Back in Tanzania

Some random pictures from my first 24 hours in Tanzania. Arrived yesterday morning in Dar after travelling from Bollnäs via Stockholm and London. Once in Dar es Salaam I jumped on to a bus to Iringa for another 8+ hours to Iringa. When the bus had a breakdown half an hour from Iringa I was not to happy. But after some time bus could continue and after 34 hours I finally reached "home" to Iringa and my apartment :) Had the sunny side of the bus and was got a good sun burn on my left arm. This morning I woke up with the sun shining in my face. Lovely to see the sun and feel some heat again :) Today I got my car back from my friend Walid who has been driving it and I was happy to get it back in one piece :) Today I had a big walk in town with Barun a Nepalese student from Joensuu who traveled with me from London and will be in Iringa for couple of months. I got electricity bill sorted out and had lunch at the home of my boss Kati. In afternoon I went to University to try to sort some things like office and accommodation for Barun out, was not very successful but hope for better luck tomorrow. It is nice to be back and I have realized I have lots of friends here and many people have expressed the joy of me being back in town which feels nice.

yesterday in Sweden

Feels a bit strange with the contrast of climate as i sit in the bus to iringa sweating in the african heat. After all the cold days i am however not allowed to complain. Wish the travel was å bit shorter though as 2 days of travelling is not too exciting. But it is nice to see the country being green guess rains have not been bad.

at Guldstrands

Was nice to have lunch with my cousin Michael and his lovely family. The food was great and Michael is to say the least peculiar with the details, which after all makes a difference :-) His big house in Djursholm gave motivation to come back in summertime and try out his boat and jetski.

Ferry Helsinki-Stockholm

Intensive PhD work Mekrijärvi

PhD work in action and the sauna for getting rewarded after hard work.

Skiing competition

In Finland people live in these kind of houses ;-) (Or maybe not?)

Went to cheer for Mikkos kids Tuukka and Kuisma who both did very well in the skiing competition. Apparently i was too old to participate in the competition but still took the chance to ski a bit myself. It was nice to spend some time outdoors. After the competition I was invited for lunch at family Vesisenaho.

Video of the race that Kuisma later won.

Winter in Joensuu

Sorry I have not been good at updating my blog but to be honest there has not been that much exciting stuff to tell. In Joensuu we still have proper winter with a lot of snow. The temperature has not been so bad lately and last week it has mostly been around -5. Days are getting a bit longer and sun is only setting around five in the afternoon. Yesterday I got invited for a Sunday lunch and it was very international with 9 participants from 9 different countries however no Finns. There was loads of good food served in the quite small kitchen and I ate until I felt like a baloon ready to burst. Luckily I found a couch on the balcony where I could find some space to lay down in order to digest all the food, but didn't take long before it got a bit to cold and I had to head back inside. On Staurday I went skiing and tried to take a picture of myself without any greater success as you can see. Also added a picture of the basket ball game I went to see as Joensuu has a good team and is leading the leauge, and it was about as exciting as watching cricket... Else from that I played badminton today with Roman and worth mentioning is that I won the game. Now time to get back to work as there is plenty to do before I can leave Joensuu. The countdown for going to Tanzania has started and looking forward to some heat and sun for a change ;-)