Back Home Again

(Our sidewalk)

Kaleb was up hours before he had to leave for school today, which was good since he finally had enough time to make his own breakfast and lunch.  He was off without incident, ready to be back in school and to meet up with his friends.

I had a long list of things to do like laundry, grocery shopping and preparing for this weekend.  We are borrowing a friend’s cabin and five of Kaleb’s friends from school will be sleeping over night in it, along with us and two guests from America.  I had to use some quiet time today to think through everything I’m going to need to take along, and how to organize the days we will have six lively boys with us.  I had to make several trips to the store to get food, as I know food just disappears when boys are near.

Kory helped me get some things ready as I’m pressed for time.  Tomorrow is Ascension Day, which in Norway, is a National holiday so everything will be closed.  We have guests coming for dinner and we’ll be gone all day, so I had to prepare some things ahead of time.  Such is life.

Kaleb called me after school and told me he and Andre were going to ride their bikes over to Daniel’s house – which is a long way from where we live.  I love the fact he can be so far from home and I don’t have to worry about him.  He called later and asked to spend the night, so he’s back into his very active social life.

Our car was supposed to be ready this morning but there was a problem with one of the parts that got installed on it, so it had to be redone.  We were without wheels all day but now we can go get it in the morning and pay later.  It’s good to have friends that own car repair shops. 

We were invited out to dinner tonight to Inger’s house (Cousin Odd’s ex-wife).  She had a little dinner party and wanted her friends to meet us so we were there all evening (until midnight!).  We told lots of stories and had a nice visit with her friends.  I was especially pleased to meet one of her friends who volunteers at my favorite thrift store.  She recognized me right away.  I went on and on about all the great finds I’ve gotten there and she asked me what kinds of things I like.  I told her, and she said she’d keep an eye out for stuff for me, since she receives in all the stuff and sees it first.  Woo hoo!  Talk about having the right connections!

Another friend of Inger’s was surprised to hear that Kory was the one that painted a Norwegian flag on the bus stop in our old neighborhood.  She walks by there all the time and when she heard him tell that story she said, “So you’re the one that did that!”  She looks forward to seeing it every time she passes by.  She also listened intently to Kory telling the story about our old neighbor when we lived in that neighborhood, how he used to dump his cut grass on our lawn and how he stole a downpipe from our garage one day.  Kory went on and on about this guy and when he was done, she said quietly, “He’s my cousin.”  Kory felt terrible.  It’s a small world and around here, you never know who is related to whom. 

One of the guys there tonight didn’t say much but we told stories about Kory’s old childhood friend Ole-Petter and when we were done he said, “I work with him.”  It’s not six degrees of separation around here – it’s more like one.

I told everyone tonight how patient I thought Norwegians are, as demonstrated by the fact they NEVER honk the horn at anyone.  In Israel, it’s just part of the way they drive.  They use the horn more than Americans do, but in Norway I’ve never heard a horn honk once.  They are so polite, or so I thought.  I was informed tonight that it’s against the law to honk the horn.  Well, that explains it.  There’s something new I seem to learn everyday about this land.  Some of it strange, some of it not.  Sometimes it keeps me awake at night, but now it’s late and I must sleep.

Work, Work, Work, Crab, Crab, Crab

Today wasn’t much fun at all. Everyone was crabby for one reason or another, even though the sun was shining and the day couldn’t have been more beautiful.


We went to visit Tante Ruth first thing this morning and she was all worked up over a few things and cried and cried on Kory’s shoulder. I felt horrible for her. The sisters are all spatting over little things and now the one that’s been helping her pay her bills, won’t do it anymore. Ruth is helpless and doesn’t know what she will do since she can’t see. Kory prayed for her but I told him he should offer to help. He wouldn’t do that because we are leaving soon. Poor Ruth. I’m not sure what the solution to that problem will be.



We used the rest of the day to shop for things we still need for the condo, like a bunk bed for Kaleb, a hallway mirror, and a kitchen sink faucet. We finally had to special order a bed for Kaleb that is ten centimeters smaller than the standard size, but it was our only option because his room is so small. Fortunately for us, it was on sale, as was one of the mattresses, but I have a sinking feeling the double sized bottom mattress is going to bite us in the butt. In a country where just a shower head can cost a thousand dollars, I never know just how much money can be spent on a single item until I get to the store. I thought two hundred bucks was too much for a kitchen faucet though, so I might have to live with the one we have. Shopping around here is so depressing, unless it’s at the second-hand store, but there are just certain things that can’t be found there, unfortunately.



The condo is getting closer to being done and the way we want it, but I think we’ll be working right up until the time we leave, doing things to it. I would so like to go climb a mountain or just get out and go for a walk on a day like today, but the to-do list took precedence. It took Kory several hours to install window locks on our bedroom windows this evening. He wasn’t happy about that. While he was grumbling, I was unpacked more boxes that I had previously set aside. At least I had a place to put things, so I’m not as crabby as Kory.



When Kaleb got home from school today he insisted on playing with his friends before finishing up his homework or practicing his piano. I wouldn’t budge on that one, which caused him to flip a lid. He pitched one of his little fits that he does sometimes when he doesn’t get his way. I held firm. He calmed down. He did well on his piano and science test and off he went on the bus up to his friend’s neighborhood. I don’t know why he just doesn’t get that he isn’t going to win when it comes to certain show-downs.



After dinner tonight we took the ferry across the fjord to meet up with Kory’s childhood friend, Ole-Petter. (Today’s photo is of the fjord we crossed. The foreground is all wild blueberry bushes.) Ole-Petter is loaning us his cabin this weekend so Kaleb can have his friend’s sleepover. He wanted to be sure we remembered how to get there and to go over a few things with us at the cabin. Kaleb is really looking forward to this because the cabin has many secret hiding places and passage ways, which make it fun to play Hide and Seek. Kory nearly wiped the sleepover off the calendar today because of the way Kaleb was behaving earlier, so I hope nothing more happens between now and then.



Ole-Petter told us we can buy a pre-loaded ferry card that gives a discount on the passenger rates and takes half off the fee for a car. I thought it sounded like a good idea, so we bought one of those cards tonight as we often have to use the ferries around here, being that Aalesund is on a peninsula and a ferry is required to go practically anywhere. I was a bit shocked, though, that the card cost nearly five hundred dollars. Fortunately it doesn’t expire, but I had to swallow hard on that one. One trip to Bergen in the car, however, will cost at least five hundred dollars in ferry fees there and back, so now it will be about half that. There’s something “good” to think about so I won’t start to feel crabby, too.

Second Day of Pentecost

I still don’t fully understand why today is a national holiday in Norway, but nonetheless, it’s called the “Second” day of Pentecost and no one had to work. I’m not sure the Bible mentions what happened on the day after Pentecost, but I still love that all of Norway’s holidays (except for two) follow after the Christian calendar, even if most people don’t know what Pentecost means. Last Friday my teacher had me explain it to the class, as she wasn’t sure its meaning either.

Because Kory and Kaleb didn’t get back from fishing last night until midnight (it was still light as day), we all slept in. We have adjusted to the Norwegian calendar… they are all up past midnight and no one is out and about until after ten in the morning. Such is our life when we don’t have school.

Kaleb was out the door right after breakfast to go play with his friends but I was home all day cleaning house and preparing dinner. We had a BBQ for our Bible study group as a way to finish out the year and to say goodbye to Emmanuel and Ledto (the couple across from Kaleb) who move to southern Norway next week. We were studying the last chapter in the book of James and we got into some very interesting conversations because of it. One of the scriptures was about being patient in suffering, and I admitted I don’t really know what suffering is, compared to what the first generation Christians had to endure with all their persecution and torture. Then it occurred to me I was sitting in the same room with people from Africa who had been jailed for their faith! Three out of the four men in our group have been in prison. Emmanuel spent three months in a shipping container sitting out in the scorching sun all day because he is a Pentecostal. Only one small window was cut out of the side for fresh air and he was only allowed to leave it for a few minutes twice a day to relieve himself. God’s grace got him through he said. Another man in our group, Beyene (short sleeved white shirt), said he was in prison for political reasons, because he opposed the ruling party. He was put in a very tiny room with 20 other men and there was only space for a few at a time to lie on the floor and sleep, so they had to sleep in shifts and the others had to stand. He was there for three months. He said four or five in the prison were taken out and shot every night, or men were pulled out and randomly beaten. He was spared both, but lived with the fear it would happen to him every day. He said every man there welcomed death because their conditions were so horrible. Then Lawrence, the one in our group from Sudan (green stripped sweater), said he entered Norway with false documents so they locked him up for 35 days waiting to verify his story. He said the prison in Norway was like going to a country club. He said the bed was made fresh with clean sheets and blankets. New clothes and shoes awaited him. He had the best food in his life. He was free everyday to leave his cell and move around the prison grounds. He had a TV room and games to play and on Saturdays they went on field trips for bike rides or hikes up in the mountains just to get a break from the prison. He even got a paycheck! He laughed as he told us he never wanted to leave because he had never known such a good life growing up in Darfour. What a contrast.

But Emmanuel reminded us the seriousness of the prisons in Eritrea and he wrote down the names of the pastors he knows personally that have been in prison for seven years there, just for preaching the gospel. He said their families are also suffering terribly because the women aren’t allowed to work and they have no money to support their children. We prayed for them and asked God to open the prison doors and to comfort them where they are. It’s really hard to imagine it, but these guys know firsthand, and they weren’t kidding when they told us how desperate of a situation it is. My heart aches. We had to say good-bye to them all tonight and short of seeing them one day in heaven, I’m not sure we’ll be seeing any of them again. Kory often says we can’t change the whole world, but we are responsible for those who are in front of us, and it made me think there must be something we can do for those pastors in prison in Africa. We’ll see how God leads. (On the upside, I finally got to see Ledto and Emmanuel’s new baby, Gospel. Totally cute!)

Kaleb and Tobias were so excited about their big fishing success last night they went again tonight but only caught one fish. They spent most of their time untangling Kaleb’s fishing line. We served last night’s fish at our BBQ tonight but there were too many bones in them to really enjoy the meat, so in the future if we get more, Kory’s just going to use them to make fish soup. We had salmon as a backup, so that was good. Kory spent his day out in the garage sorting through things. He framed in a space of how much storage we have at our condo so I’ll know before it’s too late what will fit in it and what will not. I’m thinking it’s about the same size as the prison cells in Eritrea. Another contrast.