Podružnična šola Ledine je v tednu med 16. in 20. aprilom, organizirala teden namenjen povezovanju Finske in Slovenije. Tja je bil za en dan povabljen tudi naš EVS prostovoljec Roni, ki prihaja iz Finske, da bi predstavil finsko kulturo, glasbo, tradicionalne jedi in tako dalje. Svoj dan v Ledinah je opisal takole:

"I went to Ledine school on 18th of April to give a lecture about our culture as a part of their "Finnish culture week" held for one Finnish girl staying there. My goal was to teach her (Hilja) friends and teachers how to make her feel at home. I did that by teaching some Finnish language*, games schoolkids play during brakes and cartoons children watch or have watched.

After the first 45 minutes we had a "Finnish school recess" of 15 minutes which the students LOVED. During the recess they showed me their local playground and some secret spots in hills next to the school. After the recess we stayed out to learn some activities and games the kids play in Finnish schools during recess and free time. Mirror was commonly known game but explaining the Finnish rules was difficult to explain clearly. "10 tikkua laudalla" (10 sticks on a board) game of hide and seek -style was difficult for them to understand as they had a similar game and new rules were lost in excitement. Their English was not fluent (as can be expected from 10 year olds) so I worked with Hilja to translate some rules as her Slovenian is almost fluent.

After the sports classes outside we went back inside to watch some Finnish childrens tv shows from the 90's where they could hear the language in use and maybe even understand the context through body language of the characters. These cartoons also showed Finnish landscape and forests which the children found interesting.

For me the day was emotional: teaching about Finnish school system and the importance of breaks and supporting different learning styles makes me proud of our system. But my main point for the day was meeting another Finn. At first I didn't know how and what to say in Finnish, but after a while I felt at home with Hilja. I guess I'm a bit homesick after all as speaking my mother-tongue and seeing our native landscapes in youtube made me emotional."

Roni Jernfors, EVS volunteer at MCI.

*Kiitos (hvala), ole hyvä (prosim), terve/moro (svjo), nähdään (adijo).

Song I used to teach body parts in finnish.