So, as it's fairly obvious, I had to communicate in English during my trip, especially to all the members of the group I was with. 18 people, all from different countries, which was great. I had the chance to meet them all, and to spend some time and learn from them. As a foreing affairs officer, I am always fascinated by what is different to me. And surprised when I find that most of the time there is a big common ground that allows us to interact and to go farther than the polite talk.
The group was a great array of characters, besides the geographical origin. In three weeks I think I forged friendships I hope will last for many years, although we might not have the chance to see each other so often. If they ever visit this blog, I wanted to say thank to all of them, for their good humour and time.
I have great memories of the trip, and most of them are due to the fact that I was in such great company. Of course the lectures and presentations were interesting and useful, and... but how can I forget the time Finland, Germany, Hungary, Serbia, Taiwan and I spent in the pool and spa at the El Paso hotel? Overall, boys and girls, after three and a half weeks, the lack of sleep was well worth it. After all "we could sleep on the plane", right?
As Taiwan said, the only thing we can regret is that the program is over, and that we will not spend more time together. Hitto soi con!!! (Finnish for "damn it!", I hope the spelling is not too wrong, M)
Thursday, March 30, 2006
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The Power of Small Stories
Saturday week ago was the first day at home after three and a half weeks in US. I can fully concur with all what has been said here earlier about our trip. It is surely one of those happenings which will affect in a way or another in one’s life and thoughts for a longer time. I feel myself really privileged. I was offered almost one month long stay in different parts of US to learn to know my host country in many different ways. But moreover, I had a chance to get to know a group of lovely persons from all over the world. I consider myself quite fortunate now to have a circle of friends like that.
Needless to say how difficult it was to say good-bye to all new friends after having spent such a big time with them. It’s not that usual that bunch of ‘serious’ adults with some kind of solid professional background, totally unknown to each others come together – and everything turns out just to run smoothly through out the weeks. You can’t help yourself of having a feeling to be someone special.
So to me, who happens to be a kind of an emotional person, it was of course obvious that today I went through - once again - all the good memories I have from our trip to US. I felt myself lost – how can I adjust myself back to my own old reality? What should I actually think about all what I’ve gone through during the trip? Why these people I learnt to know so well cannot be more involved in my every day’s life? What is US actually doing to rest of the world?
At one of my desperate moments my doorbell rang. There was my neighbour who kindly informed me that I had forgotten my keys in my lock outside the door. Well, that happens to me all the time, since normally I always have my hands full of something when coming home. This morning that something was my riding boots. Luckily by today I haven’t got any uninvited visitors because of my bad habit. But I was exceptionally happy to see HER at my door. Couple of weeks ago we had lot of problems with her and her boyfriend because of their heavy drinking, awful fights, police were needed to calm them down and they really disrupted many otherwise the lives of others in this block of flats. Their next-door neighbour was so terrified of their behaving that she came to me to ask help. I helped her to arrange the first official warning to that couple – in case of a second warning they would loose their flat. So, this was actually first time for ages I saw that lady sober, friendly and smiling, looking well. And I felt myself somehow relief that she has been able to make a change in her life, to profit the second chance – or at least that what its looks like now. After meeting her I found my mood getting better.
After a while my doorbell rang again. My god! Believe me – I always know before hand if somebody is visiting me. I was so curious to know who it was this time! To my quite a big surprise there was a young African man who was politely smiling to me and asking how my day was. Well, getting better and better, I guess. He was selling wooden African handicraft to get some funds for his computer studies. I caught myself of asking him questions like how long he has stayed in Finland, does he has a permanent residence here, how has he get these wooden things etc. He responded with a smile saying -Do you work for the immigration office? Okay, I bought a pair of wooden salad fork and spoon with a giraffe decoration, 30 euros (I found the price quite high...). Somebody in Tanzania is sending them to him, genuine mahogany handicraft. He pays 25 euros per each pair so actually he gets only 5 euros/each for his studies and since I want Nokia to get lots of new engineers to keep Finnish economy and rate of competitiveness high, I was happy to make my small contribution. I refused kindly of his invitation for a cup of coffee and getting to know each others better. He was a Tanzanian who came to Finland seven years go with a Finnish wife. Unfortunately marriage ended to a divorce. He was a nice chap!
After that rush hour at my door I tried to get back to my deep thoughts about the life and big questions, principles, bottom lines etc – BUT – my doorbell again!!! I was pretty sure that the Tanzanian was back to propose me, but this time it was an elderly man with a big box of something, which turned out to be fish. He was selling different kinds of smoked Finnish fish. He has bought the fish himself at the market place and then smoked the fish for selling (Finnish way to prepare fish- very good, highly recommended). He wanted to get rid of the leftovers so he decided to make a door to door sell-campaign. I’ve never seen him before and probably won’t see him again, but I bought one smoked whitefish for supper. He gave me one salmon sandwich extra – and I was happy again to meet somebody without warning.
After that I decided to go to my office. It was just too busy at home.
Why am I telling you all this? Firstly, seriously my doorbell normally rings perhaps once in a three months. Secondly, I guess that by hazard I sort of got an answer to my big serious questions. Life is about stories, normally about small stories. I have mine you have yours. Sometimes they meet for a second, sometimes perhaps for a longer time. Some stories nobody else knows but me. Small stories can suddenly become big stories if they come together with a right counterpart. My small story can be someone else’s big story. You never know. As long as you can enjoy all the stories around you and as long you have the ownership to your own story, you are doing just fine. Then there are the real big and difficult stories which have left the owner already ages ago – those stories are the most difficult ones to understand.
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