Kaleb came to me with tears in his eyes today saying he wants to move back home NOW. He had a tough day on the playground and as he said, “It was the last straw.” I guess he’s been the object of discrimination in the past, and today it just hurt too much. Apparently several kids team up to play games at recess and in the past when he’s asked if he could join in, he was told “no” for various reasons – none of them justifiable and all quite unfair. Once it was because he was in 4th grade and all the kids playing were 3rd graders, so they didn’t want him to join. Once it was because it was kids from Class B in 4th grade playing together and he’s in Class C and they didn’t want him… but today it was because he isn’t “Norwegian.” He even argued and said he is 75% Norwegian by blood, but they excluded him anyway because he wasn’t born here. He was devastated and he just cried and cried as he talked about it. It gave me a good opportunity to explain to him what prejudice is like and how sad it is to be discriminated against for the silliest thing like skin color or where a person is born. I felt terrible for him but I promised that God can use that experience for good and someday he might meet someone who is discriminated against and he’ll be able to empathize and say he knows how it feels. He agreed to forgive the kids and to focus on positive things at school rather than dwell on the negative. He did say none of the boys from his little circle of friends have ever excluded him, so that was good. Then he comforted himself after our talk by typing up his ideal school schedule for when we get back home. I know he’s looking forward to being homeschooled again, but this is why we came here. He needs to experience life.
Kory went to work today, against my better judgment. He was still hunched over in pain from over-extending his back, so I’m pretty sure he was thinking of his bosses and their obligations, not his own comfort. I’m just glad he didn’t hurt it worse today, but he’ll probably be on the couch for a few more days. He is so “old school” here in Norway, as it seems employees nowadays look for any opportunity to call in sick. There are such generous policies here for any and all kinds of conditions that it’s amazing this country produces a thing. Today in class we had a big discussion about maternity leave and how the all new fathers are now “forced” to take four weeks off after their baby is born. Women MUST take nine weeks off, with an option to take up to 11 months off with full pay (or 12 months off with 80% pay) if they so choose. The discussion was on whether or not the government should force these policies on people or if people should be able to choose what they want to do. The government is set up a little different here in Norway – the citizens never get to vote for anything other than who their politicians are. There is never a vote given to the people over any policy or law – it’s all decided by the politicians after MUCH discussion on the topic, which is reported in all the papers on a regular basis. So rather than realizing how incredibly lucky fathers in Norway are that they get a month off with pay, they complain about the fact they don’t get to choose to do that – that it’s forced on them. Too funny. And now the politicians are talking about four weeks not being enough and they may increase that up to three months in order for the fathers to bond better with their children. I think it’s odd however, that they want all this bonding time with the parents to their baby, but then parents must put their child in daycare (even if the mother isn’t working outside the house). The government feels strongly that all children should be in the “system” from an early age so they learn how to be socialized. They didn’t like it at all that foreigners were keeping their kids home until they went off to school – and the kids couldn’t speak the language properly, nor did they know how to behave, so they say now that all kids must enter daycare at age one. And there really are discussions now among the politicians as to who should be most responsible and given more authority for raising the children - the government or the parents. Scary stuff.
Well, we got answers today to a few things we’ve been unsure of, so it seems we’ll be heading back home in mid-August. When school is out we’ll be able to take a six week road trip to visit relatives in southern Norway, then go on to see Denmark, northern Germany, Prague, Belgium and Holland before driving through southern Sweden and hopefully visiting friends on the way back to Aalesund. We need a few days in Aalesund to say our good-byes and then we’ll fly home around the 10th of August. Our house sitters in Mount Vernon will be leaving sometimes after the 17th of August, so we’ll hang out in Seattle (and maybe Montana) with friends and family before we plant ourselves back in Skagit County. I’m sure we won’t want to leave home, once we are back there, so we need to get all our visiting done before then. At least now we know what will happen. We had so many uncertainties but now things are falling into place and we have a plan - but we’re totally open for anything God might do to change them, however.
Kory went to work today, against my better judgment. He was still hunched over in pain from over-extending his back, so I’m pretty sure he was thinking of his bosses and their obligations, not his own comfort. I’m just glad he didn’t hurt it worse today, but he’ll probably be on the couch for a few more days. He is so “old school” here in Norway, as it seems employees nowadays look for any opportunity to call in sick. There are such generous policies here for any and all kinds of conditions that it’s amazing this country produces a thing. Today in class we had a big discussion about maternity leave and how the all new fathers are now “forced” to take four weeks off after their baby is born. Women MUST take nine weeks off, with an option to take up to 11 months off with full pay (or 12 months off with 80% pay) if they so choose. The discussion was on whether or not the government should force these policies on people or if people should be able to choose what they want to do. The government is set up a little different here in Norway – the citizens never get to vote for anything other than who their politicians are. There is never a vote given to the people over any policy or law – it’s all decided by the politicians after MUCH discussion on the topic, which is reported in all the papers on a regular basis. So rather than realizing how incredibly lucky fathers in Norway are that they get a month off with pay, they complain about the fact they don’t get to choose to do that – that it’s forced on them. Too funny. And now the politicians are talking about four weeks not being enough and they may increase that up to three months in order for the fathers to bond better with their children. I think it’s odd however, that they want all this bonding time with the parents to their baby, but then parents must put their child in daycare (even if the mother isn’t working outside the house). The government feels strongly that all children should be in the “system” from an early age so they learn how to be socialized. They didn’t like it at all that foreigners were keeping their kids home until they went off to school – and the kids couldn’t speak the language properly, nor did they know how to behave, so they say now that all kids must enter daycare at age one. And there really are discussions now among the politicians as to who should be most responsible and given more authority for raising the children - the government or the parents. Scary stuff.
Well, we got answers today to a few things we’ve been unsure of, so it seems we’ll be heading back home in mid-August. When school is out we’ll be able to take a six week road trip to visit relatives in southern Norway, then go on to see Denmark, northern Germany, Prague, Belgium and Holland before driving through southern Sweden and hopefully visiting friends on the way back to Aalesund. We need a few days in Aalesund to say our good-byes and then we’ll fly home around the 10th of August. Our house sitters in Mount Vernon will be leaving sometimes after the 17th of August, so we’ll hang out in Seattle (and maybe Montana) with friends and family before we plant ourselves back in Skagit County. I’m sure we won’t want to leave home, once we are back there, so we need to get all our visiting done before then. At least now we know what will happen. We had so many uncertainties but now things are falling into place and we have a plan - but we’re totally open for anything God might do to change them, however.
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