Norge! (Norway)

During my week off I headed to Norway with my family and grandparents. Highlights of the trip included listening to the St. Olaf Choir, watching an avalanche fall on one of our hikes, playing with baby lambs, and finding my great-great-great grandparents family farm in rural Norway. I thought I would share just one journal entry that came back with me from my trip:

In a land of so much wealth, so much heritage, and such a serenely perfect landscape it has been easy to assume that there isn’t the social problems you see in other countries. We found out tonight that there is, it’s just that they are hidden. We met an Iranian woman who is a refugee in Norway. She cannot return to her own country because of her ex-husband. She lives in a small town on the shores of a fjord and runs a small pizzeria that the townspeople will not come to—because she is Iranian. She lives in a tiny town where she is shunned by everyone so she is very lonely. Our family sat and talked with her for more than an hour over a $40 pizza (food is very expensive!). She was longing for somebody, anybody, to hear her story and care. It soon became clear why God placed us in this empty pizzeria tonight. What an incredible story she has… When she was 13 years old she was in a terrible car accident which killed her mom and left her in a coma for two months. Less than a year later her father died. She married by 15 and had a child by 17. She had problems with her husband and was forced to leave Iran with her two young daughters. Finally she met a Norwegian man whom she married, but even though she’s been living here for 6 years they still haven’t given her papers allowing her to stay in Norway. As I was sitting there, I just kept thinking how incredible this woman is to have endured so much hardship and still be willing to greet people with a smile as they walk through the door… Her joyful attitude despite all that has happened is an inspiration to me.

The night reminded me of how important it is to be willing to listen to a stranger. People just long to be heard, even if it is by a complete stranger just passing through. And in the process you may even end up being the one who is inspired! Our vacation enjoying the scenery in picture-perfect Norway was wonderful, but it was the people, the stories, and the faces that I will remember.

Kelly