Suomi kutsuu

(Photo: somewhere between Arusha, TANZ, and Nairobi, KEN.)

Time's up, Suomi kutsuu (Finland's calling). On Monday I fly back to Finland. Unfortunately I won't make pit-stops in Ethiopia and Sudan as promised by my original itinerary, because the flight operator just cancelled that route. So instead I'm flying via Switzerland and Germany. It actually works better for me, since the layovers are shorter and I'll have one long uninterrupted night flight.

There will be no more posts till Finland since my to-do list prior to my departure is crammed. In fact tomorrow morning I'm flying to the island of Zanzibar, thus far one of my favourite places in East Africa, for the weekend. It will be the last field trip before returning to Finland. I'm going with my brother and a Finnish-Canadian Fida-worker from Uganda, who is holding an HIV-Aids workshop in Dar es Salaam this week. We plan to visit some Zanzibarian spice factories and locate Freddy Mercury's childhood home.

In case anyone is wondering, VALMET is a Finnish company (VALtion=State's METalli=Iron). My late grandfather owned a Valmet tractor. When you start seeing Valmet signs in some bush in the middle of Africa, you know it's time to go home. (Although I doubt the reference is intentional, probably the shop owner just saw it somewhere.) That, and a phone call from Finland saying the beautiful Finnish summer has begun, settles it. See you soon.

Serengeti and Lake Victoria

Tomorrow morning my brother and I are leaving for a five-day roadtrip. Our final destination is Mwanza, a city on the coast of Lake Victoria, quite near the Ugandan and Kenyan borders. Fida has a large youth center there which I will be able to visit.

We have decided to drive through the Serengeti national park, which is on the way. I've been to the Mikumi national park but never to Serengeti. Apparently the wildebeests and zebras etc. are migrating. If we're lucky (or if we're told the real-time coordinates), we'll stuble upon them in herds of thousands. Ngorongoro, the crater famous for its black rhinos, will have to wait for another time, as it would double the entry fee and cost us an extra day.

We'll be back on Tuesday. The following weekend I'll fly to Zanzibar for a mini vacation, just before returning to Finland on the 1st of June. My time in Africa is soon over. Six months has gone past quickly.

Virtuous Leadership -- Hyvejohtajuus

Inspired by Alexandre Havard's magisterial book Virtuous Leadership (Scepter 2007) and our leadership center, European Center for Leadership Development, a few friends and I created a blog in 2008, www.hyvejohtajuus.fi ("virtuous leadership" in Finnish).

We publish Weekly Articles on virtue, leadership, and everything in between. In addition to these weekly articles by our regular writers, a Guestbook Article is published monthly by a visiting guest. Thus far we've had doctors, businessmen, writers, teachers etc. submit though-provoking articles. Ever since we launched this project a little over a year ago our readership has grown exponentially. Those of you who read Finnish, I can heartly recommend the site.

Our regular contributors are:

Oskari Juurikkala: An economist and a lawyer, Oskari is doing his PhD at the moment. His interests include theology and philosophy. He's also a talented musician.

Santiago Martinez: An MBA and political scientist, Santi is a Spaniard who has lived in Finland for nearly 20 years. He runs a developmental organization with close ties to Kenya.

Jussi Ruokomäki: A web consultant and specialist, he works for Smilehouse, one of the biggest (or the biggest) e-commerce companies in Finland. Jussi is married to Hanna and they have a 3-year-old son, Oskar, who is my godson.

Jason Lepojärvi: That would be me. I'm a teacher of philosophy and theology, but for the next few years I'll be concentrating on my dissertation on love.

In addition to us four, a fifth regular contributor has just joined us, Markku Lepojärvi: He is the principle of Albertinkoulu, the school for the hearing-impaired in Helsinki, a foster-father of three, a biological father of another three (myself included), and a young grandfather of four.

Here are the relevant links:

Hyvejohtajuus.fi
European Center for Leadership Development
Virtuous Leadership (the book, soon to be published in Finnish)
List of articles (2008-2009)

Safari Game

(Benjy with Oskar, my godson, in December 2008 in Dar es Salaam)

I'm babysitting again. Danny and Sirkku are entertaining their Finnish guest, who flew in from Sri Lanka, in the night clubs of Dar es Salaam.* Babysitting is much fun, because the kids are so lovely and easy. Daniella, after her late night snack (usually porridge or noodles), falls asleep peacefully at around seven-thirty or eight. Benjy stays up longer, till about nine.

Tonight we were supposed to play the "Safari Game" (safarileikki) again. You know, pretend your car breaks down during a safari, climb to the nearest baobao tree (=sofa) for safety, shoo(t) off the wild beasts circling around, and eventually call a friend to pick you up with the helicopter... But poor Benjy fell asleep on the sofa, at eight-thirty, before our car broke down.

*Just kidding. They're at a restaurant enjoying a civilized discussion.

Benjamin, Benjamin, Benjamin

As my time here is approaching its end, I find my self missing little Daniella and Benjy - a little prematurely. After all, I haven't left! Oh well, I guess this is not uncommon.

This has got to be one of the best pictures I've seen of Benjy. It was taken about five months ago, courtesy of Hanna Ruokomäki who visited us with her family.

Benjy is extremely smart and multitalented. I can't wait to see him grow and find his vocation. It's exciting, what will he be? What kind of choises will he make? On the other hand, he could remain a little boy indefinitely. I doubt the grand-parents would object.

Can You Fit a Plane in the Trunk?

Indeed you can. While traveling around Tansania you become the witness of some of the most funny scences (and sometimes the not-so-funny ones, like car crashes).

Hmm...how can we get this Cessna from here to there?
Hey, I know! How'bout we take off the wings and put them on the roof, and stick the chassis in the trunk?
*Murmur of agreement*
Abdullah, you are wise.

Notice me with the camera? The mirror broke when someone tried to rip it off. Many mirrors have the car register number carved on it, as you can see, but sometimes even that doesn't keep the thieves at bay.

Daniella, Daniella, Daniella

Happy little girl, eh?


One Sunday afternoonn, Daniella's dad dressed her up all nicely.


While he took photos, her uncle made faces.

Disorientated Bat

One morning we woke up to see a bat hanging upside down from our garage roof. Apparently this fella was a bit disorientated. Not only because it wasn't spending the day in some sea-cliff cave like the rest of his friends, but also because he stayed in that garage, without moving, for three days and three nights. The reason for this is that the garage light was on nonstop, so our poor doubly disorientated bat probably thought it was a very, very long day, and kept waiting for the night to arrive. It did arrive in the form of a power-out and the bat was not seen anymore.

In the evenings you can see tons of bats: they fly out of their hiding places in long, unbroken formations that last for hours. Although these bats are considerably larger than their Scandinavian cousins, we're literally pounds away from the dog-size screaming devils I saw in the jungles of Malaysia.

Scuba Diving Course

It would have been smart to take a Swahili course at the beginning of my stay here in Tanzania. But I was way too busy with everything, mostly with my studies. However, I have now completed all the courses I intended to and I ran out of books.

But it wouldn't be wise to do a language course now, just before leaving again for who knows how long. So instead I have decided to take the PADI open water diving course. It's something I've wanted to do since I first tried out snorkeling in the Similan Islands in Thailand.

Africa needs God, says Atheist

Matthew Parris, the columnist for Times magazine and former English politician, published a controversial online article some time ago titled, “As an Atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God”. You can read it here.

His main argument is this.

“Missionaries, not aid money, is the solution to Africa's biggest problem – the crushing passivity of the people's mindset.”

Parris, who as a boy lived in Malawi, explains.

“Anxiety – fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things – strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won't take the initiative, won't take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders.”

What exactly does he mean by this?

“How can I, as someone with a foot in both camps, explain? When the philosophical tourist moves from one world view to another he finds – at the very moment of passing into the new – that he loses the language to describe the landscape to the old.”

But he tries to give an example: the answer given by Sir Edmund Hillary to the question: Why climb the mountain?

“‘Because it's there,’ he said. To the rural African mind, this is an explanation of why one would not climb the mountain. It's... well, there. Just there. Why interfere? Nothing to be done about it, or with it. Hillary's further explanation – that nobody else had climbed it – would stand as a second reason for passivity.”

Christianity is offered as the antitode to the African tribal collectivism/passivity. But Parris seems to misrepresent Christianity as being purely individualistic.

Although it is true that Christianity stresses the importance of the individual person, who was made in the image of God, the individual person finds his self and purpose in relationships. Above all with his Creator, and secondly with other human persons.

In the Bible God's relationship to mankind is expressed as Father to children and Bride to Bridegroom. The Christian God is not an Absolute solitarity, but a Love Community between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And man is made in this image, not in the image of absolute individualism.

I would be very interested in hearing what others thought of the article. What do you think, did he misrepresent the African rural mind? Or did he hit on a certain truth?

Last Month in Africa

Five months has gone since I arrived in Tanzania on December 1st of last year. It's been a wonderful experience. Although I wouldn't vouch for my hosts, it feels like time has gone by quickly. My return flight, June 1st, is more exotic than usual: Dar es Salaam - Addis Ababa - Khartoum - Frankfurt - Helsinki. This will be my first time in Sudan... Hey, it could be worse, as in Darfur.

As you can see from the photo, I'm very happy. I'm also a bit tanned, so at least I won't immediately get a sun-burn in Finland (sic). (Photo by Jani Salokangas, whose daughter has placed her hand gently on my shoulder. I didn't cut her out, I swear, her dad did.)