News from Julia and Viggo

This is Kent (Julia's dad), writing this post. Barbara and I have been able to talk to Julia and Viggo on the phone a few times and I thought it would be good to pass on a bit of news via their blog.

After arriving in Dar Es Salaam, Julia and Viggo stayed in a hotel room for three weeks. During that time they received orientation training from Wycliffe. Sounds like there were a couple of dozen folks in training with them.

As of about Friday, Feb. 8, they had completed the orientation. They packed up and took the bus to a camp near Iringa, Tanzania. Although packing up and preparing to get on the bus was stressful, the ride itself was very interesting. It was in a smallish bus on decent roads for about eight hours. The road passed through a game park and Julia and Viggo saw giraffes, elephants, and baboons as they traveled.

The camp is where they will study Swahili for the next four months. It is about 5 or 6 miles outside the town of Iringa (which is big enough to find on Google maps).

The camp is a large clearing in the bush near a river. There is also a local village nearby. The nearest internet cafe is in Iringa, so e-mail and blog posting may be tricky for a while.

Julia, Viggo, and Daniel are fortunate to have been placed in one of the slightly larger camp cabins (two small bedrooms, if I heard correctly). About 15 other folks from orientation have also joined them at camp for Swahili training. There are other small cabins and tent cabins in the camp. Generally the cabins are spread apart to give a bit of privacy. The bush all around is green at this time of year. Bush babies occupy the trees and make noise. Guinea fowl prowl the ground and make noise at that level. Sounds quite rustic. Yes, they have been cautioned about poisonous snakes (mambas), but the camp does keep antivenom on hand.
Another plus during this transition is that the food is "western style" and varied at the camp.

Daniel will meet his African nanny about twenty minutes before Julia and Viggo begin their Swahili immersion. It seems that he has been a good little traveler, and is in good spirits. Julia is quite happy to be settled for a while in their new little home.

The adventure continues. Please keep praying.

We're here!

We arrived on Friday morning in Dar es Salaam. The heat and humidity was struck us as soon as we stepped off the plane, but so far it really hasn’t been as bad as we were expecting. It’s actually pretty pleasant, but it’s a good thing our hotel room has air conditioning. We are staying in a hotel for the first three weeks for orientation. Orientation starts on Monday. We decided to come a couple of days early to adjust and settle in. Daniel has been sleeping more than usual, but otherwise he seems to be handling the transition really well.

The plane trip went like a dream. Daniel was in a decent mood for the first flight and our seven hour layover at Heathrow, and then he pretty much slept through the entire ten hour flight to Dar, which is a good thing since it was an overnight flight. We were really hungry when we got to the hotel, along with another Wycliffe couple who were also on our flight. It took a while before we got to order food from the restaurant here, and then it took over two hours to actually get our food. When it came, they’d messed up the order and they came with six plates of food for the four of us. So things are a little different here : ) But since then everything has gone smoothly. They were having a conference here the first day, and I think we caught them a bit off guard. Most of the staff have very limited English. It will be really good to learn some Swahili to be able to communicate with people better.

Our hotel is near the beach, and Viggo and I went for a walk to check it out yesterday. We dipped our feet in, and we dipped Daniel too, but not for long because he was afraid of the water. He was kind of tired too, so maybe it will go better next time. It sounds like we will be pretty busy from Monday on with Orientation courses starting every day at 8:00. Daniel will be with some other kids and a nanny in a childcare room adjacent to the conference room. It will be his first experience with any other babysitter than his grandparents, so I hope things go well!

2 Weeks

Our beautiful family on Christmas Eve. Norwegians dress up a lot for Christmas. Daniel is wearing his 'bunad' (national costume type thing)

Norwegian Christmas sunrise over the frozen lake.

We had a lovely Christmas up in the mountains with Viggo's family. We had friends over this weekend to celebrate New Year's with us, and that was really nice too. We haven't been at home before for New Year's Eve, and I was really impressed by all the fireworks. Everyone (or, lots of people, that is) has their own private 'big' fireworks, and from our house we have a view over the water to the city and the island next to us, so we could see big fireworks going up in dozens of spots all around us at midnight. Our friends brought some 'rockets' with them, so we had some of our own too. Our friends' two-year-old thought it was all really scary, though, and stayed up clinging to his parents and saying "done, done," until they left after one.

We can't believe there are only two weeks left until we leave now. We leave on the 17th. We have plenty to do still, but I think it will all get done. My parents arrive on the seventh and will stay until the fourteenth (I think...). They're coming to see Daniel, but it will be a big help to have them here too to watch him and maybe help us with cleaning out the house and stuff like that. Viggo is at the doctor with Daniel right now. Daniel has had a bit of a cold for almost four weeks now, and diarrhea for the last few days. He still seems pretty healthy and happy though, so hopefully the doctor will say it is just normal winter virus stuff. We want him to get well before we leave!

Christmas and packing

It sure looks Christmasy here, and without the hassle of having to shovel our driveway either. The temperature has been staying around 20 F (-6 C) for the past few days and there is a light dusting of snow making everything white. We are going up to the mountains on Saturday and staying there until the 28th with Viggo's family. Viggo was done with his work as of yesterday, so now we can both focus on all the things we've got to get done before we leave.




I did a bit of a pre-pack yesterday to see if everything we're taking is going to fit in our luggage, and it looks like we'll have to ship some stuff. Packing is kind of intense since there are a number of things that are hard to get in Tanzania and we're going to be there for a long time. I ended up deciding to bring clothes for Daniel up to size 24months. I know we can get clothes for him there if we need to, but finding what you need is way more complicated there, and I think we're going to be busy enough in our first year.

We're also going to need to go through the stuff we're leaving here pretty carefully to decide what is worth keeping. We've tried pretty hard not to accumulate too much stuff since we knew we wouldn't be able to take too much to Africa, but there is still plenty to sort through. I'm working on putting together a decent filing system so it will be possible to find any papers that we might need later on without too much trouble. Yeah. So that's pretty much where my head is. Not so much focused on Christmas, to tell the truth. We've got almost a month until we leave, but I know it's going to go really fast.

37 Days

37 Days until we leave for Tanzania now. Assuming I counted correctly.... Our funding is in place (thanks to all of you who have given or have committed to giving regularly), our work permits have arrived, and I'm busy ordering summer clothes and cloth diapers for Daniel. It will probably be in the mid-90s when we get there, with 100% humidity. That's on the coast, where we will be staying for our first three weeks (fortunately in air-conditioned rooms). The town we will be living in for the long-term is inland, and doesn't get nearly as humid, and probably not as hot either. It will be quite a transition from our cold Norwegian winter here, especially for Daniel I expect.

We are doing very well. Viggo has been working up until now, but expects to be finished with his last translation assignment (not the Bible, just a boring lighting catalog) by sometime tomorrow. Daniel just got his yellow fever vaccination today. Once Viggo is done with his work, I'm hoping to be able to use a couple of days to start on some packing and organizing that really needs to get done.

Daniel is also very busy. We finally decided we needed a playpen recently and borrowed one from some friends, and it has saved my life. I can't leave him for two seconds now without him finding something forbidden to get into or chew on, or else falling and hitting his head. He is really good at standing up now, but doesn't seem to understand the danger of just leaning backwards and letting go of the thing he's holding on to. So he would be constantly falling and hitting his head on our wood floors if I didn't watch him like hawk. I don't really watch him quite 'like a hawk' as it is, so he tends to fall on his head at least once a day. But the playpen helps somewhat at least.

We'll be going up to the mountains with Viggo's family for Christmas, and that should be fun, though cold. They are all excited about the cross country skiing possibilities, while I'm less than excited about that based on past experiences. Norwegains like to do their cross-country skiing in pretty hilly terrain, and that can be tough and at times embarrassing for out-of-shape and inexperienced skiiers like me. Oh, and they take their babies with them. In little covered sleds that they attach by a harness around their waists and drag behind them as they ski. Seriously. I'm not letting them take Daniel.

I'm glad we're going away for Christmas so that we will get to have a real break from the stress of all the things that need to get done before we leave. My parents will be coming to Norway on January 7th. They will get to see Daniel before we go that way, and we will get some help with him while we're in the midst of packing and moving out of our house.

Daniel eating bread

Here is Daniel showing how Norwegian he really is. He loves bread! The traditional Norwegian diet involves three meals of bread per day, for breakfast, lunch, and an evening meal. The bread can be topped with various cheeses, lunch meats (only one slice please!), jam, or liver paste (a favorite. comes in many varieties). Viggo's mom gives me strange looks if she hears tales of us eating more than one "warm meal" per day. Extravagant Americans! Ha. I bet Viggo will edit this post later so that no Norwegians reading our blog will feel insulted.

Update

You may have noticed that we've rather given up on the blogging for now, but I figured there may still be a few people checking here now and then. As of now, I am definitely planning to write more regular entries once we are in Africa and there are lots of exciting new things to write about. I suppose that may be rather ambitious though; I'm sure we'll both be busy and have limited internet access. We do update our photo album a bit more often. There's a video of Daniel "commando crawling" on there now.

Until January, we are here in Norway. We've been having a beautiful fall and enjoying plenty of walks outside in the sunshine. We are very much in "preparation mode" at this point, but are still trying to stay connected here as well. I've started thinking about some of the luxuries I have here that I probably won't have in Africa. It makes me appreciate them more in the meantime. Like hot showers, good chocolate (I have been to Tanzania, and you really just can't get that there), wireless internet while sitting on the couch, and neatly packaged fresh meat. Another luxury we won't have is disposable diapers. We're trying to prepare ourselves for that by practicing with cloth diapers now, and so far I don't think it's that big a deal. But then, so far I still use disposables for nighttime and when we go out. And here we have a washing machine.

We have been to six different places in the last few weeks to speak about the work we will be doing in Tanzania with Wycliffe. It's great just to spread awareness about the need for Bible translation and get people interested, but at the same time we are still in the process of developing a support network and getting our funding in place. So we are waiting in some suspense to see this month's financial statement from Wycliffe, to see if there is any response from all these speaking engagements. We've also been getting lots of vaccinations, and right now we are doing a test run of a medicine that is used to prevent malaria. Possible side effects include hallucinations and depression, so it's important to see how we react to it before we get to Africa. I have been having a lot of weird dreams, which is a common side effect, but so far no daytime hallucinations! ( :

Photos and US Trip

Cute new baby photos in the album (link to your right). We're coming to the US on August 2 and staying until September 2. We're doing very well, having a nice summer, and Daniel hasn't been sick anymore. If anyone at all would like to get together with us while we're there, either just as friends or to learn about the Mbugwe Bible translation project we'll be working on starting in January, let us know! We'd love to talk. You can either post a comment here, or send me an email at rosebud15_13@hotmail.com, or call my parents' house while we're there if you know the number.

"My faith being small and my obedience slight, of what meaning are these words, 'I believe, I obey,' ? Deep is the abyss. The core of our being is put into question the moment we believe and obey as well as we can. In this situation, (which is the same for every Christian) prayer means going toward God, asking him to give us what we lack - strength, courage, serenity, prudence - asking him to teach us how to obey the law and accomplish the commandments, and then that God may instruct us how to continue in believing and believing yet more, and that he may renew our faith. Such a request can be made solely to God - it is an honor due to hom who has revealed himself to us by his Word...For it is the word of God that maintains us in this situation wherein prayer becomes a necessity." Karl Barth

Daniel gets a funny hat

A couple of weeks ago Daniel had his second urinary tract infection. Which is really not that big a deal, although quite uncommon for boys, but it ended up being kind of dramatic because we were at the hospital so much.

After he had his regular three-month immunizations, he had the normal fever in the evening, but then the fever persisted for several days. We called the doctor to make sure it was still ok and normal, and they insisted that up to a week of fever was normal. But after five days we started to wonder if it could actually be an infection (his pee smelled strongly, like the last time he had a UTI). In the evening his fever was higher than ever, so we decided to take him in to the emergency room/immediate care.

Even after three urine tests which tested positive for bacteria, and two blood tests showing infection, they were still quite hesitant to treat him. But in the end they decided to give him IV antibiotics for a week, plus oral antibiotics for a week after that, plus preventative antibiotics for the whole summer. His IV was in his head, so he had a funny "hood" of netting on all week to keep it in place, and the IV stuck out like a little antenna. They also did an ultrasound to check for abnormalities in his renal system which could be causing the infections. I had to stay in the hospital with him for three nights, and then keep coming in every day for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, I had to miss the Wycliffe conference, which I had really been looking forward to. We had a lot of friends from all over Norway there. Viggo got to go though. Wycliffe's "project manager" for Tanzania was there as a guest speaker, and she mentioned to Viggo that it looks like there may already be a house lined up for us in Babati in Tanzania.

Daniel had quite a fever for the first couple of days we were in the hospital, and I had to keep giving him tylenol to keep it down, and he got IV fluids overnight the first night. The medicine did it's job, though, and he's perfectly healthy now. We're finished with the last dose of oral antibiotics today, and will be going in to the hospital for a follow up appointment on Friday. In the fall, he is scheduled for and x-ray check, using contrast fluid in his bladder, to check for any problems the ultrasound didn't pick up on.

Daniel had a physical therapy appointment last week - starting a little early I'd say. He has developed a significant flat spot on one side of his head because he always sleeps on that side. We've been trying to reposition his head, but it doesn't seem to help much. The physical therapist said he has a tight muscle on one side of his neck, and gave me stretches to do with him, and strengthening exercises for the other side. He is not a big fan of his stretches. We have another appointment with the physical therapist tommorow to see if we're making any progress. Apparently it's not the lopsided head that they worry about so much as the crooked neck, which can continue to be a problem as he grows older if it isn't taken care of now.

I would still say he's a healthy boy, though, and he's growing and developing well. He sleeps though the night consistently, smiles and laughs at us, holds up his head and chest well, and grabs onto his toys and looks at them and puts them in his mouth now. We're practicing rolling over, but so far it is just onto his side.