So, for a recap of August......
I left the Nordtun (now known as Nordland) base early in the morning of August 15 headed to Bodø to register at the police station before leaving that night on a train en route to meet my team the next day. My train left that evening at 9:10pm and I was able to enjoy the scenery for the next hour before the sun went down and it became too dark to see most things. I had a seat on the train and was quite comfortable. I arrived at 11:33am and was met by the DTS leaders and their two teenagers. The rest of the team began arriving within the next 2 hours on trains from various locations.
From August 16-20 the time was spent with the DTS staff focusing on team building, fellowship, and fun activities in the community where we were staying. The first day was beautiful weather (70 degrees), so we all decided to go hike a nearby mountain. The second and third day it was raining, so we did lots of activities indoors. The fourth day we decided to make the hour drive to visit the tallest mountain in Norway. We were able to drive almost all the way to the top, where we encountered reindeer on the road, and enjoyed a look around. The fifth day we drove to Grimerud, the national base in Norway, to begin our week of corporate training.
The training at Grimerud included all the DTS staff from all the YWAM Norway bases, as well as DTS staff from YWAM bases in Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, and Estonia, since they are part of the Northern Europe initiative. The week included attending two workshops that lasted 2 days each from the nine options that were presented.
On August 26 we began our 18 hour drive back to the Nordland base. One of our staff members, JP, lived an hour from Grimerud, so we made a stop at his house first for "coffee" before continuing our drive home. In Norway when you are invited to someones home for "coffee" it means that you will be served coffee or tea, cakes, waffles with jam, and sometimes pork or sausage. It was all delicious and we enjoyed meeting JP's family. Before leaving JP's house we looked at the map and decided that travelling through Sweden would save us a little time as it would be a little more direct route than in Norway where you weave around fjords and through long tunnels. We stopped late that evening at a camping site in Sweden where we were able to stay in a cabin. We arrived back at the base the next day and took the day after that off to recuperate before more preparation and getting ready for our students.
From August 16-20 the time was spent with the DTS staff focusing on team building, fellowship, and fun activities in the community where we were staying. The first day was beautiful weather (70 degrees), so we all decided to go hike a nearby mountain. The second and third day it was raining, so we did lots of activities indoors. The fourth day we decided to make the hour drive to visit the tallest mountain in Norway. We were able to drive almost all the way to the top, where we encountered reindeer on the road, and enjoyed a look around. The fifth day we drove to Grimerud, the national base in Norway, to begin our week of corporate training.
The training at Grimerud included all the DTS staff from all the YWAM Norway bases, as well as DTS staff from YWAM bases in Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, and Estonia, since they are part of the Northern Europe initiative. The week included attending two workshops that lasted 2 days each from the nine options that were presented.
On August 26 we began our 18 hour drive back to the Nordland base. One of our staff members, JP, lived an hour from Grimerud, so we made a stop at his house first for "coffee" before continuing our drive home. In Norway when you are invited to someones home for "coffee" it means that you will be served coffee or tea, cakes, waffles with jam, and sometimes pork or sausage. It was all delicious and we enjoyed meeting JP's family. Before leaving JP's house we looked at the map and decided that travelling through Sweden would save us a little time as it would be a little more direct route than in Norway where you weave around fjords and through long tunnels. We stopped late that evening at a camping site in Sweden where we were able to stay in a cabin. We arrived back at the base the next day and took the day after that off to recuperate before more preparation and getting ready for our students.
