Friday, December 28, 2007

Traveling in Denmark



On the 26th we went up to the very north tip of Denmark where the North Sea and the Baltic Sea collide. This results in very dramatic waves and currents. In the summer there is lot of people on the sand beach there (mostly Germans who don't have a beach of their own to go to). We also went to see a church built in 1787 that has been abandon because of coastal erosion. Some of the graveyard around the church has already fallen into the sea. Sometime in the next 10 years the cliff face will reach the church. The father of the family I am staying with drives for a trucking company on Saturdays. I got to go with him to take a load of frozen fish to the German border. It only takes about 5 hours to drive the length of Denmark. The truck cab was really nice and comfortable. When we got to the truck depot we had a little time so we went to a store in Germany that caters to Danes selling certain goods that are much cheaper there.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Glædelig Jul





Merry Christmas from Denmark. Denmark is really amazing. I really like it here. The people are friendly, honest and hardworking. Crime is low and the standard of living is high. For Christmas the festivities take place on the 24th. We decorated the tree with homemade paper ornaments, glass ornaments, gold tinsel and candles (no electric lights). Then a big dinner with potatoes, goose, bread and red cabbage. For dessert there was a lemon and cream dessert and one made with rice and cream. Kind of like rice porridge but with cream and served cold. It has a few white almonds hidden in it and if you get one of the almonds you receive a small gift. Then everyone but the father leaves the room and he lights the candles on the tree. Then everyone comes back in and sings Christmas songs while walking around the tree. Then the story of the first Christmas is read from Luke. Prayers are said and then the presents are opened. The 25th is spent with extended family. Such a unique experience to be immersed in the Christmas customs of another culture.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Light and Darkness

The last time the sun was directly visible was last Monday. It barely peeked out from behind two mountains. Before I came I somehow thought that the dark time would be dark. If the sun doesn't rise it must be dark right? There is lots of light before and after the sun is in the sky. And that light is really wonderful. That great pink-red-orange light you get at sunrise and sunset even before it rises or sets. That is the light we get. It starts to get light about 8:40AM and is dark at about 3:30PM. It is like sunrise and sunset in one event that lasts much longer with lot of really beautiful light. The day is shorter and you won't get a tan but it is really something to behold.

Today was really good. It is Saint Lucia's day. This means that at 6:30AM each of us were awakened to angels singing and offering us fresh baked Lucia buns. Eight Scandinavian women and girls wearing white and holding candles comprised the angelic procession. A complete surprise and a nice way to wake up. One of the girls represented Lucia with a crown of candles on her head and a tray filled with buns in her hands. After singing the traditional song they quietly filed out leaving a lit candle. On the old calender system December 13th is the shortest day of the year and Saint Lucia visits to bring light to the darkness. Today was also nice because some friends sent a package with all sorts of great stuff in it. So nice to have people thinking of me out here.

Teaching has been amazing this week. It is building on top of last week's teacher which is great. Much of the previous teaching has been theoretical but this week is very practical. It has really gotten everyone thinking. It is basically how to discover how we can be effective for God and this world and mapping out a plan for after DTS. Very practical for all of us (and anyone that wants to impact this world). This weekend we pack up our rooms and leave for Christmas break and then outreach. It will be strange to be away from the base for 3 months but it will be good and I am excited about it. I will miss the Tibet team but the reunion will be amazing and the stories will flow. I am anxious to see what God has to show us in Greenland and for the 3 months of teaching after.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Ski






We have been back from the ski trip in Sweden for a week. Skiing was "invented" here in Norway and the word ski is a Norwegian word. In English we pronounce it our own way based on its spelling. It is pronounced "she" in Norsk because the "sk" makes an "sh" sound and the "i" makes a "long e" sound. It was fun to go to Sweeden for the week. We took 2 ferries to make the drive shorter and it took about 6 hours to get to Tärnaby Sweden where the ski place is. There are places closer but they don't have enough snow yet. Traveling in the EU is very efficient and there was no border stop. The cabins we stayed in were really nice. The bathroom had a micro sauna that could hold maybe 3 people. From the toilet you could turn on the shower and the sink and put your feet in the sauna. It wasn't really cramped just efficient in a Scand- inavian way. The kitchen had a small dish washer the size of a microwave. There was a really great sauna in the main part of the hotel that had a 360° view from above the top floor. Defiantly the nicest sauna I have been in. There were 2 T-bar lifts running and it was my first time on a T-bar. I managed to only crash on the lift once when I turned to see if a recent crashee was ok. One more week of teaching and then we are off for Christmas break. Almost all of the Americans are going to Denmark for the break. After new years everyone, including all the students from the other bases in Norway, are meeting at a base near Oslo for a one week conference. Then I am off to Greenland for two and a half months of outreach. This past Monday a dead sea otter mysteriously appeared in front of the base. Since this is the outdoor DTS there was only one thing to do, skin it. That was lead by the female student from Denmark who lived in Greenland for three years and had experience with such things. She already has mittens, boots and a hat made from rabbit, dog and seal so the otter will make for something nice.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Thanksgiving?


Thanksgiving has come and gone without any notice from this part of the world. I dare say that it would be impossible to not notice it in the states and it took a bit of concentration to remember when it was from this side of the world. Thanksgiving night we had dinner in homes. The home I went to was of a widow and she made a traditional dish from lamb ribs. Tricky for an American to get the meat off when I am not used to the European eating method where a knife and fork are used in unison. I made an effort though it was obvious that I am not proficient at it (yet). The last two weeks of teaching have had an impact on most of us. One week on spiritual warfare and one on the Holy Spirit. Lots of thoughts and information to process. It has been really cool seeing God answer prayer. The Greenland team prayed that we would be able to obtain affordable transportation. The staff had been searching for several weeks and it was really expensive. The day after we prayed, they were able to get the tickets for half price going and for free (plus taxes) coming back. This weekend we are hosting a youth camp and tomorrow we are leaving for Sweden for 2-3 days of skiing. We went to the library in Ørnes to rent skis and they let us have them for free because they weren't waxed. So cool.

Monday, November 12, 2007

A week in Træna







Instead of an "outdoor week" this week we had a "mini outreach week". The 15 students were broken up into groups of 3 and assigned an outreach location. We were given a budget and we had to plan travel and what we wanted to do while we were there. I went with two female students to Træna. Træna is the second smallest Kommune (county) in Norway. It is contains over 1000 islands but only four have people living on them. It is fairly far out in the sea and we spent 3 hours on a ferry to get there. Most of the people (about 300) live on Husøy, the island we went to. Husøy has the school, church, store, bank and post office (the last three are all in one building). The primary industry is fishing. They have a processing plant there where the fish are gutted and frozen in big blocks and sent off in big ships (mostly to Russia). We stayed at the Grendahus which had an apartment downstairs and a kitchen and hall upstairs. The hall is used for meetings or movies (they showed Shrek 3 while we were there). We spent quite a bit of time with the 10-12 year olds at the school. They were getting ready for a fund raiser on Thursday night. They were making cutting boards and butter knives to sell and practicing dances to perform. It was interesting to be immersed in Norwegian small town culture. One of the days I was supervising the wood shop class (I don't think that would have happened in the US). I felt pretty good that I was doing well at dances that were being taught to fifth graders. The dance teacher was just there for the week. He travels around to different schools teaching dance when he is not digging graves. He did such a good job. We had the kids over one night for games and pizza in the hall. We went Thursday to the gym at the school to see the dances and eat dinner with everyone. We also went to the old folks home to spend some time with them. Friday night we had an overnighter in the gym with games and a movie. That was chaos. None of us were very good at controlling 30 kids that were hopped up on Christmas soda and candy. Somehow I managed to survive and I didn't even kill anyone. They have church once a month (the priest and the organist travel around to different churches) and we were lucky enough to be there on the correct Sunday. One of the old ladies said she wanted to go with us if the weather was nice and it was a really nice day Sunday. We went in the morning to get her and pushed her in her wheelchair over to to the church. The priest left on the same ferry as us so we got to talk to him some on the way back.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Rain, Wind, Sun

The Monday after the outdoor trip was like a brick in the face. During weekdays at the base breakfast is at 7:30. The "early morning" + shorter days + crazy dark stormy weather meant that we were waking up in the dark now. The night we got back from the outdoor trip was windy and rainy and it just stayed that way. On Thursday we heard that it was supposed to be sunny Friday. That sparked a conversation about that last time we saw the sun. The consensuses was that it had been 10-14 days. I thought back and I had only been outside three times since we got back and it totaled less than three minutes. Thursday night the wind and rain ceased and there was a full moon in a starlit sky. It was time for a walk and even the northern lights made an appearance. The next day everyone was ecstatic to see a sunrise in the clear sky.



















It was so hard for everyone to be in class with it being such a nice day. Class ended at lunch and you couldn't have kept people inside with a pack of rabid lemmings. It was like the last day of school in sixth grade. It was so nice to bask in the sun again. In Mexico and California it was so easy to take a sunny day for granted. People just deal with the weather here. When it rains in California people freak out and it is "Storm Watch" all over the news. It doesn't seem to phase people here. I met an old lady walking back from the store in the rain. The cold rainy day didn't seem to make any difference to her. She has lived here for 56 years and loves it. I was all hunkered down in my rain pants and parka and she was just wearing kind of normal clothes. Rain or shine if there is work to be done outside it gets done. Teaching last week was on relationships and next week is on Evangelism. I found out that I am on the team to Greenland. I am a little disappointed that I am not going to Tibet but there is a much better opportunity to really get to know the people in Greenland since we will be staying in the same town for almost the whole time. I am psyching myself up for eating blubber since they really love it there.
Sunrise 7:45 - Sunset 3:45

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Troglodyte Adventure






We are back from the caves! We had to drive about four hours to get to the area where they are. If the roads were straight it would only take an hour but since all the roads go around the fjords it takes forever. There are some nice long tunnels through the mountains so that saves some time over what it could be. We stopped at a small shopping area in Ørnes on the way there. There is only one small store in our town so we feel the need to follow our shopping instincts when we get out to a bigger town. Since the Norwegians are adamant about the benefits of wool over synthetics I picked up a set of wool tops and bottoms while we were there. So far I like them quite well. We then stopped by a cave club house so that people could rent gear if they wanted. I got some spiffy red coveralls and a helmet with light. We set up camp in a birch and pine forest nearby. I made camp with a Norsk leader and another Yank student. Two tarps, some twine and a small fire made for quite a cozy place. Eight of us went with some big candles to a shelter cave over a river for a time of reflection. It was fun tromping through the snow filled forest in the dark to get there. We set up the candles all around the cave and listened to the roar of the river. Warm dinner, worship by the fire, a good night sleep and hot porridge for breakfast. We packed up camp and headed for a cabin and more caves. The cabin is beautiful. There is a lot of Norwegian pride in building cabins. The wood work is simple, practical and beautiful. It even had electricity and a wood fired sauna with a grass roof. Water had to be brought up from the river in pails. There was a wooden yoke which made it really easy to carry two pails full of water; very practical. After getting settled at the cabin and packing a lunch we set out for the caves in a cold rain. The caves were fun if a little cold and wet. It actually felt warmer in the caves than outside but the water was cold. One of the caves required crawling in a river up to your eyes to pass through one section. There was only a few inches of airspace at the top and required tipping your nose up if you wanted to breath. I opted to go with one of the leaders to set up a rope on the exit side to help people get up the waterfall at the end. We got to that room just as the first person emerged from the crawl. The room was like a washing machine with water from three directions colliding in a turbulent vortex. One of the girls was so cold she couldn't grip the rope and had to be boosted from the bottom while we pulled her up from the top. The sound of the water was so loud that even shouting wasn't really an effective means of communicating. It was a cool experience. The sauna at the cabin was very welcome after a day of caving. The morning we left the cabin it was snowing fairly hard. Huge fluffy flakes drifting down from the sky; it was so beautiful. The road and everything else was white so the only way to tell where the road was were the black snow poles lining both sides of the road. I got to see quite a few Lemmings on this trip. I had thought that they were just a mythical character, the stuff of cliché and video games but it turns out they are real. They look somewhat like short-hair hamsters. About every four years the Lemming population explodes and there are thousands of them roaming around in herds searching for uninhabited space. They can reproduce when they are only a month old, they have six to seven in a litter and can have a litter every three to four weeks under favorable conditions. When cornered they get very nervous, vibrate and squeak.
Sunrise- 7:19AM, Sunset-4:22PM

Friday, October 12, 2007

Snø!



Sunrise- 6:45AM, Sunset-5:01PM
The snow has arrived. There is about an inch on the ground by the base and the mountains opposite the fjord from us are sufficiently dusted. We put studded winter tires on the two vans since it is likely to stay cold from now on. We just finished up two weeks of teaching and we are excited for our next outing. We are going caveing and it is about a four hour drive from here. We will be camping part of the time and staying in a back country cabin the other part. We found out that the outreach locations are Tibet and Greenland. I think either would be fascinating in it's own way but I have requested to be on the team to Tibet. There is a great group of people here. For the students there are three Norwegians, one Dane, two Latvians, two Germans (one west and one east), one Australian and six Americans. For staff Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and USA are all represented. It is always fun picking up new words, foods, traditions and culture from the people here. I figured out that gas costs about $7.70 a gallon here and this is an oil rich nation. I haven't seen any Hummers or any other obscenely huge cars here. Last night we ran a hose out to the hot tub to fill it up. It was nice sitting out there looking at the stars. Normally it has a wood stove that heats it but someone broke it before we arrived. Word is that we are picking up a new one in Bodo on the way back from caveing. I am so excited for that; it will be so nice to sit out in the hot tub and watch the northern lights dance in the sky around all the stars. I do have a mail address here if anyone wants to send something warm or yummy or whatever.
Don Harvey
UiO, Nordtunveien 5
8170 Engavaagen
Norway
Our Christmas break starts on the 15th of December and everyone will be leaving the base and not returning until after outreach in mid March. For Christmas I have been invited to Denmark. I think there are about six students going. We have an Easter break the week right after that so we won't all be back here until after the 24th of March.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Back at base






We are back at the base after an amazing five days in God's country. We took a 45 minute ferry ride over to an island called Bolga that is in the same fjord that the base is on. Bolga has a small community of farms and a school. We hiked out of town to an area right by the water that had lots of trees on it. There is a small back-county cabin there but it is far to small for all of us. We set up three lavvos (Norwegen tee-pees) for us to sleep in. Then we went on a hike through a hole in the side of the mountain and then up to the peak. It is called Bolgtinden and is 338 meters high. The views on the way up and at the top were really great. There were parts of the trail on the way up that were really steep and sometimes the wind would almost blow me over. The second night there we were given a 3 x 5 meter tarp, some rope and some matches. We set off in separate directions to be alone until 4PM the next day. It was a really cool experience and the weather was fairly good for it. Back at the main camp the leaders had to take down one of the lavvos because it was so windy. The place I picked for my little camp was fine though. I stared a small fire and after a while I went to sleep in my little tarp bivy. I explored around the next day before going back to camp the next day. The third night we were back in the lavvos. The next day we packed up and took a private boat to another island called Meløya. We hiked around through the farms and then up into the forest. About halfway up the mountain there is a huge lake and a back-country cabin called Fjellheim. We put our packs at the cabin and then continued up to the summit of Meløtinden at 582 metres. The sky was so clear and bright. I could see all of the islands all around, the YWAM base in Engavågen, the snow covered mountains and way out to sea. We sang some worship songs and prayed out over Norway. We went back down to the cabin for some great dinner and a warm night sleep in a real bed. At noon the next day (Friday) we headed back down a got the ferry back. Friday night the Northern Lights were out but I missed them. I told everyone to come find me next time they saw them. Saturday evening the most amazing sunset I have ever seen happened. I could see it out the window so I grabbed my camera and ran down to the boat dock as fast as I could. It was changing so fast I was worried that I might miss it. I spent about 15 minutes down there being awestruck by how beautiful and vivid it was. Truly an amazing experience to witness.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Week 2 of teaching




We had our second week of teaching. The subject was the Bible and our teacher was very passionate about it. It was a ton of information and I am glad this next week is an outdoor week. As part of our time here we have a schedule to read through the Bible in the nine months we are here (in chrono- logical order). Yesterday we went to Glomfjord where my team is doing a local outreach. We spent the day painting at a state church. Oil base paint = fumes = nausea = open windows = frozen hands. We are packing up for this next week. We are going island hoping in the fjord. We will be camping out and one night we have a solo on an island by ourselves. The last night is in a back country cabin. The leaves are changing on the trees and it is so pretty everywhere. Some of the staff and students went out fishing and caught enough for dinner for everyone. They prepared it Greenlandic style and it was really good. Since today is the Fall Equinox it might be a fun time to point out that since I am so far north the day is seven minutes shorter every day.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Back in school





Yesterday we finished the first week of teaching. I knew it was going to be like bible school but somehow I had not anticipated sitting at a desk taking notes for hours. That was a bit of a shocker at the beginning of the week but I got into the swing of it towards the end. We had a really great teacher from Egypt named Gawdat. It is really an amazing experience. For the week he lives here too so we have the opportunity to ask questions at meals and hang-out times. The topic was "Our Identity in Christ". It was so cool and I learned so much. Last night after the last class some of us went out for a bonfire at "The World's End". The sky was completely clear for the first time since I arrived. The stars were so clear and the Northern Lights were out. They were so beautiful and bright. Today we have rice porridge for lunch. It is a traditional Norwegian food for Saturday or Christmas time. I really like it and I can't wait until 2:00 to scarf it down.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Rain, rain, sun






After a 40 minute car trip we took a boat across a fjord. We have our backpacks loaded with our camping stuff and warm gear. A short 20 minute walk and we are at base camp. The next morning was raining off and on as we hiked up to the glacier. We put on our crampons, roped up to each other and with ice axes in hand we set out up the glacier. That was a lot of fun. I hadn't done that before and it was interesting to see how all of the equipment worked. The guy that was roped right in front of me slipped and fell off of an ice cliff right next to the route we were taking. I got to arrest his fall; he was a little shook up but unharmed. I thought it was fun and showed everyone that the equipment really did work. The glacier is so beautiful. The ice is blue and it really shows in the deep cracks and holes that you come across. The glacier is called Svartisen and is the second largest in Norway. We went back down to base camp for a dinner and a soggy night. The next day we were supposed to hike up to a back country cabin that has a reputation for amazing views. The weather was just too bad though and everyone was already wet. We packed up and went back to the base and then to an indoor swim place. They had a sauna too and that felt really good. Friday we hiked to the top of the peak that was pictured in my last post. It was so beautiful. Much of the way we were hiking in alpine meadows and the tundra was so thick and soft it was like walking on pillows. The view from the top was amazing. All the islands in the fjord and the little farm houses. We want back down and had a BBQ and bonfire on the beach.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Packing Up and Setting Out



Well I have gotten here finally. If my calculations are correct my total travel time from Bakersfield to Engavågen is 57 hours. YWAM staff, in a DAF mini-bus pulling a trailer, picked four of us from the train station and then we picked up 10 more from the airport. The bus and the trailer were so full of skis, bikes, backpacks and luggage. It was a cramped 3 hour ride from the airport to the YWAM base. The road wound around all of these fjords and through many tunnels in the mountains. The longest tunnel was 4.7 miles long! The tide was going out and some of the fjords resembled fast moving rivers as the water rushed out to sea. We got to the base about 10:15 pm and ate dinner. I share a room with two guys, one from Germany (Lars) and one from southern Norway (Rune). The view from the window of our room is breathtaking and pictured in this post. Today we are packing up for a backpack trip on a nearby glacier. We are hiking up to a back country cabin.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Da Plane, Da Plane!


I am here in Oslo right now waiting for my train trip to Bodo which leaves at 11:05 pm. It has been kind of a crazy trip so far. My flight from LAX to Chicago was over an hour late because the airport didn't seem to have any plane starting trucks to spare (large jet engines on commercial airlines don't seem to have a starter on board an rely on a truck with a large air compressor). The pilot was defiantly from the east coast and was not sugar coating anything. I was concerned about my connection to Stockholm but as it turned out the flight was canceled because something got sucked into the engine and broke the fan. They managed to reroute me and I only lost half a day but had to stand in some unbelievable lines. So I made it and took a train from the airport to The Oslo central train station. Remember that it is important when using a foreign ATM to get the desmel in the correct place when doing exchange rates in you head other wise you will ask for more than the limit and think you card just won't work there. So I've put my stuff in a locker and I am going to look around a little.

Friday, August 31, 2007

One day left




The last night in Mexico we had a nice dinner in Roserito and then we went to the beach to have a bonfire. We brought all of the prayers that teams had written down over the last 8 weeks, read each one allowed and put it in the fire. We lit off some very loud fire crackers including some huge bottle rockets with very fast fuses. Leaving the base and saying goodbye was sad. I dropped my roommate off in Encenitis and went up to a friends house in Rancho Cucamonga. Three of my friends wanted to go on one last trip with me before I left for nine months. We went out to Utah for three days of hiking and canyoneering. We had some spectacular weather at the end of the trip with pouring rain, flash flood watches and lightning crashing down. So cool. I am up in Bakersfield right now packing and visiting with my sister and parents. Tomorrow morning I get up early, drive 2 and a half hours to LAX for a 8:55AM flight that stops in Chicago, then Stockholm before reaching Oslo (16.5 hours trip time from Lax to Oslo). I have 12 hours in Oslo before an 18 hour train trip to Bodo then a 3 hour van ride to the base in Nordtun. The next morning we take off for a 5 day backpack on a nearby glacier (weather permitting). Nothing like jumping in with both feet! The currency is the Norwegian Kroner and measurements and temperature are in metric. Norway time is 9 hours ahead of Pacific time.