Author Archives: Katja

One of the new inventions that the right-wing coalition implemented after they first got into power in 2006, was to introduce a tax reduction on something called “household-related services”. I won’t get into detail about it, but basically it’s now way cheaper to redo your kitchen or hire a cleaner than it used to be.Continue reading “the favorite pastime of the Swedish middle class”

When Hannes was here the other day, we spoke about Burkina Faso. Because, have I told you, I’m going to Burkina Faso for ten weeks in mid-October to do field work for my master’s thesis. Hannes was there last summer doing field work for his bachelor’s, and talking to him about public transport and the politicalContinue reading “the master’s thesis”

Mom brought me back an apron with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on it from Liberia. The Nobel Peace Prize winning president. I now have four aprons. My collection of grandmother accessories just keeps on growing. It feels weird, having mom around all the time. It feels very safe, but at the same time. It’s like I’mContinue reading “Liberian house wife fashion”

I went to an exhibition at Fotografiska, the photography museum in Stockholm, yesterday with Hannes and Ashley. Sebastião Salgado’s Genesis, which is a huge collection of black-and-white photographs from all around the world, all showing remote places, pure wilderness. Untouched by modern man. The Arctic and Antarctic, the rain forest, the savanna and the desert. Incredible landscapes. AndContinue reading “like a flying penguin”

There was a storm yesterday. Brutal. The kind that could blur your edges into something unrecognizable, like ink on a paper. I couldn’t stay put. I ran out in the yard, with Jonatan right behind me, and we started running around in circles on the grass. It was like being in the shower. The drops heavy,Continue reading “then came a storm”

I didn’t get anything that I kind of should have done, like finishing my traineeship report or my thesis workplan, done today. But still, it was a really agreeable day. Seriously. I haven’t had such an agreeable day in a very long time. It must have been the heat and the sun and all theContinue reading “details of a home”

The heat is compact. I have no problem with temperatures, I’m fine with anything between minus thirty to plus forty degrees. However, the more than thirty that we have now is making things go slower – as if the faster moving molecules in the air are increasing the friction, making it harder to move. I wantedContinue reading “in search of a story to tell”

I’ve had conversations. The bloody kind, me baring my neck for anyone to bite. But the people I’ve had the conversations with have been the good kind. They’ve said: “You have to be humble also with yourself, Katja. Some feelings you can’t help, they will just come and you’re left to deal with them. You haveContinue reading “days in the sun”

This is the 1000th entry I make on this blog. I’ve gotten a pimple in my right eyebrow. It annoys me. I woke up at five this morning, noticed it was there, and then I couldn’t fall back to sleep. Not because of the pimple, of course, but let’s just say it was. It would beContinue reading “the 1000th entry”

Yesterday, we put the ashes of my grandfather in the ground. Two-year-old Kai saying goodbye to his great-grandfather. After some soil dropping and a song, we had lunch together. The family, gathered for this hot summer’s day, four generations Smith family descendants, from as far as Kenya and South Africa. Life, circles, and all that.Continue reading “life & death & food”