A Wonderfully Calm Day

The news of today is that there is no news – Hallelujah. Nothing bad, nothing new, just the same ‘ol, same ‘ol and that’s just fine for me (oh, the dollar is dropping so that’s not so good). We did have an incredibly gorgeous day that started out with frost on the ground but ended up feeling like summer. The sun was shining so brightly that even the tulips and daffodils started popping up out of the ground. The sun set after seven tonight and woke up before I did this morning, so the winter has past and everyone is smiling again.

The Good Teacher Inga has been in Oslo for two days so we’ve had Astrid, a “vikar” (substitute). Yesterday Astrid played the song “Cat’s in the Cradle,” but it was in Norwegian and it wasn’t Harry Chapin singing it. I usually can’t understand the words when they play Norwegian songs, but this one was easy because I knew it. Today Astrid played a Norwegian song and she put the words up on the overhead so we could follow along. It was a song about a Norwegian man’s dream – and the dream consisted of leaving this “bad country” to spend a winter where firewood or electricity were not needed, sitting on a warm beach in Spain sipping wine. It was funny for me because my dream has been to come here – and his was to leave. It’s terrible that human nature always wants what we don’t have (like my eternal desire for straight hair.) Astrid also wanted us to have a discussion today about the news, but none of us wanted to talk about it because it was all so terrible. We wanted to talk about good things, so the conversation ended up revolving around Norway’s very generous social programs and just how much cash they dish out for all kinds of things. Norway’s unemployment insurance pays 70% of a person’s salary and their pension program begins at age 67 for everyone (whether they have worked outside the house or not) and the minimum amount is about $25,000 per year. If they worked a lot and made a lot of money, they get much more than that. (I heard U.S. government officials were here last week seeing how Norway “works” as they want to model some of Obama’s programs after Norway’s.)

It’s good Norway has so many basic things paid for by their taxes, because it makes up for how incredibly expensive other things are. My neighbor, Lizbeth, rides the same bus with me in the mornings into the city. This morning she showed me the silver she has been buying (as she can afford it), that attaches to the belt of her bunad (traditional Norwegian costume.) Each piece of silver looks like a large broach and the design on it is patterned after the Art Nuevo buildings in Aalesund, and there are some dangling gold fobs hanging below it. I asked how many pieces are required for the belt and she said, “It depends on how thick you are.” But the cost for all that silver, plus the belt was almost a thousand dollars. I nearly choked. I found out the linen blouse that goes with the bunad also costs nearly a thousand dollars. And today in class I found out the cost to get a Norwegian driver’s license is about six thousand dollars, so it’s a good thing people here don’t need to save for retirement, pay for their medical insurance and expenses or their children’s education (there is also no property tax here). It shocks me every time I hear the price of things because I just don’t go shopping, except for food. I’ve gotten very good at not even looking at how much food costs or we would surely starve because it’s hard to buy things when I see how expensive they are. But it is what it is, and it’s all part of the experience. I’m just glad God provides for what we need so we can live here.

I went to The Praying Women’s luncheon today and skipped the last two hours of class. We had another incredible time of soaking prayer. The hostess’ sister was visiting from south of Bergen so I prayed for her (at their request) and God just gave me the exact words she needed to hear as she started crying as I prayed. I have no idea what the “deal” was, but I am glad I prayed and that prayers change things.

When I got home Kaleb and I walked to the grocery store (while Kory made dinner) talking Norwegian all the way and he made his first play on words in Norwegian. He is excellent at playing with the English language so it was fun to have him transfer those skills over to Norwegian. The word “bra” in Norwegian means “good.” And just like in English, we say, “very good” (veldig bra) or “really good” (kjempe bra) - they say those same things. So Kaleb said (I’ll translate), “I have heard of “veldig bra” and “kjempe bra”, but I have never heard of “algebra” before. I thought that was funny.

(The photo today is of a typical “husman’s” home from 100+ years ago – where the poor folks lived on the farm.)