June 28
Today I’m writing. I’ve got my headphones on, listening to Simon & Garfunkel. We’re sitting with Eva in the bar of the Finnlines ferry on our way to Naantali, Finland. This morning we left from Anton’s (Eva’s nephew), Carina’s, and Clara’s place after having an excellent breakfast in excellent company. We drove to their place early last evening after going swimming and having perhaps the best restaurant meal of the trip. If I had to remember the name of the place now – I can’t. At Anton’s family’s house, we enjoyed a very peaceful environment without the sound of traffic, a wonderful multilingual conversation atmosphere, and a wonderful dinner with abundant wine. It’s been… who knows how long since we last spent an evening with Anton. It was so much fun, and sometimes quite heavy topics were discussed, that I didn’t get around to writing the blog.
Anyway, today we got to the harbor and onto the ferry in good time. Both of us were already a bit anxious on the way, and even more so once we got on the ship. We knew that around noon we’d find out how our project application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had fared. Right around 12 o’clock Eva received an email notification from the ministry: they had approved our application and we got the funding as we had applied for. The feeling was incredible – like someone had poured warm, soothing elixir down my spine. I almost teared up, but I brushed it away and pulled myself together. No need to cry over just one project! If it happens to secure nearly ten Tanzanians’ jobs for four years and possibly bring significant changes to the lives of hundreds of deaf children and young people, is that such a strange thing! I felt immense joy and pride for Eva and Aino, who had taken on the main responsibility for the project application. A professional is a professional!
After overcoming my initial astonishment, I dashed to the bar to get a bottle of sparkling wine on ice for our table. I poured us a glass each and we raised them in a toast, congratulating each other and the entire FSE team for a job well done and for not having to fear too much idleness in the coming years.
We finished the bubbly and then headed to the buffet to stock up on food to keep us going until tomorrow! Eating and champagne is a killer combination after weeks of short nights! It really made me feel massively tired. Now I know what it feels like to be tired but happy!
So now, as I’m writing this, I’ve completely handed over the responsibility to the reader! Both of us have been messaging quite extensively over the past five hours, making sure all our stakeholders know about the project funding. We particularly wanted the message to reach Tanzania, where the Abilis office team (Winniel and Rafiki) and Nossim were at the embassy for their Finnish visa interviews at the same time. They got the news and called us as soon as they got out of the embassy. Despite the weak signal, we received joyful congratulations from them as well. And they have every reason to be pleased too – their work continues and we get the chance to improve educational opportunities for young people with disabilities in Tanzania.
Now I’m feeling pretty empty. I’m looking at the very familiar scenery of the Houtskari Kittus archipelago. Our cottage is just a few islands away. We’ve been traveling these waters since the early ’70s. A lot has happened since then. I suppose a lot will continue to happen!