Last autumn I started a new journey studying social
services and community development work at Diaconia University of Applied Sciences.
At the first day in Järvenpää campus I drove to school with my bike and was
anxious to meet all my new classmates. When I stepped inside our classroom in
time I found seven Finnish students, one guy organizing his laptop and a few
other students who looked like African and Asian. I went to sit next to Finnish
girls because that felt safe and said hi to them. I remember to be very aware
of every move I make and not to smile any guys from abroad. They might think I’m
flirting. In the next 15minutes half of the class was present and half still
missing. I was thinking “this is the african time”. Three teachers were at the
front, one white woman, white man and a black man. We started with creating a
world map into the classroom and moving in that map to places where we come
from, where we love to be and where we would like to travel. Our study path together had started and after
one month the whole group of 15 nationalities was together.
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| Some of our group DSS-C33 students.. |
Very soon I got to know that our foreign teacher was
Dennis from Tanzania. I also learned that there is no African time, but
individuals who some come late some in time. Well, not all men from abroad
flirt either. New Years I spent with some of my classmates eating Nepalese food
and building snow giraffs, llamas and hulks, also we end up partying with some
other students. Few weeks ago I took my Ugandan friend to ice-skate for his
first time. I had fun and by the time my toes were freezing he still asked me
to give some more minutes. Later Julius and I taught Finnish to our Nepalese
classmate Laxmi.
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| Ice-skating with my Ugandan fellow Yasin. |
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| Joint seminar with Diak, Metropolia and Laurea. |
where we go we will always adjust the new environment and make it our own one way or another. I have been privileged to follow how my immigrant classmates have been adopting the Finnish mentality and weather. I underestimated them. Asmara wakes up in a morning and goes out for an hour walk. Subash and Abdi puts on ice-skates and go around the rink falling and getting up again. Laxmi translated an article about my grandmother from Finnish to English. Shilpa and Amy wake up every morning 5am to go for work before school. Alejandro drives around the lake with a bicycle at winter time. Raju was just chosen to become the youth leader in multicultural Rinki program, which purpose is to bring Finnish and immigrant youth together. Despite they all face many problems here, they still keep on going and trying their best. This is first winter when I have learned to live and have fun and respect what we have here. I couldn’t have done it without my schoolmates. They have made me to see my home country with a new eyes and an open-minded attitude.
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| One group made a superfunny song about Finland and after we had a crazy party in classroom at 4pm @Joint seminar, Diak |
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| Beautiful frozen lake Tuusula and crazy-amazing girls Milli & Miriam from my class. |
Our second semester started a week ago. On Tuesday we
had a lecture from Kathy Gau, who was born in Minnesota but ended up staying in
Swaziland permanent. During the lecture Kathy taught us many important things
what it comes to community development. But most important message she gave us
through a simple game. She asked ten students to come in front and started to
divide us. First she divided us to girls and boys, then to tall and short ones,
finally to students wearing white and students not wearing white. Then she
asked if we understood her idea: “We can divide people in thousands of ways,
or not divide them at all.”
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| My classmate Isaac and me. |
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| Yasin(Uganda) making Kikomando from chappaties and chicken. |
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| Corey(California) trying to have a diet from coke and pizza. |
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| Cindy(Canada) bringing candy for us in a costume on Halloween. |
In Finland there seems to be this unwritten rule for immigrants: as long as you respect Finnish culture more than your own and want to become like Finns and start behaving like Finns, you are accepted. That is where we go wrong. Globalization and multiculturalism do not only mean that some people are free to move, it also means that countries are becoming more various in cultures. And through that many cultures mix with each other and become one. That is calling for a change in people’s attitudes and indifference and acceptance towards differences between people. Out from our cultural habits, race, gender, age, we are all the same and should not be categorized by any scale. We are all part of one group called human race.
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| Me, Shilpa and Asmara exploring Kerava. (photo by: Subash) |
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| Cultural evening @ multicultural Rinki, Kalliolan Setlementti. |
Kathy Gau gave us a paper with 25 tips for Peace Corps
volunteers who go to Swaziland and work for her organization. Because I’m now planning
to do my placement there, I’ll end with few of my favorite tips. Though these
tips are meant for volunteers, they might as well work in a process of learning
how to communicate between two cultures unknown to each other.
*If you want to change the world, change yourself.
*Don’t expect a smooth ride.
*There is no “us and them”.
*It doesn’t matter how right you think you are.
*Pay attention to the way you feel when you spend time judging.
*Build open, sincere dialogue. Be sincere.
*Understand that your frustration is about you.
*Do not give up and do not give in.
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| The magnificent surreal landscape at Lake Tuusula, Järvenpää. |
