Postcards from Tampere

Tervetuloa - Welcome to Finland

 

 

We are really getting geared up for the Easter sale next Wednesday and making lots of handicrafts such as woven goods, rugs, cards etc.  The atmosphere in the handicraft room is very calm and quiet, much quieter than I am used to.  In the middle of all this Easter preparation I am thinking about the stereotypes of the silent Finn and the reality of those long silences.  In a brochure called Welcome to Finland that is produced for immigrants, there is a section entitled, "What are Finnish people like?"

and it states,

 

"Many Finnish people are calm and quiet.  Finnish people think it is polite to leave people alone.  This may make Finnish people seem unfriendly.  Rules are important for the Finns.  Most people will not even walk across the street is the light is red.  Finnish people wait for the traffic lights to turn green."

 

Would we ever generalize about Scottish people like this? 

What implications does this desire for quiet have on the service users?       

 I have noticed how loud I am when I am in the supermarket with my kids or walking down the street and I have started talking in whispers and telling my children to quieten down so it would seem I am turning more and more Finnish every day...

ANyway a lot to think about after my second week on placement.  I am away on the night train to the capital of Lapland, Rovaniemi so plenty of time to ponder on this!

Gabriel - chats in Viisari

Many people say I'm like an outsider in Finland because I don't like silence and I look like a Mexican...By the way do you think I look like a Mexican?

I'm here at Viisari because my teacher sent me...In school I felt like I was slowed down.

My passion is LARP (Live Action Role Play) but I don't do the dressing-up, go to the forest nerd version, i like the drawing version.  However if there is a costume party I will go as a wizard.

I started to like Manga when I was a teenager - my Aunt gave me a book so I could learn to draw Manga.  My girlfriend Essi always draws Manga - my school had a manga club but we didn't go as they just read Manga books, they don't do drawings.

I would love to make fantasy film movies.  IN the near future I would love to take a job and quit studying.  I just want to live somewhere quiet and take time to live alone.

Gabriel's girlfriend

Gabriel transformed me into an fantasy character, Warrior with sword.

Finnish Train Travel with kids

We are just back from a lovely weekend in Tampere, Finland's third largest city, 40 mins away from here by train.  The train journey there and back was the highlight for my daughters...it was just magic as the trains are double decker and have a separate play area for kids, complete with books, slides, a wooden castle and a sit-on toy train...

A cartoon cat is painted on the childrens compartment and animal footprints lead the way to the playroom. 

I think we will travel a lot at weekends simply for the pleasure of the journey.

 

 

Pääsiäismyyjäiset: Tervetuloa! - Easter Sale - Welcome!

 

Friday night here in Hameenlinna and I am shattered after surviving my first week on placement...in true Finnish style I spent the night in the sauna until I heard the cries of "mama" from Ameenah, my one year old daughter.  It is pretty daunting to undertake a placement in a different country with two under fives but I am loving it so far...
It has been extremely intense and as I am sure all my social work friends will agree, the first three days of the placement felt like three months.
I am working with an amazing group of service users so I feel very privelleged to be here and determined to make the most of this time.  I really feel like a part of Viisari already and want to help their service provision.
We are getting ready for an Easter Sale at the moment; Maria (pictured) has been working on this Shaker style rug for the last few days and this will be available for sale at Viisari on April 9th from 10am-5pm.  Also available will be a range of handcrafted ragrugs, felted products, ceramics and woven rugs.

Tomorrow morning we are headed to Tampere, Finland's third largest city which is only 40 minutes by train from here.  Apparently the trains are double-decker with a childrens playroom and slide on the top deck....childrens provision is incredible in Finland.  One thing though ... all Finnish children appear exceptionally quiet.  I am really aware at the moment of how loud we are when we're walking around the supermarket/library/downtown...what is the secret Finnish parents?  My children don't stop from six in the morning until evening time....

SXSW (2013) The Punk Syndrome Trailer 1 - Pertti Kurikka Documentary HD

Time to sleep here in Finland.  Above is a trailer for one of the best documentaries I have seen in a long while about Finnish punk band .Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät.  Exciting news about them coming soon xx

European Action Week Against Racism: Hameenlinna

 

At the ARX art school for kids, Africa Day, as part of the European Week against Racism

Our first week here was spent at a number of music and art events to celebrate the European Action Week Against Racism.  We went to a one event at the Tourist Office/ Kela (Social Insurance Institution of Finland/Benefits office) in the city centre and a kids African arts and music day at the fantastic ARX cultural centre for children.

Immigrant services here strike me as comprehensive/ really well organised/ non-bureaucratic, with a mixture of statutory services and the Third Sector.  Free Finnish language classes are offered on a continual basis to all immigrants and are advertised everywhere in a range of languages.  As 'immigrants' ourselves we are entitled to free translation services when dealing with officialdom. 

Hameenlinna has a small population of only 66,829 and in 2011 the city had around 2000 inhabitants whose first language was not Finnish.  The main groups of immigrants are from Somalia, Russia, Estonia and Sweden...

With the rise in popularity of the True Finn party, and constant distortion of the facts about asylum seekers/immigrants/migration in the right-wing press these events are all the more necessary.   I wonder what changes in European attitudes to asylum/migration my two daughters, Malika and Ameenah, who are half-Morroccan will see in their lifetime?  I have heard some pretty questionable comments about North-Africans in Finland and read stories in the Helsinki Times about racism towards the sizable Muslim population so unfortunately these weeks against racism must keep going for now...

http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/8635-finland-is-a-racist-country.html

I plan to go to the third sector organisation called Settlementi in the morning to find out more about these issues as they are running a once a month, multicultural café for mums and babies...