She is my soulmate. We met first time at 2003, so our friendship is built on 15 years experience now. She is a real Finnish lady with lots on international experience. She had already survived her biggest international adventure in Sidney, Australia when I have just started mine in Finland. She gave me loads love, patience, encouragement and laugh. She is approachable and caring all the time when I need her even though we live in different countries and in different cultures. She is a strong woman with beautiful human values in her heart. Officially she is an immigration information officer of the Town Hall of Lapua town right now, however for me she is a cultural ambassador, global traveller, friend and change maker.
Marazinha: You have just visited the National Gallop in Budapest, Hungary now and I know that you were already here several times before. What is your opinion about it? Why have you chosen this event to visit to Budapest?
Marita: Because it is absolutely different comparing that we have in Finland.
Marazinha: What is the difference between the Finnish and Hungarian horse culture?
Marita: In Finland it is usual that women are the horse racers if we talk about dressage riding or high jumping, nevertheless if it is a racing with cart then it`s the hobby of men in Finland. Here in Hungary, there are mostly men who are the racers. In Finland, mostly women are the one who are racing and taking care of their own horses. However, they have lost old horseman’s skills. They fancy more for example the matching colours of clothing on themselves and their horses. They are also feeding their horses from too many jars, giving extra vitamins, extra this and that for different excuses. I rather like old fashion way, the nature way to handle horses.
Marazinha: What does it mean then for you to ride a horse?
Marita: It is a hobby. It keeps my body in better condition. It is relaxing. After work I go to the stable and just hanging out there sometimes with friends, sometimes alone and taking care of my horse and simply forget all my work stuff. My horse is my physiotherapist.
Marazinha: I know that you love not only horses but lots of animals. How this has started?
Marita: My family lived in a farm. In my childhood I have taking care of huge amount of different animals. I remember that we had cows, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, foxes, Rangoon dogs, minks. And I have had also two tamed crows. I had really good childhood with all those animals. I can say that I learned to handle animals already in my early years. I learned to handle horses in my grandparents farm. I went to meet them and their horses almost in every weekend. I rode my bicycle as it was 10 kilometres away from my home, but I went there summertime quite often just hanging out there and to be with the horses. But when I turned to 15, I had just forgot the horses, and my main target had just become the boys…
Marazinha: Of course…(laughing)
Marita: Then I was almost 20 years without horses, but then I got the chance to buy my own when we moved to Lapua. Then I had a place for a stable in my garden and a piece of land where I could put my horse.
Marazinha: And how were your first experiences as a horse owner?
Marita: It was quite challenging in the beginning because I didn’t know much how to take care of a horse. I just remember for the first morning when I was in my stable and realised there is a shit inside the stable. So I was wondering how I should clean this up… (laughing) I really hadn’t had any clue about such type of things. It has started like that.
Marazinha: So it was a learning process…
Marita: Yes! I learnt everything by practice as I really didn’t know much about horses and how to keep horses. Of course, it helped that we had and trained dogs before. So it is quite the same with horses. We have to be just enough confident. You have to show them that you are the boss. Even the horse is bigger, you can’t be scared from his strength, you have to prove that you are stronger mentally and you are the boss. You have to express this with your body.
Marazinha: How you can do that?
Marita: Just you have to show them right away that this is my space, you can’t come here. This is my space and if I am coming towards you, you have to go back, because you have to respect my space.
Marazinha: How did you learn that?
Marita: Because of training dogs. We have bought our first dog with my husband Jussi in 1991. Then it was the same, we hadn’t had so much experience with dogs either. In that time we lived in Vaasa and Jussi went to a training with the dog. He really loved it and he spent all his spare time with training the dog. Our first boxer was a very good one. She won many Finnish champions in her breed category. First competition where Jussi went with our dog was a service dog track competition. During such type of competition, the track is not made with blood, only human made the track in the forest and after an hour the dog have to follow it, picking up some fallen sticks that were before in the walkers’ pocket. Their smells are on these wooden sticks. So the dog has to follow the track and pick up these wooden sticks from the forest. The dogs are walking in front of their owners and giving the sticks they recognise to their owners. So that was the race Jussi went with our first dog and won several times.
Marazinha: And how you can show to your animals what your space they need to respect is and you are the boss? For me as a person having not so much experiences with animals it is hard to imagine.
Marita: You have to be self-confident, animals are clever and they can sense your inside power. Even with a horses, you have to be really self-confident when you are approaching them.
Marazinha: So in your personality you have to find this strength, because if you don’t find it, then it will never work.
Marita: Yes, you have to be very strong (inside)! After getting directorship it´s so nice to work with the dog or horse, you can work with harmony both know who is leading and the works are done with understanding.
Marazinha: Then it means you are also a very strong woman!
Marita: Well, with animals, yes!
Marazinha: Animals instinctively feels if someone has strength…
Marita: It is easy with animals if you show first that you are the boss. Then you don’t need to show it all the time. Maybe sometimes you need to remind them on that when they are trying to challenge you, but a reminder is enough that we do how I am saying.
Marazinha: In the beginning you explained that you loved the animals when you was a kid, then during your teenager time you became more interested in the boys, what is normal in this age. When you were a kid, what was your dream, what you wanted to be?
Marita: It is hard to remember. Once I wanted be a veterinarian, but do not remember more. Maybe there was no anything else.
Marazinha: And how did you decide what you will learn?
Marita: Well, I really did not choose as I did not had so many options. When I graduated from the primary school, I just wanted to move away from home and there were not so many places to choose. I wanted to move into a bigger city. So in Pietarsaari there was a Commercial School where one of my friends also went, so I chose this one. I don’t know. I really did not have any plan what to do. So from childhood homevillage Evijärvi I went to study to Pietarsaari.
Marazinha: What have you learnt in this Commercial School in Pietersaari?
Marita: This was a marketing school and I learnt how to be a good seller.
Marazinha: Did you like to learn such type of things?
Marita: No, no…(laughing). It wasn’t my carrier dream at all.
Marazinha: Although that was the opportunity you got. So when you realised that this is not your path, what was the next?
Marita: After I have finished my school in Pietarsaari, I moved to Kemi, up north Lapland. There were a school where I could continue my studies. A part of my studies I got a practice place in Vaasa. I made my practice at a company who imported Commodore computers to Finland. I worked for them and I was selling the computers such as Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 to the resellers. Those were very popular ones in that time. After my few months practice period they hired me permanently and I worked there for four years.
Marazinha: And were you able to use these computers or you just sold them?
Marita: Of course, I was also able to use them! I also had to go around the country to the exhibitions and show how to use these computers. This happened in 1980s (laughing). Now you cannot compare those ones to the todays computers.
Marazinha: I have just vague memories about these computers as I was a primary school pupil in that time, however I remember that I really didn’t like such type of computers because for me its programming was very difficult. So it means you have to be very professional regarding to be able to use those.
Marita: Yes, because my half a year schooling in Kemi was about these computers and how to sell those. So that’s why I was so professional in those ones.
Marazinha: This seemed to be an exciting period of your life…
Marita: Yes, it was quite good time. I worked to this company for 4 years.
Marazinha: How many workplaces did you have and which one was the most interesting or challenging one till now?
Marita: I haven’t had so many workplaces. I think the most challenging one was, if I do not count the current one. In Vaasa when I was selling exhibition places. We organised exhibitions, and I was selling places for companies. I had to call the companies and convince them to come to the exhibition. It was not such a nice work; I did not like this one at all. Although I had worked there a year, and then we moved to Lapua.
Marazinha: Before you moved to Lapua, you have visited even more and far places if I know well…
Marita: During the time I worked to the computer company, I was dating with a Finnish-Swedish boy who moved to Sydney, Australia. Then I decided to move after him. He got work permission, he worked to the Scandinavian Motors, repairing the Scandinavian cars. Unfortunately, I did not get the work permission as I was just a seller lady. I should had studied being a nurse or teacher, then I could have Australian work permission, but I didn’t learnt any. So when I moved to Sydney, I was a housewife there for a year. We rented a house in the neighbourhood of Sydney. It was 20 kilometres far from the city centre. There were two finish boys and me, and rest of the house we rented to Australian ones. I was a four bedroom house. The boys were all the time very busy with repairing the cars. They bought the car crash cars and repaired and improved them for better conditions and sold them again. In this process they earned some extra money. So they worked in the car company during the daylight and during the evenings and nights they worked on their own small business. And I had a lot of free time alone.
Marazinha: So what had you done with your free time in Sydney?
Marita: I was then 24 years old. It was challenging, because there were so different culture. I could not even speak in English good at all. I just remember that I went to the grocery store to buy things that we needed at home and it was so difficult when they asked me something and I just did not get it. The cashiers in the grocery store were very helpful and nice and they always talked to me and said some compliments like “You are so brown!” and so on. And I did not have any clue what to answer (laughing) because I could not say anything only understood. English language learning was different in the school back home. During my studies, we did not speak so much, only read from the book and practicing grammar. Nevertheless, this experience in Australia really changed me. I was so young and I learnt a lot mostly from myself. I understood that the world is an enough big place and I have to take care of myself. It was really just growing up and learning how to live all by my own and taking care of myself. I had a own car, WV convertible and I was driving around Sydney. I explored all the attractions and the city centre. Several times I just took a bus and I went to the city centre and explored around. It was quite boring because I had to see them all by myself. Others just worked all the time. First I got a half a year visa, then I left Australia by my own and I went to Fiji Island. I stayed there 10 days and then when I went back to Australia, I received the half a year visa again. This way I could stay there totally one year. Then my passport ended and I had to fly back home to Finland.
Marazinha: And your heart was broken or your heart was happy?
Marita: My heart was happy. (laughing). There was not so much common lovely time with my boyfriend as he was working all the time.
Marazinha: Then you went back to Vaasa and you had met Jussi there!
Marita: I came back around April, and I met Jussi in December.
Marazinha: Was it love for first sight? What is the official story of your marriage?
Marita: It is a funny story! I went out with one of my very good friends’ ex-husband. They had divorced during my stay in Australia. The ex-husband asked me as he did not have any new girlfriend, if I can go with him to celebrate the New Year. As friends I went to his flat and had sauna there, then we went together to a night club. Then there I met Jussi. And I am very happy that I did not choose my friend’s ex-husband instead. (laughing)
Marazinha: I think you had just found a lot of common things with Jussi like loving animals…
Marita: Yes, that is true! And Jussi was also from the countryside. They had also had a farm like my family did. It was everything much easier with him than with my Finnish-Swedish boyfriend.
Marazinha: Then you had just moved to Lapua with Jussi together where you are living right now.
Marita: Yeah. Life is much easier in a smaller town. I did not enjoyed and never felt like home in Vaasa. There was something missing.
Marazinha: How could Jussi convince you to move to Lapua? You had never lived there before and you liked to live in the bigger city!
Marita: Jussi had spent his childhood in Lapua and his parents were still living there. When Jussi suggested us to move to Lapua, I first said no. I did not want to move to Lapua. I would rather go to bigger cities to live. Then he all the time convinced me to come with him to Lapua when he had a free time and then I found some friends. So slowly I changed my mind that maybe I can move there. I had to quit my job in Vaasa and I did not have any job when we moved to Lapua. After some months I had found a new job in Lapua as seller in the plant shop and being a gardener. I worked there for two summers.
Marazinha: Then how did you start to work in the Town hall of Lapua town?
Marita: It was a strange story, because I did not have any experience concerning community work. Nevertheless, I was just without work, and there was someone from the Town hall who took her sabbatical year. According to the Finnish laws, this person had to be replaced by an unemployed person and this was me. So I could replace this lady during her days off. It was around a half a year I was there in the phone centre of the city hall, answering the calls and making some secretary work. Then my job contract was prolonged in monthly basis in the next two years and after that I finally got a permanent contract. This is how I ended there.
Marazinha: Meanwhile you became a Mother for a boy, who is 20 years old now…
Marita: Yes, I became a Mother during my work time in the plant shop and garden. Kalle was born at 1998 and I started to work in the Town hall at 2000.
Marazinha: How was to become a Mum?
Marita: How should I explain that? I am not big fond of children but I had a feeling that at least I should try having one. And you know when you have your own child, it is different.
Marazinha: I absolutely understand that!
Marita: I just started to love him straight away!
Marazinha: How was him as a small boy? What are your favourite memories about him?
Marita: I have so many that it is hard to choose. Maybe this one when you came to us first time at February 2003 and we ate salmiakki icecream in the evening after dinner. Do you remember him eating the ice cream with a big black cream around his mouth? (laughing) I remember that you did not like so much of salmiakki icecream.
Marazinha: Was it his favourite one?
Marita: Yes! He really loved it.
Marazinha: What type of little boy he was?
Marita: He was very kind just from the beginning. It was very easy with him. The only problem was that he did not like to eat. As you learnt the Finnish sentence just from us as the first Finnish words of yours as Syö nyt! – Eat now! (laughing)
Marazinha: Now when he graduated your gift was that he could choose which country he would like to visit. So even you grow him up such a way that he got a lot of chance to travel and meet other cultures. Do you think that these opportunities had any influence on his ways of thinking and behaviour?
Marita: Of course, I think so. When I went to Australia at 1998 and came home at 1999, it was not so normal and common to travel abroad and even stay there. Even the local newspaper from my small hometown Evijärvi wanted to make an interview with me afterwards why I went there and asked me to write a diary how was it. Nowadays it´s so common to travel around the world, the world is open. The traveling cost are much cheaper and its very easy to travel abroad. I really hope that one day my son will be intrested to explode the world and find a place somewhere abroad to stay at least for a while.
Marazinha: And did you wrote an article to that local newspaper?
Marita: Noooo! (laughing) So it was not a usual thing at all that young people moved to abroad. Nowadays it is very normal and common to travel around the world and I think Kalle will travel a lot. I hope! I believe that he will be not scared to travel and face new things and different cultures.
Marazinha: Living in Lapua now so many years, what do you like there the most?
Marita: There is a good nature around you if you want to be alone. You just go to the forest and there will be no one else in the same area. It is very peaceful. I love that. It is good to go with the horse and the dogs and just enjoy the nature. And we do have here all services what we need.
Marazinha: As one of the official guides of Lapua, what you would suggest to people who would like to visit to Lapua?
Marita: I would promote the big open place we have with the big flat land, because it is very peaceful. Of course, we have the Culture Centre, so we have a lot of life going on in our small town. It is a very safe place to live.
Marazinha: Are the people friendly there?
Marita: Yes, I think they are. First they are staring to you and wondering the new comer, but ones you get to know them they all are extremely helpful and friendly.
Marazinha: As imigrant or refugee how it is possible to settle in Lapua? What they should be prepared for?
Marita: They should be prepared that maybe people will stare at them first. I have a nice story about that. Some years ago black basketball players came to Lapua and Kalle was not in the primary school yet. When he first time saw these basketball players, who were over two meters high, standing in the queue in the local grocery store, he started to stare them and said Mommy, Mommy, they are black! He was around 6 or 7 years old and first time in his life he met with black people. However, nowadays people in Lapua got used to the people from different colour and cultures. I think they are fine with them nowadays. I have been working with immigrants in several years now on behalf of the town hall. I remember in the beginning, maybe 10 years ago, when the government started that in every city have to be signed someone who will be the immigrant information officer, I was the most interested in that job among our staff. People were asking me why you want to take this job and bring those foreigners here, we already have people who are unemployed here among our locals. I had to explain that there are jobs here that anyone wants to do. That’s why we need these immigrants to fill up these workplaces. Then we had to get used to other cultural people. I think it is better nowadays. Still we have jobs where we need immigrant workers e.g. in the metal industry, because our young ones don’t want to go working there. So we need immigrants to take these jobs and help us.
Marazinha: And how is your everyday life now that your son has grew up and you have more free time?
Marita: Well, I am member of the Guide Association as you know. Then I am member of our village association in Pouttu, part of Lapua where I live. I organise different events there with other members and cooperating with the village school. I have been the chairman of the local Labour Union for two years now. Nowadays I am member of Martta Association. Martta is a national association in Finland. The Association has started 1899. Main subject is and was to collect women together to knitting and changing experiences about housework, giving good advices to each other. During the war 1938-1944, Martta ladies started to make socks to men who were fighting in the war. Nowdays Martta association is still having lot of members, in Lapua there is about 130 members. Association also offers different courses for women, e.g. cooking, knitting or how to decorate a house. I was the one who started this Association in Lapua. I have established this branch 5 or 6 years ago or maybe even more. I have own horse Rapsakka, she is 24 old Finish horse. I have owned her over 16 years. During the summertimes she is always at home, I have field for her to stay. But during the winters she stays at my friends stable. Winter times I visit the stables every evening. At least twice a week me and Rapsakka are having riding tour in the forest or I put carriage behind her and we go for ride. We also have two boxer dogs; Elma and Erzsi, they need their daily walking every evening. And now and then I might train them in the forest or on the field.
Marazinha: Why did you consider important to establish this Marta Association in Lapua?
Marita: All around Finland, nowadays this Association gives support and help to immigrants. Let me share an example: local people voluntarily on behalf of Marta Association can go and help immigrants e.g. how to shop, how to take care of a home, help to immigrants women how to cook in Finland, how to get groceries from the shops, showing them and teaching them how to make these things according to the Finnish lifestyle. That’s why I wanted that Marta Association should be in Lapua, too. So I have started and now there is over than 130 members involved from Lapua and start to be independent from me. It does not need me anymore. They are doing a very good job.
Marazinha: What is the next thing you would like to achieve?
Marita: I don’t know. I do not have any plans. Things that belong to you will come towards you.
