A very busy weekend with good news all round.
Tingting, our Chinese "dynamo", had gone to China along with her new boss, as a Marketing Assistant and Translator. She tries to make this trial period into a permanent career.
Our Indian "dynamite", Kannan Bee, as he is known amongst us, has been a really busy "bee", blasting his way through the Finnish education, labour and cultural arena. First he got an outstanding certificate from his lecturer, a senior researcher at Oulu University and has landed an assignment to write a research paper which could lead to a doctoral research programme in Project Management in Construction Engineering. Then he went to a place near Rauma, on the west coast of Finland, about 400 km south of Oulu, and landed a job as a Junior Engineer, with the French company which is the primary construction contractor for the fifth nuclear powwer plant being built in Finland. He is waiting for details of the salary and the appointment letter if he gets the security clearance, as is associated with any institution of this type. Then he proceeded to Helsinki and secured an offer to do research in yet another area of Construction Management from the Helsinki University of Technology.
This outstanding young man, humble to the core which represents the village roots of Pondicherry, where he comes from, will be a shining star in Europe if he maintains that very important characteristics that he now possesses - simplicity and straightfowardness. It is my honour and pleasure to be associated with him as he will go places.
Our friend from Hubli, India, Siddharth Mazumdar, who has obained a place at Kuopio University, came from Kuopio on his way back to India. He informed us that he had secured sufficient funding which will help him complete the Master's course in Biotechnology as a group of 8 reserachers under a leading Finnish professor in that area. He will share a flat with two other Indian students who are studying in Kupio University.
After dropping his luggage at our place, the next day Siddharth took off for Rovaniemi on the Arctic Circle, where one of his colleagues was hosting a "pikkujoulu" which is the traditional way work colleagues say Merry Christmas to each other. He came back quite sober in the late evening, as Siddharth does not imbibe liquor. However, he was not very happy with the money grabbing that goes on in Santa's Village - but that was something I had warned him about!
Saikou's Internet Cafe, December 2005, Oulu
On Sunday it was meeting day for us foreigners in Saikou Marong's Internet Cafe. The good news of all these developments had everyone in high spirits. It appears that everyone is being motivated to do better as they see the success of their friends. This is due to the heroic efforts to succeed in this hostile climate in Finland - both the prevailing weather and xenophobia.
Saikou's Internet Cafe and Phone Centre, as well as his Western Union Money Transfer Centre, is slowly but surely, gaining acceptance in Oulu. It has been a rough grind, but he will survive as the worst is almost past. Saikou sells a great phone card, with which I can talk to our grandchildren in the UK for almost 700 minutes (over 11 hours) for just Euro 25 using the fixed telephone line.
Oh! What would we do without Saikou!
The only one of us who was having a rough time, not with work, was Kamu. His Volvo blew its radiator pipe on Friday. On Sunday, his Saab stalled. He and I had to take time off from the Sunday Chit Chat session, as I escorted him to our car mechanic shop, where the ever present Reijo said he would try to repair at least one car by Wednesday!
Luckily, Kamu's family was holidaying in Rovaniemi, so there was not a revolution in the home.
Car parts and tools!
Kamu pursues a work routine which starts very early in the morning . He has to work all through the day in different places. Many of his customers depend on him. Without a car he would really be in hot water.
Mantu dropped in just a few moments, with the baby, to give us the news from Honduras, where her husband, pilot and banana expert, David, is at the moment. There has been an election there, and the political scene is not too calm. David is well.
1 comment:
Hi Jacob! I was searching for Siddharth Mazumdar and found a link to your this blog. Could you please give me his e-mail id/ phone number? Or, you could also ask him to contact me: I am his cousin, Bunty (Buddha). My msn id is buddhadev_pc and yahoo id is buddhadevpc@yahoo.com or gmail id is
regaldreams@gmail.com, please do tell him to get in touch with me. Thanks so much!!
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