IFYE Program Newsletter

I have now traveled to a new home in the southern half of Finland. Nights have begun to actually be dark, and I have seen my first total view of the stars since being here. The swallows (birds) that were born in the early summer are now zooming around our heads as they practice for a much longer flight. The trees have begun to also show signs of fall. There are yellowing leaves and the wind that blows their leaves is much cooler. The berry season, which started in mid-summer is now coming to an end, and the Finns are preparing to shut things up for the winter.

I am now living on a very untypical Finnish farm. It has many types of animals. There are 20 milk cows, 5 pigs, 36 sheep, 300 chickens, 1 horse, 2 dogs, and 25 turkeys, some cats, and a fishpond. Oh yes, there were also 5 ducks, but they are now in the freezer. Most farms have only one or two types of animals.

The family has four children. The parents are Martti and Paula and they both stay and work at home on the farm. The oldest child is Jarrko. He is 24 and lives in the nearby village. The daughters are Sirpa (21), Kirsi (19), and Paivi (16). Sirpa left for school a week after I arrived but comes home every weekend. Paivi goes to high school every day, and Kirsi is in the States as an IFYE. I have spent a lot of time with my brother. He goes to farms all over the center of Finland. When a farmer is building something to do with animals, Jarkko helps them design what they want and then gives them a bid of how much it will cost. If they accept the bid, it is sent to his parent company and his work is done. It is very hard work and involves lots of traveling. With the price of gas about 5 dollars a gallon, this begins to be expensive.

The family is very interesting, and all but the father speak very good English. They have lots of interesting things to see and do at this farm. When I first arrived, there were also two young boys about 5 and 7 years old. They live in Helsinki but spend two weeks at this farm in the summer. They get to learn about animals and living outside the city. They helped with whatever the family was doing and usually by the end of the day everyone had to keep them up until bedtime. By about 4 p.m. they wanted to sleep for the evening. If they had been allowed to, they wouldn't sleep all night and would awaken too early in the morning.

Here they are also building summer cottages to rent. I have spent much of my time working on these two houses. I helped pour and make all the concrete and lots of other parts too. They have also been building a cow waste containment system. This will hold all the cow waste until it can be put on the fields. It has to be big enough to hold for the entire winter since the snow will cover the fields for about four months.

Finns are lovers of motor sports. Their most famous name here is Mika Hakkinen. He drives a Formula 1 car and has won the world championship last year. Every Sunday at around 2 p.m., half of the Finnish population can be found in local pubs or at home glued to the TV set. That is as long as Mika is still in the race. But there is more than just Formula 1. With 30 per cent of Finland's roads unpaved, it is a prime place to hold World Rally competitions in which cars race on dirt roads at very high speeds. I have seen it before on TV. But, take it from me, it is much faster in real life. In fact I am sure that most of my pictures have only half a car in them.

Finns love when the Rally comes to town. There are many across the country, but one major one is held every year. I was lucky to be in the right town when this happened.

I was at the center of the race. I watched all 135 cars start on race day. Sirpa was helping at the starting line, so as her guest I was given prime seating and privileges that not all race fans get to enjoy. The three-day race has many stages that the drivers try to get the best overall time in. I was also there for the start of the final day. I didn't have all the privileges this time, but we did have a few since the race started on the property of the family's grandmother.

I have been called a real Finn now. People had been saying that I seem to be very Finnish. I like rye bread and sauna, but I think the thing that really makes them say it now is that I have my own Kdnnykkd. This is a cellular phone. This word comes from the word "hand" as in hand phone. It seems like every Finn has one of these. In fact, there are now more cellular phones in Finland than regular home phones, about 3 million. All the phones have a small screen that can be used to send and receive text messages. It is an easy way to keep in touch with friends all over the country. It is very cheap and since everyone has a phone it is easy to keep in touch and get immediate responses.

Some other things I have done were helping to deliver a calf that was coming out upside down and backwards, spear fishing, and drowning in sauna. I have saved this to tell you about last.

I was not feeling very well for a few days. I had a stopped up nose and a real lack of energy. Jarkko told me that I should go to sauna and lie down and breathe deeply. So I thought it sounded good. I heated the sauna and went by myself and lay down. I was concentrating on breathing and became very relaxed. After about 15 minutes I began to get quite warm, but instead of going out and cooling off I decided to just pour some water on my face. Still lying down, I reached for the ladle full of water below me.

As I lifted it above my head, it was awkward to control because the water was moving around. I poured some water on one side of my face and it felt refreshing so I decided to pour some on the other side. My estimation of where it would land and how much I would pour out was terribly distorted. I emptied nearly the entire ladle and it hit me square on the nose. The bad part is that I was taking a deep breath when it hit my face. I sucked about a pint of water up my nose. I arose quickly, gasping for air and coughing and sneezing. My eyes were swelling with tears from the pain and the severe shock that I had just endured. It took about two minutes to realize what was going on. When I finally recovered I tried to re-enter the state of relaxation that I had been in, but it was a failed attempt!

Terve,

Dave