Archive for September, 2010

Texas, big place and big hearts

Texas is really big. I saw that from the window in the tiny airplane that took me to Midland. This I saw while the biggest lady I have ever sat next to took up half of my seat, besides her own. “I am sorry I am so big,” she said when I struggled to get past her. “And I am glad you are so small.” It was also a very small airplane. From my window I saw en eternity of flat landscape and perfectly square and round fields, all in hues of brown. The round fields interested me. It was as if somebody had made them using a compass. Is it a Texan thing, I wondered. Making round fields, just to create some variety.

I was met at the airport by my favorite Texan friends, Trip and Porter, who are 10 and 11. They were dressed in their suits and ties and welcomed me with serious handshakes. In the car back to their house they wanted to hear about the tax system and the form of government we have in Norway. They also were interested in Kristin. “You can make a whole bundle of money from drilling oil,” they told me later, then they spent time explaining how oil had come into being in the first place. they also played the piano for me to hear, and told me about all kinds of interesting things I didn’t know.

I am here to speak about Partners and Burma. No surprise there. I spoke to a group of youth tonight and we connected just fine. I could have been their mother. I knew some things that they were into because I am the mother of teenagers myself. I asked if they rock climbed, and they looked at me funny. I quickly understood why: There are no rocks to climb here in Midland.

It is one of the areas of the world where God ran out of imagination. When Ken picked us up once when we came here, he said it was good we came in the evening so that we would not see how ugly it was until the next day. People who live here mostly work in the oil industry. They have oil here. That is what they have. And, the funny thing is that people love living here too. To me that sounds like a lie. There is nothing to do and all around there is only desert. If you want to see a mountain (hill) you must drive at least two hours. The only place to go running is on the track, in circles, on the collage campus. George Bush lived here.

“Yes, it is ugly, but we love it because of the people,” they all say when I ask how they manage to survive without valium. “We would rather live here than anywhere else.” They speak like Texans do, with a slow drawl. They are generous and hospitable. They give of their time and resources, they stop by each other’s houses just to say Hi. They make fine cowboy boots and hats not far from here, they have oil and friends. What more does one need when you think about it?

Would I rather live in an ugly place and have a bunch of friends or in a pretty place with no friends? Another option is of course to live in a pretty place and have friends. But some times that is impossible.

Layover in NY

OK, so I landed in New York  and now I am on my way to Denver soon. I got Internet, an apple, some water, I made it through immigration and customs, I know where my gate is, I have two hours to spare. I am jamming. I was so worried before we landed because everybody around me had filled in this Visa form online and I guess I was supposed to as well. I imagined myself meeting the big, scary immigration official and him handcuffing me and sending me back to Norway on the first plane. But, miraculously, when I met the scary immigration official, it was all fine, my visa was great, my passport too, they just needed my fingerprints and I was free to be in the US of A.

Standing in line waiting for some government official to decide your destiny always makes me think of all the freedoms I have. I thought: What if I had been an illegal immigrant from an oppressed nation and was waiting in this line. It would be my last hope of freedom and a future. A lot more would have been at stake. I thought that the worst that could happen to me if my visa was not there would be that they would send me back to Norway and we would lose some money, I would feel embarrassed, it would be a loooong trip back and I would miss out on some great opportunities to get to know people. But it would not be the end of me. I thought about how many dreams and hopes had been crushed at the end of an immigration line. But then too, how many dreams and hopes had started right there and the end of an immigration line, with a stamp in a passport and the freedom to enter into a free country.

I stood next to a famous TV commentator on the train to my terminal. A Norwegian VIP. He is on his way to Bogota to film IDPs living in the jungle, I overheard him say. He has lots of security and stuff around him to keep him safe. I may have to watch the program.I noticed he flew business class all the way too.

Nothing really important to write about today. It’s what happens when one is jet lagged.

Thinking new thoughts

Kristin, who is eight, was chewing fresh bread with olive pesto. (This is a new recipe I have tested out, and let me tell you: With olive pesto, nothing else is needed with bread. Scrumptious!)

“I know who Socrates was,” she said between bites. “He was a man who lived before Jesus. He taught people to think new thoughts and for that he had to drink poison and die. This I learned at school last year.”

The thing I like about Socrates the most is that he said that the only thing he knew was that he knew nothing. He and I had a lot in common, it turns out.

Kristin’s simple way of stating that Socrates taught the people to think new thoughts kind of stuck with me yesterday. He did, indeed, and will be remembered forever. I don’t even know all his new thoughts, but I like him, nevertheless, because he was brave. He dared to speak to the establishment. He dared to question what was commonly accepted as the way things had to be.

So this is my challenge today. To not just continue to do things and act a certain way and behave according to the norm only because that is how things are done. I think I am going to ask the question Why a lot more.

I am not sure I will get as far as Socrates did, and hopefully I will not be condemned to drink poison as a punishment for my rebellious thoughts, but I would like to be known as somebody who “taught people to think new thoughts.”

Olive pesto. That is a new thought, for example. How about taking on the military junta in Burma. Not exactly a new thought, but definitely different.

We have a lot in common with dogs

Marley flying high

Today I took our dog, Marley, for a walk. It should be the girls’ duty, but they claim he is impossible to walk with. I kind of agree. Walking with 9-month Marley isn’t always a pleasure. He pulls on his leash like he is a horse trying to pull a carriage. We have one of these training leashes, which means that as he pulls, he almost strangles himself. He can hardly breathe, he is panting and his body is stiff, like a weird-shaped log. But will he slow down? Hardly ever. Unless I have a treat in my hand that he wants more than pulling ahead of me.

I get so tired of the way he is and wonder why he can’t get into his hairy head that he would have such a much better time if he only slowed down a little. Then he has to grab all the garbage that is on the side of the road too. Today he found an empty cigarette box, turquoise with a big warning label on it that read: Smoking kills. He did not look very intelligent as he pulled ahead on his read leash, with an empty cigarette box in his mouth. Then he dropped it and kept sniffing on the ground like he was looking for gold. He noticed nothing around him except the dark ground.

It dawned on me then that I act much like Marley, my dog, myself. I am rushing forward, pulling my leash, almost losing my breath and feeling such an incredible hurry in my body. I am always rushing to somewhere or something, although I don’t know where or what. I felt God speak to me and say: “Oddny, if you too just slowed down a little and walked right next to me, you would feel so much better. Then this walk could be pleasant. And as for the cigarette box Marley has in his mouth: Don’t you too search for a lot of useless stuff that will only kill you and the people around you in the long run. Why don’t you stop looking down, searching for what you can find to carry with you. Look up and around you instead and realize that everything you need is right here, next to me.”

That is what I learned from my walk with God and Marley today.

I got a blog

So I finally figured out how to set up a blog site. I am really dizzy now because there were so many decisions to make. You should visit my blog every day just to see how I am doing. Most likely you will find changes all the time until I settle for something I am happy with. The color scheme, the titles on the side bars, what to call my blog. I had no idea I would have to think about all that. Anyway. I think that this is going to work if I just persist.

Today I am working on a pre school curriculum for Norwegian kids. Many pre-schools want to support Partners and I want to help them make it possible. I better go back to that.