Kaleva is the large daily newspaper in Oulu.
Twice a week, every household in Oulu gets a free 8 paged newspaper, free of cost, called Oulu Lehti. It is sponsored by a political party which gets funds from the Government to circulate its views.
The one which arrived last Sunday had a large picture of two foreigners, Anaïs Guimard from France, and surprise, surprise, Subramaniam Panneer Selvam from Villipuram, in South Tamilnadu, exactly where the tsunami struck.
Tamilian from Villipuram, Subramaniam
The article spoke in glowing terms of the work of Subramaniam when the tsunami struck his home region.
The two foreigners had been brought to Finland by the KEPA organisation (Service Centre for Development Cooperation) which works on projects with developing countries. Both of these foreigners are being looked after by the Oulu Youth Centre WALDA Organisation (website in Finnish), which for over 60 years has been involved with youth work and recently with multicultural youth work.
Subramaniam works at a youth centre in an area known as Puolivälikangas, very near the University of Oulu. He is a phyisiatrist - something I am not sure what it is.
So, today, Tuesday, when I had a few minutes to spare, I dashed off to the Youth Centre. There I met Subramaniam, his co-ordinator from KEPA, Helsinki, Sari Markkanen, and also the local person who is responsible for Subramaniam from the Walda Organisation, Kaija Välimaa.
I invited Subramaniam to our regular 12:00 hours Sunday meeting at Saikou's Internet Cafe.
Kaija asked whether she could attend. She would like to talk to us, especially about a project application for money for some work involving foreigners.
I told her that her presence would be very welcome.
Looking at three last Findian additions to our Oulu Community, Kannan, from Pondicherry, Isaac from Chennai and Subramaniam from Villipuram, it seems that we Dravidianns are invading the Arctic!
Finally, on my way home, I noticed the moon at 14:30 - Round and Full!
Am I glad that the Hemel Hempstead black smoke is not clouding our sky here in Oulu!
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