Kolmetuhattaneljäsatakuusikymmentäviisi

Hyvää päivää!! (This means "Good day")

Well, I apologize in advance but there are not pictures with this post either. Nothing picture worthy has happened over the last few days. But don't worry, some cool pictures will be coming soon.

This past week has been quite interesting. My weekend wasn't overly exciting but I did have a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner with Ruchel, Stephanie, and Elaine. There was no turkey or pumpkin pie to be had so we opted for chicken tikka masala, rice, vegetables, and naan. It was one of the best thanksgiving dinners I have ever had!! Nothing beats being with family and old friends but this was pretty close. I had plenty to be thankful for- I would list everything I am thankful for but then you'd just end up reading some long list, lose interest, and look for a more exciting site!!

I started at Immigrant Mental Health Services on Monday. It's been extremely interesting and I am hoping that I can find something on which to focus my case study. The team that I am with consists of a social worker, psychiatrist, and a physiotherapist. The title of the physiotherapist in Finnish is psykofyysinen fysioterapia. This translates the following way:

psyko = psychological
fyysinen = physical
fysioterapia = physiotherapy

They use a wholistic approach to working with torture survivors and individuals who have experienced trauma resulting from various life events such as witnessing war or being raped. Essentially, they use the psychiatrist to cover the "medical" aspects of trauma (e.g., dealing with PTSD and depression via medication), the social worker to cover the social environment of the person (e.g., referrals to social services, help adjusting), and the physiotherapist to cover the psychosomatic aspects of trauma (e.g., dealing with muscle tension, dealing with psychosomatic pain). The addition of the physiotherapist is interesting because I have not come across this approach in Calgary. To my knowledge, the main "support" for torture survivors in Calgary is through a group at the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society. Although they have a network of individuals with various specialities affiliated with the group, there does not appear to be a team approach similar to the one I have witnessed here. If anyone knows anything different, please let me know. I can only go as far as looking at information available on the internet for the time being!!

I am looking forward to learning more about the physiotherapist and her invovlement with clients. This type of physiotherapy is apparently a relatively new profession in Finland, approximately 6 years old. It seems to be quite successful in helping people deal with various issues. I am hoping to learn more about the implications this approach has on the bigger picture...hopefully I can learn from this and focus my case study on some related aspect.

I had my second Finnish lesson today. My teacher is a Mormon missionary from Salt Lake City, Utah named Ben. He's actually a pretty good instructor because he had the same difficulties I have with various letters and words. Today I learned my numbers and how to correctly pronounce "y" and "ö"..."y" is said by "pushing your tongue to your bottom teeth and saying jhh" while "ö" is said by "sucking on a straw and saying two". This is what we came up with...it works but I think only after you have heard the way it truly sounds!

Well, it is bed time for me. I hope this post finds you all in good spirits. As usual, I miss you all and can't wait to be home. Oh, a big Fazer (yes, this is Finnish chocolate!!) milk chocolate goes to the person who e-mails me the correct meaning of the title of this post. It has a grand total of 39 letters!!

Much love!!
Bug

P.S.-- I am super excited about Friday night. I am going to see my first Finnish band, Scandinavian Music Group. You can check them out on MySpace at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=106496736. Apparently they have some country influence so I may see my first bango in Finland!!