In the words of Piglet "Oh D-d-d-dear"

Hi to all you folks out there in blogland.
Today was Jurva day. At breakfast Christina's host asked if we had been to visit any hospitals. To that point, we had briefly walked into one hospital but as events unfolded, that was about to change. The day started out like any other day. The sun was up before 5am, the air was crisp and clear and we met, at 9, at Logistia. Teppo, from Jurva, met us and we headed out for the day muttering our habitual Finnish styled English "Maybe let's go". Teppo guided us to his van and, as we were filing into the van, our "program" for the day took an unexpected twist. Gailmarie was putting her purse in the back door of the van when gravity took hold of the front door and unexpectedly closed it. Gailmarie calmly requested that Teppo open the front door so that she could remove her finger. Our strong and fearless (I was about to say tall but I wouldn't want to "stretch" the story too much) leader kept her composure and we did indeed have our first real visit to a Finnish hospital. As you can see Teppo and I were just hoping Gailmaire would pull through. After figuring out the insurance, etc. the team left Gailmarie in the hands of the medical staff and headed on to Jurva to continue our program.
Jurva, a town of 4,000, is known for woodworking production. Folks in the area are very self sufficient and will do whatever it takes to support their families through small Mom and Pop businesses which usually include 5 or fewer family members. As long as they can find some way to survive, they have no desire to work for someone else. The biggest wood furniture factory in town currently employs between 50 and 75 people. Woodworking has been a part of Jurva for over 200 years and the first woodworking school was founded in 1911. In the early days of Jurva, most folks were farmers but successive crop failures caused them to look for other ways to survive. In addition to woodworking, the Jurvaites turned to textile work and when that faded away in the 70's woodworking increased in popularity and more folks began to work with metal. The current economic climate is very difficult for woodworking and low cost countries are starting to take quite a bite out of the furniture industry. Times are tough but the people of Jurva are very resilient. I wonder what industry they will turn to next if woodworking experiences a long-term collapse like the textile industry did previously.
Upon arriving in Jurva, Teppo took us to a magnificent, large, 5 year old hall built to showcase Jurva's woodworking talents. The building structure is all wood as well as staircases, name plates, handrails, etc.. Later in the day, we met an artist who had carved one of the ornate decorative mirrors found in the great hall. He said a project of that scale takes 3 months from concept to completion. The building contains a theatre and we were treated to a video explaining how Jurva came to be known for it's woodworking and craftsmanship.
Here's where our brave and fearless leader rejoins the story. Gailmarie surprised us by walking into the building, finger bandaged up and stitches in place. By the way, for those of you who are keeping track, Gailmarie got 400 points for the whole finger in the door escapade. To put that in perspective, Christina's kayak 360 was only worth, you guessed it, 360 points.



















As you can see, Catherine is tired of working in relative obscurity as a civil engineer and now aims to create world peace and environmental sustainability through powerful and moving woodworking brilliance.
After lunch, we went on to tour the trade school which focuses on graphic, textile, and furniture design and, hmm... oh yeah, woodworking. What an amazing place to learn joining and decorative carving. The students are continuing an incredible tradition of creativity and excellence. It's a shame that the current economic circumstances make it so difficult for a crafts person to make a living.
From the school we went on to Laitala, a furniture factory which employs about 50 folks. They make traditional, high end furniture, using a mixture of computerized routers and delicate hand work. Laitala is not selling much furniture at this point, but that hasn't stopped them from producing. Wow, were they ever carrying a lot of inventory. Off to the lake for a snack and a walk after which we rest up and wait for tonight's Rotary meeting.
A few personal notes. The host family I am living with has three girls more or less the same age as my three girls. We went to navigation (orienteering?) class on Monday night and the two oldest girls insisted I join in all the activities. We had a great time despite the rain. I was embarrassed, but not at all surprised, to find out that I was not able to keep up with the nine year old as we ran up and down the mountain. In my defence, though, on Monday she participated in a track and field day, placing second among all the 9 year olds in the city at the 1km distance.
I even received a drink box as a reward for not having a heart attack.
Pasi and Anne-mari own a successful importing firm so once again I am able to learn about a type of business that is new to me. They have a beautiful house in the forest with a projector for watching the World Hockey Championship in the basement entertainment room. I had the dubious pleasure of watching Finland beat Canada at the World Hockey Championships. I took a bit of a ribbing at the Rotary meeting last night so I acquiesced and during my presentation led the group in a not so rousing rendition of Suomi Tekee Kohta Maalin. Very roughly translated the basic idea of the song indicates that Finland is the best and can score whenever they want and there's nothing Canada or anyone else can do about it. It's sung to the tune of Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.

















We just came back from a very pleasant evening spent with the Rotary Club in Jurva. I must say this for the Rotarians in Jurva, of all the clubs we've visited, Jurva wins the award for having the biggest smiles.

I can't believe it. Finland just lost and they're out. Our day had a rough start and Finnish. Everything in the middle was great. Hopefully we'll begin tomorrow less adventurously. Over and out.

Marty