We three–Anya, Erin and I–were picked up by Melanie (originally from Curaçao, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Southern Caribbean)…
and Joseph (originally from Zimbabwe), and we went to church at the Stavanger Internatioal Church. In addition to the regular worship music, there was special worship music led by the Romanian church’s worship team. In addition to the sermon by the Fijian pastor, there was a sharing by one of the Romanian guests. While good, it did become a long service, especially for the little ones.
After the fellowship time, where I hung out with the Ethiopian students from MHS, we went to Joseph and Melanie’s home back in Sandnes for dinner, where we were joined by Denise (African American who married a Norwegian), and later her husband. The food was good, but not the typical American ham for Easter! We had rice with a lamb stew, garlic and onion chicken, an original cheesy-potato dish, sweet pea pods, and a “greens” that I’m not sure what it is called, but it was good. Dessert was ice cream with a mixed berry sauce with the coconut candies that we brought as a hospitality gift. Yum.
The conversation was–from my perspective–interesting with moments of awkwardness, as it was theological. Denise is also a PhD student at MHS (comparing OT Passover with NT Eucharist), so plenty of theolgians. There was one other who was fairly opinionated with broad-sweeping generalizations. It became a long afternoon for the non-theologians.
On the way home, Joseph gave us a driving tour of the east side of the fjord around the hills. There was a bit of fog, so the view wasn’t as amazing as our hike in this area last week, but we saw new parts of town we hadn’t seen before.
We returned home, and Erin packed up her things. Later, I prepared a light dinner and scheduled a taxi pick up in the morning, as the buses aren’t running on the Easter Monday holiday. Erin and Anya had a fun time with her giant Kinder Easter Egg toys from the inside.
Monday, Apr 6:
On Monday, the taxi arrived, and I joined Erin on the trip to the airport, to give her a good send off. Then, I walked the 10.4 kilometers (6.5 miles) home, but made it in 1 hour and 50 minutes, instead of the 2 hours and 8 minute estimate.
It was quite foggy at the beginning. I couldn’t even see a plane taking off, though I was right next to the airport. It got a bit less foggy, but the moisture helped me see a cool spider web.
I showered, did some laundry, napped, folded laundry, and caught up on emails while Anya did some of her online English course.
This evening, Anya had an invitation to see the Sandnes Ulf soccer game with her friend, Oda. The home team’s stadium is really close to Anya’s school. They tied–and there was no rain or no cold wind.
While Anya was at the game, I plowed through my Trinity email after delaying this for more than a month. It isn’t life-giving.
However, Anya is life-giving. Great Anya quote: “I bet the women’s fashion industry sells us clothes with small pockets so they have to sell us bags. You can barely fit a piece of lint in there!”
I still have highlights from Bergen to pass on, but it will have to be another day!
With blessings,
Beth
Anya has an excellent point! Men’s pants, shirts and coats are more practical for carrying things yet still not bulging too much! The weather here has turned from Spring back into winter with temps of 2-8 C and rain. We had to dig out our coats again. Thank goodness we still had a heavy comforter on the bed. It’s quite like Seattle here, actually. But there they will have spring where here we will likely jump right into summer. Sigh.