Month: May 2015

Anya’s school had some home assignment, so Anya did some online English while I went off to school. (Actually, I let her sleep in as I went off to school).

We had a Maasai Research Group seminar, so I got in to talk some things over with Knut, finish getting material from inter-library loan books before turning them in, finishing a couple articles in the assigned reading.

One of the most powerful things I’ve read in a long time was a narrative essay by Rose Teteki Abbey called “I am the Woman.” If I can find a link I’ll attach it later, but I came up empty handed tonight. I did find a review:

Rose Teteki Abbey, in the first essay, a poem titled “I Am the Woman,” personalizes the stories of the Samaritan woman, the woman caught in adultery, and Mary, the sister of Martha (23-26). Clearly a piece that should be acted before a live audience, the poem presents Abbey’s interpretation of how these three women felt when confronted by Jesus. She weaves them into one woman, ending with the keen insight, “Religion that enslaves us is false. / True religion gives us freedom!” (26).

We gave a mock presentation of what we will share next week when our Maasai theologians fly in from Tanzania.

My colleagues hadn’t heard my research project laid out before and a bit about my story that led me to this project. So, it was good to be able to share it and get a couple helpful comments to strengthen the content in a couple areas. They were quite gracious, but perhaps it was because I’ve been bringing chocolate to our seminars!

The road construction is done! So now the #2 bus goes right to my school! This is awesome for rainy days (though today was good). I’ve also figured out which other buses I can take to get me around that area. I was going to try to hit a sale on Merrel light hiking shoes, as I’ve worn out a pair of heels with all the walking, but it would have taken 3 buses coming from the north but only 1 tomorrow coming from the south. I picked up some milk, cereal, fruit and a phone voucher at the grocery story right on top of the bus terminal. I finally figured out that this is the way to do a quick shopping and have the least amount of walking with an additional bag of groceries (taking the #3 bus).

Sometimes, I’m feeling like I’m getting in the groove, but I know that soon something else unknown to me of this culture will surprise me! This is a cross-cultural life!

With blessings,

Beth

Anya was off for a football (soccer) field day. There was no school, just several games over the class time. Anya played for her class, but she didn’t feel she played her best. I comforted her saying that it is hard to play your best when you haven’t built a sense of team, that you know how to bring out the best in each player that you play with. She said they play a bit differently, so she just tried to get open and pass well if passed to. Fortunately, it didn’t rain the whole day.

My almost 80-year-old neighbor is amazing. He is so agile on the scaffolding and capable with the construction and painting. This Norwegian stock is “go get ’em” with a “can do” spirit.

I’m  plodding along on the dissertation and some preparations for a seminar for the Maasai Research Group next week. Knut is flying in two Maasai theologians for the event. Dr. Parsalaw is the Vice Chancellor of Makumira Seminary at Tumaini University Makumira. Then Rev. Lemburris Justo is a pastor at the Arusha church and the director of the evangelist training program in Oldoinyo Sambu. Justo and his wife, Janet (who won’t be coming), are good friends I’ve known since the early 90s, so I’m looking forward to seeing Justo. Justo is also very thoughtful and articulate, so I’m sure I’ll continue to learn from him.

So some of my day was preparing for the presentation I will give and the handouts. I’ll provide the table of contents of my dissertation, the first chapter, and the bibliography. I figured out how to have the Nota Bene software generate the table of contents and even an index. These come in handy as then I don’t have to manually do this, but I will go through and sort the index for key concepts instead of every word (since there are to be 100,000 words by the end).

I saw in the newspaper today that they expect 143 cruise ships in Stavanger this summer! Wow!

My understanding that the cruise ships don’t generate too much tourist revenue as their meals are all provided on the ship, so it is just those who are interested in spending money on gifts and souvenirs.

I discovered that the port posts the schedule!

http://www.stavanger-havn.no/cruise-traffic

Here’s a picture from last Friday when a ship was in the harbor when we got back from our Pulpit Rock hike. The white awnings have Norwegian sweaters, carvings, and swag

My highest readership thus far came yesterday with 85 visitors, but most were not linked to an IP address with a location. I’m guessing that my friend Kathi is logging in multiple times to boost my ego thinking I have numerous readers! (I only can see which towns visitors are coming from but not who, but I know that Duluth is my parents checking up on me. Hi Mom and Dad!)

With blessings,

Beth

Ok, I’ve rewritten this page twice, once yesterday and once today. Something seems a bit off with the site. Oh well…

So, highlights from yesterday were from the Syttende Mai (17th of May) Constitution Day celebration.

Oda came to have Anya braid her hair, and then they were off to walk in the children’s parade with their school. In Norway, 9th grade is middle school, so they are in the morning parade. I then went down to watch the parade just about half a mile from our house.

The rallying of the community in a traditional celebration is awesome.

I’m guessing about 80 percent of the women and girls were in traditional bunads (see even the toddler in the white bonnet!). Perhaps 30 percent of the men and young boys, and less of the youth were in the traditional bunad.

Each area has a style and color. Rogaland’s (our area) is black. I’m glad it isn’t the split pea soup green!

After lunch, I joined Anya and Oda for a bit at the local primary school. The community was out for some carnival games (pounding nails is included, but I’m not sure the meaning other than tradition).

Anya and Oda watched the afternoon parade while I paid bills and did some research–staying warmer and dryer.

In the evening, we watched Sister Act 2. Amazing music with lyrics right from the hymnbooks!

Today, Anya wasn’t feeling well. Actually, she said she wasn’t feeling good yesterday either, but she didn’t want to miss the festivities. So, today, she stayed home and worked on her online English course. This is the last week for it, so she is pushing through to finish up in spite of being very frustrated with the repeated content (the fourth time she’s been taught the MLA citation, which she got the first time), slow paced online video lectures, and some nebulous exam questions in the “choose the best answer” format. She’ll be glad when this course is over. Then, she’ll be going her own pace through the second semester of Algebra 2, which she actually enjoys!

I had to be the backpack shopper and go out to get some more ibuprophen for Anya, as well as a few groceries. I plan my shopping times based on the precipitation forecast.

My work today included Hebrew translation from 1 Samuel 2. Fortunately, we are back into narrative after finishing the poetry, which is difficult to translate but fascinating. When I told Anya about parallel motifs in Hannah’s song and Mary’s song, The Magnificat, Anys said, “You mean Mary plagiarized?!?” (Yes, Anya has the citation bit down!)

I do some writing and revision in spurts and mix things up with Hebrew and reading to keep my brain from getting too fatigued. Our group reading for the Maasai Research Group is a collection of essays on womanist writings (African women’s feminist perspective). There is some powerful and moving writing, some thought provoking, and some way beyond orthodoxy. We’ll have much to discuss on Wednesday.

With blessings,

Beth

I’m having website troubles, so here’s a short posting and more will come when things are working properly.

Anya and Oda marched (really walked) in the parade this morning, representing their school.

More pictures tomorrow!

 

Today was filled with PhD revising. It is a metaphorical mountain, steeper than yesterday’s hike. But things are coming together better, bit by bit.

I took breaks for laundry, a walk to the grocery store for milk, and preparing food. We had homemade pizza for dinner.

Anya was very productive for her online English course, as she is still catching up from getting behind when we went to Sweden. But she’s progressing too.

She had some time with Oda, who came over to help her get the bunad all set for tomorrow’s parade and Constitution Day celebrations. If you’re in the Seattle area, you can join the 20,000 people who check out the Syttende Mai parade in Bothell.

In the evening, our brains were tired, so we watched Sister Act 2. It is interesting how in the mid-90’s young women could wear baggy pants and it was cool.

Today, the baggy pants are only on guys. Our neighbor is doing some repair on the side of his house, and one of the guys helping him has such baggy pants, he almost lost them. It seemed to be a safety hazard going up and down the ladder when the crotch of his pants was at his knees. In contrast, our neighbor, Gunnar, is almost 80, but you’d never know it. That’s him on the top of the roof! He’s doing most of the work too! This is the view out the window by my desk, so I was a bit distracted by Mr. Baggypants.

Notice the grey skies and jackets. Today was not very nice. But yesterday was!

Here are more highlights from the hike to Pulpit Rock yesterday.

Norway is beautiful!

With blessings,

Beth

 

 

Much to my disappointment, Anya doesn’t like to hike. However, she asked to go to Pulpit Rock, Preikestolen, in Norsk. She figured that if she lived in Stavanger and never went to Preikestolen, she would be ridiculed. I’ll take any motive to get out hiking with Anya.

The day started at a normal school day time. After breakfast, we caught the bus to the Stavanger Sentrum (central area) and walked less than half a mile to the ferry terminal. The 40 minute ferry ride was beautiful as the sun was shinning and not a cloud in the sky. Then a 20 minute bus ride to the base of the trail, with some of the drive along picturesque water front homes and sheep farms.

The hike was beautiful! The weather was gorgeous!

This is misleading, because most of the hike was uphill, with some very steep parts on a rocky trail. At the steep parts, I had to concentrate on my foot placement and was panting too hard to think about getting the camera out. The trail had many big rock stairs along the 5 km. (3.1) mile route up to 604 meters (1982 feet)–though we started at 270 meters.

And because there were a ton of people on the trail, there was always an effort to either pass or be passed. And this is on a Friday, though it is a holiday weekend. This hike gets over 200,000 visitors each year. I think I read in the Stavanger Aftenblad (newspaper) that last year it got 400,000.  It is one of the most visited sites in Norway. Crazy. At the top there were perhaps 200-300 people alone. maybe more.

When Erin and Karen were here in early April, we were considering going the first opening day on April 2. But then we heard it was still icy. We walked over snow fields today, so it would have been very difficult with ice on the rocks.

It was stunning from the top, which is a sheer drop of to the fjord below.

You can get a glimpse of the east fjord view over my shoulder–and a small representation of the people on the top.

I’ll be adding more pictures of our hike tomorrow, as I’ll be studying tomorrow with not much (probably) to say.

I’m tired. Off to bed early I think!

With blessings,

Beth

This is Kristi Himmelfartsdag, a “bank holiday.” So, it is celebrating the ascension of Jesus Christ, but they call it a bank holiday, meaning the banks are closed. Unfortunately, the pronunciation in English sounds like the female name, Kristi, followed by himmel farts dog, not very edifying.

I did some emails, some PhD writing on curses, and some yard work in the lovely sunshine and perfect temperature in short sleeves. The lawn is mowed. A few more weeds are pulled.

Here’s the humor of the day. Anya even laughed. It is a parody full of biblical scholarship stuff.

• “I Am the Very Model of a Biblical Philologist,” A biblical- and ancient-Near-Eastern-studies–themed parody of “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” from The Pirates of Penzance. Lyrics, musical arrangement, and vocals by Joshua Tyra, ⓒ 2011. Music by Sir Arthur Sullivan, original lyrics by William S. Gilbert.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x2SvqhfevE

The link today is that I was looking at interpretation of an Akkadian cuneiform text in Tzvi Abusch, “The Socio-Religious Framework of the Babylonian Witchcraft Ceremony Maqlû: Some Observations on the Introductory Section of the Text, Part I,” in Riches Hidden in Secret Places: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Memory of Thorkild Jacobsen, Tzvi Abusch (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisebrauns, 2002). Here’s a quote:

“More specifically, I would suggest that here in Maqlû we are dealing with a social compact or contract directed against hostile and destructive behavior. It probably required obedience and loyalty to the divine, governmental, and social authorities and structures. But most of all, it prohibited behavior of anti-social seditious nature…”

Yes, this gets tied into my work.

Tomorrow is off as well, so we’ll go hiking at Pulpit Rock! There should be some good pictures tomorrow!

With blessings,

Beth

Off to school for both of us. Anya brought her laptop to work on the online English course and some of her own Algebra 2 work, while her class took their math test. As Anya isn’t getting graded here, it is more profitable to work on what she needs to do.

I was reading Fernando Segovia’s book, Decolonizing Biblical Studies, and putting some notes into my PhD software. He has some good things, but I have some critiques, so I was looking forward to our conversation about it in the afternoon.

There was a special lunch today of Thai food that was delivered. There was a staff meeting about the pending merger of 4 small church-related schools into one larger school. We PhD students didn’t have to attend (but we did get the food) as it was in Norsk. Knut gave us his take on the plans, yet to be approved by the owners of MHS–the Norwegian Mission Society. He said it is practical, and amazingly, no one has expressed opposition.

The afternoon was spent in Hebrew translation, then discussion of Segovia’s book, and then some review of Zephania’s and Hoyce’s research projects. They are coming together. I brought some Toblerone chocolate from my passing through duty free shopping in the airport on our return from Sweden. I also had some beaded trinkets for everyone: keychains for Zephania and Knut, with Knut getting the little replica of the elder’s talking stick–like a scepter of authority, and little Maasai mama beaded earrings for Hoyce. It was fun to see her wearing them!

I stopped off at the big mall on the way home, as tomorrow is a bank holiday, so the stores will be closed. I finally bit the bullet and bought a hot water pot. The one here has been leaking if there is more than 1 cup of water in the pot. So, while this has been leaking since we came, I figured that this would be a gift to our landlords who have been so gracious with us–such as letting us wear their traditional Norsk costumes.

The photos today will be a couple more pictures of our home–the dining table. Yesterday’s picture of the sitting room is the place where I’m standing for this first photo, with the table in the distance.

So, a good day with the Maasai research project, but not much for visuals for you. Enjoy envisioning us at the table eating our Wheetos cereal for breakfast or having homemade pizza for dinner.

With blessings,

Beth

I was  able to stay home and work today, which gave me more time at the computer. Things went fairly well putting a few pieces in place where I knew were gaps.

Anya returned from school with a commentary on a Swedish motivational speaker they had today, walking about 3 miles round trip to the venue. The speaker spoke in Swedish, which most Norwegians can understand. Anya could grasp some but she’s not sure. If accurate, the speaker was comparing Scandinavia with the United States, highlighting things that Scandinavia did better than the USA–like wait for it–handball!

So, if you want to redeem the USA on the global handball scene, get out and practice!

The bad news about productive research and writing days is that there is not much that is photo worthy. Here’s the view from my bedroom tonight, which Anya commented as being pretty.

The other thing that can be of interest is more house photos. I provided living room photos, and the last one was a southern view with double doors to the sitting room–or something like this.

I don’t really know what a sitting room is, but this is not the living room, so I’ll call it the sitting room. I’m taking the picture from the dining area.

Off to sleep.

With blessings,

Beth

 

First the wet, and then the beautiful–Anya of course.

I almost missed the bus this morning, as it arrived early. But thanks to a person buying a ticket on board, it was delayed enough for me to sprint to the bus.

It was raining heavily, so my pants got a bit wet walking/running to the bus, but they got quite soaked on the front on my walk to school after getting off the bus. I have remembered rain pants on other days, but I rushed out the door to get the bus and didn’t think of it until it was too late.

Fortunately, there was enough time until chapel to have them dry enough so they didn’t look wet though they still were slightly damp.

In chapel, we sang the  wonderful hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” which was an encouragement for me. The line “all I have needed Thy hand hath provided” reminded me of God’s Providence in the past. So, why should I doubt it for the challenges of this PhD journey? Though I mostly, question my diligence as there is always more to do and often I just have to make life work here with laundry, walking to grocery stores, online bills, etc.

I picked up two books that came in on inter-library loan.

• Toorn, Karel van der. Sin and Sanction in Israel and Mesopotamia: A Comparative Study. Studia Semitica Neerlandica. Assen: Van Gorcum, 1985.
• Tzvi Abusch, “The Socio-Religious Framework of the Babylonian Witchcraft Ceremony Maqlû: Some Observations on the Introductory Section of the Text, Part I,” in Riches Hidden in Secret Places: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Memory of Thorkild Jacobsen, ed. Tzvi Abusch (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisebrauns, 2002), 1–34.

Crazy huh!?! Fortunately, I don’t have to read the whole books, just a few pages in each.

I worked at MHS until the rain subsided to a sprinkle and walked to the bus. Anya was home and made dinner, while I worked some more.

Earlier in the day, Anya called me at MHS and asked if I would email Rebecca, our landlord, and ask about borrowing a bunad (the Norwegian traditional dress) for Sunday, the 17th of May or Syttende Mai celebration. Previously, they offered, which I would have never even considered as they are cherished and expensive! But Anya’s friend is encouraging her to wear one on Sunday. So, I asked–with all the clear language that they could say no.

With a prompt reply and generous affirmation, Rebecca gave me location of all the accouterments. Anya was so eager, she tried it on.

It is an amazing fit! It’s lovely. Now we have to find an iron. We could ask Rebecca, but that would be admitting that we haven’t used an iron in over 3 months. Nothing like travel clothes and wrinkle resistant fabric!

With blessings (and wrinkles),

Beth