Friday the 13th

We don’t pay much attention to superstitions in our house, but after today, Kaleb was nearly convinced that bad luck does indeed happen on Friday the 13^th.  Before he even left for school this morning we got a text message asking for prayer for the dad of his friend Daniel, who fell off his bike as he was riding to work.  We didn’t know for hours what all had happened but for now we know he bruised his ribs and broke his shoulder blade in many places.  He may need surgery and certainly a long time to recover.  We prayed for him and are waiting for more updates.

Kaleb rode his bike home with Andre after school and Andre hit a crack in the road and fell forward so that the center bar on his bike slammed up against certain private parts, which caused him much pain.  Kaleb laughed, but knew it wasn’t funny.  Then Andre hit another crack in the road and fell off his bike, but didn’t get hurt.  Since it had been raining pretty hard all afternoon, a big puddle of water was on the road right near where he’d fallen so he got completely drenched when a bus happened to drive by as he was getting back on his bike.  Again, Kaleb laughed, and had to agree with Andre that bad things happen on Friday the 13^th.  I’m just glad none of them happened to anyone in our household.

I had a prayer meeting to attend this morning so I was gone for several hours.  Those Praying Women love to pray and I love to be part of it.  We also had quite the discussion about Confirmation, Infant Baptism, Christians living together without getting married, and the changing boundaries set by the Church in Norway where now women and homosexuals are allowed to be priests.  We all wondered what God’s take on all that is.  It’s hard to know.

Historically, Norwegians believe that once a baby has been baptized, they officially become a child of God and are assured a place in heaven.  I asked what happens if a baby dies before they get baptized and I was told that doctors are certified to perform emergency baptisms in case a priest can’t make it to the hospital soon enough.  Boy is that a stretch. 

One of the Praying women told us that she lived with her husband for many years before they were married.  She felt they were married in the eyes of God and the piece of paper making it legal was only for the benefit of others, not them.  After they had their first child they went to the State Church to get their baby baptized and the priest wouldn’t do it because they weren’t married.  Her now mother-in-law marched right in there and told the priest a thing or two and insisted that her grandchild not be left out of heaven because of the choices of his parents made, and they next day, the Priest called them to say he would baptize their baby.  So much for standards.  Times are changing fast in Norway.  The old is gone and the new has come.  They also said that in the old days, kids could actually flunk Confirmation and have to repeat it another year if they didn’t know all the memory work that was required.  Now, there is no memory work whatsoever.  Kids are only required to attend church eight times in the course of a year and the only somewhat Christian thing they must do is read through a list of prayers and decide which one the Priest will say over them as they are being confirmed.  It’s become more of a fun and games type event for all 14 year olds than any kind of religious study.  Sad, but true.

As much as I wanted to go for a walk today, even in the rain, I needed to spend the few hours I had “free” today, preparing a meal.  We’d invited over Cousin Axel and his wife Kari, and their daughter Miriam and her family for dinner and there was much to do.  I need to find easier recipes as I think it’s just wrong that it takes four hours to make a meal, but it sure tasted good.  Fortunately, I’d already bought all the ingredients before we went broke at the thrift store yesterday.  Kory was happy to have food in his belly. 

Axel and Kari were the witnesses at our wedding, nearly 20 years ago, and they will be going with us on the ferry up the coast of Norway next month on our anniversary trip.  It’s always fun to hang out with them and catch up on what’s happening in their lives.  We don’t see them as often as we’d like, but tonight we had a long evening of just chatting about all kinds of things, so that was nice. 

Our days our quickly slipping by here as we are now at the halfway mark and we don’t have many free days left on the calendar.  We’ve yet to decide what to do with our condo once we leave, as we won’t be coming back for at least 12 months, so we are praying God gives us a plan – whether to rent it out as a business rental or have someone just move in.  I hate the idea of packing up all our personal things and putting them in storage, but we might just have to do that so we won’t have to eat hot dogs next year when we come back.

(I didn't even take any photos today so I have to use some from my inventory taken on previous days...)

En Kjempe Fin Tur (A Really Great Hike!)

Today is a national holiday because it’s Ascension Day – otherwise known in Norwegian as Himmelfartsdag – it means “Heaven Speed Day.” I guess they assume when Jesus ascended into Heaven, he went quickly. It’s a funny word to say, and hear in Norwegian.




The weather took a major turn for the better this morning and it was just too nice to stay indoors and organize a single thing. Kory called his cousin Odd (pronounced “Ode”) and asked if he and his wife, Turid (Turr-ree) and daughter Hege (Hey-gah) wanted to come with us. They thought it was a fine idea, so we all headed out to a nearby island and hiked along the beach then up to the highest mountain, which fortunately for me, wasn’t TOO high. It was an incredibly warm and beautiful day, even being right down by the ocean. We also ran into another cousin (the one whose daughter had her Confirmation last weekend). So many people were out enjoying their sunny day off that it felt like NOW we are really in Norway. Staying inside a condo all day unpacking boxes felt like I could have been anywhere, but today was pure Norsk.



We all wrote our names in the book at the top of the mountain. Each peak has a book and pen tucked inside a weatherproof box at the summit and everyone who makes it must write their name, the date and time, and how many times they’ve made the trip. They use those books as a way to keep track of how much certain trails are used to help allocate money for their upkeep. It was all of our first time to the top, but the guy right before us, it was his 90th time. I can’t believe people can remember those kinds of things. But they also remember the exact time it takes them to make it up. Just as we were descending, some guy was heading up the trail. He looked down at his watch (a familiar sight at the trail head) to see the current time. Everyone always try to beat their best time. These Norwegians are a hardy lot, that’s for sure.



I called Kaleb this morning to see if he wanted to go on the hike with us. He didn’t, so he stayed over at his friend’s house all day. Come to find out, the entire neighborhood where he was at knew about some events happening at the State Church right next to our condo, but not Andre, where he stayed. When Kaleb and Andre went outside to play with all their pals, they were all gone to the church, but they didn’t know it. Kaleb cried buckets when he told me about it later as there were all kinds of competitions and the kids got to use the climbing tower we see from our front door (they attached climbing holds to the bell tower and for special events, they hook up the safety harness and let the kids climb to the top.) Kaleb was so jealous all his friends were doing that while he was just waiting for them to come home so he could play. When I went to pick him up at seven tonight, he just cried. He wasn’t ready to come home, he was sleep deprived, and he was sorely disappointed in how his day turned out. Poor thing.



Odd and Turid invited us over for dinner tonight so I zoomed home after the hike (we were gone nearly six hours), and made some pecan squares with ingredients I brought with me from America. That dessert is the total bomb here and everyone loves it, especially Turid. We ate a late dinner out on their deck and after dessert, headed home to watch “Alt For Norge,” (Everything for Norway) a TV show that Tobias highly recommended to us. It’s like a Norwegian version of “Survivor” only it’s all American people with Norwegian ancestry. They compete in real Norwegian experiences and the winner will get to meet some of their relatives that still live in Norway. It was very funny. There is one guy from Seattle on the show but the bulk of them are from Minnesota. They filmed it last summer and it’s a big hit here in Norway as everyone enjoys laughing at the American buffoons who can’t even light a fire to save their lives. At least I made it to the top of a mountain today, and no one voted me off the island.

Dugnad Day

We are getting close to the big National Holiday here on the 17th of May so it’s required by all entities to spruce up a bit. We had a little "dugnad" at school today (dugnad means "work party") because all government offices, including schools and daycare centers, must pull weeds, pick up trash and do a little touch up painting if it helps, so their places look their best. There is a strong sense of pride here to have everything in tip top shape for 17th of May. All homeowners should have their lawns mowed and fresh flowers in the pots, so people have been scurrying around getting things in order. Even the old widow guy that lives across the street from us was out in his yard today putting fresh blooming flowers in his pots on the patio. I pulled weeds at school for an hour, others planted flowers and swept up the entrance area. The city was all a buzz with tidying up and it will continue until the 16th of May, I’m sure. Good thing the sun was out, as it made the work almost pleasant. Kory even painted over all the graffiti on the bus stop next to our house. He swears tomorrow he’s going to paint a Norwegian flag over the nice shade of white it currently is. I was thinking it would be nice just to leave it white, but he has too much pride in his land for that.

Kory had plans to be flat on his back all day today, but he felt slightly better so he was able to go vertical. Our friends from our Bible study group, Emmanuel and Ledto, called and asked if he could take them and their new baby to the doctor for a check-up, so he was happy to do that. They invited him over for lunch afterwards and he was thrilled to be served a traditional meal from their home country of Eritrea in Africa. I felt bad as I told him he shouldn’t be going there for a meal - we should be taking them one. Sometimes men don’t get it.

At school today we talked more on freedom of religion. I learned that all children here are required to follow the religion of their parents until they are 15 years old. At that time, they are free to choose what religion they want (or not). If their parents had them baptized into the State church, they are free to write to the State and have their name withdrawn from membership. (They picked the age of 15 because traditionally that is the age of adulthood when a child must go earn their own living.) I asked my teacher why they would need to opt out with a letter and she said because then the government would stop sending their taxes to that church. Apparently, a portion of everyone’s taxes goes to support churches so it’s possible to designate which one gets the money (the bulk of any church’s income comes from tax dollars from the government – not from individual giving.) So everyone should be registered with a church and then they can also deduct a portion of the cash donations they make to that church from their taxes (they can deduct up to 30% of the amount donated.) A lot of people use that as an excuse not to tithe or give any additional money to their church because they know their taxes already pay for it, but the tax is such a small portion of one percent that it hardly counts. We give money to both churches we attend, but we are only allowed to deduct the contributions we make to the one where we are registered. Strange system. And for all the taxes paid by people with no designated church, that money goes to the State church – no surprise there.

I got my laptop back from the PC shop today and they were able to get a full backup copy of my data so I boxed up my computer and tomorrow Dell will send someone out to pick it up for repair. They said it might take three weeks to get the motherboard replaced, so I’m glad we have six weeks before we leave town. Then I got smart and activated the 60 day free trial of Microsoft products on Kaleb’s laptop, and using the portable hard drive with all the files from my old computer, I’m nearly up to speed. It’s tough to type on a Norwegian keyboard, and Kaleb has very little memory in his computer so it’s slower than molasses, but I’m not complaining. I’m just happy I can be connected to the world, so Hallelujah for that. Kaleb however is relishing in the fact he has total control over me now because I’m at his mercy. He says I can only use his PC for 30 minutes a day but I cannot use it at all until I finish my homework, which I never even do. He also said if I let him sleep in our bed I get an extra half hour on his computer the next day and I can also earn an extra half hour if I speak just Norwegian the entire day with no mistakes. That kid is a wheeler - dealer. I can’t imagine where he gets that from. Turid often tells me we are too strict with him. Now I see what she means. I can dish it out, but I’m not too thrilled about taking it - especially from Kaleb.

Is it Friday The 13th Perhaps?

My computer died today, and I was sure I'd die right along with it. When I went to boot it up this morning it just made a few crunching noises like it usually does, and then nothing. The screen was black. My heart sank. I hadn't done a backup in too long. All I could think about was all the photos and videos I may lose if it was my hard drive that tanked. I also wasn't too thrilled about losing my blog entries, but I know I can at least re-type them from the internet (I can't copy anything from it for some reason.) So today was full of anxiety and a bit more stress than I'd like. I went to school and during lunch break I took my laptop down to a PC shop. They said they thought it was a bad hard drive, but I should call Dell support. I called the Dell support center here in Norway and they told me my warranty expired on the 9th of May. I looked up my serial number on their website and it showed that was the ship date, so I called back and said if I had a one year warranty, why wouldn't it start from the the time I received the computer, not from the time it shipped (I ordered it from their website last year.) They agreed to give me a 14 day grace period (first answered prayer). Then I took it to another repair place to see if they could do a backup on it before I sent it in for repair. They took it apart and told me it was the motherboard that was bad, not the hard drive, so that was the big answered prayer. Hallelujah for that! I hate that I trust my computer so much. I should NEVER trust it and ALWAYS back up my files, but I get lured into a false sense of security, like it's my best friend and it just won't let me down. Ha. I'm also thankful Kaleb has a laptop so I can at least access the internet. (His laptop has no software on it so I'm writing this blog in wordpad, so if there are a lot of typos, it's because I have no little red lines underscoring the errors of my ways.)

Kory wasn't too pleased with today either as he stayed home from work and was flat on his back all day. He might be there a few more days, as he is in a lot of pain. He won't go to a doctor or a chiropractor, but at least he's taking ibuprophen to reduce the swelling in his spine. He also broke loose a cap on one of his front teeth today when he crunched on an apple. He's had better days. Kaleb was the only one that was in a good mood, so we are thankful for that. He's learned how to stand on his head so that was our entertainment for the day. He is so proud.

As if all else wasn't enough, school was a real drag today. My Pal Vestina was out sick and no one was there that makes me laugh. Our topic for discussion today was on freedom of expression here in Norway. Norwegians take that freedom to extremes and they allow all kinds of things that would be censored in the U.S. Swear words are never removed from TV or newspapers here. Nude photos are also the norm. Even the youth claim that graffitti is just another form of their right to express themselves, so they don't get prosecuted for it. People are allowed to express themselves as long as it doesn't harm another person, so that's where they draw the line. But one thing that did get censored recently was a movie called "The Life of Brian." I don't know much about it but apparently it was some kind of parody of Jesus. The government here felt it was blasphemous so it wasn't allowed in the country which just made it all the more enticing so people found ways to get it and watch it. Just like the original sin....

I was also bummed out because I read a newspaper article today that said 40,000 teenagers will be Confirmed in Norway this year, and of those, only 37% say they believe in God. I think it's blasphemous that they are allowed to go through with it. When I questioned my teacher on that, she said Confirmation is now just a tradition that came out of Norway's religious background. "They needed a religion in the old days," she said, "because everyone had to struggle so much just to survive. But today we know more and have more information and we don't have to believe what the Church says." How sad. I told her the Church and God are two different things but I'm not sure she understood the difference.