9-24-20 Brooke VanDer Kar

Schools re-opening in Norway

Schools and Universities in Norway re-opened with in mid August with student desks spaced six feet apart.   Students work, study and play in small groups of 3-5.  Everyone washes their hands entering and leaving the classroom.  The tabletops are washed with disinfectant to prepare for a new class.

 Junior College students, ages 16-19, are expected to do the same as well as maintain social distance when traveling the hallways going from class to class. If anyone in their group of teachers, parents, or close relatives are tested Covid19 positive the pupils or teachers involved are put in Quarantine for 10 days.

 Last month Norway experienced an increase in people testing positive due to the more open society allowed during the summer. 

 Norway has adopted a “traffic light” model for allowing schools to reopen.  Green is seen as “normal” with only normal precautions.  Yellow means that officials must reduce physical contact and increase hygiene.  As the flu season begins, Oslo, with over 600,000 inhabitants, is now the most “red” city in Europe, which translates to reduced numbers of students in the classroom. Everyone must follow the basic rules pertaining to social distancing and hygiene, and if there is a hint of possible illness, the student is admonished to stay at home.

9-24-20 Linda (Daisy) Ritter

Reflections from a trip back to Iceland

In May 1996 My sister and I boarded a flight to Reykjavik, Iceland to explore the home of our ancestors.  As our plane landed, the clouds parted to reveal a sunny day, and that sunshine followed us throughout our trip.  We met 14 second cousins, all of them anxious to meet the ones 'who had left for America'. Our cousin Gunnar Kjartansson's daughter Hildur, who was at the time working as a tour guide, took us on a private tour of the northwest quadrant of the country.  We visited a farm by the fjord where our Grandma Gudrun grew up, travelled around the Snaefellsnes peninsula, and flew in a small plane (piloted by a friend of Gunnar's) to the mouth of the Lax River. 

 The pilot pointed out below us our ancestral home and church, which has been rebuilt in the same form over and over since the land was settled. It is the story of Laxdala Saga, the story of my ancestors.  We also flew over Surtsy, a new island formed by a volcano in 1963. Then we landed on the nearby island of Heimaey, where he invited us to touch the ground.  It was still very warm more than 20 years after it experienced its own huge eruption in 1973 of a large volcano, on whose slopes our pilot played as a child. That eruption almost closed the mouth of the island's harbor, but was stopped when the Icelanders pumped cold sea water over the hot lava as it flowed to the sea.

Clouds closed in to cover the sun as our plane departed for home.. 

Our new-found relatives have since visited us in Minnesota many times.  And our children have formed bonds with their children and have now visited them with our grandchildren - the next generation of Laxdala Saga descendants.