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2008-03-24T09:43:00.002+02:00

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Author's Notes

2008-02-12T11:04:00.000+02:00

Friends, family, strangers… whoever has been reading this blog… it’s time to come to a closure. As any good book also the good experiences come to an end. On Monday 18 Feb I'm packing my bags and flying back home. Consider these as the author’s notes on the back of the book.

What will I be missing about Sri Lanka?

Sounds of life: It´s not just tuk-tuks, music, prayers and tooting horns but also the sounds of nature. In Sri Lanka you feel as part of nature. It surrounds you. You are part of it. And every living creature around you is your fellow citizen, not just the human beings.

Being recognized: As awkward it might have been in the beginning, I will miss the fact that complete strangers greet you on the street. And for them you are “Sir”. New people that you meet are genuinely interested of where you´re coming from, how is your country and how do you like their country. For them you are someone interesting, someone different, someone.

Diversity of nature: The parrots, crabs, slugs, spiders, stray dogs and the huge flying foxes (enormous bats) are just a fraction of the nature. You observe the trees and without turning your head you see ten different ones. Within just a couple of hundred km radius you shift from city to hill country to a paradise beach. It´s all there - all you need - compact on one small island.

The beach life: You jump into a bus and in three-four hours you are in paradise (namely Mirissa beach). So far you´ve spent 50 cents. You spend your weekend there among coconut trees, crystal-clear ocean water, fine-grain yellow sand, and absolutely no one bothering you. You eat and drink well for the whole weekend and still end up spending just about 20-30 euros. It´s affordable, no? And the best thing is that it seems like made for you. Just a handful of tourists lingers on and on the low-season it´s just you and your friends.

Solitude among chaos: The weirdest thing is that though in the city (Colombo) the hazzle is omnipresent – except after nine in the evening – you somehow find a lot of time for reflection. You can walz among the chaos and still feel that it´s just you with your own thoughts.

Anti-materialism: Except for my laptop (that enables me to create text, sounds and images) I managed to rid myself of nearly all materialism. Losing cameras or phones didn´t matter that much. Going around in far-from-perfect clothes was ok. And the so called necessities like fridge, TV or an oven became distant luxury.

Tuk-tuks: No matter how much hazzle you have to go through to bargain a reasonable price or how annoying it is that 50 drivers bug you on your Sunday walk, the tuk-tuks – or three-wheelers – are a very convenient means of transport. They are everywhere, anytime! You just hop in and they take you to your destination saving you the trouble of walking or using a crowded bus.

Riding a Gizmo: Even the tuk-tuks pale in comparison to your own moped – or the commonly known brand name Gizmo. The freedom that you feel when you are criss-crossing amidst the traffic and finding your way through the smallest entries possible is just overwhelming. You can break all the traffic rules and just speed away when the cars patiently wait in the rush hour.

Kirulapone family: Regardless of poor living conditions in my first accommodation in Kirulapone the people there made it home. As we were all going through the same tough experience the bond between people was amazing.

Time freedom: Being the master of your own time and not feeling any external pressure to hurry is such a good state of being.

Food: Though you quickly get fed up – no pun intended – of rice and curry when you have it every day that will be something I will miss. So elegantly mixed tastes of different curries and sambols mixing and matching with the plain rice… and the best thing is that you could use your fingers for eating! Also the seafood, deviled dishes, kotthu, wade etc will always remain in my memories… and hopefully again on my plate one day.

Sun: It seems that I´m physically made for a place with an everlasting sun shine and warmth. I feel better, I look better, and my friggin´ skin is not dry!

What will I not miss?

Pollution: Though you get accustomed to it very quickly and it doesn´t really bother you after a while, the pollution in the city is something I will not miss. I´ll be glad to breathe the fresh winter air again.

Mosquitoes: Those vicious little bastards suck your blood and keep you awake at night. It´s not the thought of them spreading diseases but just the mere annoyance of their presence that really gets to you.

Monsoon rains: Oh boy, the infamous mid-summer rains back home are a pathetic tricle compared to these mega-showers. And they are so unpredictable! There you are enjoying the sun-shine when a cloud appears from nowhere and pours cats and dogs for the next three hours. And sometimes it just doesn´t stop! Nearly continous rain for three months is not fun anymore! Seeing a sunny day gets you hoping it stopped and then the showers return. You are wet all over and you got to walk through the shitty water on the streets that´s up your knee level.

Malfunctioning Gizmo: Regardless of the freedom and ease of travel the moped provides, finding it malfunctioning can really get on your nerves. It was not uncommon for me to try and start it for ten minutes before the poor bugger would turn on. Sometimes it drained my wallet but mainly it was the burden of getting it fixed over and over again that was really irritating.

Kirulapone residence: For a normal westerner the house in Kirulapone would be a no-no place to stay. We did. We put up with the discomfort of having no basic home equipment and sometimes not even water. We put up with the hideous bugs, rats, mosquitoes, spiders, cockroaches and whatnot. We even tolerated the friggin´uguduwa (infernal beaver-like predator cat whatever it is) peeing through the ceiling and running around in the attic. I guess the last straw was the increased discomfort of knowing that someone is watching you through the window in the night… that someone is coming in through your bathroom window and stealing your stuff no matter if the people are there or not.

Dishonesty: People trying to rip you off just because you happen to be white or someone taking your belongings is something I cannot tolerate. Full stop.

What were my most impressive experiences?

Climbing Sri Pada: Going up more than 5000 steps in the middle of the night being surrounded by pilgrims of four different religions and of all age classes from babies to grannies and grandpas is a once in a lifetime experience. Waiting the sun to rise on the top of Adam´s Peak to take away your shivering cold and unveil the beauty of the landscape is something you cannot describe in words.

Sitting on Giragala: Sitting alone on top of the parrot rock in Mirissa and watching the wide-open sea is what I did many times but what I never got bored of. The process of going there became kind of a tradition. First you get yourself to the rock – usually through shallow water. Then you go and see the diversity of fish that are gathered to swim around in nature-made aquarium next to the big rock. Finally you climb on the top and just sit there contemplating and observing the beauty of the white-foamed water that splashes against the rock revealing the crabs that hurry back and fro. Your vision is filled with the splendor of the most exquisite beach, lined up with coconut trees and caressed by the waves that change their color from deep blue to green to white as they proceed.

Nature trail in Belihuloya: Facilitating treasure hunts for the clients was just a minor part of being in Belihuloya. That place became so familiar so quickly. You would know every rock, stream, tree and paddy field in the vicinity. Still every time it was a bit different. The water levels had changed revealing things that you had not noticed before or disclosing pathways that you thought you could be using. In my mind´s eye I remember every small detail along the seven-kilometer trail. I can still feel the mud on my feet, the water on my face, and the distinct odour of the nature. I can still see the beauty of the 12-foot waterfall and I can still remember the joys of the river bath – the ultimate treasure at the end of the rainbow.

What were my worst experiences?

Bureaucracy: Dealing with government agencies in this country is a major turn off. Whether it´s department of immigration, post-office or police station there should be a huge warning sign AVOID for all the westerners – well maybe not Germans – who have got used things going smoothly. Honestly, these guys are just killing time in those offices, not actually working. The fear of the man keeps them fixed with their rigid rules, guidelines, stamping and checking processes that slow things down considerably.

Sweaty nights: Waking up in the middle of the night crying and wondering why are you sobbing just to realize it´s because of the smoke from the mosquitoe coil pervading your eyelids is not a pleasant experience. Adding to that, the extreme heat caused by the malfunctioning fan could well make it to the list of worst experiences. And of course all this happened in that lovely house in Kirulapone, without a real bed but just a mattress on the floor!

What will I enjoy about being back home?

Friends: My best friends are there. I will find time to spend time with them and catch up the lost time together, regardless of whatever urgencies the life might pose.

Sauna: Integral part of my upbringing, culture and my lifestyle has been missing for so long. I want to go to sauna at least once a week from now on.

Comfort of living: I will now appreciate more the great living standards that we have. Being home is at least as good as going to movies or dining out.

Ease of traveling: Finnish trains and buses are light years ahead of these cramped public transportation methods and slowly proceeding traffic.

Nature: Jotting down the best sides of Sri Lanka made me realize how much I appreciate being in the nature. I will go out of my way to explore the Finnish nature more than this far and stop taking it for granted.

Drinking tap water: We have the best water in the world – better than any bottled water - and we use it for washing our cars and watering our plants! I will do my best to preserve that scarce resource and enjoy every drop of it.

What willl I not be enjoying about being back home?

Cost of living: I hope I won´t be converting all prices into rupees because then everything will appear very costly. I have to start getting revenues from my business pretty soon in order to afford living in Finland.

Cold and dark: I don´t know how my system will react to the immense switch in temperature and humidity that I have to deal with going back home. It might be very depressing if I´m not able to enjoy the four seasons anymore.

What would you like to keep having/doing at home?

Sports: Going to gym and playing badminton became nearly a routine for me towards the latter part of my time in Sri Lanka. I need to build a routine of these to activities also back home. For that I need to have some company because playing badminton is pretty difficult just by yourself and I also need someone to kick my butt to the gym regularly.

Time freedom: Though the life rhythm in Finland is more hectic and people respect time more than in Sri Lanka, I will try to get the best of both worlds. I will avoid saying “I´m busy” because that´s the only way to become busy.

International lifestyle: For the past three years or so I´ve mainly used English as my first language and the diversity of people surrounding me has been stunning. If I´d discontinue this kind of lifestyle it would be odd.

How is organizational culture different in my home country from Sri Lanka?

Everything is much more planned, punctual and organized. I should not let it inhibit my ability to explore and innovate unplanned ideas every day. If I can combine these two ways of work it will be a true strength.

What are my expectations and ideas about the return situation?

I don´t expect it to be too easy. I guess I need to take the same approach as when coming here: take the whole package with positive and negative sides and withold judgement. I don´t expect anything. I can not. If I do I will be let down, disappointed, by my home culture.

What has changed in me, my world’s perception, and values?

Having gone through this experience I don´t take anything for granted anymore. I forbid myself of seeing just one side of the coin, of judging that there´s only one way of doing things, living, making decisions and co-existing with the rest of the world. Maybe it is increased tolerance or maybe it is that I´m now more ready to see and explore other ways of leading one´s life.

As for the values the family has become much more important. I know see and admit how grueling it must have been for my parents to try and raise me. I see how much my siblings have invested in helping me. I see the family as a safety net one can always fall back on. They don´t judge you. No matter what they say or do, deep within, it´s unconditional love. I´ll do my utmost for enriching their lives as they have done for me. And all they ask is that I be with them. Doable.

What has changed in my family and friends?

My mom, dad, sister and brother are all seemingly enjoying their lives. Sometimes it seems that they are even getting along with each other better than before. I hope we could become a tight-knit family with open communication and a lot of interaction. If I can be an agent of positive change in that I´m willing to see through what it takes to make it happen.

My girlfriend remains an enigma with increased independency and a curious human being seeking for more international adventures. Though it will be painful to let go again, after this common experience I know our relationship is strong enough to take whatever hits that might lurk along the way.

Many of my friends are becoming more and more stable, getting married and raising children. I fear that I will soon have nothing in common with them, or that we don´t find time to nourish the friendship. Then again, my best friends are still in their adventurous phase of life with high ambitions and future dreams. I feel that time away from them has connected me with them on even deeper level than before. That is genuine friendship worth living for.

What are the difficulties I may face? How will I overcome them?

Being an outsider: Living in a community of people who are going through the same experience for the past one and half years will no longer be there. I will be totally alone with my new perspectives if I don´t find people to share it with. Luckily I have a few very close friends who have gone through that hell already.

Work-life balance: Becoming an entrepreneur and practically starting out with nothing is a scary thought that will push me to work real hard to become successful. Then again, it is not going to be a success if I lose my mind in the process or seriously harm my closest relationships. Finding time for myself, for my business and for my closest people is going to be a balancing act.

How can I best present my experience back home?

I will take part in the re-integration seminar (Success 2008) to hear the stories of other returnees and discuss the similarities in our experiences. For our “old gang” there will be a special “homecoming party”. For my other friends and family I share what they want, without pushing them too much Sri Lanka this and that. As per my previous experience people don´t seem to care where I have been or what has happened. What they do care – and that is more important – is that I´m back with them. Still, I would like to share this extraordinary experience with others. If you are reading this it means I´ve managed to do it.

If this really was a book, what genre would it be?

Romance-action-thriller-tragicomedy.

Does passion make you scared?

2008-01-07T14:27:00.000+02:00

I'm shit-scared of starting up as an entrepreneur, to the extent that I'm unable to get a good night's sleep. For a while I didn't know why... Let's face the facts:

I've pretty much lost the interest in money: That word is nothing more than a necessary evil for me. Of course you got to make money if you're in business, but losing money is a no big deal for me.
I'm not scared of failure: Damn, I'm actually looking forward to it! I know it can be teeth-grinding misery for a while, but the best things in my life have happened after failure.

So, what am I so scared of then? Shouldn't it be smooth-sailing from here onwards? Finally going on my own and fulfilling one small part of my life dreams...

I just realized that my fear might be coming from the fact that I'm still not certain if leadership or helping others are really my biggest life passions. Can it be that I'm thinking "what if I could be doing something even more exciting?" that is causing me the gray hair?

Just recently I clarified that it's actually generating ideas that I'm truly deeply madly passionate about. I love starting things, coming up with unique - even crazy - ideas that might work. Should I already go and explore to make a business out of that, or should I just wait and concentrate on something that can bring the bread in my table? Hmph!

So many questions without answers.

Ending on a less philosophical - even vain - notion... I cut my hair yesterday. I don't know what was the final trigger in that - was it the people nagging for the past few years that I should do so, or was it just the fact that my hair looked like a bird nest every morning? Don't know. But now I feel incomplete. People say I look younger (which might not be a good thing in business where all the rest are competing with their years of experience and amount of gray hair). People say "It's not Tomi". That's exactly how I feel like. They cut off part of me... was it really me who made that decision?

Appendix: Exercises and executive summary

2007-12-17T06:22:00.000+02:00

I used the metaphor of a book for my stay in Sri Lanka. Now that we are approaching the end of the book (flying back home Feb 18!) it has become evident that the theoretical content of the book has come to an end: All major things that were supposed to be done here have been done. Now it's time for the exercises and executive summary.

Exercises...

My objective for the stay here was four-fold: "To become mentally, physically and spiritually balanced entrepreneur." Mentally I have grown to understand who I am, how I think, what are my flaws and how to live with them. Mental balance: check! Spiritually, I've come to respect people with different belief systems and realized my one is as good as theirs though mine doesn't involve a god as such. Spiritual balance: check! Physically, now that's still a work in progress.

For the past few months I've played badminton a lot. I love that game. I used to play it before and I'm happy I got back to it. If you're playing singles it's all about power, stamina and over-witting your opponent. Not to mention breaking the mental barriers of being afraid to win people who are supposedly better than you. Playing doubles is a different game altogether: You need chemistry with your pair to move around the field and cover the empty spots while always thinking 2-3 moves ahead. Maybe not as advanced tactics as in chess but still something. Whatever game you play it's still sports, it makes you sweat and it's good for you, right? And it's so much fun!

So, what's news? I've always loved playing games. I've always been very competitive. I always enjoyed winning. Surprisingly, I also started enjoying going to gym. Now that is a biggie for me.

Sounds great, no? Dude is going to the gym regularly and playing badminton. Warning, warning, warning! Maintaining this life style can be another challenge altogether. Going to different environment, with different set of friends, with different price structure, with different climate and with different distances (now we have just 400m for the sports complex!) poses a challenge that I need to be prepared for. Finding excuses for slipping back to the old ways is very easy for me since "discipline" ain't in my dictionary. But at least I'm aware of that fact.

Executive summary...

Summarizing the competence generated here can be a tougher job than getting the experience itself. I'm talking about the entrepreneurship part now! Lately I've done a lot of translations of our Unleash Talent stuff so it could be used in Finland at least as effectively as it has worked here. Now translating is not that easy as it sounds: You're not just taking a word and changing it to another language but you got to take into account how it sounds, how people will understand it and what kind of cultural notions there might be. It is a long, detail-oriented, even monotonous process but every time I'm thinking of "how to communicate this in Finnish" helps me to visualize my near future; a future where I can't depend on anyone else for financial stability anymore; a future full of possibilities; a future packed with failures and a few successes; a future that I'm going to create. Damn excited!

Finally...

2007-12-04T11:02:00.002+02:00

...I can publish my posts again! I was waiting and waiting Azri to solve the issue with the server but seemingly the issue was that they don't host any AIESEC-related stuff anymore. Boring! Anywho, now the blog continues living and breathing in astikainen.blogspot.com.

As of late so many things have happened. Where to start... Well, work-wise things are pretty much routine nowadays. Though we got a great addition to our team, Sifaan! He was the first Sri Lankan I ever met (back in 2004 in Estonia) and his words initiated my interest towards this country back then. Goes around, comes around...

Living in the Dream House has been a bliss. I mean, who could complain of air conditioned room, own bathroom, all household gadgets (except TV that I don't miss), nice flat mates and hot water. It's really like a dream here. The dream became complete when Paula arrived about a month ago. Soon our roads depart again when she heads for new challenges in Prague with Finnpro. But at least till February we can enjoy each others' company.

Speaking of February, for a long while I was mourning that the date is becoming closer when I have to pack my bags and go. Now, however, that I booked my flight (going back 18 Feb) I've started longing for home more and more. I can't wait to see all my friends up north. Meanwhile, I've consciously or unconsciously started paying more and more attention to even small shortcomings of this country to level the emotions that will inevitably surface as I step into the Katunayake airport premises.

One of the good reasons (read: excuses) to go was the recent bomb blast that killed 19 civilians. Just before that the government had managed to pull of a major increase in the defense budget. The 20% increase would instill 160.000.000.000 Rs for the sole purpose of killing. Hooray!

When I heard about the bomb blast my first thought was "Shit, there's going to be a lot of traffic." as I was coming back from a training program and wanted to reach home as quickly as possible. My second thought was "Why is it that I don't care anymore? Why this slaughter has become so common place?". Who knows...

Off the topic... Lately different people have tried to "convert" me (or at least convince) behind different religions from Islam to some new-age Christianity. I was wondering if it really is some sort of a God who's trying to contact me through these people and say that I should change my ways, but then I realized it's just that maybe I'm more receptive for that kind of people right now. After all, my goals for my time in Sri Lanka revolved around the theme of becoming "physically, mentally and spiritually balanced entrepreneur".

Mentally I've learned a lot. I've learned how not to stress about small things or lack there of. I've learned to appreciate the simplicity and simple pleasures in life. I've learned how to smile more. I've this and that...

Physically, I've started going to the gym (which I thought I'd never do!) and I'm actually enjoying it. I also went back to my old liking, badminton. Kilos are not dropping but some of the fat is being replaced by muscle. Most imp0rtantly, I've proved myself wrong regarding three "gym myths": 1) People who go to gym are not complete self-righteous assholes (though some of them are), 2) I don't hate the gym and 3) I don't completely suck in it.

Spiritually... yet to see. At least I've learned to respect religious people more though not being religious myself. Here four major religions are living in complete harmony and even an atheist like me don't have to feel insecure or worthless.

Period.

The Rise and Fall of Roman Empire

2007-10-09T11:49:00.000+03:00

I haven't been writing in a while... for a reason. Like you know, we used to live in a house called Rome. We were referred to as Romans and we even had Caesar (a two-meter water monitor guarding our property). But even Caesar was not enough for us to be saved of the cunning plans of thieves and burglars who continuously violated our privacy. The last time (a few weeks ago) someone came in during the day through our bathroom window and stole stuff worth 160.000 rupees.

Moreover we had had our share of insects and dirt, of Uguduwas peeing through the ceiling, and of mosquitoes sucking our blood. Finally, the patience of our landlord came to an end. After all he had been tolerating the multicultural community of young AIESECers for nearly five years. Since the house wasn't exactly sound-proof (or even air-tight) he got enough of us. The time had come to let the Roman Empire fall.

We started dreaming of nice clean house with a bit more luxury, something that one could describe as normal living conditions. All of us started working hard to find the place of our dreams. It seemed that all of the places we checked were either too far, too ugly or just otherwise unsuitable for our requirements.

Then we came across a newly built (2003) flat just a few hundred meters from our office. As soon as we saw the place, it felt like home. The only obstacles were a) it was a bit expensive and we were expected to pay one year's rent in advance and b) the landlord was scared of having six people in an apartment where there has previously been maximum of two people. He thought we would completely wreck the place.

It seemed hopeless for a while, but finally we managed to negotiate less financially painful terms with Kumara (now we call our landlord by name!). We also agreed to change our ways and make sure that generations after us will get to enjoy a bit of luxury during their stay in Sri Lanka. So, we got the place!

We started calling it The Dream House. It’s more than we could ever expect: fully-furnished, clean tiled placed with hot water and great kitchen equipment. We even have a washing machine! To build an enjoyable culture within the house that would serve also the needs of newcomers, we decided to come up with The Dream House Values. We didn't want to make rules as such but values seemed like a proper thing to have. Here they are... We value CLEAN:

Civilized relaxation
Living tomorrow
Enjoying comfort
All-for-one attitude
Nurturing diversity

We even made a descriptor for the house: "The multicultural accommodation for posh interns to feel like home". That summarizes what it is and why it is. Our quality of life has skyrocketed lately. Within just a week we have had a filthy expensive (posh!) housewarming party, we have joined the gym and started playing badminton on a next-door sports complex, we are cooking together and even planning a healthier diet. Somehow everything just changed when we got out of the dirt-filled Rome. Now we are living our dream, especially when Paula finally joins the Dream Team in 30 October... It's just sad to know that in four and half months we have to leave already...

Mandy - The German

2007-09-20T13:45:00.000+03:00

“Thank god for Germans!” is a sentence I’ve said a few times in situations where having German punctuality, planning ability and organized manner really saved the day and made things so much easier. Still, for Mandy I might have never said it.

She has had to bear with my stupid culturally insensitive – no… culturally unacceptable – jokes maybe more than anyone else. But I hope that at the end of the day she understands I really respect her as who she is: a great friend with a very unique personality. What I admire most in Mandy is that she never hides her feelings: If she’s pissed off she let’s others understand it. If she’s happy she shares her joy with everyone. If she needs things to get done, she damn sure makes things happen. If she’s sad she cries. If she’s hurt, she talks.

With Mandy you don’t have to put on any kind of act but just be yourself. Together we have acted foolishly, graved for cheese & salami, broken a couple of Gizmos, partied the whole night, savored Salmiakki in both liquid and solid forms, and of course – it’s all coming back to me – started the Pink Panther fan club!

Mandy also has a true passion to her work: She doesn’t speak about work much but she acts more than she speaks. It’s not uncommon for her to work home till late night, have breakfast with a laptop and after that spend a long day at the office, coming back home only eight or nine in the evening. But this doesn’t mean she would be a workaholic. No, she can also let her hair down and enjoy life.

Mandy, you might not always the easiest person to deal with. But you are you! Don’t ever change. Stay true!

Your klingelden frosch.

Shek - Roomie

2007-09-13T08:22:00.000+03:00

Having Shek as a roommate was a gift. He was the kind of guy who you'd instantly feel comfortable with. He was the person who was the first one to ask if I'd like to go on a weekend trip in Sigiriya when I had just arrived and didn't feel as part of the community yet. He was the kind of guy who I could share anything and everything with from deep feelings to random thoughts. I managed to shock him more than once with my gross stories and behavior but no matter how disgusting I was he stayed as my friend. I really appreciate the fact that he'd directly tell to my face whenever I was an ass, and believe me it was more often than once.

What I most admire of him is his determination, guts and ambition. He is much more mature than many of his age. He has dreams that he is not afraid to go after. He came to Sri Lanka to work in advertising, though he had never been exposed to the field before. In actuality, due to others' expectations he did a degree in engineering in India. Once roads and transportation didn't really do the trick he ventured out to advertising where he could better use his creativity, ideas and high working morale. It was so interesting to listen to his stories of successes and failures at work because whatever the story was it was always told with unquestionable over-riding passion.

One day we will both be entrepreneurs and he's just the kind of business partner anyone would love to have. Hopefully our paths cross again and we can make miracles happen together. And if that happens I promise not to leave used cotton buds in your room anymore. Thanks mate for the added value you brought to my life! I miss our early morning tuk-tuk rides.

Katty – Big sister

2007-09-03T14:15:00.000+03:00

When I started writing this I had a weird feeling that I’ve already done it. But no, I haven’t posted on Katty yet. Maybe the feeling came from the fact that I’ve already mentioned her so many times before or because I still think of her so often, though she’s already back in Croatia. She was – no she is – like a big sister for me, though there’s no age difference. In the beginning when I had the mindset that Sri Lanka can be a dangerous place I was shit-scared of even fire-crackers, not to mention thunder that made me shiver alone in my room. I’d go to Katty and she’d comfort me, being an ex-Yugoslavian and knowing exactly what sounds of war are like. First connecting factor with Katty was her extensive AIESEC experience. It didn’t take long for us to realize that we share many common acquaintances and one very good friend (one particular Macedonian called Petak). With Petak I had already felt brotherhood and thought maybe there’s a bloodline in my family that originates from Balkans. With Katty that feeling just strengthened.

We would share our frustrations, our moments of happiness, our dreams and hopes. There was nothing we couldn’t talk about. That led to a number of situations where we were the only ones still up when all the rest had already gone to bed. In a way, she was also my shrink: being interested in psychology and having genuine willingness to listen she’d guide me through the darkest valleys of my time in Sri Lanka.

Previously I had one brother and one sister that have always been there for me and that I love so much. Now I have one more sister. Thanks Katty for being there for me! I’ll keep my promise and we’ll meet again.

Wily - The Sinha Raja

2007-08-21T09:23:00.000+03:00

Wily wasn’t living in Rome but his social nature made him a real Roman. He was spending more time in Rome than in P-house where he officially stayed.

We were trying to get Wily working for Unleash Talent Inc but it was not because of our company that he came to Sri Lanka. Adventure Asia got him first. As soon as I saw his CV I was impressed. And it was not just empty words on paper: Wily is one of the most uniquely intellectual people I’ve ever met. His strong side was cultural integration. Though he was in Sri Lanka only for three months he learned more of the language, culture and local people than maybe any of us. He quickly made friends with the locals and his smile charmed pretty much everyone around him.

Not only was he the joke-machine for any occasion, he was an excellent cook. More than once he treated us with his Indonesian delicacies. As a matter of fact I wouldn’t mind fulfilling one of my dreams some time in the distant future with him: opening a common restaurant. That brings up another one of his several good qualities: Though only in his late 20s he’s already started, failed and succeeded with many of his own companies. One day, he’s going to make it big! Wily, you are going to be a beautiful entrepreneur!

Changing ways

2007-08-20T13:59:00.001+03:00

For a person brought up in western society the Sri Lankan Sunday paper can be quite a shock to read. There you have the classified adds as in any other country but apart from the vehicles, apartments and home electronics the most space is used by potential brides and grooms (or more often their parents) who are looking for a partner. I'm quite fine with that now that I've been exposed to the Sri Lankan cultural oddities for more than a year, but today I was shocked. I saw the following add:

"Relationships are selfish and self-centered that’s my experience; Therefore I don’t believe in long lasting marriages and relationships. Explore each other’s personalities will give us a glimpse of a new life. This way of looking at life is hard. Marriage will be an endresult but if only we both feel it’s workable. I am in my late 30’s, a Sri Lankan. Lets try to come from our traditional barriers and cultures. Even you are in a marriage, still we can discuss this new approach of life. Lets talk."

What this guy is saying is against the public opinion here, and he clearly acknowledges that fact. Still, at the same time he's using the "traditional way" - classifieds - to get in touch with people who'd share his view. I don't know whether to be impressed, confused or something in between.

Ralph – Our monkey

2007-08-17T07:19:00.000+03:00

Anyone who’s known me before I left to Sri Lanka might not believe that it’s possible to have someone even more “social monkey” like character than me but – oh yes – Ralph exceeds all the stunts I’ve ever done. When with him continuous amusement is guaranteed. He has an innate ability to make humor out of any situation.

But he is much more than a joker. We’d have loads of late night discussions with him about entrepreneurship, future, consulting, Sri Lankan business environment, relationship and what not. I could really connect with him and I was so sad when he left.

He also showed his kind-heartedness by silently organizing a fundraising campaign in the Netherlands and donating the revenue (over 5000 euros) to a Sri Lankan orphanage. He did it out of goodwill and never wanted any credit of it.

It’s good to know there’s such a great friend waiting for me when I go back to Europe. Now I have one more reason to visit Holland, a country where I still haven’t been in. Nijmegen, beware when these two get together again!

Safety of a leader

2007-08-13T12:25:00.000+03:00

I first thought of posting this to our Leadership Blog, but it became so personal that this is a better place for it.

I just heard that the Sri Lankan government officials who are responsible of escorting politicians and other top leaders have been given orders not to stop at any circumstance. I read this from a local car magazine. The editor said he’s seen massive Land Rovers being brought to repair after smashing something heavy on their way, driving at a considerably fast.

Fine, being in general public you should of course know these things. When the police tell you to stop, you stop. But what if there is no police around and you just happen to go on the street with your bicycle, car or whatever it is you’re driving? What if the VIP escort crashes you and just speeds off? Who is responsible? You are. You should have known. You are even expected to bear the costs. They don’t have insurance for something like that. You should have.

Right, so orders are orders. What to do? I’m not blaming the drivers. In the end they are just doing their job. They can’t refuse obeying the orders, otherwise they would be part of the general public avoiding the escorts, without a job.

But how about those highly important people in the vehicle behind them who are being escorted? How do they feel when they see a kid bleeding in the ground that they’ve just ran over? What leaders are so self-righteously important that they can allow something like this to happen? How would you feel being in that car?

Anyhow, physical safety is just one aspect of challenges that contemporary leaders have to deal with. Reputation of a leader, for example, could sometimes use a bodyguard, am I right? And what about mental safety of leaders who are in the spotlight? That extreme pressure can even lead to physical damage. Shouldn’t that be protected somehow?

When I was a teenager, I knew I’d be something big one day. I had ambitions – and still have – that will lead to some amount of public exposure. I thought what would happen if I’m applying for some leadership position later on in my life and the press decides to do a background check? There are more than enough silly pictures of me and there are my writings out there that can be misinterpreted in many ways. Of course all that could be used against me, so why wasn’t I afraid of making it all public?

It’s a choice – a choice to have no fear. It’s also admitting the very fact that I’m just a human being – with all my flaws, errors and imperfect history. That very fact is forgotten by so many people who become leaders. They think they’re above everyone else. They think they can have rights that others don’t have. They think they’re not responsible. What a misconception.

In the meantime, we have a generation of leaders growing up who are so used to whatever Habbo Hotels, Facebooks, IRC galleries, and Blogs that they might not even think how exposed they are to anyone who wants to misuse their conduct in the web.

Even the fact that I've chosen to publicize my contact details in this blog is questionable. I meant them for my friends and acquaintances but in reality any weirdo could pick them up and start harassing me. But that's life of the blue-eyed.

Treat your leaders, team members and peers equally and protect their mental, emotional, physical and spiritual safety. We're all just human beings, with feelings.

PS. There's one more thing that can possibly cause me gray hair with publicity; I just finished the 2nd last version of my book. I don't know if I'm ever willing to publish it, but if you want to read the draft version, you may request it by email.

Sasha – My hug-buddy

2007-08-10T14:10:00.000+03:00

This particular Russian is one of the most peculiar characters I’ve ever had a chance to know. She had a habit of having long conversations with herself, for instance. I’d be smoking on a bench just outside Rome and she’d come out of the house with a weird look on her face. Before I could ask anything she’d say that my presence interrupted a conversation that she was just having (there was no one else around). Seemingly we shared something in common in all that weirdness because we became very good friends.

Once I complained to Sasha how there’s no one around to hug anymore after leaving the “active AIESEC career”. She suggested we would have a daily hug. And we did. It was a nice start for a day, seeing her run from whatever she was attending to just to give me a hug. Now, how many people do you know who would do something like that?

From the very beginning I was wondering why she’s all the time asking from anyone if they wanted something from the shop, if she could make them tea, or without asking taking their dirty dishes away and washing them. That was behavior unheard of for me. Maybe it thought me a bit of a lesson.

I’m glad to say that one day I most likely will work with her in Finland, Russia or maybe in Sri Lanka. Even if I wouldn’t get a pleasure of working with her, I know she will always be my hug-buddy. And we’ll meet again!

I told me so

2007-08-06T13:07:00.000+03:00

When it was Katty’s last evening in Kirulapone before going back home to Croatia, we stayed up having a chat though nearly everyone else had hit the sack already. We discussed about how hard it will be to re-integrate and all the things she will miss. Back here she had arranged pretty much all practicalities when it comes to work and handling all the other nitty-gritties before leaving. There was one thing, though, that was consuming her mind: She had not found a buyer for her Gizmo (a local moped brand). For a while I had secretly hoped that she would ask me to buy it, because it seemed such and easy means to get around in the traffic wilderness of Colombo. I hesitated to suggest a possible purchase however because I know how troublesome it can be to own something, not least something involving technology.

Let’s rewind a bit… There was a time that I used to drive my own car (-89 Suzuki Swift). I liked the car since it allowed freedom and independence to some extent. Nonetheless, there was always something to be fixed and it caused me a lot of grey hair. Even my wallet didn’t like it. So, one fine summer Sunday as we sat next to a bonfire and relaxed on the beach with some friends I realized how much less complicated life would be if I didn’t have the car. In the meantime I had heard my friend talking about buying a car but not having money so I decided to do both of us a favor. I asked if he would like to buy some gasoline from me for 30 Euros. He was perplexed. I explained he would get the container for free. He still didn’t get it. I reached to my pocket and took out the Suzuki key. Next day he was a proud owner of that piece of crap. But hey, it was only 30 E.

So with this experience pounding still at the back of my head I wasn’t that ready to just go and buy some more worries for myself. As a matter of fact it was a bit against my “simple life” credo that I’ve followed for the past few years (i.e. got rid of nearly all my earthly belongings). However since it was again a similar situation where I would help out a friend to get rid of her troubles and possibly gain something myself in the deal I agreed to get the damn thing of her hands. She was happy.

Then Katty left and there I was staring at the half-malfunctioning means of transport. I was happy too. Some time passed as Gizmo was taken to be serviced. When it came back the only thing missing was some small piece from the silencer. I think I referred to this already in some previous posting. Anyways, I was dumb enough to take it for a ride and the whole silencer dropped somewhere on the street. So, after some more investments I was set to go. I quickly realized that it is the quickest and cheapest (excluding public bus) means of transport in the city. I loved it.

After just a few days of cruising around I hit a curb trying to avoid getting hit by a bus and the left pedal eventually fell of. Now, I might have mentioned how Sri Lankans tend to find quick-fixes instead of long-term solutions. In that sense (also) I’ve become quite Sri Lankan. I took some super glue and tried to glue the pedal back on. Of course it didn’t last for too long so I just pocketed the pedal and tried to start it up by using only the right-side pedal. After some sweating it worked. Sometimes, though, I have to install the other pedal temporarily and remove it after it starts. For a few weeks now I’ve been carrying the loose pedal in my pocket or back pack just in case I need it (sometimes I do).

Ok, fine, good enough for me. But then another blunder occurred. One day I was leaving from the office and the rear tire didn’t have any air. I drove the Gizmo to the nearest place where they sell (nope, it’s not free here) air and filled the tire. Since it didn’t seem to deflate I didn’t bother getting the tire patched or replaced. That was about a week ago.

This morning the same thing happened again. No air! Duh! So, I pushed the bike to a tire shop and asked them to patch it finally. I had some errands to run anyways so I could easily wait for half an hour and change the 300 rupees they were asking for her. So, after about 50 minutes (Sri Lankan half an hour) and 350 rupees later I got my baby back and started off for work (being terribly late already). After about 500 meters I heard a loud scratching noise and the rear tire locked. I stopped just to see that the chain had fallen off. Of course I didn’t have more tools than a plain screwdriver with me so I fought with it for a good 30 minutes and headed back towards the tire shop. No matter how carefully I tried to drive the chain fell off again. I went through a few moments of desperation, thought of leaving it there, and just running back home to sleep (‘cos by now I was about 300 meters from our house… good progress, no?).

I reminded myself of patience being a virtue, took the screwdriver, put the chain back on and continued for another 40 meters. Again! Had enough, took the bike and shoved it into a tuk-tuk, got myself squeezed between the trishaw seat and the bike, told the machang (dude) to drive back to the tire shop, landed there, hissed something at the fellow who couldn’t understand why I’m bringing the bike back in a friggin’ three-wheeler and, after some time of trying to calm down, explained the situation to him. The tuk-tuk driver was getting raring to go and demanded to have his money. I asked the tire shop people to pay the poor fellow but they refused saying it’s none of their problem. I articulated the facts in a very Tomi-like non-sophisticated way and managed to piss off the owner of the shop. End result? They paid him and as of now they are re-fixing the bike for free. I just hope they don’t fix a Gizmo-bomb to it and that I get it back still today.

The learning point? Who knows…

Rasmus - The "OK" man

2007-07-24T10:42:00.000+03:00

Rasmus Vido was a controversial character. For anyone who didn’t know him he appeared as the most silent person in the group. But anyone who really knew him knew also that he’s an absolute party animal and the soul of Rome.

He wasn’t exactly a party starter, but he did have an fascinating way of life: he was the “ok” man. Whatever you’d suggest to him, he would do it. Even if he was still working in the evening and you asked him for a beer he would be there in less than ten minutes. That led to interesting situations where Rasmus was hanging, climbing, crossing, and whatevering the most imaginable places. He would climb a pole and drop himself in the middle of a party. He would climb a tuk-tuk roof. He would do the craziest things, while exceeding expectations at work and taking care of his physical, mental and spiritual shape.

I used to do so much with him. He kept me active. We’d go and play football. We’d go and meditate with middle aged Sri Lankan women. We’d chase cars and tuk-tuks that wouldn’t take a hitch hiker early in the morning.

Rasmus left Sri Lanka in December and all of us climbed the roof of Rome just to commemorate all the good things he brought to us. Now he’s a consultant in Danish Post and taking steps to become a real adult. Rasmus, never lose your inner child! Hosch!

365

2007-07-19T12:01:00.000+03:00

This is the 365^th day of my internship in Sri Lanka (and #100 posting). It doesn’t differ much from the other days on the outset but it bears symbolical meaning for me. In the beginning I was trying to survive day by day, getting used to the new environment. I was counting days, weeks and months that I had done. I remember how insurmountable the time ahead felt when I had completed one month. 17/18 to go I thought.

Now I’m no longer afraid of the time ahead of my stay; I’m more ahead of the time ahead after the internship. Or not maybe afraid, but I wonder if I’m ever going to see the world as it was, if I’m at all able to adjust to the hasty European life-style, even if I have anymore what it takes to survive a Finnish winter. Not to mention the challenges ahead in the professional life. At the same time I feel a bit sad. This is my home now and after the last 1/3 I have to leave home behind. But I know I will come back sooner than later.

I was thinking how I could best amplify the importance of this posting; whether I should be talking about the 10 things I hate/love about Sri Lanka or something else that would sum up the experience so far. But it all feels so shallow. Because in the end it’s not the country as such that makes your experience complete. It’s the people around you. I realized I haven’t given enough emphasis on the people who have been there for me every day; my fellow interns, the citizens of Rome.

Jara

I start the series of introductions with Jaroslav Pekachek, or Jara, who was working at the same office with me in the beginning. He was the one who showed me around and made it so much easier to face all the peculiarities of the new culture. He was the one who offered to be my roommate when I learned to hate my lonely heat-hell (the first room assigned to me).

I admired, and still do, his adventurous approach on life. Apart from his extreme hobbies like climbing, snowboarding and mountain biking he genuinely lives for adventure. He has managed to combine his love of adventure with his tendency to help others in the project in

India

that I’ve already mentioned a couple of times.

But more important is what he is, not what he does. I never saw him angry, hardly ever even a least bit anxious. He always carried a smile on his face and made himself easy to cope with. His laid-back attitude was contagious. In his company you could just relax and enjoy. When offered a drink he wouldn’t spit in the bottle; he lived every day as it came by. If he felt like partying to 4 AM and climbing roofs he did it with genuine commitment whilst holding himself accountable to wake up at six in the morning for work.

So that this wouldn’t sound like obituary I must thank him once more for his hospitality in his home country Czech Republic. We had such a nice time together on my visit there. And yes, he’s still alive – more than ever! Thank you Jara for being such a great friend!

#99 - The end of chapter three

2007-07-13T12:36:00.000+03:00

This is my 99th blog posting. After being three months in Sri Lanka I wrote a posting "End of chapter two". Now it's a good point to reflect back on how life has been during the past nine months and close the third chapter (that turned out to be a bit longer than the previous ones)

Finns. As I found the other Finns in Colombo my life changed a bit. I saw how they are living in much more luxurious way, though not that far away from my semi-jungle dwelling. I saw how they are sticking to their own language while I'm spicing up my English with normal Sinhalese expressions. I realized they can afford AC while I'm quick-fixing my fan. I envied a bit their living conditions while I had to put up with the smell in my room where I still felt like home. I heard them planning their summer vacation in Finland whilst I thought I'm stuck here for the whole 18 months.
That triggered a change in my thinking. I realized I can also go back home for a while; and I did. I realized I can also lead a posh life every now and then; and I did. But most importantly, I realized I'm just fine with a simple life; I don't need all that glitter and comfort. All I need is people who I care about around me.

Growth & doubt. Hearing the positive feedback from our clients and seeing how hard it is to find "someone like me" to work at Unleash Talent, I understood how much I've grown professionally. I now understand my value in what I do, in what I'm passionate about. In case someone would want to employ me, they would have to pay a lot... and I'd still refuse. Of course I could go and work for someone else and collect money to have more stable basis to start my own business, but why would I postpone? The decision to become an entrepreneur is now so clear. That is what I want to do, yes, but I've also realized it's something I'm capable of. We have an excellent product and I'm ready to take up the challenge. Still, I doubt at times but mainly because of some practicalities.

Cross-cultural management. However, everything has not been that easy. The hardest part so far has been getting things done through others in a culture where a promise don't mean a shit. I hate pushing people all the time and reminding them of what needs to be done. Back home if you promise to do something, you do it. Here, you can choose not to. I have been really poor in "managing the third parties" outside our company. It seems that I'm powerless. I feel weak. I don't know how to get them to deliver. So many times I've heard people saying "I'll do it tomorrow", knowing it means that it might not ever happen but still hoping that something happens. So many times I've felt relieved that someone has said "yes", though it just meant "maybe" or "definitely not" and the person didn't want to hurt my feelings by telling the truth. The skill of cross-cultural management is yet to be developed. Oh boy, it's so different than in the university case studies...

Love confusion. I have been confused if my relationship is going to hold. I have been wondering if it's really worth waiting a common life somewhere in the future that might not ever actualize. I have been mulling over this same thing so many times just to go back to the original reasoning: "In case our relationship lasts over this period of time, it lasts everything". That has helped me always. Lately I've come to realize how much I actually love my significant other, and how much she misses me. No matter how independent lives we lead we belong together. It might be possible that we get to be together sooner than expected...

Book. Though lately I've been lazy finalizing the book I've been writing, it still is one of the major achievements during my time here. Somehow it just came together: a page after page the story just appeared on the paper (or screen actually). Maybe one day someone wants to publish that and maybe someone gets inspired or gets something out of it. The key point, however, is that I have proven myself that I have the discipline and capacity to write a full novel and not just random scribblings here and there.

How am I?

2007-07-05T12:08:00.000+03:00

I don't honestly know how I am. I'm in a bit of stagnated stage, but I kind of like since it still happens in a different environment. I don't know why I feel so numb. Maybe it's the routine that has developed. Now if someone asks how is life I usually answer "same old, same old" because that's exactly how I feel. I need some new excitement. I tried to get that by applying to AIESEC International Congress 2007 Facilitators' Team, but I wasn't selected. So, no three-weeks-in-Istanbul for me. I'm not bored... I'm just lazy. Maybe I've unconsciously shuffled my values and prioritized "Enjoying the moment" value over "Making a difference" at least for a while.

Though there has not been any major changes in my personal life, some changes are happening now a bit in Rome (our house). Katty's departure two weeks ago left a big hole in my social (drinking) life and as my beloved roomie Shek left I felt completely alone for a while. But that while was about half an hour because I instantly got a new room mate, Niall from UK. On Monday another intern Gaya from the Netherlands arrived. They are both working in Life in Red HIV project though only for two and half months.

I realized I get energy of them; seeing their enthusiasm and teaching them all the tricks of how to go about in the Sri Lankan environment. They've already been scared to death by Cesar, been unable to plug in anything to the electricity socket because they didn't know the pen trick, and lots of other incidents. Thanks guys for filling my social void.

The Leadership Blog

2007-07-05T08:58:00.000+03:00

Hola! We just started our company blog and it would be nice to get all people who are interested in leadership issues to check it out. Please comment on the blog or send your suggestions directly to me. The idea is that we post a new topic every Monday and then we'll have a conversation around it for one week (that calls for your contribution!). Anyways, just go to http://unleashtalent.blogspot.com/ and tell us what you think.

Finnishing my life

2007-06-28T07:56:00.000+03:00

On Monday evening I got a very unexpected but a pleasant surprise: A Serbian friend of mine invited us to Hilton to swim, for free! And there was a sauna!!! A proper sauna, with a proper stove. It was hot and it was allowed to throw water on the stove! It was such a good experience. For those completely unaware of Finnish culture, sauna is a cornerstone of it. For our whole lives we go to sauna at least once a week and we start that tradition on a very early age (six months or so). You can't believe how much a Finn misses sauna when being abroad, even in a hot and humid country like Sri Lanka. This was my second time in sauna in Sri Lanka. I'm still hyped up about it.

And yesterday the quality of my life jumped up a leapfrog. We got a coffee-maker! There was a Finnish guy who was leaving back to Finland and wanted to get rid of all his stuff. So I went there and picked up two coffee makers and a box full of groceries. Nice!

At the same time my friends keep sending me salmiakki, making me feel like home. At this time of the year I really miss the 24/7 sunlight. I guess all these factors defend the fact that while being far away from home, I'm trying to "Finnish" my life.

That's a stupid joke of mine that I use here a lot. Every time in a restaurant when the waiter asks "Are you finished?" it sounds like "Are you Finnish?". My response to that is always: "How did you know?" or "Are you Sri Lankan?". Boy, it makes them confused...

PS: I'm terribly sorry for the picture. It's just so Finnish. :)

The latest...

2007-06-22T11:05:00.000+03:00

Last weekend we finally dared to go to East of Sri Lanka. We went to Arugam Bay that was said to be the greatest beach on the island.

Traveling to Pothuwili, the village next to the beach, took more than ten hours. Believe me, ten hours in a public Sri Lankan bus is just sick! I got a terrible headache and my ass was so numb. I had a bump in my forehead even!

Once we reached our destination I couldn't even dream of partying. Anyways, we found a nice place owned by a guy called Mambo. He also owns a place in Hikkaduwa. Luckily he didn't remember me... (That's another story) He had a very sweet Doberman called Kai (means "maybe" in Finnish). One day I will have a dog, no matter how allergic I would be!

Saturday was a bit boring even. There was no one at the beach. The whole village accommodated maybe 10 tourists apart from us. It was sad to see how the number one happening place of Sri Lanka had turned into a drowsy fishing village.

We went for a dinner in another place. I was shocked when a blonde girl came to take orders. When she went away I couldn't help whispering "She's so white!". Then we learned that she's from Sweden so I couldn't help whispering "She's so Swedish!". It was weird enough already but then I realized that in the next table there was a Finnish girl. So I went and introduced myself and it turned out that the Swedish girl also had Finnish roots. Confusing.

Finally we ended up hitch-hiking to a party in Pothuwili Point (a remote place somewhere in the middle of nowhere). Surprisingly, it was packed! And it was packed with white people. I was shocked again. I'm not used to seeing so many white people. I think I'm becoming a racist.

Anywho, the place wasn't really a place at all. It was just a terrace of some house were people flocked and mingled. I was just standing there and minding my own beer. I was talking with an Israeli guy and when he found out my nationality he called for a small guy who emerged from somewhere in the bushes. Another Finn! But this guy was more of a Finn that any Finns altogether I've met here before. He just stood there and stared, saying nothing. I said hello in Finnish (terve). He said the same and then just disappeared. "Wow! That was very Finnish of him." I thought.

Coming back from Arugam Bay wasn't that easy. We took a trishaw to Pothuwili and heard that the next bus goes in one hour. So, we had a good lunch and waited for the bus. Then we heard that there is no bus and we should wait another 1.5 hours. We didn't appreciate that idea too much so we took action. We started walking away from the village and soon we came to a police checkpoint. There was a big yellow lorry parked next to it. We learned that it's going to Monaragala (or whatever the place was called), just our way.

We waited for about half an hour that the guy got his permission to proceed. He was happy to drive us so we climbed to the back of the lorry and started our ride. It was amazing, the best part of our trip! You know, it's beautiful down there so we were just basically checking the views and enjoying the wind swooshing by. People on the road were stunned to see white people on a lorry. We made them very happy.

From that gala place we took a public bus again but it was a bit more comfortable so I could sleep some time here and there. This time I didn't get my phone stolen, but I did break my video camera. Splendid. So only a few still pictures and memories remain. But those are good memories. I'll upload the pictures soon too.

And no, we didn't meet any Tamil Tigers or any other vicious predators.

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Off the topic, life here has become so safe and worry-less that I decided to live on the edge: I bought a half-broken moped. :) That might get me killed in no time.

Phone stolen (again)

2007-06-05T18:44:00.000+03:00

Hey guys! Just wanted to inform that my phone was stolen again. At first I was of course a bit disappointed, having to see all the trouble of hunting down the numbers again, but it was good timing. Why? Well, my lovely boss decided to give me a company SIM card. So, now my new number is (+94) 777-RUKMAL. Funny, no? It's active already but I still have to buy a new phone so it might take a while. Can you please send your number to my email tomi[at]unleashtalent.com if you wish to be in touch again. Not that I'm that active on email front either... We just moved to a new office and we're still waiting to get an internet connection there.

Yours,

Technologically limited Tomi

If "the war" was a strategy game

2007-05-28T13:39:00.000+03:00

Seeing, hearing and living amidst this whole "war" situation is somehow absurd. It's a given fact that it exists, but no one really cares about it. Sometimes it gets to the coffee talks of people if something blasts near or in Colombo. But that's it. In its absurdity I wouldn't even call it a war, but since I don't have a better expression for it, let it be "war" (in parenthesis).

Imagine this "war" was a computer strategy game. The player could choose in the beginning whether to fight with the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

In case you chose GoSL your mission would be something like this: "Destroy terrorists and maximize the generated profit while assuring the international community Sri Lanka is a great place to invest in and our cricket team is the best."

If you decided to go for LTTE your mission could state: "Destroy government forces and maximize the revenue from the diaspora while assuring international community that you're fighting for a just cause and that our cricket team is the best."

Now, the strategies of GoSL could include for example investments in military machinery, PR work for president's popularity, PR work (a.k.a propaganda) against LTTE, and assigning new ministries to confuse the general public and the MPs themselves. The points would come from the promises that you have successfully broken without having any effect on the president's popularity and of course from the success of the cricket team.

Strategies of LTTE could be fund raising campaigns abroad, recruitment and induction of promising young talent, investments in military machinery and PR work for LTTE's popularity (or against the Sinhalese oppressors). The points would come from the growing stupidity ratio of the opponent and of course from the success of the cricket team.

Of course these strategies are just internal that are not revealed for the opponent. In public the mission of both parties would be to end the hostilities and come to a ceasefire agreement that ensures peace and harmony for all the ethnic groups on the island.

You know you have been too long in Sri Lanka when…

2007-05-25T13:20:00.000+03:00

You realize that your toothpaste and breakfast taste the same.
You know “initials” are not the first letters of your first and last name but the first letters of your 4-5 names before family name.
You can’t even think of eating rice and curry with cutlery, because “it’s not the same taste”.
You don’t mind anymore if there’s no toilet paper in the washroom.
You call it a washroom instead of toilet.
You look right when crossing the street.
You find apples and oranges to be precious commodities while durian and rambutan are part of your daily diet.
You refer to friends by calling them “Machang” instead of “dude”.
You don’t make an exception with your female friends; they are simply “maching”.
You don’t understand why you need a bed if you have a mattress.
You scream and shout of happiness when telling your friends you had a chance to watch TV or take a hot shower.
You think salami and cheese are gifts from heaven.
You have forgotten how red wine tastes like.
You think Wickramasinghe or Jayawardene are typical short last names.
You feel good that you managed to haggle 50 rupees off from a trishaw ride.
You use chili sauce and call it tomato sauce; you never say “ketchup” again.
You start secretly wishing your parents would do the pre-screening of your future spouse.
You think it’s a wonderful thing that a 30+ year old still lives home with his or her parents.
You think twice before killing a bug; maybe it’s better to leave it be and it will go away eventually.
You know “short eats” is not a children’s movie or an ancient measure.
You start using the freezer compartment when you realize the fridge is broken.
You put towels on the floor when you realize the freezer is broken.
You can’t remember the time before instant coffee.
You express your anger saying “What to do?”
You express your consent with wiggling your head from side to side.
You express your disagreement with wiggling your head from side to side.
You express maybe by saying “sometimes”.
You go to a five-star hotel with your company and prefer to have kiri bath and pol sambol instead of bacon and egg.
You don’t wonder why random people just pop into your house occasionally.
You want to go and save a cow that is stuck on a green field away from its natural habitat amidst the traffic.
You go to work three hours late with clear conscience and say “it was raining”.
You announce distance in minutes.
You write a list of things that show when you have been too long in Sri Lanka

Relationship 2.0

2007-05-19T14:39:00.000+03:00

User warning: Long posting ahead!

I haven’t been talking about my relationship that often in my blog, much because it’s a very private issue concerning not only me but also because sometimes in a long-distance relationship it feels a bit of a distant issue even for myself. Now I thought, however, that for the purpose of clarifying my own thoughts and maybe sharing with others in a similar situation (now or in the future), I could analyze the situation a bit. At this very moment my better half would say that relationship is not meant for analyzing but for living, and I completely agree. I give it a shot anyways, stubborn as I am.

Monogamy is a choice

We had a very good discussion about monogamy when I was in Vienna with Paula. We came into a conclusion that monogamy is a choice: You choose to be “a one woman guy” no matter what. Or you can choose otherwise. I know a few people who are in so-called open relationships where it’s ok to meet other people or even have sex with them when you are physically apart from each other. And I know a guy who is in favor of that openness but has been living under an impression that he has to stick with one woman only, more because of it being a social norm, not his own thinking. According to my thinking we cannot judge people who are not acting as the prevailing social norm expects. Even less we can judge cultures where the social norm is something different from ours.

Personally I have made a choice to go with the monogamy and see where it takes me. So far, so good… Actually, a friend of mine asked if I think it’s a wise choice and I asked him to come back at me with the same question when I’m lying on my death bed. I believe that making short-term sacrifices for the long-term bliss is a good choice, no matter how grueling the short-term frustration would be. If you think you are with the right person then it might be worth checking what lies at the end of the rainbow. Still, bear in mind that most likely the treasure is the path you’ve taken.

Testing your market value

I don’t know if girls do it but I’ve seen and heard many guys practicing what they call “testing your market value”. I admit: I do it sometimes. In essence it means that though you are in a relationship – or maybe exactly because of that – you once in a while want to see if other girls are still interested in you. It doesn’t mean cheating or even intention of it. It can be plainly being alert if someone is throwing a flirt at you and then responding to it. It’s innocent, it’s fun and it makes you feel good.

Most likely the phenomenon of testing your market value derives from one or both of the two reasons: Either you are taking her for granted or she is taking you for granted.

Once you are in a long-term relationship you don’t have to take care of yourself that much. You have impressed the girl and the initial crush is over; she accepts you as who you are. So, the guys figure out that now you can eat and drink what you want without having to mind the slowly but surely developing beer belly. Or that little impoliteness is allowed, like farting or burping in front of her. So, at some point you notice that you have become something else that you portrayed in the beginning of the relationship (unless you’ve been a beer-bellied fart/burp machine from the scratch). You start what wise men would call meta-cognition and wonder if this guy is still “hot stuff at the market place”.

So, what if she is taking you for granted? Now many of the guys reading this are like “No way! How could she do that! I’m her one and only. She loves me so much.” Just look at your beer belly (or whatever other “faults” you might have that was not evident in the beginning of the relationship). Yes it can be also her who starts taking you for granted. In many relationships the relationship itself becomes a commodity. “It was there yesterday, why it wouldn’t be there tomorrow?” Well, the brutal fact of reality is that you can lose that relationship as easily as you got it, if you don’t work for it.

Think of the relationship as a cute stray dog. It comes to you when you least expect it and charms you with its innocent look. You give it something to eat and it’s very pleased. Tomorrow the same dog comes to you and again you take care of it. Next day you stay overnight at your friends place without knowing anything’s wrong at home. But the stray dog is there waiting for you without anything to eat. Patiently he waits you the next day when you come home and wags its tail happy to see you. You smile at it, waltz in and close the door behind you without realizing that the dog is waiting for you to give it some attention and food. Finally the next day you remember the dog and you decide to bring it a cookie from your office. But once you come home it’s not there anymore. It has gone away disappointed. It's gone away to see if anyone else cares about it… Now forget about the metaphor, it was stupid anyways. My point was that you might test your market value because you feel a bit left out or you are doing it unconsciously because the relationship feels that distant.

Distance and proximity

I believe distance is not subject to space between two parties as such. Imagine a snail that loves to be at home: Would it move anywhere in its life? Another stupid metaphor… Last year I got to know a very nice person whose distance with his wife was pretty much the same as in my and my girlfriend’s case. For him, she was always close. No matter how ironically he spoke I realized many times how much he appreciated and loved his wife. Then again, they had something that we don’t: a possibility to meet every second week. She would fly down to Colombo for a weekend or he would go back home just to be with his family. Since they were better off they could afford physically seeing each other more often. That led also to a certain kind of emotional proximity though they were living separately at two different sides of the world.

I also believe that proximity is a highly individual need: Some people appreciate it more whereas some just love to be by themselves. I have the both sides but in the end I grave for proximity a lot. Moreover, if proximity is a need as such, its amount or lack there of is not only dependent on your relationship but proximity with other people adds up to the “quota” also. For example in my case, I used to be very close with my best friends also physically (in AIESEC I became “a hugger”) but here it’s not the case. Here there’s hardly anyone to be close to and that makes me miss my one and only even more.

Luckily the emotional proximity is not tied in place and time, though physical proximity can increase it a lot. Actually emotional proximity is much alleviated by the good memories you have. And thus if you have a lot of good common memories it’s easier for you to wait and get even more of them. This thinking is derived from Stephen Covey’s emotional bank account theory. (Again my better half would say if we could just forget about theories and concentrate on us, but stubborn as I am...) According to that theory you make deposits on your emotional bank account by caring for your relationship and carrying out good deeds for the significant other. Later when making deposits is not possible or it becomes harder you can withdraw from your account and still have a good relationship. I.e. you keep bringing those biscuits for the dog long enough and it doesn’t mind if you stay one week in your friend’s place, it’s still there waiting for you.

Sequential life

Many people have asked me if I’m crazy coming to Sri Lanka for 1.5 years. Maybe I am. Even I have doubted a couple of times if it was that a good choice, but then I’m going back to my motives and realize it’s the best choice I ever made. And in retrospect 1.5 years is a nick of time. Anyway, while you are living that period in your life it might feel overwhelmingly long. A good way to “shorten” the time is to chop it down in smaller pieces, i.e. always have something to look for in 3-6 months time. In this case that something would be seeing each other with your girlfriend. When you expect something great to happen in a few months time it takes your focus away from the overall period of time. I’m just guessing but maybe some prisoners have used this method also, to make their sentence easier. For sure the companies are using it for their own benefit. Think of Nokia who is never talking anything about their current products, but keep ranting loudly about the new models coming up in half a year’s time. Or think of a publishing house that announces in the cover of a book “National bestseller – Over 400.000 copies in print” (Peter Senge: Fifth Discipline – Paperback edition). That is called expectations management in business, but I believe we can positively apply it in our own lives also.

Common future

So, of course it takes a bit of patience and sacrificing certain pleasures in your life on a short-term if you want to build and maintain a strong basis for a long-term relationship. But being apart is a good test for the strength of the relationship and a good foundation to make future mishaps and rainy days appear less intimidating. Now the key is how to find a balance between enjoying your experience and leading your own life whilst planning and preparing for common future. How to balance with your own aspirations and common dreams? We haven’t found that balance yet: the future looks uncertain because we both are changing and the 1.5 years of being apart might prolong as soon as one of us decides to go somewhere far away again. Still, I believe we have all the tools and ingredients to bake a tasty common cake, and eat it too.

Right now I'm a very happy man. I've had an opportunity to seek deeply within what this relationship means for me. I assure you, it's even better than before. It's relationship 2.0.

Did you know?

2007-05-19T11:34:00.000+03:00

The world-famous Thank You Song was written and composed by a an AIESEC intern staying in Sri Lanka.

Entrepreneurial diary

2007-05-15T14:52:00.000+03:00

I was just ranting to Ruki (my boss-colleague) how cool it was that Petsa (my friend-business partner) called me after he checked out the premises where we are most likely going to start our business next spring. Ruki told me to keep diary of all the events along the way, because it's nice to look back and see what are all the steps we've been taking. So, I decided to take his advice...

So far confirmed:

The business concept
Premises (including furniture and support)
Business partner

Next month's priorities

The business plan (in Finnish)
Strategy map

Further things to do

Year plan 2008
Finalizing and signing franchising contract
Applying for government subsidies for start-up company
Market penetration: Ensuring first months' cash flow
Legalities and initial investment (around 3000 EUR)

What did I forget? I'd actually want to invite all the friends who are occasionally reading my blog and thinking about or already running an own business to comment on these entrepreneurship postings. We're all going
through the same feelings anyways, so why not to share? I promise the next posting will be less factual and more emotional. :)

Being a Scorpio

2007-05-15T11:09:00.000+03:00

Erica mentioned in her comment (a couple of postings down), that I embody all the traits of a Scorpio (my zodiac sign). Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I decided to find out.

I Googled "scorpio" and found out that I'm:

Determined and forceful
Emotional and intuitive
Powerful and passionate
Exciting and magnetic

True, true... But on the dark side I'm...

Jealous and resentful
Compulsive and obsessive
Secretive and obstinate

Go figure. Another more interesting fact was that I'm supposedly "very venomous, and will be found in areas around moisture where food sources are known to gather such as beetles, cockroaches, crickets, moths, or other insects." Hey, that's the description of our flat! So, it must be right. I'm definitely a Scorpio.

Indeed, most of the traits described to be stereotypically Scorpio fit in me very well. One of the things mentioned in many sources is that "Compliments don't move him a fraction of an inch. At best, he'll calmly agree with your appraisal; at worst, he'll suspect your motives." This reveals an interesting side of myself, that I had never thought of much. I love praises and I need them. I need to be reminded often that I'm doing a great work or that I'm such a cool human being etc. But actually when someone says it out loud, I'm not reacting externally much. Inside I'm boiling of pleasure to hear those words but for others I just play a humble role, appearing to be nonchalant.

Damn, what is it about these signs... do they really portray who you are or are they just so general that they can be interpreted by anyone to hold truth?

Sri Lankans vs. Derdians

2007-05-09T10:46:00.000+03:00

Have you ever played a cultural simulation called Derdians? I've facilitated it a couple of times and now that I was browsing it again, I realized some similarities with Derdians and Sri Lankans (though the former is a made up culture and the latter a real one). Here we go:

Rules for the Social Behaviour of the Derdians and Sri Lankans

Touching
Derdians always touch each other, even when they talk with each other or when they pass each other. No touching means: I don’t like you!

Sri Lankans touch too, but not girls. It's ok to be all over your male friend, but don't you dare hold hands with a girl. Ok, this is something that is gradually changing. Nowadays you see more and more couples holding hands (and not just guys). Still, it's a common sight to see couples hiding under an umbrella in the furthest corner of the park or retreating to side alleys to hold hands.

Greeting
The traditional Derdian greeting procedure is a kiss on the shoulder. The person who starts the greeting ceremony kisses the other one on the shoulder. After this he will be kissed on his shoulder. Any other form of kissing will be an insult!

I've never ever seen any Sri Lankan kissing anyone anywhere. Nope, completely different from Derdians.

Insults
If a Derdian is insulted he starts complaining very loudly about it! Apart from kissing in weird places, to try and shake a Derdian's hand for a greeting is an insult.

If a Sri Lankan is insulted he starts complaining very loudly about it! Though it's quite rare to see really pissed off people.

Yes/No
A Derdian never uses the word "No". He always says yes, even if he means no. In disagreement he nods his head strongly.

A Sri Lankan never uses the word "No". He always says yes, even if he means no. In agreement he wiggles his head from left to right.

Equality in working life
There is a specific gender separation in using tools. Scissors are male tools. Pens and rulers are female tools. Glue and paper are neutral.

Now this is weird. Sri Lankans, at a glance, seem to be quite equal in working life. For example there are both men and women handling the tiding up of the rooms in hotels. At the office you see both men and women working in same jobs. But when it comes to top management the gender inequality is there; And the women see nothing wrong about it because they choose to make babies and take care of the family, throwing their promising career in a bin. Good or bad? Go figure.

Behavior with Foreigners
A man from Derdia will never agree to talk with a foreign man unless a woman introduces this foreigner to him.

Vice versa: A woman from Sri Lanka hardly makes acquaintance with foreign man if no one introduces her.

Derdians are always nice to foreigners.

Sri Lankans are always tooooo nice to foreigners.

The Derdians are very proud about themselves and their culture.

Sri Lankans are very proud about themselves, their culture and cricket team.

Derdians know that they cannot build the bridge without foreigners' help but they do not see the foreigners' culture as superior.

Sri Lankans have lost their faith to foreign NGOs, for a reason. The business, in turn, would benefit a lot from foreign investments and this is what the new leader of BOI (Board of Investments) is trying to lobby. However, the rest of the government is doing its utmost to torpedo foreign investments by continuing to wage the meaningless war. Sri Lankans don't necessarily see foreigners as superior, but they indeed treat you like that.

Derdians expect from the foreigners that they adopt the Derdian way of life.

Sri Lankans don't expect anything from foreigners: you can be whoever you want to be; in any case you are treated differently than locals.

A - Z of Tomi

2007-05-09T09:40:00.000+03:00

Inspired by Elli's blog, I decided to waste more of my time:

A - Z of Tomi

1. A is for age: 25

2. B is for beer of choice: Lion at the moment, Guinness otherwise

3. C is for career right now: Entrepreneur

4. D is for your dog's name: Kulpertti Eveliina (I don't have one)

5. E is for essential item you use everyday: Laptop

6. F is for favourite TV show at the moment: Prison Break

7. G is for favourite game: Risk

8. H is for Home town: Lappeenranta

9. I is for instruments you play: Mouth, doorbell & phone

10. J is for favourite juice: Sour sap

11. K is for whose butt you'd like to kick: Bureaucrats

12. L is for last place you ate: Rome

13. M is for marriage: Irrelevant

14. N is for your full name: Tomi-Pekka Astikainen

15. O is for overnight hospital stays: None

16. P is for people you were with today: Romies

17. Q is for quote: "Learn from the mistakes of others; You cannot live long enough to make them all yourself." - Eleanor Roosevelt

18. R is for Biggest Regret: That I ever started smoking

19. S is for status: Matched & realized

20. T is for time you woke up today: 08:13

21. U is for underwear you have on now: Black boxers

22. V is for vegetable you love: Tomato, because it's not a vegetable. (I say it's fruit, some argue it's berry)

23. W is for worst habit: Ignoring health

24. X is for x-rays you've had: Teeth

25. Y is for yummy food you ate today: I should definitely go for lunch... haven't had anything today.

26. Z is for the zodiac sign: Scorpio

Vuonna 1998

2007-05-06T14:41:00.000+03:00

Tan voinee kirjottaa suomeks. Tormasin sattumalta muistini sopukoissa olevaan sivustoon, jota kirjottelin 17-vuotiaana. Sillon on sanan sailalla leikitty. Jos haluutte tappaa aikaa niin pollamystykaa Punajuurien vapautusrintamaan.

Planned weather?

2007-05-03T09:37:00.000+03:00

This morning I woke up in continuous boom-boom-boom sound that came from the distance. At first I of course thought it's war again, but as it came closer we realized it's thunder. It was followed by insane rain and I had to wait for my tuktuk for 2,5 hours.

I complained about this to my Sri Lankan friend and she asked: "What, don't you ever get heavy rains or floods in Finland? Is everything so planned... including weather?"

I thought for a while and responded: Yes, there can be unpredictable weather in Finland, but the society is indeed so well-planned and structured that there are hardly any traffic jams. Even in the case of heavy snowfall, the trucks are dealing with it in 30-60 minutes. And especially in the capital area the public transportation is just heaven! The trains go always without traffic jams. The buses have their own lanes so those sad buggers who want to pollute the environment in their own cars can just watch the busses swooshing by. And the trams go by the minute. At the tram stops there are even electronic signs showing when the next tram is coming. And of course with the metro it's the same thing.

The question is: do I want to live in that structured and well-planned environment? The certain care-freeness nominal to Sri Lanka can be quite pleasing at times. Yet again, living in Finland is just so easy... if you don't go with the flow and create your own bubble of rushing from one thing to another and being busy all the time.

Finally a proper attack

2007-04-29T00:10:00.000+03:00

Hey guys... It's been such a waste being in a beautiful country with such a diverse nature and lovely people, whilst the rest of the world hears only the bad news. I felt so dumb because I had not seen any of that. Well, now I finally experienced what a proper LTTE attack feels like. Seriously, this is not even in the news yet. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

That place was Philippe's house and the time was Cricket World Cup Final between Australia and Sri Lanka. Australia was bashing Lanka's ass in their inning and as soon as Sri Lanka started batting the electricity went off. Someone was joking it might be an LTTE attack. I went out and saw the sky light up every now and then, and heard distant crackling. By this time I started to think that it might actually be the case.

Then someone said that there are fire crackers at the sky. I could easily recognize those as anti-aircraft fire, 'cos I've been shooting one of those machine guns with illuminated bullets. At that point we all decided to go downstairs. There was shooting quite close by and some of us were a bit hysterical and nearly hyperventilating. I tried to comfort them. I didn't feel pretty much anything... I just waited. Anyhow, just in case I sent a message to a few of my closest people, just to tell I'm alright. At that time everything was silent.

Right now, the power came back on. Peace!

Support a worthy cause

2007-04-24T12:15:00.000+03:00

I'm one of those cynical people who never donate money to anything. Now I made an exception and donated 50 EUR, because I know exactly where the money goes; enabling 80 children to get a basic education in a remote area that is threatened by the civilization.

I want to challenge all of you to donate the same amount and contact one company/rich relative to donate at least 50 EUR for one of the coolest social projects I've ever seen. My friend Jara is putting a great physical and mental effort in working as part of the team building a school up in the Himalaya's so the local kids wouldn't have to walk three days to the nearest school. This is an amazing project where Jara and his friends are literally risking their lives to have a positive impact in these children's future.

Go to www.surya.cz and spread the word!

If you managed to read this you are probably richer than ca 6000000000 others on this planet. 50 bucks is not much to ask! My monthly salary is about 230 EUR, and still I could afford this.

Just go to your bank (or online bank) and donate:

Name: Civic Association Surya

Address: Jecna 1433/9, Prague 2, 120 00, Czech Republic

IBAN: CZ 36 0300 0000 0002 0803 6504

Swift (BIC): CEKOCZPP

Thanks for fighting a good fight with me! Please post a comment here when you have made the donation. I want to know that someone still cares.

Back... home?

2007-04-23T09:31:00.000+03:00

Now my three-week Euro Trip is history and I'm safely back in Sri Lanka. Many people have been asking me "So, tell me about it." or "How was it?". I haven't been able to provide a comprehensive answer so far, so I reckoned maybe writing it out might help. So, here are my feelings in my typical non-chronological order:

Friends
The best thing about the whole thing was to meet my friends and once again realize how much they love me. It was a bit disturbing first to be amidst so many important people without knowing to whom to talk to. Actually, I was quite blocked and didn't know what to say and to whom. Then I just had to pick a few individuals to spend more time with... and it paid off. I felt that the deposits once made to the emotional bank account (thanks Covey!) had just gained interest and the friendship was still there, stronger than ever.

Home
When I was in Sri Lanka, I missed back home. When I was in Czech Republic with Paula, I couldn't help feeling like a tourist ('cos that's what I was), though she was there. When I was in Helsinki, I felt like I had never left the home. When I was in Lappeenranta, I just felt empty... as if time had stopped. That city was for long "my dream home", but now it was just... boring. In Joensuu, I missed back somewhere... without knowing if it was Helsinki or Sri Lanka. When I was in the plane, I knew I was going back home...

Family
Apart from being with Paula and my friends, one of the coolest parts of the vacation was to hang out with my mom. I know it sounds weird, especially when I had to see a bit of an extra effort to go and meet her in another city some 250 km away, but she was so cool. I can see now that it's from her where my emotional side comes from. Of course dad is emotional too, but only when he's drunk (unbearable at that point, otherwise a great lad to be with). But mom was just superb: she has really started a new chapter in her life. We had so much fun joking around with her and talking seriously almost simultaneously. Respect!

As for my siblings and their families, I have a bit mixed feelings. It was cool to see Joni (my nephew; Eija's son) growing up. He was no longer the momma's boy he used to be, though they still have a close-knit family unit with Pasi and his kids. I really liked the atmosphere there and it's pity I could only stay one night. When I went to my bro's place first on Sunday (when the kids were time to be home, and not at school) my dad hurried to go, so we only spent half an hour there. On one hand it was weird how they didn't show much emotions of seeing me again, but on one hand I just wanted to stay. Nevertheless, we had to go. When I came back a couple of days later and stayed for the night, there wasn't really time to socialize with my god-child Milla and the rest of them. In the morning they had left to school and work. I felt empty. I didn't even have a chance to say good-bye to them. I don't know if it's the North Karelian mentality or what, but I found it really hard connecting with them again... Anywho, I love them all and can't wait to be back to really see the kids growing up and spend quality time with my bro again.

Society
Everything in Europe is just so perfect. Everything works: The public transportation goes by the schedule (even throughout the night in some places), the streets and air are clean, people move about in order, and everything is just so structured and logical. I hate it! I really missed the imperfect society of Sri Lanka where many things are flawed but people still go on without worrying too much. Europe is somehow too cold (and I'm not only talking about the weather) for me. What can I say... it's good to be back. I wonder how I feel when I actually have to go leave this country. Well, I'll be back for sure.

Oh yeah, have to mention it here: I love sauna!!! I was in that extremely hot room nearly every night. I love it, I love it, I love it!

Nature
Another troubling side of Finland was that it was so quiet; there was no life! When I looked at the country from the airplane window on my arrival I thought it looks really pretty but as if raped by the winter. They say that spring is a great season because everything comes to life again, but at least for me it was still dead. Here in Sri Lanka you can here the sounds of life (both human and nature) that are so diverse. When you really listen you can easily pick up 50 sounds at a time. It gives me shivers just to think about the solitude and silence that surrounds Finland.

Entrepreneurship
I went to see the new office of Osasto (Department), an entrepreneurial community in Helsinki. Most likely we'll start Unleash Talent INC Finland there next spring. Costs are low and the support is very close. It just might be that it will soon be too small for our "loud culture". Especially, when my business partner is now decided. Petsa, my former mentor and and long-time friend, is joining me in that endeavor. I could have not asked for a better partner. He's intelligent, he can question things and he can be really crazy when needed. :)

First 1,5 weeks
Like I said, it's not chronological. I left the first 1,5 weeks last because it already feels so far away and it was like a whole another experience. In retrospect, Vienna didn't give me as much as Brno and Prague. Of course I liked it there, but to be honest, it's exactly one of those too organized European cities. I missed the chaos. However, I just fell in love with Czech Republic again. I've been there just briefly like nine years ago, but it was real good: especially the tasty food and beer really knocked me out. I have to say that Paula is living in a very nice environment, though her job might not be exactly what she dreams of.

In total it was a good experience to have amidst the work abroad. Now I will have more perspective and curiosity to examine the oddities in Sri Lankan environment. :) Thanks for everyone who made that trip possible and unforgettable!

EuroTrip

2007-04-03T11:43:00.000+03:00

Just a quick "hello" from Brno, Czech Republic... Late Friday evening I managed to find my way to our hotel in Vienna, Austria. It was an eventful trip from Colombo. Here is what happened in a nutshell:

On Thursday 11 PM I left home and headed for the Katunayake airport in Colombo. My flight was 2:45 AM. As I arrived to the airport it struck me: my flight was canceled! I rushed to the Emirates office that was located at the back of a maze in the first floor. They told me that all night flights from and to Colombo are canceled due to the LTTE attack last Monday.

Damn it! In the paper it had just said that the airport was closed for two hours on Monday morning. There I was, clueless of what to do, tired and just waiting to get to Europe. They proposed me a couple of flights that would be in Vienna on Saturday, but I said it's not an option. Finally, I managed to touch their heart as I said "It's my girlfriend's graduation day and I'm supposed to be waiting her at our hotel in Vienna". They gave me a room from the Taj Airport Garden hotel. As soon as I got there, they called me up and said that I would fly 10:05 in the morning! Yey!

In the morning I went back to the airport with a few other unlucky souls who had faced the same situation. We were waiting in the check-in line as all the power went off from the airport. Great! Could it be any better? Soon they got the electricity back but the line was moving really slowly.

It was already 9:45 as I got to the counter. The dude behind the counter had to run in different rooms to get my tickets and whatever it was that he was fetching. Finally 9:57 he gave me my tickets. I asked where is gate 10. He replied with a question: "Have you filled in the embarkation card?" I told him I really don't have time for this stupid bureaucracy right now. After all, my flight was due in eight minutes.

Then he did the most unexpected thing. He took me to the counter where the forms are, fetched a pen from somewhere, filled in the card for me and showed me for the next counter. Excellent service! On the next counter the service was back to normal...

The woman behind the desk seemed to have all the time in the world as she was flipping through the pages of my passport. I asked her politely to hurry up. I had six minutes for the plane to leave. She said I should have come earlier. Can you believe it? Come earlier? I flipped... I asked if 12:15 last night was not early enough! She was also confused because she couldn't find the arrival stamp from my passport. She must have thought I was an ordinary tourist. I showed her the stamp saying "July 2006", and I was off to the gate 10.

The plane took off late of course and I managed to be on it. Phew...

In the plane I discussed with a Sri Lankan guy who lives in Kenya (over 30 years now), owns a radio station and is married to a Kenyan Indian woman... I was just wondering how they can possibly follow cricket in that family, without strangling each other.

Skyline of Dubai was something I've never seen before: Endless vistas of sand are suddenly spotted with occasional patches of green fields. Coming closer to the city, the suburbs look like straight out of Sim City Arab Edition 2.0, whilst the massive skyscrapers emerge in the distance. I definitely have to visit that place one day.

Now I didn't have time for anything else but rushing to my connection flight to Frankfurt. That must have been the most pleasant flight in my life: Maybe the best chicken I've ever had in my life, 40 odd movies to choose from and most comfortable seats ever. Emirates really knows how to please the customers... as long as they just get on the plane. :)

Just to complicate things more the flight from Frankfurt to Vienna was late. After all that had happened it didn't bug me at all. I took a cab from Vienna airport to our hotel. It was a 20-minute ride and cost me my month's rent! :-()

Time in Vienna with Paula was really nice: just strolling around the city, visiting a couple of museums, enjoying each other's company and... sneezing. As Jani would put it: "I'm allergic to trees having sex", i.e. pollen.

And yes, of course I experienced many shocking European things already: dogs on a leash, functioning public transportation, ample amount of litter bins here and there, absence of cows, drinkable tap water, no horns tooting, people always coming right at me (walking on the wrong side), fresh air in the city center, damn cold weather (10-20 degrees) etc. I honestly don't know if I like more of this organized society or the beautiful chaos "back home".

Now I'm killing time at Paula's place. They have a really nice AIESEC community here also. I better go out now and see what's in the city... I'll report to you later. See ya!

Good morning

2007-03-26T09:25:00.000+03:00

It has been a good morning. We finally matched the Unleash Talent INC internship. A guy called AJ will be joining us from May onwards. He's Nigerian fellow with a good entrepreneurial attitude and passion for leadership.

Those of you who were thinking of applying, don't worry. The TN has been cloned, so you can still apply: TN-In-LK-CN-2007-1271. Those of you who had no idea what this meant, don't worry. It's nothing important for you and no it's not a secret message to take over the world.

As some of you know, my boss co-owns another company called Wild Drift where I sometimes facilitate, too. Here's a piece of feedback that warmed my heart:

"This is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my life. The point is that I learned lessons that can never be learned from books and realized there is so much more for me to learn and unlearn. In my opinion your teaching techniques were very effective. It helped me understand some of the things you were trying to tell us. In conclusion, I’d like to thank you for one in a million experience and making me look at life in a totally different perspective. There wasn’t much excitement in my routine daily life [university, books, shopping for shoes etc.] Wish you all the best and hope you’ll get to conduct more and more projects like this in the future."

Writing

2007-03-23T13:33:00.000+02:00

What a wonderful thing writing is... especially fictional writing. One of the reasons why I rarely update my blog is that writing about my own life is too factual. Writing is about inspiring yourself with words, it's about going beyond the limitations of your imagination and finding out what lies in your subconscious. It's about creating characters that start living their own life in a story that you cannot really control completely, but it evolves.

For ten years I have tried to write a full-length novel, but the end result has been just a few pathetic notes, good starts, pages and pages of short stories and an odd poem. Now I think I have finally matured as a writer so much that I can finish what I have started. Why am I so confident that I will finish the book I've now started? Well, I have a plan of the storyline and interesting characters that are weirdly intertwined.

That's my advice to all those 16-year olds who are struggling with writing a book: make a mind map of a) the key characters, b) the support characters, c) a rough story line with the twists and turns, d) role and objectives for each individual part... and then just start writing. In the beginning of each part, you can outline the objectives and deliverables for each chapter. Believe me, this kind of approach helps a lot.

One good tip is not to write in order, i.e. write the parts that you like and later combine them in to a story. Skip chapters and write what you feel that needs to be written right now.

Collect ideas. As soon as you get an idea (in the shower, jogging, on your way to work... it doesn't matter) jot it down and have a place to collect them. That's the way to evolve with the text and add important nuances that keep the reader in a hook.

Then again, one key ingredient is still missing: inspiration! You need to be in a life situation where you can get inspired of small things around you. That's the key to writing colorful text. For me that situation has been living in a completely different country. You find your own way.

Take a break. Leave time for real life. It's easy to get caught up with the imaginary life. Don't let yourself slip into that. It's a mental hazard. Too many young creative minds became prisoners of their own mind when they took their art work too seriously. Relax. Go play basketball or feed your mice. Swim. And then write again.

Get feedback only at right times. Don't expose too much of the unfinished work of art, because you know it's not ready. You will write and re-write it many times. You will delete pages and remove extra characters. You will add new flavors where they are needed. Once you feel like you have a cohesive draft to present to some, let a few trusted people read it and collect feedback. Don't play defensive, but incorporate the feedback in your own creative way.

Finally, let's deal with the demon of time. How many times we find excuses not to write? How many times we think we will write a book once we grow old and wise and when we can retire to solitude somewhere in Lapland, Barbados or in the Alps? When you have a good story, you don't need to sleep 7-8 hours a night. It keeps you awake late in the evening and in the morning you don't want to sleep because you need to get your subconscious on paper.

Now Tomi, I hope you have checked this post at least once during your writing process. As in any good tragedy: It ain't over until the fat lady dies...

Exciting times

2007-03-22T14:14:00.000+02:00

Usually people are excited of what is going to happen to them. I realized an odd thing about myself: I'm excited of what is going to happen to a community of people. As we welcomed two new trainees, Adelina from Bulgaria and Franky from Hong Kong, I was so happy. I thought it's great for them to be here and that this community is now much stronger and happier.

Of course I'm excited about the fact that I'm going to be in Vienna next week to see my girlfriend and after that meeting all friends and family back home. But at least as exciting for me is to think "Who are the next Unleash Talent INC employees who get a wonderful experience that possibly changes the course of their life?".

I love others happiness. It makes me happy. A wonderful thing indeed...

By the way, tomorrow we interview a Nigerian guy called AJ (Adeola) and simultaneously we are trying to figure out how to get Petsa here to learn with me before we can start things in Finland. He has not said final "yes" yet but he knows I don't take "no" for an answer. :) If you don't know who Petsa is, shame on you!

Finnish elections

2007-03-07T15:05:00.000+02:00

Never before has elections been so important for me. I went voting today, without knowing a single candidate name or number. But I didn't go there so that someone would get my vote, or for any loftier reason like helping my country. No, I went there to meet other Finns... and I did!

The elections were held at Trans Asia hotel. As I entered the election room there were two women sitting behind the table, one Sinhalese and one white. I wasn't sure if the white woman was Finnish so I timidly said "Hello". The Sinhalese woman answered in English, but the white woman said "huomenta" (good morning). I dropped my bag on the floor, lifted my hands in the air and shrieked "Jes, suomalainen!" (Yes, a Finn!). They laughed.

I was so glad to just sit there and talk with them in my own mother tongue. I was already about to leave to work but they urged me to wait for a while (I was their first "customer"). Then a few Finns from the Red Cross came and gave their votes. I joined them and went to the poolside restaurant to have a lunch. There I met a middle-aged woman who was talking all the time. She turned out to be one of those people who love to organize things and get people together. Now I'm invited to Finn's party on Friday to Galle Face Hotel. Excellent! She also insisted that I pop by at their place in Ceylon Towers, since they have sauna and a pool at the top of the building (and yes, it is right on the shore overlooking Indian Ocean). I'll see if I have time to go tomorrow. I'd really love to go to sauna! Finally, she said that as F1 races start, all the Finns get together to blame/cheer Kimi Raikkonen. Sounds like fun, though I'm not that big a Formula 1 fan anymore.

Oh yeah, I did also vote, though it was not the point of this posting. There is something called "election secrecy" (vaalisalaisuus), that I've never really understood. You're not supposed to reveal who you voted for. I do it every time. I like discussing things like that (and some people just got very angry at me). As I mentioned in the beginning, I didn't know any of the 100+ candidates, so I just started browsing. I realized there are even parties I had never heard about before. After some glancing and shallow analysis I decided to give my vote to a guy called Sami Suomalainen (Sami Finn). It was not because of his name, though that also felt like a nice coincidence, considering how "patriotic" I feel at the moment. He's a Green Party candidate who's a Master of Business Administration and an entrepreneur. Sounded like my kind of guy. :)

Umm... did I mention that on 30 March I'm flying out to Vienna to spend 1,5 weeks with Paula in Czech Republic. From there I go for another 1,5 weeks to Finland, in order to see my friends and family. Yep, now it's official! I can't wait.

Soul-searching sun

2007-03-05T06:26:00.000+02:00

It’s been nearly two years when I last time reflected on my personal values. Lately, I’ve feel that something in my value system is not right, not up-to-date. People might think that values are something that stays the same throughout one’s life. I agree. But it’s the priority order of values that might change as we go through the storms and blissful moments of our lives. I believe this is what has created the confusion, now that I’ve been going through as shaking experience as Sri Lanka can be.

Previously, in fact as long as I’ve been aware of what values are, I was wondering why most of the people had family as one of their key values and I didn’t. Of course my stormy family history with parents’ divorce and all the repercussions of that had its effect but deep inside I’ve always loved them. Also my sister’s and brother’s families are part of mine. Still, I thought family as a value will never be important for me. Now, however, I’ve not only come into terms with my parents, but learned to love them again, even more than I used to as I was a kid.

However, there’s one more development coming into this equation. I used to be a person who just couldn’t live alone. I thought I value love and affection just for the sake of it. I thought it’s the feeling of being loved by someone that truly matters to me. And it is. But yet again, my time far away from my love has proved that it’s not the physical presence and proximity that I so deeply value. Paula has become part of my family, and I’ve proven to myself that there’s more to it than sheer longing for proximity or affection. Soon we will have our own family, that is part of the bigger family around us and that, my friend, is something truly important for me.

Without further a due, here are my top five values revised and re-prioritized:

Close Friendships
Family
Positive legacy
Growing wisdom
Enjoying the moment

My definition of a friend is “someone who is ready to take a bullet for you and for whom you would do the same thing without hesitation”. I cherish the presence of my most important friends and want to be an integral part of their life, as they are mine.

Family I already explained in depth before. In conclusion: In my family we enjoy mutual, unbiased, and truthful love and take care of each other no matter what happens.

Positive legacy means that during and after my time at the face of the earth, I want people, communities and world to develop in a positive way because of what I started.

Growing wisdom translates to building on my strengths, knowledge and passion in order to constantly search for further development and life wisdom.

Enjoying the moment means that I want to have a freedom to choose how I spend my time in order to live life to the fullest every day.

Finally, for those who are really interested about values and their unsettledness, here is my previous list of values from 2005:

Close Friendships
Making a difference
Love & affection
Enjoying the moment
Personal growth.

To sum it up: The key value is still close friendships. Family has stepped into the picture and “eradicated” love and affection like mentioned before. Making a difference has translated to positive legacy as the means of fulfilling my life vision have become clearer. Personal growth has crystalized into “growing wisdom” and enjoying the moment has stayed the same.

Cultural learnings in Sri Lanka for the benefit of great nation of Finland

2007-02-15T16:36:00.000+02:00

In 12 months time I'm most likely on an extended vacation in Czech Republic (my better half is gonna be there from March onwards for one year). That brings a certain amount of conformity in this otherwise so fluctuating life. Speaking of which, I still don't have a clear plan of where I am after that vacation.

I was playing with the idea of applying to AIESEC International but it might be too much of an effort to try and go back to the organization after being away from its leadership for such a long while. We'll see... highly unlikely I would say.

Also, I have been constantly saying that I will start my business somewhere else than in Finland. But now that I've decided to freeze the Feelovation idea and use Unleash Talent to realize my dreams, I've started thinking if it's really worth all that pain. Why would I go to yet another foreign country to learn the ropes and build everything from scratch. During my time here I've started longing for Finland and understood how easy country it is to live in. Yeah, Finns shouldn't worry that much...

Now think about it. If I would take Unleash Talent to Finland, it would be quite easy to start off. I could get initial funding from the state, I could crash in the office premises of my fellow entrepreneurs for a nominal monthly rent, I wouldn't have to worry about overcoming the language barrier and hell-yeah I would have a large existing contact network of potential customers. After all those reasons it's really hard to find a reason why I wouldn't settle down there. Tell me one and I'll reconsider...

And in the end... those cultural learnings (I had too much time sitting in a train so I scribbled these):

"Every book deserves to be read."

"When you kill a cockroach, the ants will arrive."

"You don't need a bed if you have a mattress. You don't need hot water if you have a shower. You don't need a house if you have a home."

"Why would you want to go if you are already there?"

"If it rains in a paradise, is it still a paradise?"

"If no man is an island, then why we gather so much water around us?"

"Friendship is like a coconut tree: When you nurture it, it has 101 purposes. Still you might cut it for only one."

The Vacation of Love

2007-01-30T06:01:00.000+02:00

Hey! Just a quickie to let you know that I finally managed to upload the pics from our vacation here. I managed to get my camera broken. Fixing it would cost 8000 bucks (80 dollars), so I figured it's better to get a new one.
I ordered it from Singapore through my friend, but it might take a while to get it. Patience is a virtue.

Ok

2007-01-23T13:59:00.000+02:00

Hey,

After a long silence I just wanted to say I'm fine. What have I been up to lately? Since the vacation I've only had one day off from work and I still haven't been able to start with what I'm supposed to do (i.e. value-adding work). We had a good three-day strategy workshop with one client who has almost reached a dead-end in their business. All those frustrated people were transformed to inspired people due to the program. Of course a lot of work is still to be done to make it a world-class organization but now they see light at the end of the tunnel. This kind of experiences just strengthen my belief that I have made a right career choice. I want to help people to unleash their potential and live with inspiration (as our purpose statement says). Through leadership and strategy I'm able to change lives, to continue making change agents even after the years in AIESEC. Thank you for providing me this opportunity. And thanks to all those people who were part of selecting Team Supreme!

Alone again

2007-01-07T15:57:00.000+02:00

Past three weeks have been the happiest time of my life… and now it is history. Paula came to Sri Lanka on 17 December. It was so amazingly nice to welcome her to “my hoods” and show her around.

Luxurious life

The very next day we started off to Kandalama Hotel, that is five star luxury designed by Geoffrey Bava, Sri Lanka’s most recognized architect. Three nights that we spent in Kandalama were eerily fantastic. On one hand it was superb to treat you like a king (and queen) and not to care about spending money. On the other hand, it felt even a bit too much luxurious. Whatever the case may be, it was dream-like. We ate from the best buffets, savored expensive wine, took dips in an “edgeless” swimming pool, had sauna (!) that overlooks the Kandalama Lake and got ourselves massaged in the spa.

Kandy (eli Carkki)

From Kandalama we rode off to Nuwara Eliya, bypassing Kandy on the way. In Kandy the first thing to do was to go and pay my debt for post cards that I had bought on my last visit (with Pike). Those 100 rupees (75 cents) might have not been the most crucial money earned for the people who sold them to us but at least it made them burst in laughter. Is there any other nationality as honest as Finns? I wanted Paula to see the Kandyan dancers so we lingered on for the show and only after that started off towards Nuwara Eliya again. Oh yeah, we also stopped in a spice garden where you can buy all kinds of herbal products that ought to make miracles western medicine is unable to do. I bought powder that is supposed to cleanse your teeth and no matter how skeptic I was it worked the first time! All the black stuff covering my front teeth was removed after a good five-minute rub with the magic powder. Long live ayurveda!

Driver-kenek

The road to Nuwara Eliya (the highest city of Sri Lanka, in some 2500 m above sea level) was crap! No, it wasn’t even a road, but a path. Luckily we had a driver who took every curve quite safely without too many unnenessary risks. “Driver?” you might ask. It’s customary to rent a car and a driver in Sri Lanka. I know it sounds a bit colonial but that’s how it works here. Actually we started to feel a bit sentimental for our driver in the very beginning. In Kandalama he was the only Tamil in the drivers’ accommodation and the other (Sinhalese) drivers bullied on him. Wankers! He had a family quite close by Nuwara Eliya, in Hatton, so we decided that he could visit his wife and two kids while we were there. That, however, didn’t go without problems. Seemingly, it’s unheard of that the clients would release the driver to meet his family, and Sasi (the driver) needed to get confirmation from us about five times before calling his boss and still confirming from him that it was an okay thing to do. I must say it was a bit stressful situation also for us because his English is not that good and it was quite tiring to try and solve what he wants to tell us. Still, we were happy that he could go home just before Christmas (although Hindus don’t celebrate it).

A different kind of x-mas

So, we spent the days just before, during and after Christmas in Nuwara Eliya and around. It’s a peculiar British-style town with horses walking the streets (!) and a climate that makes even a Finn shiver at night. We arrived there quite late and were just happy to get to sleep after dinner. However, the place where we stayed has got to be the gloomiest, dampest and darkest Victorian hell hole I’ve ever been in. After two nights we couldn’t take it anymore but changed to a much cozier place. It was warm one-storey hotel with nice bar, huge pool table upstairs, home-like living room with sofas and TV and an ok restaurant. There we had our Christmas dinner before heading for one of the key highlights of the vacation: Adam’s Peak. On Christmas morning 2:15 we started ascending the 5200 steps to the third highest mountain of Sri Lanka. It was a tiring effort at times but somehow by 5:30 we reached the peak and settled to wait for the sunrise, with hundreds of pilgrims and a few tourists who shared our anticipation. Though it was cloudy and thus we didn’t see the magical shadow triangle formed by the mountain in the sunrise, it was still an once-in-a-lifetime experience… and something that you would not do with every other girlfriend. When we came running down the steps we were amazed by the sheer amount of them. We couldn’t recollect climbing that many of them!

Some of the other highlights in the hill country were spending time with Ralph and Manon (two dinners, a bottle of house wine and visiting Horton Plains), strolling around in Victoria Park where birch trees are just next to the palm trees, visiting a tea factory where the guide speaks Finnish, and popping in to read newspapers in Hill Club that once used to be the British “boy’s club” where even Queen Elizabeth and Duke of Edinborough have stayed.

Blood sucking freaks

As we continued down south for more pleasant climate, we stopped for two nights in Belihuloya where I sometimes work with Wild Drift. We stayed in a tent, went canoying, plaid cards and ate a lot. Still the peak was to take Paula through the semi-jungle voyage that I’ve already done a few times before. For her it was at times burdening to jump from a rock to rock, pass river and run through mud. We also experienced the notorious leeches that stick to your skin and suck your blood. Other than that it was nice experience, I hope also for her.

As we proceeded down south, we decided to visit Uda Walawe National Park that can be easily compared to African savannahs. We managed to bum a ride in a Jeep from a nice Sri Lankan expat family who were on vacation from California. That was a lot of fun. By this time we were, however, a bit frustrated with our driver. He didn’t seem to know directions that well and his unexistent self-confidence didn’t help much. Then it finally happened, we got lost somewhere in the backwoods of Sri Lankan mountain villages where the uneducated hillbillies dwell. He stopped for asking directions (once again) from a guy who was packing a lorry in the middle of the road. After a brief conversation, we saw a tuk-tuk (auto rickshaw) accelerating down the hill straight towards this poor fellow. He didn’t break, he didn’t stop. No, he just smashed the guy between the tuk-tuk and the lorry. And what did our driver do? He speeds off in a maniac frenzy babbling that it was not his fault. A glance through the rear window shows the guy leaning on the ground with a wide cut in his back and others wawing us to stop and come back. I shout at our driver to slow down (didn’t want him to get us killed) and Paula shouts at me to shut up. Later I learned that if he had stayed there, the local (Sinhalese) people would have asked no questions but started blaming and shooting this poor Tamil fellow. So, in a sense, he was just protecting us by leaving the scene.

Beaches, beaches…

When we finally reached Unawatuna, the first beach destination of our journey, I was really tense but so glad to get rid of the driver. Don’t get me wrong, he was a nice lad and having a driver and a car saved us from so much trouble and enabled loads of flexibity, but at this point it was a real relief to let him go. Yet the best part of that day was to see how flabbergasted Paula was to see and feel the waves of Indian Ocean smoothly splashing into the shore of golden white sand as we walked for our dinner at the beach. That was worth all the agony we went through during the trip.

Friends from Colombo (other trainees, boy and girlfriends, and some local friends) joined us for the New Year’s celebrations in Unawatuna. It has got to be the best place where I’ve spent a new year’s eve: Lots of fireworks, good company and oh-so romantic environment.

After Unawatuna we set off for Mirissa, my favourite beach. We stopped for one night in Ahangama, had our lobster dinner and fell asleep. Next day we endulged ourselves taking an Ayurvedic massage and face treatment before leaving for Mirissa for the rest of the vacation. I had been praising to Paula that Mirissa is even a better beach, but little did she know what I actually meant. Previously it had been a paradise beach with long sandy stretches just for you, but now as the season had started it came alive: about 50 tourists were enjoying the numerous restaurants and guest houses that had re-openeded their doors in the hope of some income. We checked in to my usual place Ocean Moon and headed for beach. I introduced her to Sudu Weli restaurant where I’ve already spent so many magical evenings. Nala, the owner of the place, offered us to use his “body board” (or wake board) to ride the waves. That was something Paula had already heard of in the airplane, and it was worth wating: She was like a kid again playing with the board in the waves and enjoyed every minute of it. I like it too, but the best thing for me was to see how she genuinely enjoyed the best sides of this beautiful country that has become my second home.

Farewell

The last day we spent “sightseeing” and shopping in Colombo, using public transportation and our feet for moving around. I took her to my office too. The day was finished off in a spectacular Japanese restaurant eating a lot and enjoying the last moments together in Sri Lanka.

This morning she left, and I saw her off to the airport. On our way in the van I could hardly speak anymore. It’s so sad to let go off someone who you know is just the right for you, and with whom you’ve just spent the time of your life. Finnish prime minister just said for the press “I’m alone, not lonely”. Well, I’m both again. I know that we’ll meet again and meanwhile we can be constantly in touch over skype and SMS but still I feel lonely. To be honest with you, I don’t have as close friendships here as I should. I left my most important people back in Finland. You know who you are, and I need you. I love the country and I love the work, but something is missing. I feel ready for settling down with the love of my life and building my daily life around that beautiful relationship. Where? That’s still a question mark. When? Less than 13 months. Why? I feel that after this experience one era of my life comes to an end and a new one starts. I’m already quite aware of who I am, what I want to do, what’s important for me and with whom I want to lead my life.

Without wining too much, I have to say that the past three weeks showed a way forward. I couldn’t be surer of my feelings towards you Paula. Until we meet again. All my love… Yours, Tomi.

(PS: Ill upload the pics once I get my camera fixed. Too much humidity for my Olympus!)

TN-In-LK-CN-2006-1263

2006-12-14T16:16:00.000+02:00

Hi ya! Just raised my first internship in Sri Lanka (and god-know's-how-manyth-in-total): TN-In-LK-CN-2006-1263. It's still on a status "new" but should be available soon. So, if you want to grow your wings towards global entrepreneurship or you are just head-over-heels about strategy and leadership, this TN might be just for you! A good extra is the diverse nature of the paradise island that you can experience during the weekends and vacations. So, why don't ya join me!

Success

2006-12-14T06:05:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we had a training for ca 50 people from various companies. The topic was transition management for first time managers, i.e. how to adapt the new skills, time applications and work values needed in the first managerial job. Although it was just a one-day public program, we managed to get people literally take of their ties, loosen up and dig into this serious topic in a fun way. At the end of the program some people were genuinely touched by the impact the training had in them. It feels good when you're shaking a total stranger's hand and they are not willing to let go, because they want to share with you how amazing the day together was.

I think we are on to something here... Something grand... A start of a journey. Now we just need more people who share the same passion and conviction for leadership. This posting was not intended to be recruitment but if you got interested, drop me an email. I'll get back to you in January.

Dull adults

2006-12-12T06:06:00.000+02:00

I don't want to grow up if it means to be reserved all the time and hiding emotions. Still, last year it was so natural just to go and hug people without a reason or shout your guts out in Hevimesta karaoke. Now all that seems so far away history. Am I becoming a boring adult? Am I contributing to the reserved atmosphere of the adult world?

Nah, at least the next three weeks I'm going to live life to the fullest, talk about emotions and dreams, show love and respect, laugh, cry and cuddle. Love, I'm waiting. See you on Sunday!

Finland in my mind

2006-12-05T15:39:00.000+02:00

Nope, this is not one of those "Oooh my god, I miss home. I just want to lead this darn country as soon as possible!" postings. I just thought of posting something - cos it's been a while - and letting you know I'm alive. The title refers to SMS dialogue with my dad yesterday. He was asking if I would come home for christmas. As much as I'd love to go to snowless and dark Finland, I still prefer spending three weeks in paradise with my beloved girlfriend. Still, I reckoned if he's asking me to come home for christmas, it might not be just about christmas. So I mentioned to him that I could check some reasonably priced flights and consider a short vacation in May. His response was: "Keep checking those flights, we'll discuss about it later".

So, it might actually mean that I could go back home for a couple of weeks to see my friends and family. That would be so awesome but I don't even want to consider the costs. I can't afford it, that's for sure. If he's willing to sponsor I'd love to go. The truth is that this distance really puts matters in perspective. It's not the country I'm missing that much - but the people... and sauna of course! So, just in case, keep your May unbooked for a while... there might be a sad wanker knocking on your door! :) This is of course at a dreaming state right now but isn' t it the ones that keep dreaming that also do something about it? (This message goes also for the ones who are considering their next step in life... stop considering and do something about it! Kantsu is a great place to spend a year.)

On a more personal note (if possible), last weekend was a mixture of good and bad feelings. I met this guy called Marc who is 49-year old UN project manager. He's just an amazing personality and I'm meeting him again tonight. We might end up in a long relationship (sorry Paula). Nah, we're offering him a possibility to start the first foreign Unleash Talent office somewhere around the world. I'll keep you updated about that development.

What made the weekend mixed was monday morning (ca 3 AM) when one former AIESEC trainee attacked me physically. It was due to a misunderstanding and would have never happened if we had time to discuss. But it all happened so fast that it had all the ingredients for a great fiasko. Luckily, we had a chat after that and solved the issue. Yesterday he came to me and apologized his behavior, so now everything is back to normal... or a bit better. Sometimes it takes a bit of fight to make friends (right Matti?).

If you're wondering why I was free on Monday, it's because every month the full moon day is a public holiday. Lord Buddha was a cool guy... although not much of a drinker.

Pike's visit... and a few nasty blisters

2006-11-20T15:59:00.000+02:00

I haven't been posting for a while for a couple of reasons. First of all, I had an excellent mini-holiday with Pike who was visiting me from India. We went to Unawatuna where we were boozing with the hotel owner (aka practicising relationship management) and sitting on the beach, speaking three hours about reincarnation while others were partying. In Mirissa we were just enjoying the whole paradise beach on our own. There was just a handful of other tourists, and of course another hotel owner with whom we drank some beer and went for a late-night dip in the ocean. That was so amazing! I felt like being seven again. :)

Then we both had to work for a few days in between. Next weekend we were supposed to go to Kandy but I got so sick that we ended up taking a bus back home from the Colombo bus station. Others went partying as I stayed in bed and slept for 13 hours. Next day I reckoned I cannot just be sick as it is the last weekend with Pike in Lanka. So we went to Kandy anyways (on my birthday). The bus ride took 5 hours instead of the normal 3+ hours because of some road construction works and shitty weather. Well, we had 1,5 beers each and dropped to bed dead-tired. A bit different birthday I'd say. :) Next day we umm... did nothing special... we just went to this Temple of tooth that was supposed to be the most amazing temple ever, but it was nothing spectacular. We did, however, go to see some Kandyan dances and firewalking afterwards and that was pretty neat! Again, early to bed just to wake up next morning at five o'clock. But that wake-up was something else! Dozens of monks were chanting somewhere near and Kandyan drummers were giving them the rhyme. All sorts of animals joined into the chant and soon the whole valley was like in over-arching natural harmony. Now, that's something you don't experience in every other country at five o'clock in the morning.

The reason why we woke up so early was that we wanted to go and see the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage before heading back to Colombo. On our way there we were quite sleepy and as I accidentally noticed that the bus stopped where we were supposed to get off Pike was still fast asleep. She was almost left in the bus as it took off in haste. Finally, we saw the elephants. I think for her it was a nice experience although it felt a bit like the people there were more interested about tourists' money than the elephants. For me personally it was a bit perplexing. I didn't feel anyhow special that there were dozens of elephants roaming free around me. Have I become too much accustomed to this country? Maybe, 'cos the same non-reaction happened when I saw Cesar (our 2-meter Comodo Varan) for the first time.

Anywho, it was ten days of great time with Pike. I'm so glad we are friends. Wouldn't change it for a thing.

Nonetheless, the life here has not been all that blissful when it comes to health. About 2,5 months ago my feet developed this itchy rash for whatever the reason. I scratched, of course, and it just went worse. I thought it would go away over time and ignored Paula's comments that I should get it checked because there are all kinds of germs here. Well, it didn't pass. It changed to a few really nasty-looking and painful blistering wounds.

Now I'm getting quite pissed off at having to worry about them every day. So, yesterday I visited a doctor... finally. That was a bit weird. It was a private hospital so I basically had to pay every time I wanted to talk to someone. But that was not the weirdest part. When I walzed into this doctor's room I said bluntly what was my issue and showed him my feet. He was glancing at them indifferently and said I should stop smoking (had had a fag just before coming in). I was like "Ok, has crossed my mind..." Then he took my blood pressure, said it was good, and suggested I still get my blood sugar checked. After this remark he asked me to take my shirt off and lie on the bed. "What does this have to do with my feet?" I pondered in perplexion but obeyed the orders. He pressed my tummy, sides and chest, listened to my lungs and said everything is fine. Then we finally got to the business of checking my feet and he wrote me a couple of prescriptions (not like the forms you're used to in western hospitals but just some scribblings on a piece of paper ripped from a notepad). Nah, don't get me wrong, he was a nice lad (and not at all as gay as he sounds like). Off I went with all these pieces of paper, got my hepathitis vaccination done, took the blood sugar test (which was normal), went to the pharmacy and bought the drugs he had prescribed me. I felt so happy that I got all these things finally done that I bought muffins for everyone on the way home.

And this is a splendid way to end a pretty random posting, isn't it? Muffins.

Picture time

2006-11-09T08:33:00.000+02:00

Finally, the beautiful Kithulgala meditation retreat pictures are in Olande Ananda's web album. I added a few more pics in the October 2006 folder in Yahoo, and pictures from Pike's visit can be found from November 2006 folder. Enjoy.

Last weekend (5 days!) we spent at Unawatuna and Mirissa. Especially Mirissa is a paradise beach at this time of the year (you know, the one like in Lost or Tjareborg travel magazine cover) and there is absolutely no one! Just a handful of tourists and you occupy the whole wide beach! Thank you western media for giving us this soothing solitude! :)

Next weekend we're gonna hit the road to Kandy and visit also the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage. There would be the local AIESEC NLDS (National Leadership Development Seminar) at the same time but we're gonna skip it. Pity, I know, but the life is about priorities. And now the elephants are up in the priorities... or something.

Mika

2006-11-07T07:17:00.000+02:00

I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but Finnish language is beautiful when it comes to friendship. “Ystava” and “kaveri” are too different words that would directly translate to English as “a friend”. However, being ystava (those should be a’s with two dots) sounds far more close than just “kaveri”.

(Sidenote: Thank you Hopsu for reminding me about this, and thank you for being there for me!)

I have never had that many really close friends. I’m actully quite picky when it comes to letting people feel that they really are the centre of my universe, but I hope that those individuals who have made it there, really know that they deserve to be there till the very end.

Have you heard of the saying “True friendship doesn’t require correspondence”? I agree and disagree.

I must have been about four or five years old, when I met Mika the first time. Our parents were family acquaintances since they were in the same business (yes, selling sewing machines was a lucrative trade in the eighties). Our friendship got on the fast track quite soon, and not seeing each other for two weeks seemed like an end of the world. Indeed, I was waiting the school week to end, just to pack my bag and go to spend a weekend with him or vice versa. At that time it didn’t matter that I had pretty bad asthma and they had a dog called Pastilli (breath mint). His mother used to clean the flat for several days before I was coming for a visit and they would take an air cleaner to try and avoid the unavoidable. There I was, hardly able to breathe, but enjoying every moment with my best friend. Often I had to be transported to hospital in the middle of the night. If you didn’t get it yet, yes, I was pretty badly allergic to dogs (and for dozens of other animals for that matter). Anywho, none of this was a hindrance to our friendship.

During the summers we would spend a lot of time at our summer cottage. There was this uninhabited rocky island just less than 1km from our shore. We’d go there and run around but naked, playing with Heman minifigures, swimming, boating and whatnot. Our first big project together was collecting beer and soft drink cans. We’d bring them from abroad, buy them from our friends and collect them from gutters. By the time we reached 400 different cans we decided to trash them since they were taking too much space. We used to go to their summer cottage to warm up the sauna and swim. We played different kind of outdoor games and board games, with just the imagination as a limit… and it wasn’t really a limit. In the winter we’d ride snowmobiles (ski-doos) and let our fathers come and do the dirty work when the damn thing got stuck in the snow.

Then it happened, our friendship was struck by lighting, as he suddenly “grew older” and I stayed as a kid for a couple of more years. Mika picked up some nasty habits like drinking and smoking. His peer group enlarged to consist of people that I couldn’t really care less about, some of them being skin-heads. Actually, I don’t remember the details but somehow we drifted apart. Both of our parents divorced around that time, so it might have had an indirect effect too. For years and years we didn’t stay in touch. Sometimes occasionally we’d see each other by accident or by arranging a quick meeting somewhere. Those rendezvous took only a few minutes at a time, and somehow left me feeling blank.

Finally, after almost ten years of absence we saw an effort to meet up properly and discuss things through. It felt so good! As if no time had passed. The same friendship was still there. The same overwhelming feeling of brotherhood had gone nowhere. Although we were living in different cities, we started seeing each other more often. Mika would drive all the way from Joensuu to Lappeenranta to spend a weekend with me. And every time I would visit Joensuu I’d catch up with him. Even when I was spending the last moments in Finland, he made it a point to come and see me before I leave.

Now all the roles, prejudices and worries are pushed aside and our friendship can blossom. He has a habit of sending me emotional messages that make my heart bound and eyes go wet. For most people that would appear quite gay, but for us it’s a sign that not a single moment should be wasted when a true frienship is in question. For our friendship, absense is not an issue, but when we do get together we enjoy every minute of it.

I have witnessed that even after years of being total strangers, once very good friends – ystavat – can come together again as if there was no time in between. I have also witnessed that if you want to regain the once lost trust, you need to see an effort, but the true friend doesn’t ask for you to make the effort. You do it naturally.

Mika, if you are reading this, all the peace, love and respect from here to you and your loved ones! You have made my life worth living. I’ll hunt you down when I get back, so we can continue from where we left.

End of chapter two

2006-10-29T15:28:00.000+02:00

On tuesday three months have passed of my internship, and it's time to write the summary of chapter two before moving on to new paragraphs of joy, challenges and self-reflection.

War. What would be a better way to start, than the most obvious one, the war between GOSL and LTTE. In the beginning I was trying to deny it. In reality, I was just afraid. Hearing fire crackers (that they use to scare away the stray dogs) or even thunder made me quite paranoid. Discussing with Katty, who's from Croatia, helped a lot. Thanks for that. Little by little I started accepting it. Then I needed to find a way to explain myself why I was accepting something that unacceptable. Now I'm not scared anymore. I feel disgusted and even a bit sorry for the both parties, adolescent minds who are unable to put aside their egos to come to an agreement. I don't believe that it will happen any time soon, or that anything would change, but there is still hope as the parties are currently meeting in Geneva for the peace talks. It would be ideal that at the end of chapter three, there would be more than seize fire agreement (because agreements and promises bear little value in this country). I hope, we hope, the country hopes... but the war goes on.

Routine. Quite soon after I started working, the life normalized and routine developed. Simultaneously, a certain degree of frustration and home-sickness crawled into existence. Reading the stupid Suomi-seura magazine from cover to cover was a clear sign that I miss home. Small things like being able to discuss in your own language, being able to sit in the public transportation and to breathe fresh air suddenly gained surprising importance. I found salmiakki and Finnish music to be the best cure. Then it happened; I lost my phone. As material and vain as it might sound, that was a turning point for me. I realized how insecure, alone and sad I feel when I'm not being able to stay in touch with my friends and family (including you Paula) whenever I want. I don't know if I had developed a certain degree of addiction to the phone itself, or whether I was just used to seeking security from familiar trustworthy people. I still don't have everyone's number, so if you haven't been in touch with me lately, I'd like you to drop me an SMS signed with your name, so I can contact you when I feel like it. Please, you are important to me! To conclude this paragraph on a bit of patriotic note: Motorola is shit! I was playing thrifty as I purchased the new phone. Now I'm planning to buy Nokia as soon as I manage to drag my ass to a cell phone store. At least I know how to use it, I don't have to seek all the functions behind millions of menus and I don't have to listen those unbearable Motorola sounds.

Search for balance. It all started out really well. I was picking up new hobbies, losing weight immensely, quitting smoking, cutting down drinking, going to meditation and reading a lot. Then something happened and little by little I was drawn back to my old unhealthy habits. That something was rain, a continous pouring of cats and dogs for over a month (and I still don't know if it's over). I know it might sound like an excuse, and it might be that to some extent, but I really felt that if you are slipping a bit from your daily discipline the whole universe conspires to make sure you fall. (Quote from The Alchemist: "when you really want something to happen the whole universe conspires to make your wishes come true.") And it wasn't just the rain. E.g. when I had no phone I just went to the field where we usually play on Sundays at 4:30. No one came, and I just sat there alone for half an hour, sipping water and being unable to call anyone. Next day I rushed my way to my usual monday evening meditation session, and it was canceled. There! Universe was playing tricks on me, testing me, and showing me that I'm still this fragile fun-loving guy who has earthly desires and poor self-discipline.

Rain. I already mentioned this, but I think it deserves its own chapter. Like the dirtyness of Colombo struck me initially (after seeing those Lonely Planet pictures portraying Sri Lanka as green lush vegetation and pearl-white beaches), so did the rain. I knew there was monsoon rains showering the country a couple of times a year, but that it would continue so long! And even the locals didn't know it can take that long, they just said you cannot predict the weather anymore because of the global climate change. Today it didn't rain, and I hope it stays that way. It can really wear you down and have an effect on your general happiness. I just read from the newspaper that 13 people have been killed because of the rain and 225 00 left homeless! Yes, two hundred twenty five thousand people! That's not anymore "a little autumn rain". But then again, every coin has their flip-side, right? At least in our hoods the city is finally planning to asphalt the road and fix the drains. They have some stupid rule that there has to be a certain number of houses on the road that they are willing to invest in asphalt, so now they are coming up with imaginary houses to fill the bureaucracy gap. Yeah, I know. It's weird.

"New" and new people. In the beginning people were generally a bit sad because so many trainees were leaving our cozy community. It defnitely had an effect on the atmosphere, people were concentrating mainly on work and not spending time with each other. The last straw was getting internet to the house next door, as AIESEC office moved in. People, including me, spent more time away from "the community space". Then we heard the good news: Dasha is coming back! She is a Lithuanian trainee who left when I arrived and later decided to come back. She is the mother of all trainees and a genuine mood lifter. So, when she did come back, somehow everyone started feeling a bit better, relaxed and again more interested in each other's company. The climax was last Friday, all our trainees and a couple of other friends were sitting around the same table for dinner (for the first time!). That was really nice. Now we actually have Oana visiting us, who was also a trainee here previously. Then we have a Czech couple - Jakub and Sharka - who just arrived a few weeks ago. Although they are not staying with us in ROME (our house) and they are going to spend a lot of time in Kithulgala (middle of nowhere), they are still a lovely addition to our bunch. Finally, we have Teresa, who is not really a trainee but we have adopted her. She's Mandy's friend who was supposed to be here only for a couple of weeks but who ended up staying. Now she's been here already a couple of months. Nice! :) More traineeships have been raised so we might welcome some newies soon. The more the merrier.

Being different. I told you how annoyed I am with the locals who practice (positive) racism: treating you over-friendly or superior, or just genuinely shouting at you on the streets. It's still a bit annoying but I just had to accept that I'm different, the country has its colonial history and these buggers "know" that you are getting paid better than they are (although that's not always the case). I don't really know how to handle those situations (no one told that in the preparation phase of the work abroad experience). So far I've mainly used either a) ignoring or b) answering semi-politely. Sometimes it still gets to me and I might snap something, at least non-verbally.

Traveling and lack there of. I haven't been able to do as much traveling as I would have liked. I've only been to Belihuloya (for work) Sigiriya, Unawatuna, Negombo, Kithulgala (twice), and Mirissa. Belihuloya - fantastic brain-rest after the noisy diesel-fumed Colombo. Sigiriya - absolutely fascinating place with extremely cool views and super-annoying locals who are well aware of the fact that you're a tourist. Unawatuna - the party place out of Colombo, with a beach that has those goddamn sea-urgins. Negombo - avoid! Kithulgala - a beautifully remote spot just next to the Kalaniya River where some parts of The Bridge Over River Kwai was filmed - on the second time the river was too muddy to swim in though. Mirissa - the best beach so far! In Mirissa you can seemingly get sun-burnt even without seeing the sun. That gave an end to my seek for tan. This list will be considerably enlarged during the next couple of months as I first welcome Pike here for a short visit and later spend three lovely weeks with Paula.

Contribution to Unleash Talent INC. This chapter is getting the end that it deserves. Out of all experiences, the work has - surprisingly - been the most rewarding. I'll tell you about a few highlights soon, but first I need to thank every single individual from Erica to Paula to Dan to Suchith to Ruki to other trainees and local AIESECers for making this possible! This has been absolutely fantastic already now and it just gets better. I could have never imagined I would be as passionately driven by any company than I was by AIESEC. Now I am. Let me reveal you a bit more in the light of some examples. My first "Yes, I'm ready for the real world!" feeling came as I stood up against the public opinion at one our client's offices and told them they need to change their thinking drastically if they want to become great. And they did! And the CEO backed me up 100% Later on we were able to make another top management group convinced of their current flaws and they didn't resist at all. They were not defensive. They wanted our help. That was so cool! We are delivering positive impact with whomever we work with. That's an amazing feeling! Second aspect to the greatness of Unleash Talent INC is that we are all the time experimenting and doing something new. Although I have a nice and motivating incentive plan with clear deliverables, I can still allow myself to build on the ideas that pop up. No, I'm encouraged to do so! One of the coolest moments so far was when we sat down with Ruki and locked ourselves in a room to set our desired destiny, i.e. purpose (mission), dream (vision) and values. We also carved out our four year strategy, and it sounds really promising. Remember when I mentioned before that I want to have my own team. Well, now we have started taking steps to bring more people in. Remember when I was blabbering that one day I want to be putting up a global enterprise? Well, here is a chance to go global with or without Feelovation. By 2010 we should have presence in three continents. It's all just too good to be true. If something should happen and I couldn't hold on to Unleash Talent INC, at least I'd know that every month, every week, every day and pretty much every moment was a moment of joy, a moment of enthusiasm, a moment of doing something meaningful. I hope this feeling continues to be there as we move towards new heights.

The Book. Finally, one of my personal long-term aspirations is becoming reality. When I was sixteen I started a hobby of writing (mainly short stories and poems), and I had a dream of publishing a book one day. The dream has persisted and now it's about to be fulfilled. Ruki and me decided to write a book about strategy and leadership, in a non-conventional and fun way. I'm so excited about it! We are collecting the contents little by little and the first draft version should be ready to publish some time in 2007. I am living in the environment of possibilities. I feel empowered. I feel I've come to the right place.

Who would stop the insanity?

2006-10-22T14:49:00.000+03:00

A father of a Sri Lankan Army soldier: 'This is not our war. This war has been created by the political leaders. During the off-season for fishing, we used to go to the north or the east for fishing. We were close like brothers with Tamil fishermen in those days.' His son [a soldier himself] nodded approvingly.

Yep, I'm quite fed up with the whole war issue. Before the attack in Galle (the south, where the best beaches are), people were quite indifferent about the war that was waged "up there". You know, people I'm dealing with are from decent conditions and they don't have to enroll to army for their livelihood. It's the poor that get killed. It's quite sad, isn't it? Every single country, family and individual at the face of the earth is forced to play the game with the rules set by others. Either you make enough money to get a life that you want (even a life of modest simplicity) or you suffer and die prematurely.

The war is waged for wrong reasons, propaganda is flourishing on both camps and young (poor) people get killed for someone else's benefit. "Peace talks" in Geneva start in a week (28 October), and these buggers keep attacking and slaying each other to get negotiation power!

Now, if the GOSL and LTTE are too ego-centric, greedy or just plain stupid to put an end to this war, it's the people that have to stand up for the well being of their country. I just don't see that happening any time soon, as the city folks are too complacent rice-eating buggers and the rural people are leading their lives below poverty line.

Ready for the weekend...

2006-10-19T16:48:00.000+03:00

Ahoy!

Today "the monkey was let out of the cage" in Sri Lankan Airlines Service Conference. They outsourced the fun part to us. :) So, we just basically fooled around every now and then, pitching in a couple of energizers and ice-breakers and topping that with an hour-long team activity. Oh joy! Well, it's easy money for the company and a good lunch for me! It took place in Mt. Lavinia Hotel, so there was like 30 different starters, 10 main courses, 40 side dishes, and 20 desserts. Yummy! It was so good to eat sushi, beef steak, cheese gratine and all those excellent dishes, topped with Sacher cake in the end. Slurp!

Tomorrow I'm working just a few hours and then I head for the long-awaited meditation retreat in Kithulgala. I have no idea what to expect from that. This week it's been raining every evening so cannot expect much from the weather's side at least. The other concern is how I can concentrate on meditation when I'm still addicted to nicotine. I hope that by Sunday I'm a bit more mature in that sense, too. Anywho, I'm not stressing much. It's a beautiful place (the same where we were rafting, pics already available) and I don't mind concentrating on just myself for the whole weekend, amidst al this hulabaloo at work.

Speaking about work, I'm quite impatient when we get our long-term plans fixed and more people onboard to Unleash Talent INC. Then we can live up to the company's fullest potential. It's amazing how much influence one can have on some other person's business. We'll see what comes out of that in the long run, but so far I do think it's a great company.

Btw, I bought a new phone (oldest and cheapest possible Motorola model) and revived my number. So you can use the same old number +94775359809, starting tomorrow. And please do sign your SMS, cos now I don't have anyone's number!!!

Silly war...

2006-10-15T08:55:00.000+03:00

The war between LTTE and Sri Lankan Army (SLA) is becoming more and more absurd. The most recent attack was a full-scale air strike by the Sri Lankan Air Forces (SLAF). They dropped 48 bombs to LTTE controlled area. Reportedly, "at least 10 cows were killed and a large area of arable land was damaged in the aerial bombardment."

Those of you who have played some computer games, or went to the army, you know that air strikes are the last resort. You know it's ridiculously expensive so you better hit only the most strategic enemy targets. Of course, I can't know if these 10 cows were working in LTTE counter-intelligence, but still snipers would have been less expensive option. As for the "large area of arable land", it might be a justified target if rephrased "the food supply of LTTE cadres".

Meanwhile, someone is making a lot of money with this practical joke.

Recognition from Uni

2006-10-11T22:35:00.000+03:00

Shite! I just got an email from some kid in the student union of Lappeenranta University of Technology. In all their wisdom, they had decided to grant me a bronze honorary medal for my achievements in the student union and club activities.

Now, let me get this straigtht:

1) I've never been a part of a club!

Pretty much only thing that in someone's limited mind could be interpreted as a club is AIESEC Saimaa Ry. If someone claims that AIESEC is a student club... go screw yourself! It's a branch of a global youth-driven organization with over 1 000 000 alumni and 20 000 new members every year in 95+ countries. I mean, PLEASE!!! Don't call that a student club! That title goes to the once who want to do horseback-riding, trekking or ballroom dancing. Nice hobbies, I won't deny. But a student club? Please!

2) I was against the public opinion in the student union

The wankers all around me (except Antti, thanks for that!) were so patriotic and old-fashioned that this could hardly be a merit for me. I mean, if you could still go and take a look at the old issues of Aalef that I published: they're full of propaganda that was not supposed to be there (according to some). There were adds for the concentious objectors, critique about the polls taking place and articles about "how to put up your own gay club at the uni". Some of the people just could not handle these and they were trying to fire me. Pity that there was this little thing called Finnish law (and the article about freedom of speech) protecting me, so THE MAN couldn't over-run what I wanted to utter.

3) What the fuck is this bronze all about?

This one I actually have to give for them: They do have relevant basis for granting the medals. Just imagine how it feels when you get a message saying: "You were granted a bronze medal for your laadi-daadi-daaa..." (It's like: you were almost good, but we decided to degenerate you to the level that's not worthy of a full-scale recognition).

Right, this last point is basically just BS:ing with 'em. Just let me have my final laugh.

Thanks anyways, LTKY you made my one-man-war worth the effort!

Something up my nose...

2006-10-11T21:27:00.000+03:00

You guys know how there's a certain kind of tunnel between your nose and your mouth? Well, I think that just about now some kind of creepy-crawlly-flying-thing went up my nose and is lookin' its way out of that tunnel. It's not a nice feeling.

Nor it is a nice feeling if you overhear people talking shit about you behind your back. I did... again. So, it was not anything new. I know I shouldn't take these things personally. It happens to all of us... I hope! (Or only to sad wankers like me).

In any case - for some wicked reason - I took this 0ne personally. And I started imagining... how would it be, if I'd just completely change my behavior... and outlook? How would people react, and what would they think, if I shaved my head and started confining my spare time to meditation and all those more grand purposes that we - the young - are not supposed to have when we're "living it to the fullest"?

I thought I had it all figured out. I thought I'm on a good way. But at the moment I find myself being - again - that confused little guy, who just got something up his nostril (literally and metaphorically).

If, before, you had an image that this guy has gone far abroad and is completely re-structuring himself to be a better combination of carbon-monoxide (or whatever it is that we're all made of), you might be right... or you might be terribly wrong! At this very moment, I find myself being bare-naked at the face of the court of life, that judges you - not based on your merits or your efficiency - but based on your every-day actions. In that "rat race" I find myself to be - not the catch, not the mouse - but the cheese. The one that is destined to lose, every single time.

Yeah, maybe I'll just distance myself from all this. Maybe I take one-month off from the work (that is currently occupying my mind with a lot of useless, but inspiring, stuff). Maybe I do get my head shaved. Maybe I do let go of mind-altering products like beer and cigarettes. Maybe I do get that insect out of my nostril.

This is my time for experimentation. And I'm damn glad I did it. It's just so brutally hard that I wouldn't like anyone else to experience it. Simultaneously, I'd like every one of us take the same chance. Paranoid? Maybe. Paradox? Definitely.

Take your chance.

The umbilical cord...

2006-10-10T17:10:00.000+03:00

Once upon a time I was part of a non-profit organization that was dying to get new members... or else! We were supposed to run a structured induction process for these people who would come pouring in. Well, we turned on the recruitment tap and what happened? Nothing! There was just a small dribble of interested people who wanted to know more about our tiny but energetic organization. One of them, later, became one of my few best friends.

My first memory of Pike is at the corridor of our university. She was just minding her own business next to our bulletin board and I rushed in to ask whether she's coming to our cottage weekend. She said yes. That was an important yes. After that yes we've experienced so much together. She became the local committee president after me in this particular organization, then we became team mates and flat mates and now she's in her traineeship in India - "wasting her time" every day.

Let's slow down and look at each of these steps one by one:

First dip in the pool of shit
Excuse my harsh way of expression, but that's what leadership sometimes is, at its very best! It can be a series of huge disappointments, personal level arguments, heated discussions, nights of lost sleep, immense stress and all that. Of couse she knew this but didn't really think of it before she heard the words "The new local committee president is... Pirjo Rinnepelto!". Poor girl just thought of applying to some team and handling her part. Now her part became to be the leader. She broke into tears.

After initial shock, she started the active learning period. It's admirable how she treated the new position: she wanted to know everything, she wanted to be the best, she wanted to succeed!

Then I left her alone for a few weeks and escaped to Italy and Estonia, but it wasn't sure if I would be coming back any time soon. I took those drastic measures because I wanted to prove my point that she needs to step into the leader's shoes. She still hates me for that! :)

But there she was, trying to lead the most diverse team of different individuals. And she did pretty damn well! Of course it was intense, of course there was a lot of tension and of course it wasn't easy, but she managed to elevate the organization to the next level. Exactly what needed to happen!

Before long, it was time for her to go to a real leadership conference abroad. I knew she would be super-motivated when coming back, and I instilled a thought on her: How about you and me applying to the national leadership team together, to even more challenging post. She didn't really have time to respond before she went for the conference, so the poor girl had to play with the idea for the whole week or more she was there. How nice of me. She still hates me for that. :)

Becoming who she really is
Although it was her plan to continue studies after the long year in the leadership of AIESEC Saimaa, somehow she ended up submiting her application, gaining immense confidence along the process and smiling her way through to the national leadership body. Luckily, I had an honour to join her (and three others). I wasn't so sure of my own chances to get selected, but I was damn sure for her!

There we were, packing the van full of stuff and heading to Helsinki on 1st of May 2005. Once we started getting our knowledge transition, the last team said that the umbilical cord between Tomi and Pike has to be cut. We tried and didn't seek that much comfort from each other's advice, but I think part of the cord still remains.

Our next 13 months were hard core leadership development during the day and charging the batteries in Kantsu in the evening. The year was full of fun, proximity, deep thoughts, dirty dishes, too much beer, too many nights waking up from Mirje's floor after the night in Hevimesta, good discussions in Krouvi, screams and slaps at the office, relaxing cigarette breaks but most importantly: even strengthening friendship!

Hyd
Now we are both having our internships: me in Sri Lanka, she in India. For what I've heard she has pretty much settled her future vision. She is going to be a major help for many people and the whole planet. Of course, with a little help from other people. Cos' she's definitely a people person, not a technology person that the university tried to make out of her. If she can combine those two aspects, she will go far. And at the moment she's practicing something like that. The best thing is that she's coming to visit me in a few weeks! I've been already working a bit extra so I can take a few days off and catch up with her. It's good to have people in your life who just make your heart sing of joy and when you know you're going to meet them you are counting days to be there with them.

Pike, welcome to Sri Lanka!

Letting loose

2006-10-10T16:47:00.000+03:00

For quite a while I was feeling that this blog should not exist, that I'm not able to keep it going, that no one cares what I write here, or that I cannot write interestingly enough. It's funny how dependent you can grow to blog posting... or it's not dependence, it's something else. Love and hate relationship I would say.

Anywho, I somehow decided to check from laskuri.net how many hits my blog has got so far. To my positive surprise I saw a number of 2239! So, to quote Michael Monroe: "Just because you're paranoid, don't mean nobody's watching".

Still, that was not the point why I started this blog. Yes, I wanted to keep folks back in Finland updated of what's happening with my life in this land of elephants, tea and chicken parts. Yes, I wanted it to be a point for linking all the pics from here. But no, this was not the main purpose. Instead, I was supposed to be able to use this as a means for personal reflection. And for such a long time I've struggled with the aforementioned non-problems: how to make the postings structured, how to make them interesting enough, how to please the reader...

So, from this moment on I just concentrate on getting my thoughts down as they are. They are - first and foremost - for me! It will be cool to read them in 10, 20 or 30 years time. I hope to continue occasionally with "the letter method", sometimes I just drop "quick updates", sometimes I just let it flow (like now) and sometimes I borrow Erica's way (like I did with Matti). Actually I just might drop you a not of one special person quite soon. Till that, check the pics in October 2006 folder in Yahoo.

Lost my phone...

2006-10-08T19:53:00.000+03:00

Hey, I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm alive but not answering any text messages any time soon. I lost my phone: maybe someone took it, maybe I just left it in Belihul Oya. The bottom line: I don't have a phone now.

Lately I've engaged in some action sports like white water rafting, a high rope course and paintball. I only have pics of the paintball, though. I'll upload some photos from the last weekend as soon as possible but meanwhile, why don't you check Sietse's photos. He's a Dutch trainee who managed to make a decent picture diary of his stay in here. Cool lad indeed. Above is one of the pictures he took. Guess who's behind the bucket! :)

Matin kanssa

2006-09-30T19:26:00.000+03:00

[Viime yona kirjoitettua] Kello on varttia yli yks yolla. Tulin just yhen saksalaisen laksiaisista. Silmaluomet meinaa menna kiinni, mutta ajattelin etta nyt ihan tuoreeltaan pitaa osoittaa kunnioitusta erasta suomalaista kohtaan! If you didn’t notice yet, I’m writing this one in Fininsh. Complaints? Mee Norjaan!

Taa on Matille. Matissa on lahes parasta se, etta Koistisessa ei tarvita aan tai oon pilkkuja. Siina on melkein parasta se, etta kaveri naki vaivaa pakata nelja rasiaa salmiakkia poksuttelumuoviin ja lahettaa ne miulle osoitteeseen, joka on olemassa todennakoisyydella 0,78. Matti voi ilkamoida siina tietamyksessa, ettei miulla koskaan oo ollu niin hyvaa ystavaa kuin han (kiitos lapsuuden ja yliopistoajan, myos pari muuta).

Miulla oli tapana ajaa Matin luokse juttelemaan. Niin hassulta ku se kuulostaakin, nuori suomalainen miehenalku otti asiakseen menna kaverin luokse keskustelemaan tuikitavallisista ja joskus hyvin tavattomistakin asioista. Joskus saatoin soittaa ja sanoo etta Matilla on nyt 10 minuuttia aikaa laittaa housut jalkaan, kohta mennaan kaljalle. Matti voi tosiaan ottaa kaiken kunnian monesta keskustelusta, jotka on muuttanu miun elaman suuntaa. Niista ehka tarkein oli se, missa kaveri sai miut vakuuttuneeks siita, etta miun elamaa ohjailee jonkun muun (isipapan) arvot, eika omat. Niihin kuulu muun muassa homofobia ja muita ylevia aatteita. Ei millaan disrespectilla iskaa kohtaan, mutta en usko olleeni ihan vaarassa kaikissa niissa vaittelyissa, sen jalkeen kun kavin ajattelemaan omilla aivoilla. Niin ja sori siita etta jain hetkeksi katsomaan bumbtsibumia kanssanne, kun ette voineet kasittaa miks pojalla on meikkia silmissa. Rakastan teita, ja tasta aiheesta lisaa keskustelua myohemmin. Nyt takas Mattiin.

Matin kanssa tavattiin Hiivan Aki, Matin kanssa kaytiin Olutjuhlilla, Matin kanssa todettiin etta kukkii se perunakin, Matin kanssa kuunneltiin diippurplea, Matin kanssa pelattiin sahlya, Matin kanssa juotiin suruun Wales-matsin jalkeen, Matin kanssa tapeltiin kissoista, Matin kanssa rokattiin ihan vitusti, Matin kanssa kaytiin oluella, Matin kanssa halattiin, Matin kanssa perustettiin adonis, Matin kanssa surtiin naisia, Matin kanssa syotiin vanhaa aurajuustoa piparin kera, Matin kanssa pelattiin lautapeleja, Matin kanssa kaytiin luistelee, Matin kanssa saunottiin, Matin kanssa tyonnettiin stereotypiat romukoppaan, Matin kanssa parannettiin maailmaa, Matin kanssa heiteltiin frisbeeta, Matin kanssa potkittiin palloa, Matin kanssa otettiin aurinkoa, Matin kanssa pelattiin ketajulkkistahaluisitpanna -pelia, Matin kanssa loydettiin tekosyita nahda toisiamme muilla paikkakunnilla, Matin kanssa laitettiin hiuksiin lakkaa, Matin kanssa mietittiin miks se ja muut laskee pulkalla mutta tomi ei, Matin kanssa soi Metallica, Matin kanssa keskuteltiin siita miten erilaista olisi jos juna olis lahna, Matin kanssa kierittiin hangessa ja vuodettiin verta (tai lahinna Matti kieri ja vuosi), Matin kanssa puhuttiin yrittajyydesta, Matin kanssa keskusteltiin johtajuudesta, Matin kanssa suunniteltiin tulevaa, Matin kanssa pussattiin, Matin kanssa hulluna heiluttiin, Matin kanssa kisailtiin, Matin kanssa haistateltiin, Matin kanssa oltiin lahekkain, Matin kanssa pelattiin vesikoripalloa, Matin kanssa ajettiin alamaet autolla moottori sammuksisa, Matin kanssa puhuttiin ohran paremmuudesta riisia kohtaan, Matin kanssa elettiin...

Sie, jos kukaan, oot yks niista harvasta, jotka tajuu lahettaa miulle salmiakkia just silla hetkella kun se on loppu. Sie jos kuka, ansaitset ymmartaa (selvalla suomen kielella), etta olet yksi niista mahottoman harvasta, jotka on miulle tarkeempia ku mie itte.

Another 21 days...

2006-09-25T06:41:00.000+03:00

You might think that this posting is just pathetic blabbering and self-pity, but please read till the end. There is a point.

I told you before how I finally managed to quit smoking with this highly sophisticated mental model of seeing “not smoking” in a positive light and seeing “smoking” only as a hindrance on my way to physical, mental and spiritual balance. And all I was supposed to do is “nothing”. I believed that if I can pull this off for 21 days, I will be free of the addiction, both physical and mental ones. Well, I didn’t. I failed!

I fell into one of the traps that I had identified before: I told myself that “I can always smoke one, since I don’t smoke anymore”. So I knew that was coming, but I still couldn’t resist it. As if smoking one fag was like a reward for not smoking for so long.

In the beginning I didn’t want to make noise about this issue, because I thought what people might think if I happened to fail. Then people started asking have my drinking and smoking habits changed. I didn’t want to lie, so I blurted out that I have quit. Then I felt real bad when I realized I’m habitually smoking one ciggy a day. I thought I’m slipping back to my old habits. And I was. On Saturday I was in a party and just couldn’t care less about being a non-smoker. I just bummed from everyone. This was the end of the first try.

But now I realized that even in this case, failing is a beautiful thing. I can learn so much of myself, just because of a stupid failure. I realized it’s not enough to write down your goals and means to get there, but instead you need to be constantly reminded about them. I realized my patience and self-discipline are still not on the level it needs to be in order to achieve what I want in my life. It needs to be practiced. I realized I’m still not able to handle one of the biggest paradoxes in myself: balancing the long-term thinking with the value of enjoying the moment. I realized if you need to buy bread from the closest store that happens to be 20 kilometers away, it’s not enough to walk 15 kilometers in the right direction, turn back and think you did a good job by almost getting there. You’d still have no bread.

The "point" I mentioned in the beginning was in the paragraph above. Just a few more things before sayonara:

I just got to mention it before I forget... There's something seriously wrong with the animals in this country. So far I have seen 1) a human cat, 2) a cow that licks her own tits and 3) a mini-horse that bites people's knees. "What has this guy been smoking?", you might wonder. Let me tell you briefly about each of these incidents.

One evening we were going for a dinner with Ralph and Rasmus. It was already dark as we strolled down the familiar road that leads to the main street in Kirulapone. Then suddenly we heard a child moaning just behind us. We looked, but there was no one there. We walked a few steps and the sound came again. Only thing we could see was a cat. "It cannot be." we thought, but yes, it was a cat that sounded like a human kid. Creepy!
Last weekend we saw a cow standing on the side of the road and then reaching towards its groin - in a distinctly dog-like manner - and yes, it started licking its own tits. Gosh!
Last but not least, in the Kithulgala Rafter's Retreat we came across with a flock of three tame horses. They were quite small, like ponies, and each of them were wearing a bell so you could here where they are going. I thought they are really cute and as one of them came towards me I thought of having my picture taken with him. As Ralph was setting up the camera and I was posing next to the horse, the damn' thing bit me in the knee! Ouch!

So, my question is: Have you ever seen a human cat, a titty-licking cow or a knee-biting horse? No? Welcome to the Land like no other! :)

Lastly, September 2006 folder in Yahoo is again bigger, better and more picturesque.

I'm still waiting someone to ask for the next letter to be showcased. Sorry Annika, I'm saving "A" for later. :) So, ask for a letter, give the reasoning and one example word starting with that letter!

Gay Planet?

2006-09-20T16:57:00.000+03:00

I'm feeling really gay today. How happy do you feel in general? Go and take the test. Or check out how happy nations we have on this planet!

My results were the following:

Your personal Happy Planet Index (HPI) is 80.4, which is above that for any country, including top-placed Vanuatu. Congratulations! However, it is still below the reasonable ideal we have set, of 83, so you can still do more to improve your health and well-being, or reduce your environmental impact. Your score is above that of your country, 58.9.

S

2006-09-16T14:27:00.000+03:00

Storytelling. Sri Lankan way of explaining things is far more context-bound than the short and snappy Finnish style. So, I just wanted to warn you in advance that these postings might become longer and longer every time, as I’m adapting to the local way of beating around the bush before getting to the point… Shit, I’m doing it already.

So…

Squiggle. When Janne asked the letter “S” to be showcased, his argument was that “it’s a nice squiggly shape”. I loved that argument because I’m a squiggle myself. Have you ever heard of Psychogeometrics? It’s a quick personality analysis based on the idea that a certain personality type identifies most with a certain geometric shape (circle, triangle, rectangle, box or squiggle). I wouldn’t go preaching in the name of it’s scientific applicability but I do think it’s about 80% accurate with most of the people. Moreover, it seems that Dr. Susan Dellinger was more or less serious when developing the concept. If you want, you can take the test here.

Sentimental. Saying Janne’s name made me realize one eerie fact: My team mates from last year are the people I miss the most (together with my girlfriend, family and best friends of course). How many people can actually say that some people they worked with previously are the ones that they miss the most? How many people tie true life-long friendships at the working place? How many people get a chance to experience something like that? Teamwork that I experienced last year in the leadership of AIESEC in Finland was more than normal teamwork. It was work of a hot group, a virtuoso team, a high performing team. These are the concepts I dealt with in my thesis, and I already realized during my term that this is a rare occasion of a hot group in action, but I never believed how sad it would be to leave something like that behind.

Saturday. My flatmate, Katty, was just fiddling with her laundry and said “Ooh, it’s good to be home on Saturday. Saturday is such a nice day.” There was a certain truth in that sudden outburst of feelings towards just another day of the week. I don’t long for being a tourist every weekend. I don’t have a need to go around the island and see the marvels of it. Of course, I’ll do it one day (when I have the three-week holiday with Paula!!!) but before that I’m just happy to chill at home.

Sauna. I need to find a sauna! I don’t want to go to any hotel for that but I want to find a proper Finnish sauna. I know there are Finns in this city and I know one or two of them had to be crazy enough to build a sauna somewhere. I was so desperate that I was trying to find one Googling, but search “sauna + colombo + sri lanka” only returned some random gay club sites. Among them was a site filled with witty humor. It’s only in Finnish so if you know the language, go check Lehti. If not, something similar is available also in American.

Smoking. Three weeks, 2 cigarettes, half a cigar and half a joint. That’s a dramatic decrease of what it used to be: pack a day. On Wednesday I fell for it the first time. I had my first mentoring meeting with Sifaan and somehow I just thought I deserve a smoke. I didn’t feel guilty at all. I just let it pass, like in the meditation. Now, yesterday, after the football we were lying on the lawn and I bummed a fag from one of the Germans I played with. At first it didn’t feel like such a big deal, but afterwards I felt really bad… physically! It gave me a huge headache and I had to hit the sack at around 10 pm already. I won’t judge myself if I still smoke one ciggy every now and then but now I at least know the physical addiction is gone, it’s not good for me anymore. My body rejects.

Sex… aika hiljasta.

Sinhalese. After the initial craze of “trying to be the best trainee ever” I haven’t been able to push myself to learn the language, although it was one of my initial goals for the internship to learn the language during the first six months. I know it’s only a matter of prioritization and discipline and that it would be really helpful for me while living here but for some reason it has not seemed that urgent yet. Kattellaan syssymmalla, sano Hynynen.

Serving. Some people in the trainee community here have showed me what it means to “Selflessly Serve Others” (one of the teachings in the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari). Without asking they are taking your used plate and washing it, asking if you want tea or doing other favors you didn’t really expect. It made me only think how selfish I am by nature. I still don’t know where to draw the line. For instance, when it comes to giving money to the beggars I’m really having mixed feelings. On one hand, these people need the 50 rupees more than I do but on the other hand I cannot get rid of this “guilt of not giving” with one or two donations. It should be continuous. Of course everything, eventually, is made for selfish reasons (see e.g. Mark Twain: “What Is Man?”). Like in this case I don’t want to have the sniggering feeling of guilt and donating would postpone the feeling until the next beggar comes into picture. Again, Erica is a good example. She used to donate a certain percentage of her salary to charity and she said she had been doing that for a few years already. I hope she’s still sticking to that virtuous habit. Although the salary in the member committee is not big, it’s a good start for sticking to a habit. Let’s say she gave now 10% of her salary to charity (around 50 EUR / month), in a few years it will already be 500 EUR / month as she proceeds on her career. But for her it’s still the same 10%. (Sorry mummo for using you as an example, I don’t know what’s your real situation at the moment.)

Stories. Usually when you go to someone’s blog you just skim it through without spending too much time on it. If it happens to be a good friend of yours, you might want to read a whole posting. But hardly ever, you go and savor the whole blogging history, posting by posting. As I found Alicia's Blog, I was stuck with it for the next couple of hours and I had to come back the following two nights to read it through. Alicia is a friend of mine, who was on her AIESEC internship in Tampere, Finland. She’s from Auckland, New Zealand. Apparently Alicia – a warm-hearted individual indeed who likes to mull over her feelings – was going through exactly similar feelings as I have done before and during my internship here. I know that studies have been made of the culture shock phenomenon, but I didn’t know it’s this universal. These stories are so powerful that they should be delivered more and more to the people who are considering, now or in 3-4 years time, taking advantage of the work abroad experience provided by AIESEC. There, I said it. Now someone who thinks it’s a good idea, take it forward.

Salmiakki. This is the best candy ever! It’s especially handy in Sri Lanka. When you have it, you can be sure that no one is stealing it from you (Look at the selfish me speaking!) because hardly anyone likes it. Even the bugs avoid it! Normally, if you leave any food or pretty much anything biological on the table, the bugs surround it quicker than you can say: “Kokko, kokkoo kokko. Koko kokkoko? Koko kokko.” That’s not the case with Salmiakki, it’s all yours to enjoy. It’s not a mistake that I have written Salmiakki with capital “S”. It’s the candy of gods and all those delivering Salmiakki abroad should be designated with a noble status. A really big everything to all of you who have helped me in maintaining this positive addiction!

Serendipity. Everyone should know Sri Lanka was previously called Ceylon, but who knew that it was even before called Serendib? This island has actually given the basis for the English word “serendipity”. Already in spring 2004 I got to know this funny fellow called Sifaan who told me interesting things about his home country while we walked the soggy streets of Parnu. Then after just a week or so I was trying to find ways to join the current president of AIESEC in Estonia to go to International Congress in Sri Lanka. Almost two years later I was discussing with Danooshka, a guy who came to facilitate a conference with me in Finland, how it would be to live and work in this country. Maybe it was my destiny or fate to arrive on this island after all.

Shopping. If writing this blog posting doesn’t take the whole day, I will go and do some shopping today. So far, I haven’t wasted that much money in clothes and all… I’ve bought two ties, three collar shirts, sarong, a pair of socks, some underwear, jeans and sandals and it cost me 7200 LKR. Additionally, I bought football and basketball shoes (4800 LKR). So, altogether that would be 12000 LKR, around 100 EUR. I need to buy slippers (Shreya, the Indian ones started malfunctioning!), fancy shoes (Paula, can you bring my black Eccos!) and fancy trousers (so far I’ve managed with one pair of these trousers, might want to wash them one day).

SOLD. When I was six years old, me and my parents moved to a newly built house in Ylamylly (that should be “a” with the dots). My dad drastically cut down the trees and made our yard much bigger. He built a barbecue hut and a large warehouse/carage. We planted dozens of spruce trees so that after several years it would become a fence. We renovated the interiors many times during the years and made it look a whole lot different, better I would say. Mom moved away as I was ten, but home stayed in Ylamylly. I moved away as I was 19, and home moved with me. Now, after being away for five years, it doesn’t hurt me to say that the place is sold. Dad and his fiancée got rid of the house and are now staying year-round in our “summer cottage” (in reality it’s a house, not a cottage). Although I don’t feel that sad for the house as such, it was a bit emotional when my dad asked me through SMS: “We’re moving. Shall I throw away your old books and drawings?” However, I’m happy for my dad. It’s a good new start for him. Slowly but surely he’s preparing to become a happy pensioner, a life where he can concentrate on whatever he wants, without having to go to work every morning just to feed the family. My mom is also in a similar situation in Joutsa. Though she’s sometimes feeling a bit sad and lonely, I do hope that both of them will live happily ever after. To be frank, I miss them and I’d like to be there at least once in a while to make sure they are enjoying life to the fullest.

Shower. I’m so happy; we got a huge improvement in our house, a new jet shower! Previously we had just a strand of water coming from a pipe, now it’s a real shower. Of course there’s no hot water, but I don’t miss that too often.

Saimaa. I hope my local committee is doing fine. I’ve had a couple of chats with Valtteri, the current local committee president, and I’m confident their team is able to get the act together and take the organization to the next level. Happy 30-year anniversary AIESEC Saimaa!!!

Suomi. That’s Finland in Finnish, would Markku say. I admit it! Being away for just a couple of months has awakened the patriot within. It warms my heart when people are digging HIM or praising The Rasmus, although they might have no idea that these bands are coming from Finland. Once a dudester opened my cell phone and showed the label “Made in Hungary” just to prove his point that not all Nokia’s come from Finland. Hyva Suomi! (Vittu ei taalla sirlankassa oo ees aan pilkkuja, perkele!!!)

Sleeplessness. I have had some serious insomnia issues since I moved into this house. The thing is that I had two mattresses in my bed and because of that the bed sheets were falling off every night. Now I removed another one of them but I don’t believe it completely solves the problem. See, I have woken up a couple of nights because some icky bug has crawled into my bed. One night it was just a small one and I managed to squash it in my linen (eeow!) but the other night something was crawling in my hair. Shit, I jumped up and did my “Prodigy: Firestarter” performance to get it off. I still don’t know what it was but my guess would be a cockroach. Indeed, the very next day there was this 5 cm roach strolling in my bed when I came home. I don’t know if I ever get used to this. I don’t know if I have to…

Sun. I have got sun-burned twice already! Me, sun-burned… I never burn! Two weeks ago it was justified; I was reading a book for a few hours in direct sunlight. Conversely, last weekend in Mirissa it wasn’t sunny at all but splashing in the waves for quite sometime managed to have its effect although it was cloudy. Now my dead skin is peeling off and I’m gradually losing the tan. Maybe I just have to admit that I’m Caucasian and not Native American or Hawaiian as some people have claimed. Btw, it’s funny what kind of conclusions people draw of Finns in general when they deal with me. One guy said as any good researcher, “I’ve come to understand that all the Finns have long eyes”. I was like: “Dude, I might have a bit Chinese-looking eyes, but it doesn’t mean all the Finns are like this”. I just wonder what kind of image they have of Finnish food when they hear me complaining that Sri Lankan food is not spicy enough.

Strategic leadership. One of my dreams might come true sooner than expected. I haven’t really let myself get too carried away with the idea yet, because honestly I think there are more urgent, though highly operational, work-issues to be solved before. Ruki, my boss and colleague, has started implying to the possibility that we should write and publish a book. We’re both these people who pitch in ideas all the time, so I don’t know how serious he is, and how ready I am. But deep down I know that I’d love to make it happen! Already when I was writing my thesis, my professors said that there’s only one problem with it: I’m writing in too interesting and catchy tone, scientific text should be more to-the-point and… well, boring. But they encouraged me to consider writing a book, where my style would be not only justified, but preferred. And what it has to do with strategic leadership, one might ask. It has everything to do with that. First of all, like I implied before, currently I’m too focused on operational day-to-day deliverables to take initiative and make this kind of longer-term project start. So, at the moment I’m falling into the trap that lurks for every manager: becoming too operational, instead of being a strategic leader.

SugarCRM. This is a great open-source product for customer relationship management, way better than anything I’ve used before. The only hardship for a business graduate is the installation part. I have no idea what they say in the installation instructions. Umm… what is a Java server MySQL applet? Anywho, this reminds me of the fact that our entrepreneurial plans are starting to actualize. We almost got the start-up capital gathered, first customer is knocking on the door and there is now a core group of three people taking things forward. Antti and Jukka, thanks for being so active! This is the start of something spectacular. Keep the faith!

E

2006-09-11T18:39:00.000+03:00

Erica. Before rambling about the less-important things, I want to show my gratitude to a person who suggested the letter "E". She's actually one of the most active commentators of blogs, including mine. Thanks for that, at first! Just lately she started her own blog, and I've never seen such a warm-hearted idea for any blog... or for any website for that matter. She started writing about people who are important to her: showcasing people who've had impact in her, people who have cared for her, people who have been there for her. Splendid, marvellous, amazing idea! Can anything be more genuinely loving than this? Yet it's so simple. How come no one has done it before? 99% of people, me among them, are just too busy telling about their own lives. But now, it's about time someone tells a few nice things about Erica, and they are not any kind of nice things, they are my deepest feelings for my lovely ex-colleague, ex-flatmate future leader and a life-time friend. Here we go... A few roles in which Erica Cleofe is really good at:

A FRIEND: I still remember how we got to know each other, playing drinking games as a pair in Saimaa Summer. Little did we know, that it wouldn't be the only common challenge for us. Next time I saw you in Kantsu talking about a soap called "It's not my cup of tea". Honestly, that Erica was someone else. She wasn't yet the friend I later on got to know. Still in the early part of our term you took your distance, but at the moment you decided to open up I realized how caring a friend can you be. I miss discussions with you (no matter if the topic was relationships, entrepreneurship, spirituality, getting married, two trains attacking each other or some work-related stuff) and I especially miss the "Everything you desire evenings!".
A COLLEAGUE: Working with you was no less than a perfect experience. We were such a good pair, completing each others approach and skills. Starting from the very first weekend we planned and carried out together, I couldn't have lived without you. When I was too carried away blabbering about facts and visions, you were the voice of reason and practicality: At the moment when I realized we need something essential like printouts, you had them ready to be given out. When we went to sales visits together, there was no need for an ice-breaker (although Lion is a cat!): Your smile was enough to melt the ice. At the office, you were the mediator, bringing the chaos together. You were THE example of an organized person with all your calendars and post-its. You were the one who I learned the most from.
A FLAT MATE: Living in the same flat with you for one year, was an amazing experience for me, most likely not the easiest one for you. :) But you picked up the style quite quickly, and left your cabbage parts lying around on the table, next to the unwashed dishes and half-eaten tuna jar. That was our style. Kantsu was home for the three of us, and I will always remember every detail of the flat. Still, the best thing in the flat was the flat mates. I have never felt such a proximity, such a loving spirit between flat mates. Even The Apprentice was a good show when watched with you!
A LEADER: Last but not least, seeing you in front of the people has always been a delightful scene. You are radiating positive energy in the space, talking wise words with immense commitment and people have no choice than listening to you. But you can be more than a convincing leader. You can be the one who just listens, takes notes and comes up with a solution. Or you can be the one who by her own example - even if it means working 14-hour days - makes a whole country shift forward.
...Did you get it? I love you and miss you, like my whole Team Lego. Those were the days my friend. Thanks for being all this and thanks for starting a great blog! :)

Ecstasy. Remember how in the beginning of my internship I was posting how cool it is to work, how cool it was to go here and there, how cool it is to do this and that? Well, it still is but the original cultural honeymoon period is definitely over. Many things have started irritating me. I'd rather not single them out, but you want to know them anyways, right? And yes, I do want to share. One of the things I wanted to experience is to see and feel how it is to be different from everyone else. Coming from a city where racism was an issue, I truly wanted to experience how does it feel when someone treats you differently just because you look different. I have avoided the baseball bats in my neck and army boots between my ribs, but I never could have imagined how racist people are here. And most likely they don't even know that they are racist. I've heard it's called positive racism in some instances. You are treated "better" than the others; people greet you at the street, shout behind you and insist to know where you are going, strangers call you friend and people stare you at the bus. The bottom line is: People are treating you different than the others. Every single shout and greeting twists your stomach because you've had enough of being different, and all you want is to be treated equally with the rest. Every time you just try to ignore and walze ahead, you lose a piece of respect that you have towards the people around you. You start treating them as "different than you". The ingredients for the vicious circle or racism are ready.

Environment. Second bugging thing is how these people don't care about the environment. Before coming here I was so impressed reading how there are dozens of rules not to harm the coral when diving, how you are not supposed to leave cigarette buts in the nature and how sacred things elephants really are. Now that I'm here I can't deny those facts, but I'm just perplexed how no one seems to care about the environment, and how no one in the govenrmental institutions has taken precautions to handle all the waste. I bet 20, 30 or 40 years ago even Colombo was quite a beautiful city. Now it's a shit-hole! Beira Lake is filled with trash and pelicans are eating plastic from the green water. The ocean beach is so full of dirt that no one dares to go there anymore. Why did they let this happen? Last weekend we saw how the beachfront was covered in oil and dirt because seemingly there was a sinking ship somewhere in vicinity. However, even the next day there was no one to clean it up.

Effort. Last weekend we went down south to spend a day at the beach. As we were driving past Hikkaduwa I saw the graves of the Tsunami victims for the first time. I saw how two years after the disaster, the area was still amidst rebuilding. Although the people were still seeing the effort to make it better, it all felt somehow devastating. I felt so heart-breakingly sad that I didn't realize to produce my camera soon enough. The bus went by but the feeling stayed. As we arrived to Mirissa, we took the wrong way as we tried to find a guest house. Accidentally we arrived to a school yard. There was a class room full of kids who were so smily and happy. It didn't take long for us to find out that all of them had lost their parents to the Tsunami. Still they saw the effort to study and still they were smiling more than e.g. cranky Finnish kids. :) They are the future. I just hope they don' t repeat the same mistakes as their parents, and that they respect the nature a bit more because of what has happened. Because if we don't stop messing with nature, it will always strike back!

Epilogue. I've come to notice that this tactics of writing with one letter is a really good method for collecting your thoughts. That's why I'm writing so huge postings: I have a lot to say. But I cannot spend hours and hours in front of the computer, typing about Zack Wylde and still thinking that I should mention something about Zorro before going to sleep. So, that's why I'm suggesting two alternative methods. Either I a) post comments on the previous posts I've made, when I have something to add under some certain letter, or b) I make a random posting every now and then, adding some thoughts to previous letters. Which one do you prefer?

B

2006-09-07T13:10:00.000+03:00

Basketball. I had huge issues trying to fit in to the Sri Jayawardenepura university basketball team, still have. Everyone is speaking Sinhalese and I'm completely lost of what to do. They are getting more and more adapted to the idea that there's a foreigner in the team, and I try to take the lack of communication (in English) less and less personally. I've also realized that I perform really poorly on the field because I'm being a bit too polite: I don't go into defense that aggressively as usually and I tend to hesitate making my own decisions (shooting) near the opponent's basket. We'll see what happens.

Balance. You know what, I managed to quit smoking! Now, what worked for me is that I "started with the end in mind" like Stephen Covey would say. I was thinking about the physical, spiritual and mental balance that is one of my goals for the internship and I realized smoking is not that big a deal I have thought it is. It's only a hindrance along the way to a greater goal of balance. Then I linked that thinking to the coaching model I got to know last year in Norway. In that model you should ask from yourself (or someone else you're coaching) three questions: 1) What does it take?, 2) What will I gain? and 3) What obstructs? (or what's holding me back). So I just started answering these questions: 1) Nothing. I need to do nothing. Now don't get me wrong. I don't mean that I could just rest on my laurels. I understood that I need to actively do nothing. Confused? For me it was clear: buying a pack of cigarettes, opening the pack, finding a lighter, litting up the cigarette, sucking it in and disposing the butt where all things that I had to do in order to perform this act of addiction. Now I didn't STOP doing them, but instead STARTED doing NOTHING. 2) I will gain a lot of things: Free trip to Maldives with my girlfriend, Ability to concentrate on breathing while meditation, Inhaling more oxygene and hence gaining more energy, Thinking more important and happier thoughts than "where do I get my next fix?", Independence and freedom etc. Previously I had treated this list in a negative light (e.g. wasting money, having a cough etc), now I turned all of them in positive statements so there was more catch to succeed. 3) I listed down all the possible pitfalls (ciggy with morning coffee, ciggy after eating, ciggy while waiting etc) and excuses ("I can smoke one" or "Non-smoking is not part of my image"). This way I was more prepared to face the challenges as they would appear. I switched the morning coffee to morning tea, I started having a dessert after lunch etc. This quite pragmatic approach enabled me to take my mind out of smoking. If in 21 days I haven't smoked I know I have got rid of it for good. Ok, yesterday I smoked one cigar but for different reasons than getting nicotine. I could not finish it though.

Buddhism. I don't know if it's Buddhism as a philosophy or just the meditation part of it, but there's something profoundly wise and kind about it. I have now gone for meditation for three consecutive Mondays and it has helped me to calm down and concentrate on what's important in life. One could say I started liking myself a bit more as I allowed myself to stop for a moment and just let things pass. In October there is a weekend meditation resort in Kithulgala. I'm quite sure I go there, hoping there's no work that weekend. It costs about 2000 rupees and covers all meals and accommodation. I'm looking forward to that. Go and check Ananda's site to see what kind of guy is holding the sessions. He's my monk!

Books. I've been reading a lot. Aside from Good to Great that is dealing with building and developing great organizations and thus linked with my entrepreneurial ambitions, I've been mainly reading inspirational literature. A Monk Who Sold His Ferrari didn't offer that much new insight, but it still made me think about my own life and offered a good framework for enjoyable living. The same themes and pieces of advice were, surprisingly, repeating in Lance Armstrong's book It's Not About The Bike. It was uplifting to read Lance's story of how he was brought up by his mother, how he didn't really fit in (sounds familiar) among the activities and interests of his peers, how he found his passion from bike racing, how he developed himself better and better until he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, how heartbroken he was when he heard the tumour had spread to his lungs and brain, how he eventually survived (after 1,5 years of treatment) and went on to start the cancer foundation to help others who are fighting the diceace and how he finally won Tour de France against all odds. Now I'm finally reading Coelho's Alchemist, a piece that so many people have praised to be one of the best books of our time. I just started so I cannot give any well-informed judgement at this point. However, I must say that so far I've got an impression that it's almost like a simplified version of Sinuhe Egyptian by Mika Waltari (the most famous Finnish novel).

Bravery. It's funny how different approach one takes to certain experiences before, during and after they happen. Five years ago I had this urge to go abroad. During my years in AIESEC the dream still felt distant, although I knew it's going to happen one day. Then when I actually made the decision to go (and especially to go to a so different country for "such a long time"), people were like "oooh, that's such a brave decision!" or "F@#king idiot!". :) Even I thought that "shit, this is a big thing to do". Now, it's just everyday life, nothing special. Still, I think afterwards I will look back at this time and see it as a remarkable step in the continuum of my life.

Bodom. Children of Bodom, Sentenced and other heavy metal bands seem to be quite popular here. The local bands are stating them as their idols and they are dreaming of opening for them. :) Cool. In the picture is one, pretty crappy, local band called Fallen Grace and one of the guys has Children of Bodom shirt.

Bananas. One thing I really love about this country is that there's all the time fresh fruit available in the roadside stalls, pretty much anywhere you go. The papayas, mangos and pineapple are my favorite. They actually have not one but at least four different kind of mangos! Also the local bananas are excellent. They are tiny compared to the ones we get in Europe (imported from South America) but the taste is so much better! I've come to notice that the best part of pineapples is the middle "ring", or the core. That's silly because it's exactly the part they take out when packaging pineapple in those aluminium cans that we can buy back in Finland. Why take the best part out?

Birthday party. Last weekend I got an SMS from a German guy I've been playing football with: "Party tonight. Street Address 123. Cornelius.". So, it wasn't even his party but I thought it doesn't hurt to check it out. So, me and Ralph (a Dutch trainee) decided to unveil the mystery behind this peculiar message. Ralph asked "can we go in shorts and a t-shirt". I nodded. We had some Kotthu (EXCELLENT FOOD!) before going, not to starve there and filled a back-bag with our own beer. Off we go just to realize that the place is on the 7th floor of an eight-storey building (that high structures are pretty much a rarity here), so our expectations went up a notch. We go in the back of the building and there's a guard who takes us to the elevator. When we step off the elevator and go into the apartment we're struck by what we see: The apartment is huge! It has eight balconies!!! It's actually the whole 7th floor. The people are dressed up nicely, tables filled with seven or eight different kinds of snacks (spring rolls, pastries, mini-pizzas etc) and free booze as much as one can drink (beer, red wine, white wine, gin, rum, arrack...). There we are, in the middle of a group of seemingly wealthy German and some international people, wearing our shorts and asking where to find a fridge to chill our beer. :) Nah, it could have been a bit embarassing but we just started mingling. People were asking how do we know Andreas (who's house-warming party it was) or Cornelius (who's birthday party it was), and we just had to answer "we don't". People seemed to respect our honesty and let us crash there. David and the other football acquaintances arrived two hours later just to find us blabbering with the other guests and making ourselves at home. :)

Bottles. Although the country is pretty much covered in waste, you can see cows eating the trash at streets, people are burning their trashes on their yards and thus creating thick black smoke for others to breathe and the diesel fumes created by the traffic sometimes just knock you out, there is still one good environmental deed in this country. Refund system of empty bottles is working! Yet again, it's not exactly the similar kind of system that we have back home where you just take the bottles to a machine that refunds you the fixed sum of money per bottle. No, here you basically pay 20 rupees refund when you are buying a bottle of beer from a liquor store. However, you can get your new bottle 20 rupees cheaper if you return an empty one. Then again, if you are not planning to get more beer but just want to get rid of the empties that have gathered into the corner, you can still take the bottles back but then they refund only 10 rupees a bottle. Once in Negombo we had to pay 50 rupees refund when we had some take-away beers from a pub. Still, as mentioned before, the system works. Even if you are buying a soda from kiosk (they call it "hotel" or "cool spot"), don't ya dare taking the bottle with you. You are expected to finish the soda there because they are just dying to get the empty bottle back. :)

Boss. I've come to find out that my boss is quite a fair fellow. Usually "sick leave" is an unknown concept in this country. I got quite a bad flu, so I tried to ignore it, fight it and cure it, but nothing seemed to work. Then I just sent him an SMS that I won't be coming to work tomorrow because I'm so sick. His response was "Ok... Drink a lot of Samahan!" (Samahan is a local herb and spice mix for flu and any other kind of ache). Another cool thing is that I don't have to worry what I wear at the office. Usually t-shirt and shorts combination is an absolute no-no in this quite conservative country, but that is my every-day work outfit. I was sure he would comment on that but he didn't. I was so relieved! Another prove that I do have an excellent job. Thirdly, the remuneration consists of base salary, sales commissions and incentives. The incentive system is directly linked on my job description, so good performance leads to good salary. This is the first time I see this results-based remuneration in action, and so far it seems to be a good practice!

Beer. Pike was complaining that Indian beer is really bad because they add oil in it (!). Sri Lankan beer, however, is not bad at all. The most common brand is Lion Lager that is a reasonably tasty lager when chilled. The only problem is that here it gets warm really quickly, and the bottle is 625 ml, so you'd better share it with your pal and enjoy it cool. Lion Stout is for people who are more into the dark English-type beers. It's really good actually, but you should be careful with that. It's eight percent and the bottle is so big that you don't need many to get a decent whirl.

Belihuloya. I miss that place. I told you before that we are organizing some trainings in a place called Belihuloya. It's a serene and naturally beautiful place filled with tranquility. It's actually a bit sad that I haven't been traveling that much after the first two weeks. I'd love to see more than Colombo because, let's face it, this city sucks! But still I have learned to like small things even in Colombo, and I have built my routine for living in here. It's ok to spend weeks here but I should go and see the rest of the country during weekends. Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, Kandy, Nuwara-Eliya, the national parks and a multitude of beaches still remain a mystery to me. Of course I could go any weekend but I've just been postponing and postponing, thinking that "Hey, I still have 17 months left". If I continue thinking like that I end up in a situation where "There's only one month left". So, what have I then done during the weekends? Nothing! :) And I've enjoyed it... Watching movies, talking with people, reading books. It's all good!

Bombing. Just wanted to ease your minds by saying that whatever the situation up north of the island is, it doesn't really show here. There hasn't been any bombs in Colombo lately, so don't worry for me. And if something should happen, remember it's meant to be like that.

F

2006-08-30T16:15:00.000+03:00

(Today, as per request from Jogi, it is time to reveal the secrets of beautifully spelled letter F. If the push comes to shove I might even have to use the F-word.)

Family. I already mentioned that I'm missing my family back home. As I don't have my own kids yet, my family consists of Paula, mom, dad, sister, brother and their kids and spouses. It's funny how I've come to think family in this extended sense, although it's not that common in Finland, I think. Even more weird is how I immediately started paying more emphasis on family as I realized I'm going further away from them. I didn't have family as part of my key values, although majority of people does. If I know did some sorts of values odyssey I might find family being in top 10.

Friendship. I've never had too many true friends... Before uni I didn't have even that many acquaintances. Still friendship is maybe the most valuable thing in my life. I've come to notice that those people who I regard as my true friends, do live up to the status. :) They don't seem to care that I'm on the other side of the globe: they are as close as ever. There was a time, that I lost one of my true friends (or I thought I lost him) for 10 years, but later realized that the friendship has not disappeared anywhere. You know who you are, and I miss you! Another true childhood friend is now getting married and becoming a father... I lost contact with him as we realized we are too different people. He still made an effort to re-become friends and told how much he would like to be in touch, but I was too stupid and busy to run the extra mile that keeping the friendship alive sometimes requires (Although I do agree, to some extent, with the fellow who said "True friendship doesn't require correspondence.")

Fat. Like I might have mentioned earlier, I started again playing football and basketball as minor steps towards the more loftier goal of physical and spiritual balance, that I have set for the internship. I also walked a lot just to sweat away a couple of layers of my formidable investment, the beer belly. Now, after five weeks in Sri Lanka, I finally got a chance to step on a scale. To my amazement the scale showed only 80 kilos, with full clothing. Although I have been quite active I cannot believe that during one month I could have anyhow lost 9-10 kilos! That's insane. Ok, I admit, it was one of these "Mister, 2 rupees!" scales, so I wouldn't count on its reliability. Still, this is a good start.

Fish. Usually when you go to a restaurant and look at the menu, you have an option to choose between many different kinds of fish (or at least a few of them)... herring, cod, salmon, perch etc. Nonetheless, this country seems to have only one fish, that's called... umm... FISH! When you order rice and curry, you get to choose between chicken and fish (sometimes also veggie, egg, beef or something else). How can they compare chicken with fish? With this analogy ordering chicken should not be possible, but instead it would be fish and... bird. By the way, one day I went to a restaurant and took away some string hoppers, gravy and chicken parts. Yes, you heard right... Chicken parts. And they were not any kind of chicken parts (like leg or breast) but actually more like liver, spleen, heart, kidney etc. Never, ever, ever order chicken parts!!! Yucky!

Football. I'm trying to figure out how to be able to see the qualifying games to European Championship, at least the games of Portugal and Finland (who by the way are playing in the same group). Maybe it's hopeless here. As hopeless as Finns to qualify. Well, if you have any good tips, let me know!

Fun. I heard that an average four-year old kiddo laughs 300 times a day, whereas an average grown-up laughs only 5-15 times. Where does all the fun disappear? How could we encourage societies, work places and communities to be more tolerant towards laughter and actually encouarge people to enjoy and laugh. Sometimes it feels that this natural way of energizing people is too often oppressed. Shit I miss my team... that was fun guys!

Fumes. It's not fair that a human being adapts so quickly to new environments... No one should be able to adapt to pollution. When I came here it was a shock and I wanted to do something about it, now I don't even notice that the air, streets and water is so polluted. What to do?

Facilitation. In October there would be an opportunity to facilitate in the National Leadership Development Seminar of AIESEC in Sri Lanka. I don't know if facilitation on my free time is anymore my thing, since I do it as my work. Chairing the conference, on the other hand, might be a good opportunity for deep learning... Well, maybe I should first be a facilitator and then see about chairing. Uh, I don't know. By the way, next Wednesday I'm going down south to Bentota for a fun Wild Drift program. We are staying in a luxurious hotel. I'm looking forward to that. Taking a dip in a swimming pool and having a hot bath would be something extraordinary (there's only cold water in the tap here!).

FCUK... is a quite cunningly named clothes brand. Go check the latest photos in August 2006 folder in Yahoo!

M

2006-08-25T07:29:00.000+03:00

Mornings. I've got to get used to early-morning wake-ups, because traveling within Colombo takes a while and if we are going to meet a client it's usually far away from the city centre. This has forced me to go to bed quite early. At times I'm thinking if I really need that 7-8 hours of sleep, if I could actually prolong my waking hours and do something more than just wake up, go to work, come back, eat and go to sleep. But being a zombie the next day is not my cup of tea, so this is how my weeks go. Dull? Maybe. Work-oriented? Yes. Balanced life? Not at all.

Management consultancy. I'm still perplexed how good tools being in AIESEC gave me to excel in the area of management consultancy. All the things we did in AIESEC - from personal development planning to Balanced Scorecard implementation to leadership trainings - they all make sense now. People in the business sector haven't got these tools while they were studying, and now I'm guiding them on these although I'm much younger than them. Weird.

Moving. I have moved twice already. First time I moved about six metres from a hot-like-hell small room to a cooler and bigger one. This happened after just a few sleepless nights in my new flat. The second moving happened last week: This time I moved about 15 metres to another house, that we call ROME. K-house (the other trainee house) became AIESEC office, due to lack of trainees occupying it and hence being costly to AIESEC. I like being in ROME, with my new roomie Shek. Actually, even before moving in to ROME I felt it's more cozy than K-house. For instance, I had my dinner only once in K-house (the evening before I moved away) since ROME felt more like home. It was a bit weird to go and eat in someone else's house but now I can do it without having to feel awkward.

Mine. Please, don't become hysterical when I tell this! Three days ago the police found a claymore mine installed to a bicycle that was standing on a street that I take to go to work every morning. I was happily unaware of the fact until I read the news. I realized I had passed the spot just fifteen minutes before they found the mine. Luckily it didn't go off and luckily I wasn't there at that time. Detailed article about this can be read here. You might have heard about the explosions in Colombo, killing a few civilians too, but did you ever hear about Sri Lankan Airforce slaying 60 school girls up north?

Movies. Last weekend I saw altogether four movies. On Saturday we went to see Superman Returns in Majestic City Cinema and the whole rainy Sunday we spent watching movies from a laptop. I hope this weekend is more action-oriented. I'm actually planning to go to an event called Rock Saturday (organized in Women's Hall) where a local heavy metal band Stigmata is playing. I've heard Stigmata is the only proper heavy metal band in this country. We'll see. Actually I read their interview where they mentioned being fans of Sentenced. Cool! Go Oulu!

Mom... and dad. Being so far away of the people I love has made me appreciate them more. I even miss my mom and dad, although I haven't been living with my mom for 15 years, nor with my dad during the past 5 years. My dad finally sold the house where I spent my childhood and teenage years. That's good because it was stupidity to have two houses (the other one they called summer cottage, although it's quite luxurious house). Mom sent me a postcard and I've tried sending her a couple of SMSs but since she doesn't know how to use the phone she just replied with an empty SMS. :) Poor mom.

Money. I finally got my local bank account! Over three weeks ago I went to my local branch of Commercial Bank and asked if I could open a bank account. They were really helpful and everything went smoothly: I signed some papers, paid 250 LKR and made the first deposit of 1000 LKR. But the initially perceived smoothness was deceiving... According to the clerk, the next step was to wait 2,5-3 weeks to get the PIN number by mail. Right. I asked whether I could just pop by and get the PIN number from the same local office because I lived only 300 metres from it. No, they said their procedure is that they send it as registered mail and there has to be someone to receive it. I said there is no one at the house during day time. They replied that then the PIN number goes to the local post office where I can collect it. I asked where is the local post office, but they didn't know. Marvellous! After a couple of weeks I found my way to the closest post office, after several inquiries, and they said there is no such address that I had given. Splendid! I checked from the other interns and indeed I had a bit wrong address (then again, no one seemed to know what actually is the right address). So, all this took just a few minutes and I went back to the person I had talked with in the post office. He had gone away. I asked from another fellow and he said the person had gone to a cantine, but I wouldn't want to go in there because it's not the most hygienic place (indeed, there was a dead rat outside), so I just asked him to deliver a message to this guy, stating my corrected (or possibly correct) address. Cool. I return home just to find out that the Commercial Bank office has disappreared. Great! Well, later I found it had moved just to another location in Kirulapone (the same area). Finally this week, after well over three weeks I received the PIN number (still I have no idea how it found its way to our living room table!). This morning, I walzed in to the bank and collected my ATM card. Again, it went smoothly, required only a few minutes and a couple of signatures. But I gave up with them when I wanted them to make the correction in my address in their system and their answer was "You need to write us a small letter stating that your address has changed.". "Fuck that!" I thought, but just smiled at her and let it be wrong the wrong address...

Mentoring. I'm about to start again a mentoring process. Sifaan, a local AIESEC alumnus that I already met back in 2004 in Estonia, agreed to be my mentor. Once he gets back from global Sri Lankans reunion (gathering of former interns and MC members in Poland) we'll start the mentoring by setting clear goals to my internship and finding ways to get there. That's cool and I'm really looking forward to that. At this point I'd like to show my gratitude to my former mentor Janne Korpi who helped me to make the best out of last term in the leadership of AIESEC in Finland. Without those discussion sessions with him I might still be the same unbalanced emotional roller-coaster that I was a year ago. Thanks man!

Meditation. Although the mentoring is yet to start I've already taken steps towards some of my goals concerning my time in Sri Lanka. For example, last Monday I experienced my first meditation class. There was a Buddhist monk who was originally Dutch, I think. He was a really funny, laid-back fellow. For instance when we were discussing about the proper way to sit while meditating, he said that lotus position (your both feet locked over each other) is not recommended if you're not flexible enough. He referred to himself being unable to get to that position "because of my bodily structure, or just because I'm so fat". :) The whole thing took about 1,5 hours and consisted of four parts. First he explained what meditation is and how the process goes. Secondly we tried meditation while sitting down. It was a weird but pleasant experience. Being in the centre of Colombo in a temple without proper walls, cars tooting their horns, I was still able to reach a peaceful state of mind and concentrate only in being there my eyes closed. I don't know if it was solely a physical reaction of blocked circumvention or if there was something psychological about it, but when I opened my eyes a bit too early and quickly I couldn't move my left foot. I was a bit scared at that point, closed my eyes again and only when the monk clinged a bell and I opened my eyes reeeally slowly I regained the control of my foot. The last two parts - walking meditation and a shorter sitting session - were not that powerful but I still left the place being quite pleased, and decided to do it again soon.

Mosquitoes. I don't know if they don't like me anymore or if I have developed some kind of tolerance towards them, but the mosquito bites are not itchy and visible anymore. That's good, since the first few weeks were really annoying, having to scratch yourself all the time and in the back of your mind being a bit worried about catching malaria or dengue fever. Now mosquitoes are generally out of my to-be-worried-about list.

Maldives. I'm so much looking forward to my three-week christmas holiday. Paula is coming to Colombo and we head to the paradise islands of Maldives for a couple of weeks. After that I need to be at work for the 2 January for a common kick-off event of the year, and then we head to explore Sri Lanka together for one more week. I think it's a really cool thing from her to come all this far and spend as much time together as possible. I love her! More than ever.

Mediocracy. Last but definitely not least, I want to share with you my biggest feeling of success so far. There is this local company we are working with on a long-term strategic planning project. I've got to know their way-of-thinking quite closely already, and one thing bugged me big time: They were really humble and trying to find excuses to remain mediocre company. They were thinking they cannot control their destiny that much and they shouldn't make too much fuss about themselves. Their ambition level was low and they didn't want to rock the boat too much. Still, they were talking about striving for excellence being an important value for them. Now, when we were setting their four-year vision, I couldn't hold it inside me anymore but I stood up in front of everyone and criticized them openly about this. I said that if they continue the same way, there is no one to have these meetings anymore in 2010. As I sat down, there was a moment of silence during which I could hardly breath. I was thinking, what will my boss say, what will they say, and are they just going to walk out of the room in frustration. Suddenly, the CEO opened his mouth and had a heartfelt motivation speech for the room full of managers and employees, starting with words "I agree with Tomi...". Sigh! That was such a relief and paved a way towards a brilliant future for the company. Suddenly all of them stood behind the newly stated ambition level and now the arguments towards the bold vision were just grammatical. It was the most rewarding moment so far for me personally and seemingly for this company, too! Yeah, baby, yeah!

Mmmm-bobb! If you didn't notice yet, I decided to organize my thoughts (and blog postings) according to alphabets, starting logically with letter M. To make it a bit more interactive, you can request your favourite letter to be showcased in the future postings! :) Just give me a letter and one issue starting with that letter, and I'll deal with it. Thank you for reading this far!

Ani-ani-mals...

2006-08-18T16:48:00.000+03:00

Hey, check this out to see what kind of animals we have lying around at our porch!

End of chapter one

2006-08-18T15:36:00.001+03:00

If my time in Sri Lanka was a book, I feel like coming to an end of chapter one. Acknowledgements and introduction were handled already back in Finland and during the first ten days here. Chapter one has been basically about getting into the routine, having an overview of the job, tying basic relationships, getting over first culture shocks, buying two umbrellas, defining purpose for the whole period of 18 months (I don't call it an internship; it's damn hard work) and fixing mechanisms to keep myself motivated in a role that doesn't entail much leading other people.

"Could you be more specific?" - Janne Asmala

Although the topic of the internship - leadership and team development - is exactly my cup of tea, I was feeling a bit frustrated in the beginning. This was because I had done leadership in practice and theory so many years, and now I felt like stepping down to "new employee level" again. Then I confronted the brutal fact that if I want to be a successful leader in the private sector, my non-profit experience is just a good starting point. I need to start developing myself from the scratch and create the possibilities for development if my organization doesn't offer them. As you might know, I'm working in a company of three people (including me) so there's nothing much to lead... yet! As some of you also might know I'm not that much into working for someone else anymore, now that the entrepreneurial flame as lit inside me. So, due to these two facts I decided to work so hard - both in terms of my own development up to my potential and financially from the company's perspective - that in one year's time I will have my own team. Now that is something that keeps me motivated, a personal short-term vision of having my own team! I still don't know what the team will do or who it will consist of (although they will be AIESEC interns), but the vision drives me forward... It's just a stretch goal! At the same time it will be yet again my small contribution to the organization I love so much - AIESEC.

But it ain't going to be easy: Employing three more people in a company of three current employees means doubling the personnel costs. To make it possible, the results I bring in together with Ruky (my boss) need to be extraordinary. Yet again, with our drive and with our cutting edge products that's achievable. What I love the most about this company is that we are all the time aiming to be the number one provider of leadership development products in the Sri Lankan market. Currently I'm working on a couple of clients with whom we use Ruky's BLUE model for them to excel in strategic leadership. Meanwhile, we are developing yet another product that will sell like hell! That's pretty much all I can reveal as of now, but it sure is exciting! (Or what do you think as I'm writing this at the office 6:30 PM Friday evening?)

If you have any questions about this or other events that took place in chapter one, please comment and ask! I'd prefer dialogue in this blog, instead of just me writing every now and then. Finally, I want to thank my former team mates who have commented on my postings. I miss you guys, I really do!

Still alive

2006-08-15T09:39:00.000+03:00

Hi! Yesterday I tried to post a long "what have I been up to, what's the political situation in this country etc" posting, but this damn blogger didn't work. Hope I have better luck now.

I just wanted to let you know I'm alive, enjoying the work and looking towards bigger and bigger responsibilities. Last weekend we went to Negombo, Sri Lanka's first tourist resort. Before that I attended Dan's wedding, a great cultural experience for me (and splendid food!). Pics from both of those events can be found in August 2006 folder in Yahoo.

July photos...

2006-08-07T14:24:00.000+03:00

I added 54 more photos to the July 2006 folder in Yahoo. Today I'm supposed to go to Malu's party who is visiting Sri Lanka and who was working for AIESEC in Sri Lanka on term 2004-2005. Everyone are fuzzing about her so maybe I gotta meet her. Actually, on Thursday I'm going with Malu, her husband and some German girl to Dan's wedding. If you're wondering who the $#^@ is Dan, I met him last November in Finland when he was facilitating in same conference with me. Back then he slipped that Sri Lanka could be a good country to live in and now I'm going to his wedding. :)

Working like hell... and enjoying like heaven!

2006-08-07T11:43:00.000+03:00

Hi! I just came back from a two-day training program in the semi-jungles of Belihuloya. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me, but I'm sure to take it the next time I go there. The place is breathtakingly beautiful! And the weather is amazing, just like Finnish summer (I don't mean the rainy part of it). I actually had a chance, finally, to take a dip in a lake. Although everyone had to wear a life-jacket (most people here cannot swim!) while swimming. This was during the second training day when our task was to build a raft for 17 people and take it to a certain destination in 1,5 hours (built a good raft but failed time-wise).

On first day we had a treasure hunt. We were divided in two groups of 17 people each and we were supposed to find five clues and a treasure from the so-called jungle (basically just a path along the river, through the forest and some paddy fields) in a limited time. First of all, I have to say that it was so cool to see the real nature of Sri Lanka and have some exercise while doing so. It was a day full of learning for me, not that much of the topic itself (teamwork and leadership) but the Sri Lankan way of behaviour. First I thought writing this in Finnish so that none of the locals would be offended but then I realized it would be quite Sri Lankan to do so. :) See, I'm already adapting local behavior. Anywho, here is my off-the-cuff analysis of Sri Lankan way of working:
+ These guys have a lot of drive, passion and commitment. Team spirit is high and everyone enjoys what they are doing. Already on our way to Belihuloya the guys were singing and chanting in the bus. This is something I haven't really seen in any Finnish company. When they get down to work, everyone takes responsibility and doesn't want to let the others down.
- Although there's drive, there's not really that much deep thinking behind decisions. Everyone wants to voice their opinion and still decisions are made rather quickly, without "wasting time" in unnecessary tings like agreeing on team principles, developing a strategy to complete the mission or agreeing what exactly we are supposed to do. No one wants to admit that they don't know something. At the start of the treasure hunt we faced the major problems already in the beginning when the first landmark to be found was a Damba tree. According to them we found dozens of Damba trees, though in reality no one had a slightest idea how a Damba tree looks like. :)

Don't take this too seriously, it's just some of the first cultural observations I've made. The next couple of days I will be co-facilitating an indoors training in Colombo about business leadership. Again, I'm looking forward to that, now from a bit more professional perspective. I'd actually like to take a bit more responsibility in this one. Last weekend I was just a participant in the program so I get the delegate's perspective.

Actually Wednesday is supposed to be a Poya day (national holiday) but I'm working. However, after that I have four days off since I'm going to Dan's wedding. I try to take pictures from there. ;)

PS. I'm still trying to match the Wild Drift internship TN-In-LK-CN-2006-1258. If you know anyone who has AIESEC background and who's into facilitation and adventure, drop me a note!

Exchange... of bullets and interns

2006-08-03T15:31:00.000+03:00

In aiesec.net there was a discussion whether the current political situation has an impact on interns' willingness to come to Sri Lanka and whether AIESEC in Sri Lanka should be sending "propaganda" pictures to other AIESEC countries. I know that the people here always want to see (only) the positive side of things and I know some of the interns have been afraid to come to the country. Still I wanted to argue a bit. Here's my reply:

"I had to bear with the same question over and over again before coming here: "Aren't you afraid to go there?". I started to find out about the background of the conflict and it became quite everyday issue for me. All this I put in my blog (astikainen.myaiesec.net). However, now that I'm here, I don't really even think about the whole thing. I'm here to work and to prepare for my future, so the things going on in my head are quite work-related and there's not much room for worrying about the safety situation.

I know it's sad that even today people get killed throughout this island but those people made a conscious choice to bear arms, no matter which side they are in. It's even more sad if civilians get injured or killed as a side effect. I know that it's possible that something happens also in Colombo and it might be my ass on the line, but I feel it's highly unlikely.

As for sending nice pictures etc all over the communities, I consider it's a really bad idea. First of all, no one likes spamming. Second of all, it's telling only the one side of the story. I had this romantic image of Sri Lanka when I came here, because all the books and travel agent sites in internet provided only one side of the story.

Instead, take pictures of cows in the street eating trash. Take a video of a Tamil guy preparing Kottu and making the sound rhyme. Ask a boy in the orphanage to write a letter telling about his situation. Ask a trainee how annoying it can be when you are treated like a rich super-tourist in every corner of the road. These and many more are the experiences people are looking for in the internship, no matter how different or unpleasant they might sound.

That's the cultural side. When it comes to the professional side, I suggest you go and raise more and better internships. Obvious? No. Sometimes being in AIESEC makes you quite complacent and happy with the current situation (nice people around you, good parties, something reasonable to do). However, leadership and exchange are the backbone of this organization and one needs to work hard in order to get results for himself and for the organization. Lately it's been quite sad to listen the news from many interns' work places: nutty bosses, ridiculous behavior and really bad working climate. Something ain't right and for that we cannot blame LTTE or government.

Yours, Tomi"

First set of photos uploaded

2006-08-02T08:11:00.000+03:00

Hey, I promised to upload the photos taken so far. Well, there was 450 of them so I just picked 44 best ones of them for you to see. So go and view my latest photos and select the July 2006 folder to get a brief glance at my adventures in Sri Lanka.

Happened so far... I was handling practicalities in Colombo for the first week: I got my health insurance just in case something happens and I need to go to hospital (something already happened, but didn't need to go... I'll tell ya later). I fixed myself a local bank account so that the salary could be paid there and I could use the local ATM card to withdraw money when necessary. Later I heard the salary is paid in cash and it seems pretty much everything here is handled in cash. Some restaurants and major stores accept a credit card (which I don't have), so there's a lot of cash moving around. Actually, they even have the old-fashioned account book where you mark all the withdrawals and deposits when visiting in the bank. That's just a one thing that makes me feel like traveling back in time. I also managed to get my residence visa and it took me only three visits to the immigration office. I knew that nothing would happen if I didn't demand quick delivery so I pushed, pushed and pushed and got it done within one day. As I was finally collecting my passport and visa at around 4 pm, I met one guy from UK who had been waiting there since 8 am and still didn't have his visa. Tourists, hah!

First weekend we - Sasha, Sam, Shek and I - went to Dambulla and Sigiriya. I didn't like Dambulla that much because in every corner people just tried to rip us off. Even the trishaw (tuk-tuk, three-wheeler... call it what you will) driver who at first seemed really helpful was actually just trying to make us visit shops and fruit stalls with whom he had "an arrangement" (getting money for bringing in customers). And I was so stupid that I even bought him an ice-cream because he was willing to wait for us while we were shopping for our groceries. Live and learn! Anywho, in Dambulla we saw the huge Buddha statue and the cave temples filled with Buddha statues and images (just check the pics). Sigiriya, on the other hand, was just amazing (even though there was a guide who just tagged along even though we didn't really want to use him). To climb the Lion Rock in Sigiriya takes 1200 steps, to get to the height of 350 meters. The views were just breathtaking! The story goes that back in the old days there was two palaces - one for winter and one for summer - and the king used to take turns living six months at a time in both... with 500 ladies. Not bad!

I have also tried to build up some kind of life in here... played football and basketball, shopped for some clothes (I have to wear long pants at work even though our company is not that strict on dresscode!!!) and strolled around the streets of Colombo to familiarize myself with the city.

Last weekend we hit the beach (maybe the best beach in this country, after Arugam Bay that's in the dangerous zone in the east) south of Sri Lanka, called Unawatuna. We arrived there late on Friday evening and around midnight we went from our hotel to the party place. We took the beach route although it was pitch-black. Everything went fine, the ocean was amazing under the star-filled sky... until the tidal waves came in and sloshed over us. Well, it was fun start for the weekend. Next day more trainees came there and we were basically trying to recover from last night's party. But the evening was so cool! Sifaan came there, we played two truths and a lie (some getting to know!) and just chilled at the beach. On Sunday morning I woke up early to go snorkeling with Rasmus. After 15 minutes of snorkeling I took a break and when I went back to water I hurt my foot on a sea-urgin (merisiili in Finnish). That kind of spoiled the rest of the trip but at least I experienced the local way of traditional healing (using herbs and burning the wound with a flame!). There are some pics of that too so you better check them out! Cool stuff! And it worked. On Monday it was much better and now it's completely healed!

That's all for now. Back to work! I'm meeting my first client today. I'll be an account manager for them. Cool!

Brief update

2006-08-01T07:57:00.000+03:00

Hi guys. Finally it's my first day at work. There seems to be a whole lot to do and my boss's expectations towards me are huge. I hope I won't only meet those expectations but exceed them. I'll tell you more about cultural collisions and the trips we've done later once I get my own photos uploaded. Meanwhile, here are some shots from Sigiriya. Catch ya later!

Alive and kickin'

2006-07-25T08:46:00.000+03:00

Sorry guys I've been in an internet-void for a while. I'm just waiting to start my work next week so I can post more often. Now I'm in an internet cafe cos I want to share some initial thoughts with you.

To be honest the first couple of days were quite weird, at the same time I was just smiling at everything because everything was so new and exciting and on the other hand I felt the new environment wasn't that good. The flat was really dirty, all sorts of insects were running around and by the time I met a 15-cm spider I thought I couldn't live there. The worst thing was the heat in my room, that happens to be the hottest room in the whole community. I'm still not coping with that, cannot really sleep that well. However, I'm going to switch rooms at some point so shouldn't worry too much about it. Also the local traffic and pollution was quite terrifying in the start. There are dozens of spare-part stores alongside roads and now I understand why. :] They are driving like crazy!

However, the adaptation started pretty quickly. I don't mind anymore taking a shower [or rather just a line of dribbling water] with a few spiders, ants and a worm. I'm ok with the traffic and now it seems natural that people are tooting the horn constantly: it's not to irritate the others but to communicate with them. Oh yeah, and I don't care about the mosquitoes anymore. At first I was panicking if I'd catch dengue fever or even malaria but now I'm not scared of them anymore. I've been bitten by mosquitoes many times already, so if I catch the fever I'll just cope with it and go to hospital. That reminds me of one undone practicality... I still haven't got the insurance fixed. I got my visa only yesterday and opened up the bank account today. Maybe I get to fix the health insurance also today. That would bring me a certain peace of mind. It's funny how small things make you adapt better and better; cleaning and decorating your room, putting up a picture of your girlfriend, calling home, getting a wrist band from the trainees as a mark of being one of them, getting the practicalities fixed, eating good food in low-quality restaurants, sipping a bit of tap water every day to improve the immune system, the list goes on...

I won't tell you much of what has happened so far because I believe one picture tells more than a thousand words and I cannot yet upload the pictures. You have to wait till next week. I can reveal a bit though: last weekend we went to Dambulla and Sigiriya with Shek, Samantha and Sasha. It was so cool that Shek just said to me on Friday that we are going. I was like "Oh, they just assume that I go with them. Cool!" I didn't have to beg on my knees that I could go. Ok, Dambulla was not much more than a commercialized tourist attraction, although there was an impressive collection of buddha statues in the cave temples. But the locals who treat us like tourists and use their all wit to just rip off our money, sometimes successfully, brought my mood down. Next day I was afraid that the bad mood would continue as we went to the Sigiriya rock, a 350-meter cliff with amazing views and 1200 stairs. You see, there was a guy at the gate who just started walking with us and not even saying that he's a guide. We should have agreed before whether we want a guide or not but we didn't so now we justs silently accepted that we take one. He wasn't much of use in explaining the history of the rock but he took some nice pictures of us and acted quite politely. Actually I hate it when the people in the tourist locations call you sir. I'm not a sir. I'm just a normal guy like them. Sad... Anywho, in Colombo it's better. The sales people are not that pushy and they are more used to see white skin. Still, this is what I wanted... to experience how it feels to be different. And believe me, you can feel it.

As the last thing in this posting I want to give you my new phone number: +94775359809. By the way, when I tried to copy the phone numbers to my new SIM card I accidentally erased most of my numbers. So, if you want to stay in touch with me via cell phone, please drop me an SMS with your name included or put your number here in the blog.

Over and out for now!

Arrivin to Sri Lanka

2006-07-20T12:05:00.000+03:00

Hey ho! I'm here, finally! Sadly I cannot upload any pictures yet since I've just been here for five hours or so, and I'm now sitting at the AIESEC office without my camera cable. Anywho, let's start from the beginning. There I was in Helsinki-Vantaa airport. The girl at the check-in had to call help from her colleague who advised to contact the team leader who then finally heard from someone that it's okay to go to Sri Lanka without the return ticket or visa. After some 20 minutes I was finally on my way... Well, on my way for waiting the first plane. The plane model was Fokker, you know, one of those small fockers. It wasn't that steady in turbulence and no way did they serve anything during the flight. However, I managed to find my way to Vienna airport where I spent the next four hours, reading Sinuhe Egyptian (the #1 Finnish novel of all times), listening Metallica and CMX and enjoying the solitude with some cigarettes and Heineken. Finally departing to Colombo I, surprise surprise, bumbed into a Finnish family who was going to spend next two years in Sri Lanka, working for Red Cross. Well I didn't have that much time to chat with them so I just enjoyed the catering and The Pink Panther movie (not as crappy as I thought). I couldn't really sleep at night due to lack of space... and maybe a hunch of excitement in my veins.

Finally I arrived to Colombo airport, went to toilet and had to explain to the old Tamil guy that I don't have rupees yet, got my luggage after a while of waiting and, poof, there they were, my new friends... the Colombo North executive board Kasun, Madhu, Thilini, Isuru and Thilanka. They are just the sweetest people. We had such a blast going from the airport to the K house (my flat): I even got to taste the king coconut juice right out of the coconut! As I didn't expect pretty much anything, own room with a fan and mosquito net and a community style household clearly exceeded those expectations. Just next to our house there is another trainee house called Rome. Birds and other animals are making their exotic sounds right next to my window, there's a king coconut tree on the yard and the place is only a walk away from the AIESEC office. After I had taken a quick shower we went to have my first genuine Sri Lankan lunch. It was awesome! Although it wasn't as spicy as I had heard. Well, there's still 18 months to dig into the Sri Lankan cuisine and find those intestine-exploding dishes. :) The guys had a blast when they were examining all the mistakes I made eating by hand. I'll learn. In any case, they were amazed how much I actually knew about the country and its specialities already. Wattaka, by the way, is a dish and it also means "fat ass". :) Synonymous for that is "loku puka" (though that's not a dish). One day I start learning the more useful words. Till that I just dwell in my misery, knowing that my second name Pekka is quite close to pakka (It's up to you to find out what it means).

I'm going, I'm going...

2006-07-19T10:16:00.000+03:00

As if I would have time to write blog postings... My bus to the airport leaves 11:58, that's less than two hours. I just realized my luggage is not closing so I had to shift all the stuff to another luggage. Luckily Paula helped me with that. I still need to go and do some shopping (more salmiakki, book about Finland, a suitcase belt etc). One could say I'm panicking... :) Ok, enough blabbering. Thanks for all the farewell wishes. Now I hit the road! There might be a few days break in posting but I try to let you know when I'm there...

Another internship available in Wild Drift

2006-07-18T11:57:00.000+03:00

They contacted me from Wild Drift to ask around if some of my friends would be ready to go for an internship in the same place with me but with a job description in sales and marketing. Check it out from Insight: TN-In-LK-CN-2006-1258! Contact the TN manager Isuru (isuru_boy@yahoo.com) and current trainee Jara (jarmule@gmail.com) if you're interested.

Just for clarification, I'm not actually working for Wild Drift but a company called Unleash Talent Inc. However, the boss is the same and we work in the same office. UIC is more inclined to developing long-term strategic tools for organizations whereas Wild Drift is offering the trainings for management and teams.

Started packing...

2006-07-18T11:21:00.000+03:00

...Yeah right! :) Just wasting my time.

My living conditions

2006-07-18T10:05:00.000+03:00

I finally found out my address (the one in the right pane). There are two trainee flats called "K house" and "Rome". I'll be living in the former, in K house with a Dutch guy called Juriaan Deumer. I heard he's ummm... Dutch... and ummm... tall... surprising! :) Isuru (one of my buddies) said that he's also very nice. Would have been nice to drop him an email and start getting to know him a bit earlier, but since I'm leaving in 29 hours and don't have his email address... what can you do. Anywho, the place is in Kirillapone, on the outskirts of Colombo. Blah, blah, blah.... Should I finally start packing? :)

Dead letters

2006-07-18T08:56:00.000+03:00

My 10th Ilosaarirock started in a gloomy way. A friend of a friend drowned late Friday evening. We tried to give first aid and everyone did their utmost for his survival... but he passed away early next morning in the hospital. Of course it was a shitty thing to happen, no questions asked, but in the long run it can be a strengthening experience for many. At least my thinking tweaked again into a bit more positive angle; now I do respect all the small things that make my life perfect. Just remember that every day can be Your last, so you should live accordingly: enjoy the life and make sure others around you enjoy too. It's up to each individual to define what this enjoyment means.

Maybe it wasn't the perfect way to spend the last weekend in Finland for a long while. However, in 30 hours I should be in the plane to Sri Lanka and I think I'm now more prepare to face whatever comes along during the next 1,5 years. Still, I haven't packed yet, so over and out for now!

Some Finnish moments to remember...

2006-07-14T09:54:00.000+03:00

Visit this link to get a glimpse of Finland.

What famous leader are you?

2006-07-14T08:51:00.000+03:00

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Oh my god! The whole of our team made this abovementioned test some time in the spring and I turned up to be like Saddam Hussein. :) Well, I kind of forgot about it until I ran up on it again at Ladi's page. I thought I'd give it a shot again just to make sure I'm not like Saddam... Well, you can see the result above. Sad! Damn!

Pesis to Sri Lanka

2006-07-13T16:05:00.000+03:00

I have for a while thought about one crazy idea: taking Finnish baseball (Pesäpallo or Pesis) to Sri Lanka as a means for teambuilding of the customers of Wild Drift, another company that my boss in Unleash Talent Inc owns partly. Now I did it: I contacted Berner Sport, an enterprise that is marketing Karhu pesis equipment, and enquired preliminarily about the possibility of doing cooperation with them. If they think it's a good idea I'll talk to my boss about it. Who knows, maybe the national game of Finland becomes a huge hit in the land that is so frenetic about cricket!

Here's some background for those who are completely unaware of what is this sports I'm talking about: Pesäpallo (literally "Baseball" in Finnish) was a game invented by Tahko Pihkala 80 years ago, who thought the American version wasn't good enough. Originated in Finland, it's now played at least in Estonia, Lithuania, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand and Japan. The Kiwis (New Zealanders) have translated the game to Pallonz. This is how they describe the game: "Pallonz is the New Zealand version of Pesapallo which is game which although similar to both baseball and softball brings more thinking more cunning and more concentration to the game than any other sport. It has the skill of cricket and the tactics of American Football."

Farewell party

2006-07-13T14:41:00.000+03:00

Yesterday we gathered to have a picnic in a park to meet all the friends before leaving the country. Afterwards we went to Hevimesta to sing heavy metal karaoke for the last time. Altogether some 25-30 people took part in picnic. Thanks everyone for being there, whether your reason was just to have an excuse for drinking or you were genuinely delighted to get rid of me. :) And big applause for Paula who made it all happen; it wasn't the most complicated thing to organize but it meant a whole lot to me. Thank you!

Thumb-whacking

2006-07-12T16:39:00.000+03:00

No, I wasn't doing anything dirty although the title of this posting might give you such image. I had absolutely nothing to do so I played Tony Hawk's Proskater 3 and now my thumbs hurt like hell. Great game though! Just wanted to let you know that even I have my occasional weaknesses. :) Now I'm off to my farewell party. Take care!

Thesis online!

2006-07-11T16:56:00.000+03:00

My Master's thesis about Diversity management, team leadership and nonprofit organizations is now online! The case organization was AIESEC in Finland.

The lighter side of Tamils

2006-07-11T13:23:00.000+03:00

Like already mentioned before, LTTE is just one pissed-off fraction of Tamil population. Moreover, many Tamils live outside Sri Lanka, known as Tamil diaspora. So, I went off to search what are these guys doing on the enterntainment business. So, I started my search but got stuck with the first new face, Maya Arulpragasam (better known as M.I.A), an artist who mixes dance beats and electro hip hop grooves - music quite unfamiliar to me, but surprisingly catchy still. Born in London but brought up in Sri Lanka, her father was a Tamil Tiger and remained a mystery to her for most of her youth. The family was relocated to a shanty in India for a time, then back to Sri Lanka , and eventually out to the refugee ghettoes of West London. Her videos Galanga, Sunshowers and Bucky Done Gun can be found from You Tube.

Whilst youtubing M.I.A I came across with Aziz Ansari, an American chap who's doing stand-up comedy. You just got to see his miniseries Shutterbugs! It's hilarious!

What a network

2006-07-11T10:43:00.000+03:00

It's funny that I haven't even settled in Sri Lanka yet and I already know many people who have been there or are there currently: Sifaan I got to know when I was applying to Estonian MC (wasn't elected); Dan was facilitating with me in a Finnish conference called ACCESS 2005 and now I'm going to his wedding on 10 August; Padmaka I almost matched to an internship Finland; with Suchith, Isuru, Thilini, Ego and Dommy I've been in touch for preparation of the internship; Cezar I know through PetaK; I'll be working with Jara and playing football with Rasmus; I've been briefly in touch with Lina, Roxy and Mirka and met Tomi to prepare for Sri Lanka; Lana (Tomi's future-wife) gave me good cultural tips; I've been in constant communication with my boss Ruky; Tasha visited me already during winter and so on.

It's good to go there as I can expect to be around good people. The local AIESECers are a great help for getting accustomed to the culture, the other interns are a good safety net and most likely great fun to hang out with but I also want some local non-AIESEC friends (who are not yet brainwashed to be culturally tolerant and all that).

Current feelings...

2006-07-10T12:50:00.000+03:00

It feels so weird that I've had the internship coming for half a year and now there's only a week to go. Now it clears to me: a bit over one week to stay in Finland - still the farewell party and Ilosaarirock to experience, packing to do, and weird emotions to go through. As a matter of fact, I feel really odd at the moment: on one hand, I'm delighted to finally leave for the experience of my life. On the other hand, I'm feeling quite sad to leave everything behind: extremely nice weather, amazing girl friend, good friends, family and the certain safety of this organized country.

My Macedonian friend Petak said to me a couple of months ago that there will be moments of questioning whether it was a good decision to go for such a long period of time in such a remote country. Well yeah, I've got that feeling already dozens of times... and it will come back to me many times during the internship. However, he continued that at those times one should bear in mind that there was some reasoning for this decision, some inner motivational factors that urged me to take the steps I'm taking. Although many of those factors are so in-built that one cannot explicitly state them - or even understand them oneself - some of the obvious ones for me include:

will to experience what it feels like to be different
spreading my wings and testing if I can fly with all the rehearse I've done for the past five years - both professionally and personally
will to build cultural understanding for the future endeavors in multinational environment
need to test if my future plans really are what I should be doing - i.e. global entrepreneurship, relationships with the key people in my life and so on
finding my place in a new environment (I've never felt that much at home in Finland, although lately I've at least become much more aware of my own culture)

Hopefully having and coming back to this humble list will enable me to overcome the moments of desperation. Funnily enough, right now might be the first time I really need to understand my motives and explain to myself once more why I opened certain doors and simultaneously kept some closed.

No matter how confused I am right now, I know that there are good people in Finland that care of me. They - my friends, family and girlfriend - have lately given me the best of vacations. It has helped me to relax and charge the batteries for the coming endeavors. You know who you are, thank you for being there for me!

Pictures from Metal Mass

2006-07-08T11:06:00.000+03:00

Previously I mentioned that we went to see the church service in which all the hymns were re-composed in heavy metal style. Now you can view the pictures either in www.metallimessu.com or in Diaidea website. For the foreigners viewing my page I want to emphasize that this is not the traditional way of serving god in Finland, but definitely a good way. I hope it becomes a tradition so that also people like me - who don't really believe in god but who are interested in spirituality - can go and hear about this religion from genuine down-to-earth people, who are connected to you through one common factor; good music.

Volunteering in Sri Lanka

2006-07-07T13:44:00.000+03:00

If someone one day feels that life in Finland (or any other western country) doesn't offer enough experiences, people are wining about unimportant things as everything is so well or you just genuinely want to help, here are some opportunities for volunteering in Sri Lanka. You can also make Donations for local children (in Finnish) or ask for available teaching and other volunteering jobs from: oskari[at]herrankukkaro.fi

This would make a good movie

2006-07-07T11:20:00.000+03:00

Soon the whole country of Sri Lanka will be in havoc again. Both LTTE and Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) have heavily armed forces and - I'm just guessing here - some civilians are either hired to commit violations or are just damn stupid doing so. Hence, the Cease Fire Agreement cannot be kept, neither by LTTE nor by the GOSL.

For once, the promises made seem to be of little or no value for both sides. This might be a cultural thing or just a matter of trust: Once the two parties agree on something, someone - who's not necessarily from LTTE or GOSL - goes and kills a politician or an officer... and the hell breaks loose again!

If only the general public would know what is actually happening behind the scenes. I bet there's a lot of money circulating around through the dirty hands of many. Publicly, it is said that agreement for peace would be the best option for all. In practice, people seem to have either differing aims or they just hold grievances of the deeds done in the past.

This would make a good movie. However, at least for me it would be damn difficult to tell who are the bad guys and who are the heroes. At least for now, my impression is that by committing acts of violence the people of Sri Lanka are just "peeing in their own cereal" - if you excuse my harsh figure of speech.

Finally, when I say "people of Sri Lanka" I mean just a fraction of the total amount of inhabitants on the island. Every Sri Lankan I've met so far, have been the most warm-hearted, laid-back and symphatetic people I've ever met! Can't wait to be there...

No fear!

2006-07-07T10:46:00.000+03:00

"In Sri Lanka, there is nothing scarier than being a Tamil person of influence—whether you are a teacher, a school principal, a doctor, a journalist, a politician, or a successful businessman. Ordinary Tamils have learned to keep their heads down, do exactly what their neighbors do, and not make waves." - A Western Sri Lanka expert

I have been told many times that as a sudha (white foreigner) I don't need to worry about my safety in Sri Lanka. Still, reading The Human Rights Watch studies on LTTE violence I started thinking; what if either GOSL or LTTE finds out about my blog and gets pissed off for some reason? What if my conscientious objector t-shirt (with the logo above) is misinterpreted by some over-cautious bodyguard? What if I just happen to be in the wrong place at a wrong time and turn out to be one of those civilian casualties you hear about in the news?

Many might agree that it's quite stupid to go and poke the bee-hive with a stick... Still, one day as my understanding grows stronger, I might be able to do something to help and resolve this kind of conflicts either in Sri Lanka or somewhere else. So, I won't say no to my curiosity and keep on trying to understand both sides. I might consider again when someone is pointing at me with a gun, but even in that scenario my faith in justice and doing the right thing would keep me going.

Want to save €200 million a year?

2006-07-04T15:42:00.000+03:00

I came across with a website that is trying to collect 1 000 000 EU citizens name in an address to save 200 million euros a year. How?

It costs European taxpayers approximately 200 million euros a year to move the European Parliament between Brussels/Belgium and Strasbourg/France. As a citizen of the European Union, I want the European Parliament to be located only in Brussels.

By the time of writing 758 817 other european citizens have signed the petition! Less than 250 000 more are needed. So, if you are a) from EU and b) pissed off that our money is wasted in this moving circus, go and sign it in: http://www.oneseat.eu/

Assortment of thoughts

2006-07-03T10:20:00.000+03:00

Last weekend was awesome. We went to Saimaa Summer, a relaxing weekend on a beautiful island of Päiviö at Lake Saimaa; enjoying good company, warm weather, sauna, the lake and some activities like football and Finnish baseball. That event was actually something my team started back in 2003, so it was good to see the tradition going forward. The atmosphere was still the same. The only difference being that back then we had to recruit the local IAESTE trainees to participates since we didn't have our own. Now there was people from all over the world, all AIESECers! What's more, it's been like 20-30 degrees for the past month, so I'm proceeding to get a good tan, so no need for sunscreen in Colombo.

My arrival date to Colombo is 20 July (Thursday) 09:35 AM (that would be 5:35 Finnish time). The flight goes through Vienna where I have to wait for four hours at the airport. So, altogether the trip takes 15 hrs 45 mins.

At the moment it feels that I'm even a bit over-prepared for the internship. I have met the locals and Finns who've been there, I have read about the country and Buddhism, I have tried to gain understanding of the political history and current state of the country and so on. Still, I feel like I could have done more; like learn the language a bit better. However, now I'm 100% ready to take Sri Lanka as it is - a bundle of experiences, that show the pros and cons of the country.

Actually, just before going to Saimaa Summer I met with another Tomi who had been in an internship in Sri Lanka in 2004-2005. Already that discussion was good and enlightening, but for my positive surprise his Sri Lankan girlfriend - and to-become-wife - Lana was visiting Finland so she joined our conversation. We had like four hour discussion concentrating mainly on the culture, people and characteristics of the country. Most of the information I already knew but it was good to get some perspective from a local citizen who's not an AIESECer.

Now here comes her perspective on the currrent situation with the government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE): First of all, she said that she does think that they - LTTE - are terrorists. If they would like to get their message across they would stay in the negotiation table, instead of bombing the opposite side (GOSL). Secondly, she said that LTTE is not representing the whole Tamil nation even though they claim so. Thirdly, she adviced me not to go to north and east - if I would, it would be on my own risk. Finally, she concluded that foreigners are taken good care of and the rest of the country is completely safe.

We also discussed about the living conditions in the trainee flat with Tomi. He said both of the apartments are a bit away from the centre so the noise of the traffic doesn't bother that much. However, it also means that there are a few bugs - ants, cockroaches, wasps, mosquitoes, gekkos and spiders. He adviced us to keep the apartment clean in order to keep the cockies and ants away. Now that's a challenge for me! :)

Tomi said he had played football in Finland all his life - in the lower leagues - and in Sri Lanka he immediately started playing in a team with the people working in embassies. Shortly he was asked to play in the Premier League of the country. Now that's what I call career advancement. As for the current world championships in football, my team Portugal has made its way to the semi-finals! Back in 1990 I started cheering for Brazil and Holland. In 1994 Portugal joined my TOP 3. During these games, after 12 years of Portugal frenzy, it's finally crystalizing to me who I support the most. In the beginning of Portugal-Netherlands game I intuitively chose the side of Portugal and understood that the current Team Holland is no longer the same as it was in the 90s and it has nothing to offer me. The Portugal game against England provoked such feelings within me that I'm starting to believe that I no longer have three but one team to cheer for! I am living the games with my every cell when Portugal is playing, so I do hope and believe that they take what belongs to them: the world championship! It's now or never; they're at their peak. In the next qualifying games for the european championships 2008 Finland is playing in the same group with Portugal. I'm not going to be a turn-coat: I hope both of them qualify to the games. That would be first time for Finland.

As a concluding remark for this lengthy posting of sporadic thoughts I'd like to announce that I took a summer job! It's a translation job of three pages, Finnish to English, and my estimation is that it takes just a few hours. However, it pays me 100 euros so it's definitely worth it! Come on, it's my two-week salary during the internship!