IFYE Program Newsletter

I shall entitle this letter Hauska! (FUN!) Because that is what this trip has been so far: pure, 100% fun. I am now at my 6th and final family. This is not the last letter you will be receiving but probably the last one written while I am in Finland.

Since my last letter I have traveled to Lapland and left the family in Nilsia and headed to the other side of the country to Hamenkyro. My trip into Lapland was pure delight. We traveled by RV and went into Sweden. We stopped quite often at various places to see sights and visit different places. One stop was a place that sold bells. They had more bells than I have ever seen.

On the inside of the store there were thousands of different bells on display and even more for sale. On the outside were about 30 large bells that anyone can ring. When I say large, I do mean large! Many are from old churches; all that remains of them now are these bells. One of the bells is the largest in Europe. It was quite a few tons and produced a deep resounding ring that could probably be heard for many miles. During my visit I was again greeted with the Finnish hospitality.

The store was closed but a meeting was going on inside for employees. After they were told how far I had come, they quickly opened the back door and allowed me to visit the inside and buy a few bells. I did think during this visit that between this shop and a knife shop which was the worst to be in during an earthquake.

Well, the next night a couple hundred km. above the Arctic Circle, I had one of my greatest views. The northern lights were in full action. Pictures can't do justice to nature's marvelous wonder. At first it was a green glow on the horizon and later it became a constantly changing dance of lights above our heads.

The next day was spent at the Arctic Circle. I was taught that Santa Claus does not live right at the North Pole, but in a small town at the edge of the Arctic Circle. Here we visited Santa and Santa Park. I got to talk to Santa and I knew he was the real one when he knew English. But I still had my doubts so I asked him a question in Spanish, and he replied. Well, he asked me what I wanted for Christmas in 8 different languages (I understood 3), and he would have kept going but I stopped him when he started asking in Latin. No doubts now! He is the real SANTA! The rest of the day was spent riding rides and going to Christmas plays and puppet shows. It was a great day for the whole family and myself.

I headed to my next family where I was on another farm. My father Ari had been an IFYE to the states. Tiiu the mother was from Estonia, so I was challenged. The family spoke two languages in the house. They have 2 kids. Laura is older, a cute little girl of 4 years and the younger is the 1 year old boy Lauri.

Here on the farm I helped out with milking and plowing fields the first few days and then spent some time going with 4-H leaders to meetings. 4-H is a little different. The club meetings were mostly younger children and we just played games. They don't have to do projects but now and then they will have a fundraiser to have a dance or trip. It's basically a social organization at the young ages. As the kids get into their mid teens they begin to do some projects like raising animals on farms and those who live in the cities are doing things like walking dogs, taking care of elderly and cleaning houses in order to get some extra money. There are of course many other things that you can do.

For all you hunters out there I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I went moose hunting. Of course I couldn't do the shooting because of hunting licenses but I was there when it happened and helped out with the gutting. The men come together in hunting clubs and will use their land and/or buy the right to hunt on some neighbor's property. This club was about 4400 acres and is considered small. The men wait in a line about 200 meters apart and then dogs are released from another point to chase the moose to the hunters. Well, it worked and they came right to Ari and me. They had only 1 permit left for a moose that was born in the spring so that is what we got.

Also I must add that the Finns were in pure delight on the 31st of October when the Finnish native, Mika Hakkinen, crossed the finish line first to win the world championship of Formula 1 Race Car Drivers. He is now one of the few back to back champions. A week later Tommy Makkinen brought home the Rally World Title. This was given somewhat less enthusiasm since is somewhere around his 4th Title in 4 years.

I have now just moved to my last and final family, but I will save that information for the next letter. I have otherwise been doing the usual Finish rituals of makkara(sausage), sauna, social events and rye bread.

Wish you were all here (but not all of us in the same house of course!)

Moi! (Goodbye)

Dave Takarsh