Culture Shock

Ripple Staff Report

On Friday, February 22, Sointula played host to three visitors from three different countries: Germany, the Netherlands and Finland. The trio, all information technology specialists with their own companies, were in the Pacific Northwest to attend a Microsoft Corp. summit in Bellevue, Washington, and while they were in the area, they took advantage of their proximity to Sointula to make a quick trip into Canada—but for a very specific reason.

Tero Leskinen

One of the visitors, Tero Leskinen, is the bookkeeper for the Masala Youth Theatre Group in Finland, which last summer performed an original play entitled Sointula, a dramatization of the settlement of Malcolm Island by Finnish pioneers who wanted to establish a new home based on the values of freedom and egalitarianism. As many local residents already know, in late September of this year Sointula is hosting a conference exploring the theme of utopianism. The title of the conference is Culture Shock: Utopian Dreams, Hard Realities. Over the past few months the conference organizing committee has been in talks with the theatre group in Finland in hopes that they will be able to attend the event and perform their play.

Because Leskinen was attending the Microsoft conference and would be near enough to Sointula to make a visit, the theatre group asked him to check out the lighting, sound and staging facilities at the FO Hall so they will have some advance information if they are indeed able to attend the conference in September. (And the word is that it’s looking very positive.) Ros Bangham, Iris Field and Marianne Jones, along with Annemarie Koch, chair of the conference organizing committee, met with Leskinen when he arrived in Sointula on Friday, and together they made a tour of the hall.

In the evening, Sue Ness, chair of the Sointula Museum, hosted a dinner party for the three visitors, attended by members of the conference organizing committee. The menu featured Sointula specialties such as smoked salmon, local shrimp and seafood chowder, and for dessert a special cake, made by the Upper Crust bakery, decorated with the words “Sointula 2013.” Leskinen and his companions all speak excellent English, so it was an enjoyable evening of lively conversation for everyone.

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