In Norway

The last two weeks I have been in Norway, mainly to teach the international class called Comparing Childhoods at Queen Maud University College. This is a 4 week course for those who come to QMUC on exchange and those from QMUC who are going for exchange to other countries. It was nice to share experiences with them. I was also teaching the class for further education (master level) in Special Needs Education. Very good students and interesting talks. In Trondheim this time I stayed with Hanna and Sean (daughter and son in law) and my grandchild Isak (3 1/2 month). It was very nice to share the fellowship with them at Heimdal. The picture shows Isak with his aunt Susanna. She is living upstairs in the same house.
On my way back to Swaziland I stopped over in Kristiansand (south in Norway) where Sara (my second daughter) and Espen is living. Sara just gave birth to Isabella the day before I arrived, and it was exciting to be able to visit them and see our second grandchild - a beautiful girl - this time!

Above is one day old Isabella! David says in Psalm 127, 3 Children are a gift from the Lord. (Translated from Norwegian). So we thank Him for this gift!

Glade, nybakte foreldre Espen og Sara med lille Isabella.

2. week in Swaziland/Mozambique

The second week in Swaziland we had an intensive week in the Preschool TEacher Training. 2 classes had about 40 periods each. It became a very busy week. In addition to students from year 1 and 2 there were also about 13 former students who came back to upgrade their exams to diploma. It was very exciting when we were together with about 65-70 students for morning devotion. The songs in different voices is something one need to experience!

The students at the morning devotion. Kirsti in the picture to the left.

Winile is one of the lecturers at the college. She is well known of many since she took her master degree at Queen Maud University College in Norway. She was teaching a number of lessons during the week. She is also the headmistress of the demonstration preschool.

Winile teaching. Kirsti and I was also teaching this first week together with Evy Surdal and some part time lecturers in English and Health/nutrition. Evy did a great job in teaching them how to make teddy bears and puppets etc. Students were very enthusiastic!


Early Wednesday morning I drove to Maputo. In the afternoon I was teaching in a seminar for about 50 preschool teachers. My theme was how to help children develop a positive self image.I also gave them some group work. The participants showed a great involvement!

Next day I went with Bernardo (a Mozambiquan brother who has been working to get the documents through the ministry of education) and Leif- a missionary- to meetings in the Ministry of Education. The meetings were positive, and we got more precice information about all the documents our application need to contain for recognition by the Ministry. In the afternoon we had a meeting with 3 staff from the pedagogical university of Maputo. They were quite interested in our plan, and were willing to assist in teaching in our course.


After this week I went back to Norway to have two weeks of intensive teaching at Queen Maud University in Trondheim, Norway. It was part of the deal to let me go to Africa that I had to come back for some teaching. I am here the two last weeks of January. It gave me the opportunity to stay with Hanna and Sean and see my first gradchild Isak. He is a very beautiful boy who is developing every day...

Isak, our first gradson, is an active and joyful boy who knows how to charm is grandpa.

En sondag i Swaziland

Hva gjor man en sondag i Swaziland?

Forst gikk vi til en engelsk gudstjeneste kl. 9.00 i Zakhele church, en stor Swazi menighet like ved senteret.  Det var en livlig gudstjeneste med fantastisk sang. Vaar tidligere nabo (fra 1996) ledet sangen sammen med en gruppe. Det er bevegelser og mange stemmer! Menigheten hadde bygd ny kirke siden vi var der, og har naa minst to gudstjenester, en paa engelsk og en paa siswati, den siste best besokt, men det var ganske mye folk ogsaa p[ den den engelske. Imponerende bygg, ikke minst med tanke paa at de har bygd den med egne midler. Trivelig aa treffe gamle kjente.

Etterpaa gikk vi paa gudstjenesten paa Helemisi senteret der vi bor. Den startet kl. 11. Denne menigheten ble dannet paa slutten av vaart opphold her. Naa var det mye folk ogsaa her, sarlig yngre folk. Guds rike vokser i Swaziland. Her traff vi bl.a. pastor Khumalo og familien hans, som var med og startet senteret naar vi var der for 11 aar siden. Levende sang og utfordrende tale om aa laa troen vokse i det nye aaret!

Etterpaa begynte vi aa bli sultne, og vi dro til et nytt sted - Summerfield - mellom Manzini og Mbambane. Her har eieren laget en storslagen botanisk hage med kunstige dammer, statuer av afrikas dyr, restaurant i stilig afrikansk arkitektur, smaa paviljonger i hagen der man kunne spise, svaert god mat. Og rimelig! Omraadet er noe av de vakreste jeg har sett paa mine mange reiser. Vi hadde en deilig lunsj!  Og saa var jo dagen neste gaatt, og det var hjem aa skrive litt meldinger og blogg.

Afrika er ikke bare nodhjelp og fattigdom. Det er ogsaa mye fint.

Arrived in Swaziland

We arrived in Swaziland Tuesday the 3rd after more than 20 hours in the air and on airports. Warm weather (25/30 degrees) and warm welcome from Mrs. S'lungile Thwala and Evy Surdal. They have prepared lunch for us. I will be teaching next week in an intensive week for students in the second year in preschool teacher training and those who are upgrading themselves (former students who want a diploma in Early Childhood). We are still waiting to see if and when we are moving our centre across the road here since the government want to expropriate our land. The new centre is ready, but since the government has not yet paid  the contractor we are still waiting to move in. We hope and pray for a solution since the preschool, the new primary school and the teacher training are starting next week and the week after.

ARVE