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Thanks and warm greetings to Jennifer from South Korea, Eddie and Kieran from Ireland, Aigi and Johanna from Estonia, Mino and Antonello from Italy, Ivan from Slovakia, Annette and Ursula from Germany. A special thanks to Sven-Åke, Maria, Hanna-Kaisa and Sofia. It was great to meet you all, to spend good time and work together. You are the best fashion models we ever have seen on the Åland Islands....Take care, and lot´s of love/Carina Some memories from the Camp Diary: 2003-8-4 Mon Now we have started!! All arrived safe and sound. The work is running smoothly....
2003-8-5 Tue Fish (rökt flundra) for dinner. Aigi tastes real italian cappuccino. Swimming at Lilla Holmen. Johanna, our princess, with Aigi, her mother.
2003-8-6 Wed Hiroshima memorial at Sjökvarter.
2003-8-9 Sat
Whole day trip to Källskär island. Saturday.No work!Haaa...it could be also boring to waste time! No problem.. the perfect scandinavian organization had a surprise for us: a little trip to a "special" island: Källskär.Well, how to get there? Starting from the center of Mariehamn, i mean starting from the down town, you have to go East direction and try to get the port of a place called Långnäs. Actually, then you´ll have 3 hours boating on a little/ medium size ferry boat in a friendly mood. Notice: the coffee served on board is not that bad, you could also have a great time relishing outside a coffe in the middle of a typical scandinavian landscape smoking some cigarettes with a mild intermittent sun which warms you up for a few minutes, leaving you in a hopeless polarlike(if you consider that it is August now) cold. So if you leave Långnäs at 9:15 (as we did) you´ll be in Kökar at 12:15.There, a boat which resembles Venice´s boat Bus ( vaporetto )will lead you in the last part of the trip.
Among nice islands and in a less lazy sun you´ll stop first in the village Karlsby for a short rest (there is a shop for an ice cream or whatever) and then after almost half an hour you'll see the real aim of our trip appearing: the island of Källskär. It´s a granite-like rock in the far eastern part of the Åland island characterized by a wonderful (may be even Kitsch) pinkish colour; in some million of years it will get a rare pinkish sandy beach island. So it happened some many years ago that a rich man decided to build on that island, his own secular paradise, so he just bought the island and built up some little wooden houses very well integrated in the landscape, and invited artists and friends to join him to get inspiration and whatever else. Actually, I didn´t properly follow the guide speech since the place,the landscape and the atmosphere you can breathe over that pink rocks just kidnapped my mind to somwhere else, so I can´t explain properly the historical facts of our island. Anyway, the result is noticeable: it´s like a mix of a wild nature with a dandy culture;GO THERE! It is also pleasent to have a short swim in the cold but clean sea all over around.
At 15:30 the boat left to go back:the sun at that time worked at its maximun energy rate, and you could keep in touch with the landscape sitting outside on the top of the boat. At 21 we were back.A grand day out! (Mino - Italy)
2003-8-10 Sun On Sunday everybody took a well deserved lie in.Johanna, our youngest member celebrated her fourth birthday and we all enjoyed a delicious cake baked by Aigi.l Minna a girl from K.V.T. the local S.C.I. association came to talk to us about the history and aims of S.C.I. Ivan from Slovakia spent many hours in the kitchen preparing a fried potato dish which everybody really enjoyed. The best part of the day came afterwards. We got on our bikes and headed for a beautiful inlet where we all enjoyed a wonderful Fisherman's smoke sauna. It was so invigourating to jump out of the sauna and into the water. Afterwards we had some great food and we all sat around the fire talking and watching the sunset. Everybody agreed that the scenary was amazing and we enjoyed the few beers also! (Eddie - Ireland)
2003-8-11 Mon Monday morning was mainly spent in preparation for the arrival of a group of international journalists.They were given a presentation from Nina followed by a tour of Emmaus...the tasty food was appreciated by visitors and volunteers alike! Later we met with Khatuna,a Human Rights Messenger with SCI,who discussed issues related to refugees and illegal immigration.All the volunteers who participated felt that this was an informative and worthwhile exercise. (Kieran-Ireland) 2003-8-13 Wed It is Wednesday and it is raining for the first time. Nevertheless I prefer to work outside. It is the fresh air that keeps you awake after a long night. Yesterday evening we were dancing in the yard to several kind of musics like Italien funk, Irish folk, korean popmusic and so on. After that we went to a sportsbar at the harbour, talking about "god and the world" and saying goodbye to Khatuna, who unfortunately already had to leave us. Sven-Åke is the man that tells you what to do - he is never hanging around - and this morning he told me to put the pieces of wood we sawed the last days together because we need some benches for the cultural night on Friday. I never thought I was able to drill and screw, but Ivan, a slovakian camp member was a perfect teacher to me and we succeeded in putting together 13 benches ( by breaking two drills, sorry for that). It is a reall good feeling when you see the results of your and all the other peoples work. We also had our first rehearsal of the fashion show. If you have the possibility to come to Mariehamn on friday watching that show, do it - I am sure you will have lots of fun!! Do not forget your camera, it is worth taking some photos... In the afternoon we decided to have a party that night. Mino and Hanna-Kaisa bought some beer, coke and wodka and Ursula and I were looking for some CDs at the library. We met eachother in the secondhand clothes sorting area at Emmaus. First it seemed to be somewhat boring but some beers later the mood changed and we had really great fun dancing, singing, playing the guitar and whatever. I am enjoying it here very much, the people, the work, the sparetime. If you would like to take part at a good camp, come to Emmaus on the Åland Islands. (Annette Tauber, Germany) 2003-8-14 Thu Today is the day before cultural festival. Every people is busy to prepare for festival.For example, making benches, putting brick on the road, making fantastic background, making something to show the direction and staff..etc. Although our member are very tired after having party last night, we tried to work hard. :)I think they do many things together..It Looks really good..They look like...high expection. So, work hard more..Me, either. I also take part in this work..I believe....Tomorrow will be very great..!!:) In fact, I cannot participate in this work camp and i'll leave tonight, for I have private things. So. I'm sad. I'll remind and imagine everything about Emmaus. After I go back to my country, I can speak to my friends and family..'I had best experience, met best people, work together and visited best place. Thank you..Tack!! Kiitos!! You can do it!!and Enjoy it! (Jennifer Joo Yun-South Korea) 2003-8-15 Fri Culture Night. KVT Organisation KVT is a Finnish branch of Service Civil International. KVT is a peace organization that aims to promote peace, equality, justice and environmental protection. The main activity of KVT is organizing volunteer work camps in Finland and sending volunteers abroad. Kvt has many different working groups to run it´s activities. The organisation was born in 1947 when some volunteers came to Finland to help to rebuilt finnish Lapland after war. This year SCI has a special campain for peace and human rights. Sixteen human rights messengers travel around in fourteen countries in Europe. HRM messengers will visit human rights organisations and have discussion sessions in work camps in their position countries. PLACE The Åland Islands is an archipelago that consists of more than 6500 islands and skerries scattered between Finland and Sweden. The population of Åland Islands is about 26'000. Our camp takes place in the only town, Mariehamn, where lives about 40 % of the whole population. Åland is an autonomous, demilitarised and monolingually Swedish speaking region, often referred to as “the Islands of Peace”. Euro is official currency in Åland, but most shops and other businesses accept Swedish kronor as well. In Finland and Åland the time is one hour ahead of Sweden, like in Eastern Europe. HOSTS Your camphost will be the Åland Peace Association-Emmaus. The Association was founded in 1982 and now has almost 500 members. It works on various peace issues and aims to promote international understanding, solidarity and justice. The Association set up Emmaus in 1989. Emmaus activities include sorting out, selling and sending as aid the locally collected second-hand goods. Emmaus is based in an old building, the “Old Dairy”, in the centre of Mariehamn. It has succesfully grown bigger each year and developed into a cultural centre. The second-hand shop “Emmaus” is one of the most popular shops in the town. WORK The work will be based at the “Old Dairy”. The work will include basic repairing of the building and gardening. Besides the repairing work we will help Emmaus to prepare truck loads of clothes, furniture etc. which will be sent as humanitarian aid to Baltic countries and Russia. We will also help to organize and take part in Cultural Night with music, poetry, art and fashion show. CONTACT ADDRESSES KVT-FINLAND Rauhanasema, Veturitori, FIN-00520 Helsinki, FINLAND Tel. +358 (0)9 144408 Fax. +358 (0)9 147297 or +358 (0)9 143657 E-mail. kvt@kvtfinland.org THE ÅLAND ISLANDS PEACE ASSOCIATION – EMMAUS Köpmansgatan 11, FIN-22100 Mariehamn, Åland Tel. +358 (0)18 17069Fax. +358 (0)18 17070 or +358 (0)18 21026 E-mail: emmaus@peace.aland.fi
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Everybody
got a bike from Emmaus! Here is Ivan and the bikes.
Annette
and Ursula are fashionated by the floating candles lightened for
the memory of Hirosima event.
