Nordic escapades, part 1 – November 2022

It’s Saturday. And I am finished. In Finland. You would be too, if you had spent a week of intense, highly stimulating conversations with various academics and researchers.

 The flight from South Africa was 3 hours longer than we had planned, there having been a serious medical incident in-flight which meant that we had to turn back to Johannesburg for the patient to be evacuated and to refuel. We barely caught our connection to Helsinki at that chaotic carousel called Charles De Gaulle in Paris. The staff are surly and unhelpful so when we land in Helsinki, we are relieved. The airport is clean, modern and the people are polite and helpful. As we discover all through our time, the Finns are a gentle and kind people, warm and receptive. Perhaps that’s why they didn’t have the naked and brutal ambition to colonize anyone?

We land in Kuopio in the early evening and it is already dark. We have lost our luggage but that doesn’t dampen my spirits. I am here on a study tour with my boss, being hosted by the School of Pharmacy at the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio – to learn about their teaching and learning (of which I enjoy though I now do less of it) and their research (of which I now spend most of my time doing). Jarkko (double K as I call him) and Roseanna (Sisi to me) are at hand to welcome us at the hotel. They are patient and empathetic and helpful. They are good friends. I first met them in Pretoria in 2016. Double K and I talk golf most of the time, and with Roseanna we have a mutual love of Kenya and indigenous foods (which is the area of our collaborations over the years through GlobalFoodNet, SANBio

and UI-Southvation).

We are at the Lapland Hotel, a 5 hour drive will take us to Santa’s real grotto. This is just about the time when he is finishing up all the toys needing to be sent to Amazon to deliver to all the kids in the world (how things have changed – Rudolf and his crowd have been downsized and put out to pasture and some culled for the pot). And they are tasty, akin to eland and springbok as we discovered at the Lapland Hotel.

The food in this part of the world is surprisingly eclectic and homely.  And tasty. Over the 5 days we ate different dishes ranging from reindeer stews and roasts to white fish, pickled fish, vendace (a bit bigger than kapenta / nile perch) and Viking steak and pork and lots and lots of berries; berries as sauce, as juice, as jams. So, I jettison intermittent fasting to enjoy the food of Suomi (The Finnish name for Finland).

The meetings are excellent. We have a tight schedule, and every day is a revelation. We meet with colleagues in Clinical Nutritional, Public Health Nutrition (there is a difference), Pharmacology and Toxicology (yes, toxicology is and should be an integral part of pharmacy and pharmaceutical science) and with the Dean we discuss diabetes and diabetes management and industrial pharmacy. We talk about joint projects, global virtual lectures, student and staff exchange, we tour labs and meet students, we give guest lectures and plan future engagements. And we go out to lunch and dinners and talk like old friends reunited – though we are meeting with most people for the first time. We even get VIP passes for their national game – ice hockey and we are there shouting and egging the team. The home fans who are play drums and sing. Wish my vuvuzela was by my side!

The Finnish score high on most global indices – human development, SDGs, education, happiness. I understand now. To be happy you have to be gentle and kind, and maybe speak a bit of Finnish. Kiitos!