2017.02.08: Catching up

First, happy birthday, Jean! My life is so blessed by your life! I celebrate your birth! Here, they Swedes say that “you filled a year!”

In the cycle of life, I was saddened to hear of the death of an amazing Swede, Hans Rosling, who passed away from pancreatic cancer yesterday in Uppsala.

This native of Uppsala inspired me with his visual statistics — and witty humor — that could make complex issues in global health and global issues interesting and understandable. Check out his short TED Talks.

http://www.ted.com/playlists/38/hans_rosling_5_talks_on_globa

I’m catching up after a few busy days.

On Saturday evening, I hosted some friends to meet my sister, Elenn. We did a very non-Swedish thing as I put them to work to make Chinese dumplings (jiao zi). We had a nice evening, but I’m glad that Elenn was up to all the chopping to prepare.

On Sunday, after church, Anya and Elenn went to Stockholm by train. They visited the ABBA museum and saw a bit more of this amazingly beautiful city. Then Anya came back to Uppsala after seeing that Elenn got to her train to head 3 hours south-west to visit a Swedish friend who she knew from language study in Pakistan. I worked on my paper, and then preparing to host Knut and Lena for dinner.

Knut was my excellent PhD adviser, and he still continues as an advocate for me. He recently recruited me for a co-editor position for a book that is being compiled on a series of essays on classical religious texts in global contexts. It was good to see him and catch up.

As a student for an institution in Norway, I was forbidden to give gifts to Knut. However, one time I saw an old 1806 map of Africa when traveling in London, and because I know he loves old maps, I bought it for him — not remembering I couldn’t give gifts. So, I kept it and thought I would give it later. I ended up hanging it in my office. Then, earlier this week in Stockholm, in the old city, I found an even older map from around 1770. These were printed in books and hand colored. I bought it for him as a thank you for all his generous support and all I learned from him.

He became animated describing some of the unique features of old maps of Africa. The coastline is well defined, but the inner parts of the continent are mostly unknown. There is no Lake Victoria, though Lake Malawi is fairly defined. The names and boarders are totally different. It was fun to see.

After they left, I realized one more thing to add to my paper! Papers are never finished, they just come to a place where one has to stop because of a deadline.

Monday morning was bustling. Over 100 people showed up for the day that went from 9 am to 9 pm to honor the retirement of my predecessor, Loe (his nickname), after 40 years of service at JTH! The papers went from 9:30 am until 5:30 pm.

Lena is the colleague that I met through a mutual friend, another Beth. We all together have shared a hotel room at Society of Biblical Literature conferences. (Yes, it is geek-camp for adults in fancy hotels). Sharing a room makes with 3 others is not only more affordable, it is quite fun with all of us teaching Old Testament and sharing a wacky humor. Lena is a thoughtful and careful scholar with a command of Hebrew that I only dream about.

Knut was next. He studied how Bible commentaries wrote about Africans over the past hundred years. He demonstrated so clearly how one’s context influences what what sees in the text and interprets it.

I spoke after lunch. Amazingly, I had some extemporaneous funny comments. I wrote on the differences between the Jewish and Christian translations of the Hebrew word “torah” into English, using Exodus 24:12 as a representative text. Most often (91%), Christians translate this word as “law.” However, 84% of the time the Jewish Publication Society translates it “instruction” or “teaching” and only 9% of the time is it “law.” (There is also “ritual” which fills the remainder.) To give context, I looked at other translations: the Greek translation (the Septuagint, a couple years before Christ), St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate in the 4th century, Martin Luther, and since we are in Sweden, I compare two of the most common translations, which translate the word as “lag.” So, I clarified, that this means “law” in English — “to help the native English speakers!” They laughed, because everyone there — except me — is fluent in Swedish!

Tuesday morning: After morning meetings (I’m facilitating some conversations regarding collaboration between my Norwegian PhD institution and Johannelund) and getting Knut to the airport, I met Lena in the center of Uppsala.

We stopped for “lunch.”

I said goodbye to Lena and went to pick up my sister at the train station, who returned from her trip down south. I worked from home in the afternoon, while Elenn packed for her departure this morning.

Elenn treated us to pizza at a nearby (walking distance) pizzeria that we had not yet visited. But with a 4:00 am taxi arrival, we didn’t stay up too late.

Wednesday (today): I’m tired, but I’m trying to catch up on some work. I also head to Ethiopia on Saturday, so I need to prep for travel. I just found out that my travel partner will not be traveling, as her 90-year-old father is in the hospital and not doing well. I’m not anxious about travel, as I will be picked up at the airport, it just would have been nice to have a veteran traveler to Ethiopia shepherd me this first time. Keep her father in your prayers.

I wanted to get out a post to the grandparents before things got crazy, but I may not be able to return to regular posting. I do expect to have some internet access in Ethiopia, so I hope to send some pictures and tell a bit of the story of my journey.

With blessings,

Beth