www.transnationals.eu

 

Still, in the beginning you are a tourist, looking with curiosity to the new scenery, feeling a bit uneasy about how you will find your way and how you will communicate with the people who don’t speak English or German.

 

Some had initiated the project, so there was already a starting point: a reflection on Nations, diversity, plurality in the context of EU. And this was the first meeting of not only the initiators of the project but of groups from the three countries (?) who joined in. Eliisa and her Finnish team welcomed the Berlin group and the 3 of us from Flanders (Belgium).

 

When we met the people from Berlin we were already installed in Forssa and visiting the Forssan Opisto, talking with teacher and students of the calligraphy course: we were not loosing a moment. But I will not detail the whole program, others will do that elsewhere. I’ll tell what the experience felt like for me personally.

 

There were a lot of activities, we met a lot of people, and always we had the opportunity to communicate, even if there were a few moments of information on Berlin, on the history of Finland, which was very useful.

 

Let me speak about the meetings that most impressed me:

 

1 First of all the morning we passed with the elderly people at Tyykihovi. They presented themselves, then told us their long lives in small groups, with in each one always at least a senior, a foreigner and a person responsible of the translation from Finnish to English. The whole experience – presentation, group talk and having dinner together – was maybe the most ‘heart warming’ experience of this few days. Some of the seniors even came to say us good by on the last evening. At the same time we experienced that language barriers do exist, despite the fact that many of us (even some seniors) speak different languages. In my small group it was refraining so much the conversation that we never had time to get into more personal events in the live of 94 year old Adela. At the same time, I realize that it was not only that, people need simply more time to learn about each other, to open up and tell personal live stories. But language difficulties slowed down communication and sometimes made things too difficult to communicate when talking about complex social realities (e.g. what happened in Karelia at time of their youth). Still the desire to communicate passed through, in my case, when I was talking to Niilo and he explained in his half forgotten English things from his career as a sailor and how he travelled the whole world. The same readiness to communicate I found it unexpectedly when we visited the looms of the Opisto center and was presented to a aged Karelian woman: she immediately started telling about how she had to make a journey of 80 km to flee from her country. Luckily Eliisa was there to translate, but while talking, it was me she was looking in the eyes: ‘You would not want to have lived the things I lived’, she said.

 

2 The very fist night we met two groups of students of the Forssan Opisto. The first was studying calligraphy in a way that makes it a ‘full’ art (if I may say so), no doubt thanks to their teacher Vivian. The second, the ‘art’ group, Eliisa’s group, was working on ‘Pictures of Finland’. Women of different ages tried to give expression of what Finland means to them. Students were very open trying to explain their vision: land of 4 seasons, of life near to nature, etc. but also events of World War II, Russia (they pronounce ‘russa’). They all tried English and if there was still a language problem, this conversation was very concrete. Anyway, explaining art is maybe useless, except for the communication itself.

 

3 Friday afternoon we went to one of the beautiful National Parks with another company, the painter Tomas, his wife Rejka and their children, some women en men we met before like Vivian, and still more people. Tapio explained, from the platform that gave us an overview of part of the Park, what the keeping of the Park involves. Afterwards we talked around a fire with this growing Finnish group, so the contacts were already multiplying.

 

II

 

There also was the content of the project of course, Rethink Nations. The first meeting of the extended group, Finnish, Germans, Belgians, had to be the starting point and thus was very vital. We understand now that this was just the beginning, that we will not always agree on everything, but I think now that our conversations, some discussions (on what should be on our website, what had to be its name, etc) showed that everyone was speaking freely, that we managed to explain our fears and to respect each other when there were a few differences of view. A good exercise in democracy and… transparency. I am sure that in this short time we have come to trust each other, which is essential since we will collaborate for still more than a year on this same project.

 

As a conclusion, personally I am particularly happy to have met as well the direct participants in the project as the people of Forssa: the group of seniors, the students, the teachers, the responsible ones, the enthusiastic keepers of the national park, etc. I think the formula promises more meetings that will not only be carrying information and allow all kind of discussions but also allow real contact from group to group, from person to person, which maybe is the most rewarding thing of all.

 

 

Karel Van Gerven