Over the last six months a small group of foreigners have been meeting together to try to help other foreigners who have problems. Slowly, this group has expanded and the help has been offered, not only to foreigners in Oulu but also to many Finns.
Finns travelling to various parts of the world have been given guidance by experienced members of the group.
China and India are some of the hot destinations that Finns have wanted information about. Finns have wanted interpretation services and advice about culture and customs of the places they want to travel to.
This group has been able through its network to find suitable help for the people who have come to it.
The group has been searching for a name to depict the work it is doing. After much sould searching one name has been thrown up.
Abbreviated, this can be read as
"CHAFF"
The word CHAFF has many meanings. One of this is that it is name of husk from grain when it is polished. This is usually considered as waste and used as animal feed.
However, health conscious people know that CHAFF is full of nutritional value.
In Finland, the views of foreigners are generally considererd to be of not much value. It was considered most appropriate that our CHAFF is us, the valuable rubbish in Finland.
A second meaning of CHAFF is light-hearted joking. Our group, which is not a formal organisation, is certainly very light-hearted.
At today's meeting, the name CHAFF was proposed and it was accepted by all.
What sort of organisation CHAFF will become cannot be predicted today. However, at least there is an appropriate name for the work being done.
Today, was a meeting at the Pailin Thai Restaurant which was attended by many Indians (8), Finns (5), Chinese (2), Thais (2) and Zambian (1). Many regulars could not attend as they have not yet returned from their winter holidays.
Our Hungarian, Kenyan, Nigerian, Gambian, Dutch, etc. nationals could not join us today.
Amongst those prsent was one Finn who will leave next week on a trip to Kerala and South Tamilnadu in India as part of a Rotary District Exchange programme.
The discussions today centered on three topics.
1. How to legitimately pay less taxes in Finland.
2. The imporatance of joining a Union in Finland.
3. An introduction to Kerala through the life of Mrs. K. C. Mammen Mappillai, the humble wife of the doyen of Kerala, as seen through a video about her life set in the Backwaters of Kerala.
This was followed by a sumptuous meal with the choice of a regular Thai meal, Pizzas and the Pailin Thai Sweet Chilli Wrap, the hit fast food of 2006.
My thanks to all for participating.
CHAFF has an exciting future ahead of it.
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