite pleased. This was my favorite tasting meal I had since arriving, though other meals with friends have been cherished for their camaraderie.

 

After 5 days of poor sleep, I’m hopeful that this will be a good night. However, I was not well enough to go to church this morning, but Anya was wonderful and willing to be the guide to take my sister, Elenn. The plan was to go to the “Mexico” restaurant in the harbor area afterwards. Anya misses Chipotle more than anything else, so this was at least a hope of something Mexican. The website review called it “Norwegian Mexican,” but Anya doesn’t like things too spicy hot any way. However, it wasn’t open, so they went to another restaurant. Elenn had a great steak!

I stayed home and rested. I spent some time on the computer researching what tourist attractions are open in the off season. Then if they are open, what days, and then what hours, and finally, what’s the entrance fees.  Later, I got dinner ready. After coming from Pakistan, I’m trying to provide some form of pork each day, after a 2-month pork fast. However, tonight it was Persian chicken soup.

Elenn was cleaning out some things from Pakistan and brought some travel games, so after dinner, we played Othello, learning the game along the way. Anya one the first game, and then because there were two boards, she played two consecutive games with Elenn and me. The outcomes are unknown, as we paused the games.

We closed the evening streaming the movie The Hundred-Foot Journey. 

We got just to the critical part, and I stopped the movie to get Anya to bed. This is a great movie! It was tough to stop, but it is a school night. We’ll finish tomorrow.

Then I Skyped-in with my church’s mission team. We’re returning to Tanzania in July. This is our third trip, and the majority have been one or two times already, which is a testament to how meaningful our pilgrimages have been, as we share–and deepen–relationships with our hosts. It really is a blessing for us, and because we keep getting asked back, we seem to be a blessing too.

Oh, this one didn’t get sent! I found it in the draft folder

More Maasai today for me, with some Oral Liturature of the Maasai, which has been preserved by Naomi Kipury. I can only take so much of these, which I relayed to Anya mid-morning as she was working on her tapioca recipe. She asked why, so I relayed one to her about the crow who wanted to marry a woman. I paused at one point, and Anya prodded me on, so there was something going for this story. But by the time I finished, she had addressed so many of the same issues I had, like: Why didn’t she just climb down the tree and run away? How can a crow look like a human?

I read up on anthropological, historical, linguistic, and archaeological theories of the expansion of the Maasai from where and when, as well as different theories of ethnicity.

There was a bit more writing, and a contact with Jean and Marv, who are willing to read and critique the Maasai section. They know the Maasai and good writing, so it will be good to face their challenges.

Anya did some cooking and streaming Netflix.

I learned from NPR today that there are plans to make a new MacGyver series. Yea! We love MacGyver. But in the new series the lead will be a female. NPR was wondering if it would be an Indian woman, as there are so many engineers coming out of India! I found it interesting that MacGyver is big in many places in the “majority world” (formerly third-world, formerly two-thirds world), because his problem solving was done not with high-tech gadgetry, but with what is available and duct tape. Hey, Marv, they are inviting ideas from anyone all over the world to submit ideas. The top 5 get to collaborate on the pilot episode! I’m busy, otherwise, I’d suggest MacGuyver meets Monk in a female lead. I love the “community” concept of Monk where each person’s gifts are needed to bring out the best (and overcome the weaknesses) in the other.