The snow stuck around today because the temperature didn’t get above freezing. It was so pretty though, with blue skies and white blankets on all the mountains. Winter is good – even if it does start in October. Kory had to drive Kaleb to school because the streets were just sheets of ice. He was going to put the “pigg dekk” on the van today but didn’t get time (that’s Norsk talk for “snow tires”). Maybe tomorrow. He was busy under the houses, seeing just how much the ground has gone down this month. It never stops! We now even have a sink hole in front of our house, and I’m hoping it doesn’t get big enough to swallow a child. (One of these days Kory will see the logic in me not wanting to buy these “sinking houses.”) But we love living here and it just makes our time in Norway all the more exciting.
We had Mark Wootten, the pastor of Agape Church, and his wife, Unni, over for dinner tonight. He’s from England so it was great to be able to speak English and talk about what God’s doing here in Norway. He said their church has tripled in size in the last year (from 50-150) and they are planning a big expansion project soon and they won’t need to take out a loan. Hallelujah! How cool is that?
And today was a great day for me because the Good Teacher Inga was back in school! She has been gone for the last three classes (well, she’s never there on Friday so that’s normal), and we have missed her terribly. She had to take some test in Bergen so we had a substitute the last two days and none of us do well without Inga. Our substitute teacher made it pretty clear she has some “issues” with this one guy in our class who is from Turkey (and is Muslim). He’s new and I personally don’t like him at all as he’s very disruptive – he talks non-stop to anyone sitting around him, he pays no attention to what is being taught, he clicks his pencil on the table all the time, snaps his gum, and taps his foot on the ground so hard (non-stop) that it shakes the floor – lots of nervous energy. He comes late one hour each day and hits on all the young women during the break. I get a knot in my gut just looking at him so I try to steer clear. He came in an hour late yesterday, as usual, just as the substitute was taking attendance. Each day in class is four hours/lessons, and he/we are required to take 250 hours of Norske lessons in order to stay in Norway - so he’s just there to bide his time so he won’t get kicked out of the country. He could care less about learning the language. This guy cuts one hour from his “obligation” each day by coming in late but the substitute told him she was going to ding him for it (Inga never does). Then he got belligerent with her and said his bus was late and he started making excuses for himself, as if it were the first time. She wasn’t buying it. (I’m sure she’s heard it all before.) It’s the first time I’ve ever heard any student speak out against the teacher. The tattle-tale in me couldn’t resist telling her that he comes in late every day, so not to believe his story. I was quite pleased when she stuck to her guns.
Later when the substitute was teaching us about two different types of pronouns, she asked this guy if he was married to a Norwegian. He said he was, so she wrote on the board, “Hans kone er norsk.” (His wife is Norwegian.) Then she wrote, “Han liker hun.” (“He likes her.”) But just as soon as she wrote it, she said (half under her breath), “I sure hope so.” It was very funny to me because she’s obviously encountered many of these Arab men who come to Norway just to abuse their systems. They marry very “undesirable” women because certain women are so desperate to get married, the men know they are an easy target (usually the women are very overweight, not too attractive or have some kind of handicap). And these guys go after them because if they stay married for three years, they can become permanent residents, complete with all the benefits (even if they get divorced right at the three year mark.) It’s an extremely common practice here and it has even happened to one of Kory’s relatives (who has a little brain damage). This one guy from Jordan started attending church (even though he’s a Muslim…), he met Kory’s relative and married her just a few months later (then stopped going to church). He told her not to tell anyone they were getting married because he knew her parent’s would stop it. Then, right on schedule, he divorced her at the three year mark, and now he never has to leave the country. So the teacher’s disgust is somewhat understandable because most of these men just go on welfare and live off the “system” once they are divorced, or they bring over another woman from their home country and marry them. (One can live a very fine life on welfare in this country.) One of the new classes that just started up on our floor has about 20 Arab men in it. Lord help them if they ever get the substitute we just had.
As the teacher was explaining that there are two different sets of pronouns to be used depending on whether the pronoun refers to the object or the subject in a sentence, my pal, Vestina, leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I feel like I’m deep in a dark forest.” (It’s an unbelievably complicated concept to learn and I’ve yet to figure out how to tell what the “subject” or “object” is – let alone figure out which form of the pronoun to use.) I whispered back, “Well, I feel like I’m deep into something – but it’s sure not as pleasant as a forest.”
We had Mark Wootten, the pastor of Agape Church, and his wife, Unni, over for dinner tonight. He’s from England so it was great to be able to speak English and talk about what God’s doing here in Norway. He said their church has tripled in size in the last year (from 50-150) and they are planning a big expansion project soon and they won’t need to take out a loan. Hallelujah! How cool is that?
And today was a great day for me because the Good Teacher Inga was back in school! She has been gone for the last three classes (well, she’s never there on Friday so that’s normal), and we have missed her terribly. She had to take some test in Bergen so we had a substitute the last two days and none of us do well without Inga. Our substitute teacher made it pretty clear she has some “issues” with this one guy in our class who is from Turkey (and is Muslim). He’s new and I personally don’t like him at all as he’s very disruptive – he talks non-stop to anyone sitting around him, he pays no attention to what is being taught, he clicks his pencil on the table all the time, snaps his gum, and taps his foot on the ground so hard (non-stop) that it shakes the floor – lots of nervous energy. He comes late one hour each day and hits on all the young women during the break. I get a knot in my gut just looking at him so I try to steer clear. He came in an hour late yesterday, as usual, just as the substitute was taking attendance. Each day in class is four hours/lessons, and he/we are required to take 250 hours of Norske lessons in order to stay in Norway - so he’s just there to bide his time so he won’t get kicked out of the country. He could care less about learning the language. This guy cuts one hour from his “obligation” each day by coming in late but the substitute told him she was going to ding him for it (Inga never does). Then he got belligerent with her and said his bus was late and he started making excuses for himself, as if it were the first time. She wasn’t buying it. (I’m sure she’s heard it all before.) It’s the first time I’ve ever heard any student speak out against the teacher. The tattle-tale in me couldn’t resist telling her that he comes in late every day, so not to believe his story. I was quite pleased when she stuck to her guns.
Later when the substitute was teaching us about two different types of pronouns, she asked this guy if he was married to a Norwegian. He said he was, so she wrote on the board, “Hans kone er norsk.” (His wife is Norwegian.) Then she wrote, “Han liker hun.” (“He likes her.”) But just as soon as she wrote it, she said (half under her breath), “I sure hope so.” It was very funny to me because she’s obviously encountered many of these Arab men who come to Norway just to abuse their systems. They marry very “undesirable” women because certain women are so desperate to get married, the men know they are an easy target (usually the women are very overweight, not too attractive or have some kind of handicap). And these guys go after them because if they stay married for three years, they can become permanent residents, complete with all the benefits (even if they get divorced right at the three year mark.) It’s an extremely common practice here and it has even happened to one of Kory’s relatives (who has a little brain damage). This one guy from Jordan started attending church (even though he’s a Muslim…), he met Kory’s relative and married her just a few months later (then stopped going to church). He told her not to tell anyone they were getting married because he knew her parent’s would stop it. Then, right on schedule, he divorced her at the three year mark, and now he never has to leave the country. So the teacher’s disgust is somewhat understandable because most of these men just go on welfare and live off the “system” once they are divorced, or they bring over another woman from their home country and marry them. (One can live a very fine life on welfare in this country.) One of the new classes that just started up on our floor has about 20 Arab men in it. Lord help them if they ever get the substitute we just had.
As the teacher was explaining that there are two different sets of pronouns to be used depending on whether the pronoun refers to the object or the subject in a sentence, my pal, Vestina, leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I feel like I’m deep in a dark forest.” (It’s an unbelievably complicated concept to learn and I’ve yet to figure out how to tell what the “subject” or “object” is – let alone figure out which form of the pronoun to use.) I whispered back, “Well, I feel like I’m deep into something – but it’s sure not as pleasant as a forest.”
