Julia & Viggo Larsen

February 2012 Newsletter

2012-02-04T21:14:00.001+01:00

In November we went to Dodoma for planning meetings with our supervisor and colleagues. The meetings went well, and we feel like we have a good solid plan for the coming year. We are not yet ready to begin translation, but will begin publishing some books in Mbugwe and holding literacy classes this year.

Health Problems and the Holiday Season

The holiday season was a bit rough for us, but mostly for Julia; we ended up making several trips up to Arusha for medical care. About a week before Thanksgiving, Julia fell and got a bad cut that needed stitches. We made an emergency trip up to Arusha for that (a 2 hour drive), and then went up again a week later to get them taken out. It turned out that the cut wasn’t healing well, and Julia had to have a small surgery to fix it and new stitches. Eventually it healed up just fine.

In the second week of December, we had a visit from a colleague, Alison Compton, who gave Julia a lot of valuable teaching about how to test out the Mbugwe writing system and how to organize and run literacy classes.

We planned to have Christmas at home in Magugu, but a few days before Christmas Julia got sick. By the night before Christmas Eve, Julia had all the symptoms of appendicitis, including intense pain in the lower right abdomen. So, we ended up making another emergency trip up to Arusha (this time in the middle of the night). Julia stayed in the hospital for a couple of days, waiting for test results and trying to get better. The test results were inconclusive, but the symptoms were probably caused by some sort of bacterial infection, and a course of strong antibiotics eventually took care of it. Viggo and the kids were well taken care of by our friends in Arusha. They were fed a traditional Norwegian Christmas meal on Christmas Eve, and there were even presents for the kids. We were able to go back home to Magugu by the afternoon on Boxing Day, and we were able to open presents together and have a nice quiet meal together at home. It took Julia a week after that to recover fully, but by New Year’s she was pretty much back to normal.

A Good Start to 2012

The New Year started off great and all three of us (Viggo, Julia, and Shishe) have been making good progress with our work. The kids had a lot of fun playing with the neighbor kids every day, since they were all on a long school break. Julia is working on a Writer’s Guide for Mbugwe, including explanations and examples of all of the writing and spelling rules. She is also doing some testing of some rules that we’re still not quite sure about. Viggo is focusing on a thorough phonological analysis of the language.

Among other tasks, Shishe has been working on a history of the Mbugwe people. A while ago we were given a copy of the history of the Mbugwe, which was written in Swahili by an Mbugwe historian. Shishe has been translating it into Mbugwe. We hope that it will be ready for publishing within the next couple of months; it will be the first publication to come out of our project, and the second published book ever in Mbugwe. This has been a great project for Shishe to start with. He has been able to get practice translating and editing, which will prepare him well for translating the Bible. We also expect that this book will be quite popular with Mbugwe speakers.

Shishe has also been doing research on his own culture. This is an important foundation for future translation work, as it helps him to gather vocabulary items which will be needed for the Bible translation and helps him think through the meaning and usage of different terms. Most recently, he has been researching Mbugwe traditional religion. There are not many young Mbugwe who still openly practice the traditional religion, but it still has a significant influence in the community.

Rain Water Collection

We (and by that I mean Viggo) have finally set up a rainwater collection system. It has been great to have a water supply at the house, even though we don’t really have enough to install running water inside the house yet. Basically, Viggo put up gutters, and when it rains the water goes into the gutters and flows into a 2000 liter tank next to the house. It has only been raining about once a week since we got the tank, but that has been more than enough. The tank actually overflows every time we have heavy rain. We will still have to get wate from other sources during the dry season when it doesn’t rain at all (May-October), but this is a great solution for the wet season.

Future Plans

We have decided not to hire any more full-time employees this year, as we have not found the right candidate yet. However, we plan to hire Patrick and Sebastian part-time to assist in some literacy projects, in order to assess their potential as future literacy workers. Naomi will be helping us with editing Mbugwe texts as we begin to produce some Mbugwe literature this year. All of those mentioned above plus some others will assist Julia with testing out our Mbugwe writing and spelling rules to see if any changes are necessary. It is great to have a good group of Mbugwe speakers who are excited about helping with the project. Shishe and Julia had a productive meeting with the chairman and secretary of the Mbugwe Language Committee this week, where we came up with a list of Mbugwe who may be qualified for translation work.

In mid-February, Julia’s parents are coming to visit for three weeks. We are looking forward to their visit and to seeing them interact with Daniel and Rebekka. We’ll spend the first week of their visit on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, before we head back home to Magugu. We’re very excited about going to Zanzibar for the very first time.

Rebekka Juanita Larsen

2010-04-05T23:15:00.002+02:00

Rebekka Juanita Larsen was born March 25 11pm. She weighed 2910 grams (6lb 6 ounces), was 45 cm long (17.7 inches) and incredibly beautiful. Rebekka's parents and big brother are all very happy and proud.

Julia had premature labor almost two months before the birth, and this continued to a varying degree all the way up until the birth. Julia had contractions when we went to the hospital on the 25th, but not long after we arrived there, the contractions stopped. With Julia having been on bed rest for several months with pregnancy related back problems, we were very anxious for the birth to happen. We were therefore relieved when the doctor and the midwife decided to break Julia's water, so that we wouldn't run the risk of having a home birth. After the midwife broke Julia's water, it took less than 20 minutes before Rebekka was born.

The photo above was taken 10 minutes after Rebekka was born. You can see more photos in our online photo album (Click here to see the album).

Rebekka has gotten her middle name, Juanita, from her American great grandmother, who passed away three weeks before she was born. It's sad that we won't be able to be together with Juanita when we travel to the States in August, but we're happy that Rebekka can serve as a memory of her.

Snowplows and Security

2010-02-01T08:52:00.002+01:00

Early this morning I was awoken by the sound of a snow plow plowing the road just outside our house. Even half asleep I was quite sure that was what it was. It snowed all day yesterday, a layer of new snow on top of the foot or two which has been accumulating and settling since Christmas. In Norway things do not grind to a halt when there is snow. There are systems in place to deal with it, and everyone knows what to do. The snowplows come early in the morning before anyone is up. People get up extra early to shovel their driveways and clear off their cars, and morning traffic flows as usual over the snowy streets.

When I was awoken by the sound of the snowplow this morning, I thought of Tanzania. Not of the climate difference, although that is huge. What struck me was how comforting it is to be able to take something like a snowplow for granted. To know that there are systems in place to take care of the problems of my daily life. Ever since being back here, I get a little bit of the same feeling every time I hear the garbage truck go by. How nice!, I think, that all I have to do is put my garbage outside in the bins provided for that purpose, and I can know that it will be collected weekly with no more fuss. In Tanzania, there are no good options when it comes to trash. I know it sounds awful, but due to a lack of options, here’s what we do: there is a big hole in the ground in our yard, and we dump our trash into it and burn it on a regular basis. Glass bottles and tin cans are tricky. Some people just stick them in the hole along with the other trash, while others ‘dig them down’ in a separate hole in the yard. We do try to reduce our household waste by reusing plastic bags, and we have a compost pile to deal with food waste. Daniel’s nanny started a little side business, selling my glass jars and bottles to a lady she knows who sells sunflower oil.

I could give a lot of examples of things we take for granted in the western world that don’t exist in Tanzania if I let myself keep going. A few of those I appreciate most; paved roads, stocked grocery stores, reliable electricity, good healthcare, and a trustworthy police force. When we encounter exceptions to the rule in these areas like potholes, power outages, medical malpractice, or a store being sold out of our favorite brand of cereal (not to mention something basic, like milk) we feel we have every right to complain. How would it feel to no longer have that right? To know that an extraordinarily bumpy dirt road full of deep mudholes is simply the norm? That there is no number to call in an emergency. That if you need to go to the hospital, no matter how sick you are, you’re going to have to walk there yourself? Like I said, the list of examples is long. And I find myself feeling very blessed and thankful for the garbage truck and the snow plow.

Time to celebrate

2009-10-02T22:37:00.001+02:00

Three weeks ago, we finished our third of three week-long orthography workshops. The last week of March, we looked at the vowel sounds of Mbugwe, in August, we looked at consonant sounds, and in September, we looked at tone. After three weeks of sorting through hundreds of cards over and over, reading and comparing the words on the each of the cards, checking if the
translations of these words were correct, and not the least learning a lot about the sound system of Mbugwe, it was time for celebration.

After sharing a meal together on the last day of the workshop, each participant got the opportunity to share how they had experienced the orthography workshops. All the participants were excited about what they had been a part of. Even though it'll still be a while before we can start translating, they expressed joy because together we had laid the foundation for the work of Bible translation. Week after week they had discovered how Mbugwe actually is different from Swahili and therefore needs a different writing system than Swahili. They had discovered that Mbugwe has two more vowel sounds than Swahili, that Mbugwe has short and long vowels (unlike Swahili), and that we need to use some special diacritics to mark tone in Mbugwe (also unlike Swahili). Julia and I both shared some words about how excited we were to have participated in the workshops together with the 13 participants and for all the things we had achieved during the three weeks of workshops. After everybody had gotten to say something about their experience, all the participants received a certificate as a proof of their participation in developing a writing system for Mbugwe and a copy of the alphabet chart that we had made together. The alphabet chart has a word and a picture to illustrate each of the vowels and consonants in the Mbugwe alphabet.

Even though we achieved a lot during our three weeks of workshops, there is still a lot more work to be done on the Mbugwe writing system. We'll have to do testing, further analysis, and do another three workshops on other aspects of orthography. Those workshops, however will have to wait till we return from furlough in Norway...

The Bishop and the Cobras

2009-05-26T09:08:00.001+02:00

Viggo drove out to Mbulu to visit the Catholic bishop for the area today. It's a couple of hours of driving on roads that are rougher than most anything we've encountered so far. Part of the drive involves driving up 2,300 ft. cliff (the Rift Valley escarpment), partly on bare rock.

The majority of Mbugwe identify themselves as Catholic, although only a small minority of those are active church-goers. It's very important that we develop a good relationship with the Catholic church, if we want Catholics to actually use the Mbugwe Bible when it's finished. Viggo's not back yet, but I talked to him breifly on the phone, and it seems the meeting went well. We have already gotten to know most of the priests in the Mbugwe area, and they have been very positive so far, but meeting the Bishop is rather critical, as he is a very important figure in the church.

It's starting to get colder here, and the snakes are coming out of the forest above our house to sunbathe, or so I'm told. Our guard killed two cobras out in back of the house the other day. Snakes are one of the main reasons why we have the neigbors cows come and graze in our yard on a regualar basis. The cows keep the grass short so we can see the snakes. Snakes were also my main motivation for wanting a dog, because I was told they're really good about barking and letting you know if they see one, which apparently Simba did do with the cobras the other day. Sorry I don't have any pictures, but I'm glad I didn't have to see them.

And then yesterday our friends' dog was spit at by a spitting cobra. They are American missionaries who are gone on furlough, so when the guard at their house saw that the dog was going blind, he came up here to ask for help. Viggo went down and helped to rinse the dog's eyes with milk, which is supposed to help. I am reminded that we really need to keep a close eye on
Daniel when he's playing in the yard. It's not quite as bad as I make it sound though; we've only had 3 snakes in our yard that I know of since we moved here.

Our Spring...

2009-05-08T20:22:00.003+02:00

Ok, so it's been a really long time since my last post. I do apologize to those of you who are still checking the blog. We have had a pretty busy and eventful couple of months. After Daniel's birthday, we had a week-long project planning meeting in Arusha together with our supervisors and colleagues from two other projects. After that, we headed back to Babati and started preparing for our 'Vowels Workshop' at the end of March. We found and invited participants, bought and planned food for the week, arranged for a 'conference room' in Magugu, and edited, sorted, etc. over 1,500 Mbugwe words, printing them onto index cards for use in the workshop meetings, among other things.

Our supervisor came out to help us with this first workshop. Good thing she did, because Viggo ended up getting a majorly infected, swollen arm on the first day of the workshop and was basically unable to participate for the rest of the week, having to make trips up to Arusha to get antibiotic injections in his arm and whatnot. So Susi (our supervisor) and I kind of ran the whole show. I did a lecture on some basic linguistic terms in Swahili the first day and was pretty proud of myself for being able to make myself understood. The workshop went amazingly well, all things considered, though I was completely exhausted by the end. We had very heavy rains the first night, and had to drive through a fast-flowing river, with water up to the hood of our big SUV, on the way to the workshop the next morning. But we made it. That's why we have a Land Cruiser. We made good progress with the Mbugwe vowel system. We discovered that there are 7 vowels in Mbugwe, meaning that we will need to use two special vowel symbols in addition to a,e,i,o,and u. The Mbugwe were excited to do the research together with us and had a chance to learn some new things in the process. We will hopefully have another workshop on consonants at the end of this month.

As soon as we were done with the vowels workshop, we had to start preparing for a 'discourse workshop' starting in mid-April. Meanwhile Daniel had a week of high fevers, and I had a mild bout of malaria. It's difficult to explain the point of the disourse workshop, but suffice to say we've now been in Nairobi for three weeks and Viggo has learned a lot about 'discourse analysis' and the 'discourse features' of the Mbugwe language. This will be very helpful for making a fluent translation in the long run. The day after we arrived in Nairobi, I got really sick, and I ended up in the hospital with pretty severe pneumonia. It was really hard to breathe. I was in the hospital for five days, and slept most of the day for a couple of days after that, but after lots of antibiotics and rest I'm all better now. We have stayed with German colleagues for these three weeks, and they were extremely helpful while I was sick. We're very thankful that if I had to get so sick, at least we were in Nairobi, where there is a very good hospital.

So tomorrow we drive back to Tanzania. We'll be glad to get home. There will be a pretty intense couple of weeks of preparation for the consonants workshop, and after that, we'll be getting ready to leave for the US for Pamela's wedding and a much needed vacation.

Bananas

2009-02-21T12:42:00.001+01:00

When the banana tree starts to fall over from the weight of the banana bunch, you cut off the banana bunch and put it inside to ripen. We have several banana trees in our yard. A banana tree bears bananas after six months of life, then begets a baby banana tree which will bear bananas again in another six months. When we get bananas, we get so many we get to give
them away to everybody we know. And I make banana bread.

On another note, Daniel went bananas over his birthday presents. We had a party today (Friday) and he got more than enough. His grandparents managed to spoil him even from the distance of a whole continent away. His favorite present, a little plastic trike, was belatedly bought with grandparent Christmas-gift money, plus he got two packages from them in the mail. I think his least favorite present was the homemade bubbles he got from one of our friends. You're supposed to blow the bubbles using a straw. He liked the bubbles, but he wanted to do it himself, and of course ended up drinking the dish-soap solution instead.

We had no wrapping paper and I didn't know where to buy it in town, but now we have a whole collection of gift bags and tissue paper that I can re-use the next time we have to wrap a gift.

You can sometimes get Betty Crocker cake mixes here (well, in Arusha) now, so naturally that's what we had. White chocolate swirl. Daniel actually managed to blow his candles out himself (or some of them. I went a little overboard 'decorating' the cake with candles. But I think he blew out at least two himself).

On a more work-related note, we had a nice first meeting with an Mbugwe catholic priest last week. He spoke perfect English and has lived in Rome and Ireland for several years. His Mbugwe is not so good anymore, though, apparently. He was pretty eager to be helpful to us, which is great because we need more Catholic contacts. A high percentage of Mbugwe are members of the Roman Catholic church, so it is important to have a good relationship with the Catholics. In the long run, if they feel involved in the translation process, Mbugwe Catholics are more likely to actually use the translated Mbugwe Bible. Anyway, we have an appointment to go visit the priest's family members in one of the Mbugwe villages in a couple weeks. We should be able to gain some good contacts that way. We're finding that often the most efficient way of getting to know more Mbugwe people is to get ourselves introduced to the extended families of those we already know.

Our new lawnmower(s)

2008-12-10T10:56:00.000+01:00

Viggo thought he was very clever today. He found a way to get our lawn mowed and get free fertilizer without doing any work. We had eight cows inside our fence all day. Both of our closest neighbors have cows, and they were ecstatic when we offered to have the cows come eat our grass. Our guard, who otherwise would have spent much of his day cutting our lawn with a scythe, instead spent much of his day keeping the cows from eating our flowers. Daniel was thoroughly entertained both by the cows and by the neighbor kids who came to help ‘watch’ the cows (the guard had to keep telling them to get the cows away from the flowers because they were too busy playing on our swings…).

The Rains

2008-11-11T06:51:00.000+01:00

The rains are finally here. I awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of heavy rain on our tin roof. I love the smell and the feel of the air after it rains here. In the morning the air was cool and moist, and the sun stayed behind the clouds most of the day. Here it rains in short, intense bursts. We had another cloudburst around lunchtime, which Daniel stared at in awe. He has probably forgotten about rain, not having seen any at all since last spring. The landscape has been quite dry since we came to Babati, but within the next few days the ground will be bursting with new green growth everywhere. It will be especially neat to see the change in the eastern part of the Mbugwe area, which has been essentially gray and sand colored up to now. We will also be starting to get some more experience using our 4-wheel-drive in sticky situations, starting as soon as we drive out of our gate. Some of the Mbugwe villages will be almost entirely out of reach for us for the next couple of months, on account of multiple rivers across the already rough dirt roads. A lot of the hard-core vehicles here actually have “snorkels”, so the car can “breathe” while going through rivers. You can still get stuck, but if you get stuck in a river it is less of a crisis. We don’t have a snorkel, so if we get stuck in water above our exhaust pipe we would be in real trouble.

Mbalimbali (a variety)

2008-09-24T14:21:00.000+02:00

We’ve had a rather stressful last couple of weeks. Our car was in the shop in Arusha for two weeks, and while Viggo was in Arusha his stuff was stolen out of a friend’s car. That included one of our laptops, but fortunately it was the old one. Not having a car meant that we were limited in the amount of language work we could get done, especially since Viggo was in Arusha much of the time ‘babysitting’ the car. Now, having only one computer to work on is also limiting, because while we are at home most of our work is on the computer, and now we can only work one at a time. But, we have all been healthy, Daniel has been sleeping through the night, and we are really looking forward to my parent’s (and Sam’s) visit. They’re coming Oct. 6^th, and they’ll be bringing our new laptop with them. We finally have a table and chairs now, which was the big excitement for the week. Daniel’s nanny, Mama Elia (who also helps with chores) is taking very good care of him, which makes it possible for me to do a bit of work. She comes to the house and watches him for a few hours in the morning and puts him down for his nap while I work.

We made a trip out to a village last week and recorded some Mbugwe stories, riddles, and songs, which we can now enter into the computer and use for language analysis. Between the sun and speaking Swahili all day, going out to the village is really exhausting. We always have mixed feelings after a village visit. We would love to live in the village in order to be closer to the Mbugwe people and fully experience their language and culture. However, we’re not sure how much of that experience we could really cope with on an every-day basis, and still get any work done. At least for now we are very glad to live in a comfortable home and have some privacy.

This Friday we have a “mini word-gathering workshop”, where we will meet with a group of Mbugwe to gather a long list of Mbugwe words. Then we will have lots of work to putting them into the computer and analyzing the individual sounds. The mother of Mama Elia (Daniel’s nanny) has helped us to organize this meeting. She has some clout in the village because she was the wife of the last chief of the Mbugwe. However, she is apparently also well-known as a radical Christian. She said that when she went around the first time to ask people to come to the word-gathering workshop, many said no because they were afraid she was just trying to trick them into getting saved by some missionaries.

Next week we will be meeting with a Catholic priest to discuss how the Catholic church can help partner with us in the language project. We try to work together with all of the churches in the area, and there are many Mbugwe Catholics. If we neglect relationships with the churches, then they may not support our work, and the Mbugwe Bible produced could end up being very unpopular among Catholics, for example. If we cultivate relationships with church leaders, then they may be willing to help us in a variety of ways throughout the course of the project. Relationships are very important here, as is flexibility.

Settled in Babati

2008-09-09T08:40:00.002+02:00

So we are all settled (more or less) in our new home in Babati now. There’s been a lot going on, and I haven’t posted anything in forever. We now have a regular work schedule for ourselves, and have set regular days for blogging. So in theory, I should be posting every Wednesday. Viggo posts weekly too, but in Norwegian. You can always check the link to our Norwegian blog to see if he’s posted pictures though. God has blessed us with a very comfortable house in beautiful location here (see the pics in my Dad’s post below). It is not actually in the Mbugwe area, which is what we were hoping for, but we needed a livable place to stay right away, and the houses we could rent in the Mbugwe area were mostly unfinished. We think this will be best for us at least in this first year of transition. It is only a half hour from the Mbugwe area, so it is easy to make trips out to the villages.

We have gotten off to a good start on language research and building relationships with Mbugwe people, and this is what we will be continuing with. Trips out to Mbugwe villages right now usually involve visiting pastors and village elders to tell them about the Bible translation project, and recording stories and other Mbugwe texts which we then take home for language analysis. The language analysis part is a little technical to explain, but we spend a lot of time at home on our computers picking apart the texts we get. I also enter notes on our experiences into a computer program for anthropological analysis. Having anthropological information will be helpful for various translation issues later on. All our communication with Tanzanians here is in Swahili, which we are still learning, though we are finished with language school. To start learning another new language (Mbugwe) this soon is quite a challenge, even for us linguists, and we are taking it slowly for now.

We have hired an Mbugwe woman to help with a variety of things at our house four days a week. She helps with Daniel and chores, and will also help with some of the language work, including language learning. Her name is Mama Elia and we are very thankful to have her help, which allows us (me, especially) to get a lot more language work done. Mama Elia is the wife of an Mbugwe pastor who teaches at a Bible school here in Babati, and is also the daughter of the last chief of the Mbugwe (who is no longer living), so she is a great contact for us. We went out with her to visit her mother a couple of weeks ago and had lunch in the village and recorded a couple of stories from her mother. It was a great experience, and we will be going back soon to record some Christian songs her mother has composed in Mbugwe. In addition to translating the Bible we hope to publish other materials, hopefully including a book of Mbugwe songs to be used in church. Right now church services are conducted in Swahili only.

Daniel is doing well, and is as cute as ever, despite the fact that he has started throwing fits fairly often when he doesn’t get his way. Our neighbors like to play their music very loud, and Daniel really enjoys dancing to it. He’s a very good dancer. He get’s all into it with his hips swinging and his elbows out and head nodding. He also enjoys our two new puppies. They are supposed to be guard dogs in the long run, but right now they need to be guarded themselves all the time they are out of their kennel so they don’t get into trouble or out of our fence. They’re also giving us fleas already…

Daniel's Girlfriend

2008-09-01T03:00:00.004+02:00

Daniel became quite enamored of a lovely little girl who was also with her parents at Swahili school. Alas, they went on their separate ways as their families moved on to their assignments.

But wait, there was a joyous reunion. Here they are at a resort in Kenya where SIL folk met in August:

House in Babati

2008-09-01T02:40:00.006+02:00

This is a post by Julia's Dad, Kent.
Julia, Viggo and Daniel have gotten a lot done since they moved toTanzania in January.

Orientation in Dar......check

Swahili School ........... check

Conference in Kenya ....check

Find House in Babati ....check

Begin interacting with and learning from the Mbugwe ....Check

Dodoma Guesthouse Party

2008-06-15T20:34:00.005+02:00

We are staying at a guesthouse tonight and for the next two nights where we have a living space separate from the bedroom, a luxury we have not had since moving to Tanzania. Daniel has a fever tonight, but it seems to be just a cold; he has a runny nose and cough as well. He fell asleep early, and Viggo and I are enjoying having a second room where we can stay up a bit without the fear of waking him up. We are also taking full advantage of the free wireless internet here on both our laptops. However, it is now past 9:30 and I can barely keep my eyes open.

We're finally finished with language school, and are excited to be moving on to other things. Yesterday we drove about 7 hours up to Dodoma where we will be staying for about two weeks before heading up farther north to where we will be living. In Dodoma we will be living with a Tanzanian family for 5 nights to learn more about the culture, and we will be getting to know our colleagues here. There is a translation team here working in the Rangi language, which is the most similar language to Mbugwe (the language we will be working with).

I made grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner; my first attempt at cooking in quite a while, as all our meals were served communally at language school.

Last Week of Language School

2008-06-08T20:21:00.001+02:00

We're nearly finished with language school. This weekend we'll be saying goodbye to most of our friends and colleagues who have been learning Swahili with us. Viggo and I are going to be staying for an extra week, because we missed a week of language school a couple of weeks ago. We went to Dar to celebrate the Norwegian national holiday on the 17^th of May with other Norwegians at the residence of the Norwegian ambassador. We had planned to be gone just for the weekend, but as we were leaving town on Sunday morning our car broke down. It literally ground to a halt and would not go anymore. We were able to roll back down the hill and across the highway into a rather deserted gas station. From there we called friends in Dar, and ultimately our new Norwegian friends who were also in town for the holiday were able to come and tow us back into town.

It was about an hour through city traffic, and somehow we managed to break three steel towropes on the way, one in the middle of a major intersection. We arrived safely back at the guesthouse by the early afternoon, but had to wait until Tuesday for a reputable mechanic to look at the car and diagnose the problem. Initially he thought it would be easy to fix, but sadly he kept finding more things wrong with the car, so we ended up getting stuck in Dar for the full week. On the way back the next Sunday we stopped and visited the friends who towed us back and gave them a new towrope to compensate for the one we broke. We had met them one time before the weekend of May 17^th. I think I mentioned that in my last post. They are a nice Norwegian couple with two small children. They have also arrived just recently in Tanzania and are learning Swahili at a different language school right now. They will be living in a small town about an hour away from where we will be, so we'll practically be neighbors. We were happy for the chances to get to spend some time with them, and get to know them better, despite the fact that it was mostly due to our car breaking down. We also had the chance to meet with our supervisor in Dar and plan our activities for the first few weeks after language school. The car is still not entirely healthy, but we will have to wait until we leave language school here in Iringa to take it to a proper mechanic and have the less pressing problems taken care of. Hopefully after that we won't have to deal with any more repairs for a while. We knew it was an old enough car that it would be needing some repairs sooner or later, but we had been hoping it wouldn't happen quite this soon.

Visit to Village Church

2008-05-04T11:28:00.002+02:00

This weekend we went to a Pentecostal church in the nearby village of Lundamatwe. Almost all of the workers at the campsite are from Lundamatwe, but most of them are Catholics. One of the camp drivers is named Daniel and is a friend of Viggo’s from their weekly soccer matches (the Language school students play together with the camp staff each Friday). Daniel’s father is the pastor at the Pentecostal church. It was a very interesting experience, mostly in a good way. The singing was great, accompanied by just a big drum, with the voices filling the church building. I was able to understand some of the Swahili songs, at least after the choruses were repeated a few times. All of the men sat on one side of the room and all the women on the other, with children who were old enough to sit on their own at the back. Women with babies were all at the back of the women’s section near the door, probably so that they could exit easily if they needed to tend to their babies. We were invited to the pastor’s house after church and given sodas.

When we returned to the camp, we met a young Norwegian couple who had stopped by specifically to meet us. They had read about us in a Norwegian Christian newspaper, which ran an article about us before we left for Tanzania. They are also doing language school now, but at a different location. They will be living a little over an hour away from us in a neighboring town, doing evangelistic work with one of the neighboring people groups. They also have small children, and will be staying for at least a few years. We were excited to find out that there would be a young Norwegian family so (relatively) close by.

Viggo finally was able to register our car in town today, and we are happy that they didn’t charge too exorbitant of a fee. The officer he spoke with insisted that Viggo had to have three names listed on the registration, and so Viggo is now officially ‘Viggo Viggo Larsen’, since he has no real middle name.

Daniel is still working on learning to walk. He can take a few steps at a time on his own, but is still pretty cautious, which probably makes sense since he still loses his balance pretty easily.

Space Cadet

2008-03-16T23:49:00.005+01:00

This is Kent posting again.

Pamela reminded me that I forgot to share this precious picture of Daniel. Viggo took it at Swahili camp in Tanzania. He noted that the spacey look in Daniel's eyes must be something he inherited from Julia. Chances are good that we will have to say his name three or four times to retrieve him from his reverie, especially if he is reading.

Swahili School: Mid March 08

2008-03-14T03:27:00.003+01:00

This is Kent posting. Julia would have posted a few days ago, but she has been battling the Tanzania Trots. If English is not your "heart" language, you may be unaware that I am looking for a polite way to say that Julia has had diarrhea. So has Daniel. Viggo seems to have stuck with just a fever.

I am sure they would like me to let you know that many, much better things are also happening while they are in Swahili Camp. I will. I am just starting with "things a Dad worries about".

Now I realize that Julia, Viggo, and Daniel have been sick in other places besides Tanzania. In fact, I recall that when Julia was a very little girl she would sometimes proclaim : "I have dia - rear - eah". The emphasis on "rear" was hers, not mine. Apparently she was making an early attempt at etymology.

So please keep praying that our intrepid trio will develop immune systems that can cope with the new germ population they have encountered.

Julia told us a lovely story recently. It was about a walk they took as a family. They are able to use their all terrain stroller along some of the local pathways. They were even able to gain enough altitude to have a vista of the area near the camp. It made me very happy to picture them clambering through the bush and emerging above it all to look across the distances.

We also hear that Viggo is able to pursue one of his great loves: Soccer. Apparently the camp staff and the students square off in regular soccer games. There is a village near the camp, and many of the locals enjoy watching the spectacle. It sounds quite colorful, doesn't it.

Of course their main purpose at the camp is to learn Swahili. That is going well. Julia is able to converse with Daniel's nanny now. This is timely, because Daniel seems to have taken a real liking to his nanny. He even seems reluctant at times to end his morning with her and return to Julia's custody.

Daniel's nanny is good friends with the nanny for Daniel's local peer group (one little girl). So Daniel and the little girl get to play while the nanny's chat. Daniel does not talk, just yet. However, in January, I personally witnessed him evincing comprehension of both Norwegian and English words. I think it is a safe bet that he is now rapidly filling that commodious brain of his with Swahili as well. In a few months he will no doubt, begin to add Mbugwe as well. Since Daniel retains dual citizenship (U.S. and Norway), he alone will significantly increase the average number of languages spoken by U.S. citizens!

So, yes there are some nasty bugs to reckon with. But there are also new friends, grand vistas, and a rapidly increasing Swahili vocabulary.

The adventure continues.

Language School Update

2008-02-18T20:13:00.005+01:00

We’re all settled in our little cabin here at language school now, where we will be staying for about the next four months. I’m sorry I haven’t managed to update the blog before now. I’ve hardly had a chance to be online at all since we’ve been here, and I’m learning that I’m going to need to write emails and blog posts in advance so that I don’t have to waste time on the really slow and expensive internet connections here. Thanks Dad for writing an update. I don’t know how soon I’ll get a chance to post again, so this might be a bit long.

We are really enjoying our language classes and feel like we’re learning really fast. We have Swahili class from 8am til 1pm every weekday, and then we do some studying in the afternoon and evening as well. We are split up into small classes – there are just four of us in our class. Our classrooms our these small open-sided thatched ‘bandas’. The weather has been really nice and mild, actually almost a bit cold at times and rather rainy, but it’s by far preferable to the hot and humid weather we had for three weeks in Dar es Salaam. The rainy season here will last until the end of April. The campsite is in a somewhat hilly, forested location, and a river runs through the middle of it. There is apparently a hippo living in the river here at the moment, though we have yet to see him. Daniel seems to be doing really well with his nanny. She doesn’t speak much English though, so I’m gradually getting to be able to communicate with her better as I learn more Swahili. I take a break every day at 10:00 to put Daniel down for his nap, so I get a chance to check on him then. He often plays together with Lea, the other one-year-old baby here, while I’m in class.

Daniel has been a bit sick since we got here over a week ago. He has had some diarrhea and a low fever most days, though he has still been acting pretty normal most of the time and eating and drinking well. We’ve done blood tests for malaria multiple times, and it isn’t that. On Saturday his fever was higher, so we met with a missionary nurse here to get advice, and she took us to a doctor she knows. After getting some tests done, it seems he has some kind of bacterial gut infection, so we have started him on antibiotics now, and hopefully he’ll get better soon. He started to get a runny nose and cough yesterday though, so it seems like now he’s getting a cold too. We’d appreciate your prayers for him. He’s not seriously ill, but we’d like him to get better and not worse.

Otherwise, we are all doing really well here. I found the three week orientation in Dar totally exhausting, and I was sick a few different times (tummy bug, dehydration, bad headache…). I don’t know if it was the weather or that there was just too much going on or what, but it was pretty overwhelming. I’ve been doing great since we got to language school, though, and I feel very happy and relaxed. Viggo has enjoyed getting to play football (I mean soccer) and volleyball a few times, and we often go for walks in the afternoon and practice our Swahili as we walk, with Daniel in the carrier on Viggo’s back. We’re really glad to have our little cabin here. Most of the single people are staying in tents (but with cement floors and beds and so on) for the whole four months, so we feel very fortunate to have two whole bedrooms and a bathroom all to ourselves. We don’t have a kitchen, but we don’t miss it. All the meals are served buffet style in a communal dining area and the food is actually really good. It sounds like there’s a plan for a group of us to go have some cooking lessons at a village home sometime this week, so that should be fun.

We’re working on getting a car – you’re also welcome to pray that that process goes well. It seems that the estimate we were given for what we need for a car was a bit low, because whoever made the estimate forgot to include taxes, but we are still hoping to find something in the right price range. Hopefully we’ll have more information soon – getting information is in general a much slower process here than we are used to at home.

News from Julia and Viggo

2008-02-10T02:10:00.000+01:00

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!

2008-01-20T05:44:00.000+01:00

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

2008-01-02T12:31:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-20T13:50:00.001+01:00

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

2007-12-11T16:20:00.000+01:00

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

2007-11-25T22:57:00.000+01:00

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

2007-10-25T10:27:00.000+02:00

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

2007-07-23T19:30:00.000+02:00

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.

2007-07-22T11:58:00.000+02:00

"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

2007-06-20T14:25:00.000+02:00

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.

Long weekend

2007-05-28T11:34:00.000+02:00

Viggo and I have been enjoying a nice long weekend with no plans, except hanging out with his family. Daniel is still amazing - and now he is smiling and talking and even laughing. I think he will be sleeping through the night soon. He usually makes it at least 5 1/2 hours before eating. I don't feel like I have much to post about these days - besides Daniel, and sweet as he is, he doesn't really do much yet. I'll try to keep up with occasional updates though - there should be some more excitement next January as we post about our move to Tanzania and life there. We're looking forward to the Wycliffe Norway conference in two weeks, where we'll get to see our Norwegian Wycliffe friends (who otherwise live in very different parts of the country from us) and will meet some leaders from the Uganda-Tanzania branch.

By the way, I've just sent out an English newsletter (a Norwegian one is coming soon from Viggo, for the rest of you). Let us know if you didn't get it, but would like us to email it to you. (Send us an email or post a comment on this entry to let us know. (if you don't have a blog, you can always post as "anonymous" and just sign your name on your comment).

At Home

2007-04-22T11:22:00.000+02:00

I had to post my favorite new picture of Daniel below. He loves to lie under his play gym and look at his toys. Yesterday he had an online video conversation with his Grandma and he seemed to think that was pretty cool too. I should perhaps mention that the sleeping through the night mentioned in the last post was a one-time thing. We seem to be rather going downhill as far as that is concerned. He's still the perfect baby though.

We are happy to be in Norway for now, but are very much looking forward to going to Tanzania! When Viggo and I were getting married, I had a period of feeling very overwhelmed by the idea of truly leaving home, first for Norway, then for Africa. God gave me a verse from Psalm 23 that was a huge reassurance: "Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever". Viggo and I will probably live quite a few different places over the years, but wherever we go we will always be at home in the Lord.

Seven Hours

2007-04-11T14:31:00.000+02:00

That's how many hours Daniel slept last night without waking up to nurse - from 10:00PM to 5:00 AM. We were very pleasantly suprised. We're back home in Norway and doing wonderfully. Daniel went to his first Norwegian church service on Easter and was much admired. It also snowed two inches that day. Now, though, it is sunny and beautiful and about 60 degrees. I think I will take Daniel out for a walk in his baby carriage soon. It is very nice to be in our own little home again.

Here is Daniel doing his "superbaby" pose, wearing an outfit knitted by his great-great grandmother, which once belonged to Viggo. Daniel weighs a whole 11 pounds (5 kilos) as of today. More pictures will be coming soon, Mom and Dad, but Viggo is busy translating today.

Going home

2007-04-04T22:18:00.000+02:00

We finally received Daniel's passport yesterday, and we should be leaving for Norway tomorrow. It will be good to go home, although it has been good to be "home" with my family here in Oregon as well. Daniel's American grandparents are definitely going to miss him.

Daniel had a bit of a fever much of last week, which it turned out was caused by a urinary tract infection. It took three trips to the doctor to figure that out, but ultimately he got the antibiotics he needed and he's much better now. He wasn't eating very well while he was sick, but he's making up for lost time now, eating voraciously every 1-2 hours and getting chubbier every day.

Viggo was invited to speak in church last Sunday and shared about our experience of God's faithfulness over the past year and since we'ver been married. It is awesome to see how he has provided for us and taken care of us and enabled us to trust him even in some difficult situations. We were also glad to see our church here getting excited about being involved in our future work.

I haven't quite figured out how to post pictures yet, or I'd put up one of Daniel. However, there's a new video (narrated in Norwegian..) and possibly some new pictures in our photo album under "Daniel's first month". He's pretty cute!

Viggo got a Visa!

2007-03-11T02:09:00.000+01:00

So, you may or may not have understood before about the situation we were in with Viggo's visa. He came into the states on a 90-day visa waiver, which ran out March 7th. There is basically no way to extend your stay on a visa waiver, and it is not allowed to apply for any other kind of visa from within the US. As far as we could tell, and we had called every number we could find to call, Viggo was going to have to return to Norway without me and Daniel before the 7th.

As a last attempt, though, we contacted Senator Gordon Smith's office to ask if they could help us in any way. They were able to set up an appointment for Viggo right away at the US Consulate in Vancouver, Canada. Viggo drove up to Canada on Tuesday, spent some nice time with friends up there, and came back on Friday with a Visitors and Business visa that is valid for six months at a time for the next ten years. So contrary to all expectation, he is going to be able to stay here with Daniel and I until Daniel receives his passport and can come home to Norway.

Also, Daniel's social security number was processed very quickly. We should be able to apply for a passport for him on Monday and receive it within two weeks, so we expect to return to Norway by the end of March.

Wonder Baby

2007-03-11T01:46:00.000+01:00

Daniel is amazing. He is, of course, the most beautiful little boy ever. He hardly ever cries; he lets me know he's hungry by grunting and opening his mouth instead. He sleeps well at night most nights, just waking up a few times to be nursed. When he was four days old he rolled over from his back to his tummy, two different times, and he manages to find his thumb and suck on it on a fairly regular basis. So clearly he is a genius. He hasn't been weighed for over a week, but we can already see on his cheeks and his little fingers that he is getting chubbier. He is a good nurser, and I seem to have more than enough milk to keep him satisfied.

The first few days after we came back from the hospital, I found myself worrying quite a bit. I had a hard time sleeping because I kept wanting to make sure he was still breathing. I'm finally beginning to believe that his lungs will probably keep functioning without my constant supervision. He had jaundice for a few days, but it's all cleared up now.

Although anxiety was a prominent feeling for me during his first week, I am getting more comfortable with my role as a mom, and have been able to really enjoy him for the past few days. We get just a couple of hours a day where he is really alert with open eyes, and that is really precious time. Otherwise he mostly sleeps peacefully, either in someone's arms or in his cradle or carseat; he doesn't seem to care where. Of course he also wakes up on a regular basis to eat. We do usually get a few cries out of him when we change his diaper, if he isn't to sleepy to care. His one bad habit is that his favorite time to pee seems to be during diaper changes; aunt Pamela got well-sprayed the other day.

I am spoiled here at my parents' house, not having to really do any laundry or cleaning or cooking, with several willing pairs of arms to pass Daniel on to if I get tired. In so many ways it is a blessing to be here for these first weeks, where I am so much at home and have so much support.

Welcome Daniel

2007-02-28T01:26:00.000+01:00

Finally, after a long time of waiting, we got to meet Daniel face to face yesterday. It was a day of great joy and relief. When Julia went to see the doctor at 11:30 AM yesterday, she was having a lot of discomfort. It turned out she had dilated to 7 cm, so when the doctor asked Julia if she wanted to have her water broken, it was a fairly simple decision to make. After the water was broken around 1 PM, Julia's contractions slowly started to pick up, and after a few hours she was experiencing some intense labor pain. Julia asked for an epidural, and the rest of the labor was a whole different story. During the "pushing" stage of the delivery Julia experienced far less pain, but it took three and a half hours and a lot of energy before we got to meet our little baby boy.
After all this time waiting and hoping that Daniel would delay to enter into the world, it was so unreal to finally be able to rejoice over the birth of our son. I have uploaded some photos to our photo album and will upload more in days to come.

In about a week I will have to leave the US and go home to Norway. Most probably I'll return after a week, so that I can be with Julia and Daniel. It'll take some time before they will be able to travel. Daniel will need to get both his birth certificate and a social security number before we can apply for a passport, so probably he'll be ready towards the end of March, beginning of April.

Daniel Ex Utero

2007-02-27T09:19:00.000+01:00

Grandpa Schnake here, pinch hitting for Julia and Viggo:

Daniel was born at 10:15 pm on Monday Feb. 26.
He weighs 7 lb 2 oz and is 19 inches long.
All systems are functional, as demonstrated when he peed on Grandma's arm. All digits present and accounted for.

Julia began labor this afternoon if you don't count the previous three times she was admitted to labor and delivery in the past 9 or 10 weeks. Labor was intense. It took three and one half hours in the "pushing" phase.

We had four or five digital implements flashing and whirring making images, so I am sure you will soon see pictures, video, and probably a TV miniseries before long.

It is after midnight here. So I think I will rest and write more later.

There is a Season

2007-02-27T00:28:00.000+01:00

Here's a post by Dad since Julia and Viggo are busy just now:

There is a time for all things. It apppears that this day (March 26) is the day that Daniel Jakob Larsen has been destined to leave Julia's uterus.

Recap: Julia and Viggo flew to Corvallis from Norway to Corvallis on Dec. 7, 2006. They intended to stay for three weeks.

On Dec. 21, Julia began having serious contractions. Her due date was not until March. 20, 2007.

She spent more than eight weeks on bedrest at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eugene.

She came home to Philomath with Viggo a little over a week ago.

Julia visited her ob/gyn doctor this morning. She was more than 7 cm dilated and the baby's head is quite low.

The doctor decided to break Julia's water this afternoon. That has been done. Now she is in major labor. The baby should be born soon! This time things have gone too far for stopping!

I will add more details when I have them.

And the neverending suspense continues...

2007-02-16T03:03:00.000+01:00

Well...we're still here. But not for much longer, at least. We should finally get to go "home" to my parents' house in Corvallis on Monday, assuming I don't give birth before then. On Tuesday Feb. 6th I went into labor for the third time. I have had many episodes where I'll have regular contractions for a couple of hours, but only three times that I've been properly in labor and moved to a delivery room and everything. The doctors, again, were quite sure I would deliver this time, and, again, I didn't after all. Despite several hours of intense pain and frequent contractions, everything slowed down and stopped in the end. Which was very good, of course, because Daniel's lungs needed the extra time to develop some more. On the other hand, though, i really think it must be a bit nicer to just get this whole labor thing over in one shot. And I did feel bad about the fact that my Mom drove down from her prayer retreat 4 hours away only to get here when everything had calmed down again....

I had several episodes with pain and contractions throughout the week, but since last Saturday everything has been pretty calm. We have no idea how much longer we will have to wait, or whether Daniel will come before Viggo has to return to Norway or not. Actually, that's not quite true; we can definitely expect that Daniel will come sometime in the next 5 weeks or so, we just can't pinpoint it any more than that.

I've been shopping for cradles and changing tables online today, and now I find myself sitting in my bed mentally rearranging furniture. It's strange to not be able to get the house ready for the baby at all before he comes. We assumed that we would have plenty of time for that after coming back from our Christmas visit to the states. We really didn't have any big plans in any case; we will just need to make sure that Daniel at least has a place to sleep when we come home.

I'm a bit bored today, and wishing I could go for a walk. But I have visits from both my mom and my friend Kari to look forward to tomorrow, and Viggo and I had a nice Valentines day yesterday. I got a big box of gourmet chocolates from my Dad, and 14 lovely red roses from Viggo, and Viggo took me out to eat at a Chinese restaurant around the corner (I was in a wheelchair).

More Patience Required...

2007-02-06T04:14:00.001+01:00

This morning Julia had an amnoicentesis, and we were mentally prepared to leave the hospital to stay with Julia's parents. Daniel has reached 34 weeks, and it was expected that his lungs would be mature by now, so that he would not depend on care from the neonatal ICU when he was born. The results were therefore quite surprising. His lungs are really imature still. The doctor said that on a scale where 1.0 is imature and 2.0 is mature, Daniel scored 1.0. Apparently late maturity of the lungs is a more comon problem in Northern Europe than anywhere else in the world, so I guess my genes are to blame.

When Julia was first admitted to the hospital, she was given two shots of steriods to help the baby's lungs mature. It is quite rare that this procedure is repeated, but Julia got another shot of steriods today and will get another one tomorrow. In two weeks time the doctors will do another amniocentesis to check if the lungs have matured, and if so, we'll get to leave the hospital then. So far our miracle baby has defied all the predictions of the doctors and the nurses, so maybe he will go to full term. The doctor did say, however, that he thought the baby would be born soon, and that it would not be a problem for all three of us to travel home to Norway before March 7th, when my visa waiver expires. We don't know what to expect or believe, but we KNOW that God is faithful and that we are in his care. So despite everything we are experiencing we're not worried. Our faith is in Him who has filled our hearts with peace and who is in control of our future.

Daniel's most recent attempts to escape...

2007-01-28T00:25:00.000+01:00

I think I'll just summarize a bit what has been happening since Viggo's last post, for those of you who don't always see Viggo's daily "updates" on the sidebar. Not that that much really "happens" on a daily basis here. However, there was major excitement last Friday, because I went into labor. I have had several episodes of contractions over the last few weeks, but this time it looked like the doctors weren't going to be able to stop it, and I was really going to give birth. I had much more painful contractions than I'd ever had before, and although the estimates seem to vary a bit, it seems likely that I dilated at least to 6cm or so. (I was 5cm before this episode of labor started). However, after a few hours of labor, things started to slow down, so the doctors decided to try one last time to stop them, and then the labor really did stop. It was actually a bit strange and almost sad for me, because I had adjusted to the idea that we were going to have the baby that night, and then there was no baby after all; things just went back to the same as before. Both the doctors and I thought I would probably go back into labor within the next couple of days, but nothing happened. Which is wonderful, of course, because my tummy is still by far the best and safest place for baby Daniel to be right now.

I did have some quite regular contractions for a couple of hours again on Tuesday evening, but it didn't get so far.

I wrote the above part yesterday evening. I had some contractions again after that, which eventually calmed down again, and I have been having some more painful ones this morning. Viggo still got to play soccer today, though! He just has to take along the cell phone and have someone on the sidelines hold onto it while he plays in case I call to say I'm having the baby. Really, things are still the same as they have been all along. It could happen any time now, or not. I guess that's all I'll be writing for now. I'm in a bit of pain and it's kind of hard to focus, so I'll let Viggo finish.

So far our focus has been on the baby, but a few days ago we became aware of the fact that it will be very difficult for me to stay in the US after March 8th, when my 90-day visa waiver expires. We're hoping to find a way for me to stay, but I might have to go home, or at least go to Europe, before I can return to the States. We've made a few phone calls to different government agencies, but have not been able to find a solution yet. We might try to get help from an imigration lawyer sometime next week. We really hope things will work out, so that I can stay here and that all three of us can travel home to Norway together.

Visitors from far and near

2007-01-18T00:31:00.000+01:00

Up until now I haven’t done any posting to this blog, since I do all the posting to our Norwegian blog, but here's my first entry. Tomorrow we will have been here for four weeks. Not much has changed since Julia was admitted to the hospital. I like to say that this little hospital room is our bedroom, our living room, and my office. It’s kind of crazy to be living like this for such a long time, but we’re coping well. It started to make me a bit nuts last week, but it really helped that I got to go visit Julia's parents for a couple of days during the weekend. The challenge for Julia is greater of course, but she seems to handle the situation quite well.

The great and all-important thing is that our little baby has gotten four more weeks to grow and mature. In fact, according to the last two ultrasound check-ups, Daniel has grown a whole pound over the last three weeks, which means that he is now approximately 3lb 12oz (1700 grams) and about two weeks ahead of schedule when it comes to size. We're very pleased about this, though Julia is starting to worry a bit that he might actually be too big if he goes to full term (March 23rd). This isn’t very likely though. The doctors still believe that Julia could deliver any day now.

On Monday Julia had a check-up, and the results showed that she was still 4-5 cm dilated, and 80% effaced, with the baby’s head sitting very low, so the doctors told her that she'd still have to stay in the hospital. We had been hoping that she might be able to go home to her parents, but this is what we were really expecting, so we're not too disappointed. Julia will have to stay at the hospital in Eugene for at least 4 more weeks, unless Daniel is born sooner than that. After that she will probably get to go home until she gives birth.

We’ve been really blessed to have several friends and family come visit us while we’ve been here. On Saturday we had visitors all the way from BC, Canada. My old roommate and two of our friends from school made the 9 hour trip to spend the day with us, before they returned back home. On Friday we were surprised to have Julia’s grandparents come visit together with Julia’s mom and aunt. Julia’s grandmother has been very sick since mid-November, and this was her first real trip since then. Whenever Julia’s mom visits she talks with baby Daniel putting her mouth to Julia’s tummy and doing both parts of the conversation. This is always very entertaining for everybody else in the room. Click here, if you want to see a video clip of Barbara talking with Daniel.

Home sweet home

2007-01-10T08:05:00.000+01:00

So, Viggo has started referring to our hospital room as our temporary "home". He said we should put up a sign that says "welcome to our humble abode" outside the door. I realized today that I am definitely starting to miss just being at home, at our little house in Norway. It seems almost surreal that we are going to be here three or four months, instead of the planned 3 weeks. But under the circumstances, we've decided that we're probably actually better off here in the US, for various reasons. For one thing, in Norway, I would probably have to stay in the hospital alone, with Viggo working and sleeping at home instead of by my side. We'd rather be together, even if the room is kind of small.
We've had quite a few visitors this week, and I've gotten to go across the street (in a wheelchair, for half an hour) for coffee a couple of times. I'm touched that friends from high school who I haven't really kept in touch with very well over the past six years would take the trouble to come and visit me. I really enjoy visits from my family, too. It's always a party with my Mom here. She has developed a hilarious habit of talking to my belly, actually leaning over with her lips touching the belly and having a conversation with the baby. She speaks for the baby too. Daniel says things like "leave me alone, I'm trying to sleep" in a cute baby voice. If you know my mother very well, this will be easy to picture...
Otherwise, I am just trying not to think about the fact that I have been lying here for almost a whole three weeks now. On the other hand, we are grateful that I am still here, rather than out of the hospital with the baby in the NICU.

Still waiting...

2007-01-02T04:57:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year!

We're still here in the hospital, which of course is a good thing, because it means that baby Daniel is still in my tummy. The nurses put a monitor on my belly for an hour twice a day to watch for contractions and to look at the baby's heart rate and movement. He is usually very active, and they always tell me he seems very healthy. Yesterday I did have a couple of contractions show up on the monitor, but they say a couple in an hour is nothing to worry about. Still, the doctor tells me that it is most likely that I will give birth fairly soon, perhaps within the next couple of weeks. It is still possible that I could carry the baby to full term, though. If my cervix remains as dilated as it is (4cm), they will want to keep me here in the hospital until I'm at least 34 weeks (today I am 28 weeks and 2 days).

I am starting to get a bit bored lying here in my room all day, but it's still quite bearable. I often have someone come to visit in the evening, which makes a bit of a change. If it's my Mom visiting, then we often get takeout for a change from hospital food (which is not bad, but is starting to get pretty repetitive). I started knitting a scarf today, I have some books to read, and we're borrowing a DVD player at the moment. One of the nurses lent me her copy of a national geographic film called "in the womb", and we watched it this evening. It was pretty interesting, with lots of 3D ultrasound footage of real babies in the womb. Viggo is still staying here with me, but he went up to my parents' house for the weekend to get a bit of a break from the hospital. Viggo has also found a good running trail in a park nearby, where he's gone running twice this week.

I was able to get out of the hospital for the first time today. My doctor has said that I can go on a short wheelchair trip once a day, so today Viggo and my mom and sister took me across the street to Starbucks. We didn't stay long, but it was nice to get some fresh air (and a decaf eggnog latte). I have been having a lot of headaches the past few days, which is a side effect of one of the medicines I'm taking, but thankfully I feel a bit better this evening. We're continuing to just take things day by day.

News from the Larsen Family in the Hospital

2006-12-29T02:00:00.000+01:00

A New Blog...

So, Viggo and I have been planning on starting a blog for a while now. We wanted to keep people updated on our plans with Wycliffe, and my parents have been bugging us to start a blog so they can see pictures of us and have another source of news besides phone calls. Now there seems to be a more particular reason to start writing. I'm sure this blog will cover a variety of topics and events in the future, but for the moment it will be rather focused on the status of our little baby, Daniel Jakob. I think most of you have probably received emails about the situation, and if not a good place to look for any details I miss here is my Dad's blog (the link is on the side here). If you've already read his blog, there will probably be a lot of repeat in the paragraphs below, but from my point of view.

Our unexpected hospital stay
I have been in the hospital in Eugene, Oregon for about a week now. Viggo and I came to Oregon to visit my family for Christmas on the 8th of December. On the 21st, we were about to leave to celebrate my Mom's 50th birthday on the Oregon coast when I started having contractions. They quickly became regular enough that we decided to go to the hospital instead of going to the coast. It is still much to early for me to give birth. When I got to the hospital, they found I was 1 cm dilated. They gave me medicine to stop the contractions, but they continued, and a few hours later I was 3 cm dilated. At that point they decided to transfer me to Sacred Heart hospital in Eugene, which has a good neonatal intensive care unit, because it was starting to look like the baby might be born that night. When we got there, I was dilated to 5cm, and the doctor told us to expect to have a baby in the course of the night. But we didn't.

Current status
Things have calmed down a lot since the 21st. I've had a few contractions and some pain here and there, but with the doctors' help and many prayers, things are much more stable than was initially expected. We are very thankful for the fact that Daniel has already gotten one more week to grow and mature inside of me. The doctors here say, however, that I will need to stay in the hospital until I give birth, even if that is two months from now or more. I'm still on medicine to suppress contractions, and it seems to be working. However, because I am already halfway dilated, I need to stay on bedrest and be regularly monitored here in the hospital. When the labor does begin again for real, things will probably go very quickly.

I had an intensive ultrasound yesterday, and they estimated that Daniel weighs 2 pounds and 13 ounces. This means that he is big for his age; the size of a 29 week baby instead of a 27 weeker. Which is very good if he is born soon. They even got some 3D shots of baby's face, which were really fun to see.

Both Daniel and I are in very good health, the only problem is my body wanting to go into labor too early. If Daniel is born prematurely, he will need to stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) here at Sacred Heart until at least a month or so before his due date, which is March 23rd. Viggo is sleeping on a cot in my hospital room for now, and if Daniel is born early we will move to the hospital's family guesthouse so that we can be near him and visit the NICU as often as possible.

How we're doing and changes in plans
Viggo and I are both doing very well with all this. We have had an amazing amount of peace about the situation. We trust that God is in control and is taking care of us, no matter what happens. We really appreciate everyone's prayers, and believe God is hearing and answering them.

This does mean some big changes in plans for us. Whether Daniel or I is the one in the hospital, we will need to stay here in Eugene probably at least until the beginning of March, and it is not likely we would travel back to Norway before sometime in April. We had just begun to say that we were planning to travel to Tanzania this August to begin Bible Translation work there. Considering the situation at this point, August is looking very unlikely. We are thinking that it seems likely we won't be ready to move to Tanzania before winter 2008. Premature babies often need some special care for the first year of their lives, and Daniel's health will be top priority for us. But if I am able to carry him to term, and everything else falls into place, it is possible that we won't have to wait so long after all.

Right now we are taking things day by day. Although staying in the hospital is a bit monotonous, it's easy to have a good attitude about it, because we are just so grateful for every day more that Daniel is able to stay safe in my womb. The birth could still happen any time, but we are hoping for a long stay here. Viggo works as a freelance translator over the internet, so he is able to have a little "office" set up next to my bed and work from here. We have great support from my family. Night before last Viggo got to go up to my house in Philomath (an hour away) for the night to have a break, and my sister came and stayed with me. We ordered chinese food and watched a movie together. When Viggo came back yesterday he brought me a beautiful bouquet of tulips, and my Mom came down with him, so I got to spend some time with her as well. This is a great hospital and they take very good care of us. There is always someone coming in to check if I want more ice in my water or a snack. We are very blessed in many ways.

I think my dinner is coming soon and this post has certainly gotten long enough, so I will sign off for now. Thank you all for thinking of us and for your prayers.