Meet Lapinlahti people: Zaki Azedani, volunteer

I’ve been visiting Lapinlahti regularly since 2017, when they started organising “finnish-arabic language friend”-meetings by MIITTI organisation. I visit Lapinlahti often and usually I am able to get some friends to come with me. This is such a beautiful and unique place, that it’s good that other people get to enjoy it as well.

Two years ago, Alaa from MIITTI asked me, if I wanted to start guiding “Opi suomea suomeksi”-meetings (Learn Finnish in Finnish) in Lapinlahti? I answered “yes” and so begun our weekly meetings in the Venice building. At first, there were around 3–6 participants in the meetings. Last spring we moved to the main building. That’s when people started finding the Finnish language meetings, and at best there were 25 of us in the summer, learning and speaking Finnish! At this link we show the activities: https://www.facebook.com/suomisujuu/videos/210956856699568/

I was surprised by the popularity of the meetings, so I begun to think we need another group. I contacted my friend Hertta, because I knew she had previously done volunteering work with the Finnish language. Hertta came along to lead the new group, which was intended for more experienced Finnish speakers. She also brought Sanna and her own sister, Paula to organise the Monday meetings. Shared joy is the best joy. 😊

Now we had two active groups, that met every week to learn and speak Finnish. This spring in-person meetings are on pause because of the coronavirus, but we’ve been replacing them with Facebook-live streams straight from Lapinlahti. These livestreams have gathered 90 viewers at a time at their screens to learn Finnish.

Encounters in Lapinlahti have made our activities possible. I have participated in the events in Lapinlahti both as an organiser and a participant. I’ve made new friends and seen how strangers meet for the first time, and in a couple of months have become like best friends.

Lapinlahti is a unique environment, that hosts really valuable activities. This should definitely be protected.