kvikkjokk, spöke and sushi

hej. so on friday i returned from english camp - a tiring experience to say the least. unexpectedly i was put into the role of "leader", i.e. one of the camp counselors in charge of a group of five 13-14 year old girls. i shared a cabin with them and "supervised" them in the brief moments we had to be with them. a relaxed affair, altogether. my memories of camp, the one science camp i did attend, were that we were not allowed to be alone or without supervision for one second throughout the day. the kids at english camp pretty much had a run of the small hostel they were staying at, including playing in the giant snow drifts until 10pm or so, or wandering around sneaking smokes or making out in the dark. they also were glued to their cellphones, and one of the sparse duties each night was for me to take their cellphones and have them put them on a table so they wouldn't be up all night texting each other. this is a generation of children that sleeps with their mobiles under the pillows so they can tell when they've gotten a call or a message 24 hours a day. needless to say it took about 45 minutes of negotiation before they could relinquish them and put them on a table about 3 feet from their beds. wow.

anyway, two of the saving graces of the experience was spending a lot of time with Hilke, an exchange student from Germany, an incredibly intelligent and sweet girl who has been/is living in Jokkmokk for a year. the other was Tim, who, as it turns out, is the father of the guy Jonah whose apartment i stayed in a few weeks ago. Tim is an American from Ohio who moved to Sweden when he was 19 years old, and many an hour was spent reminiscing and comparing Sweden vs. America, or, him telling me crazy stories about the history of the mining industries of the area, including ghost stories - the kids loved these by the way, and he had a way of making even the most hyperactive teenage boys chill out and go to sleep like that.

he told one really good story that took place in the 1600s in the town Kvikkjokk where we were (population at it's height: 86, today: 14). according to some wrtings by, among other people, Carl Von Linne, there had been a pastor at the Luthern church here (the original burned down and was rebuilt in 1909), who had a wife named Christina. she had some sort of affair with another prominant man in the area, and was generally intriguing an unconventional. she was also known to have mystical powers, and learned the Sami language, and was actually accepted somehow, perhaps as a shaman, as one of them. it was said she had the power to change the weather and was respected for her abilities. upon her death, her body was put on some structure in the mountains to await burial. she had a necklace that she wore all her days in life, and was put with the body up there on the mountain. when the townspeople returned to get the corpse, it had disappeared, but the necklace was the only thing that remained. no one knows what happened to her body - some think the Sami took it to bury her in their own manner. or, maybe, she still inhabits the mountains around Kvikkjokk....

here are some photographs from camp - i didn't take many of the mountains as the weather was quite gray and obscured most of the vistas.


lake


afternoon trees


kids being cute. walking anywhere with them was a chaotic affair, of pushing each other into the snow and wrestling like little animals. oh yeah, the jackets the boys are wearing say "jokkmokk hockey wolverines"


walking to the church


bell tower


a strange painting of a king (?)


tim senften


one of the girls in my cabin. notice the gold heart appliqued to one of her teeth. another girl in the cabin had one too, this is a trend of some sort here...


the girls being silly with some left-over sticky rice

on saturday, Ylva invited me over to eat sushi with some friends at this community center place. the amount of food they made could've easily fed about 40 people. there was also tons of dessert and the ever-present coffee flowing. i met, among other folks, the son of Tom and Disa, Daniel, and these half-Swedish half-Greenlandic guys who were really nice. Ylva's been in town for a few days while she finishes interviews and writing up an article she's doing for one of the Sami publications. the theme of the article is ghost (spöke) stories, mostly centered around the Sami Folk High School here in Jokkmokk. when they were building the school, they uncovered some human remains and burial sites, and apparently ever since the school has existed there has been many, many reports of poltergeist-like occurances. Ylva's cousin lives there now and has experienced some of it herself. these things include loud knocking for hours on end, things being moved around, and people's dogs going crazy and barking as if someone were passing behind the doors of the rooms. FASCINATING! i've got to get a copy of this article when she's finished for sure. also, i'd like to put some photos of her, since i talk about her so much, but for some reason i haven't taken any yet. for now, here are some pictures of the delicious, delicious sushi we feasted upon.


mm


mmm


mmmm


mmmmm


folks feasting. the guy with beard was the guy at the market making the drums in one of my photos.

semmel-dag

good ol Jokkmokk! this town is really starting to grow on me. never spent time in small town where everyone has basically grown up together and every time you mention anyone's name someone says "oh, that's my relative", or "that's my friend's sister", etc. linguistically, one Swedish phrase that i absorbed in my lessons yesterday was "ursekta mig", which means "excuse me". phew. it's so great to have something to say now when i bump into people at the market and don't have to akwardly mumble or walk away silently. another new thing i learned was this interesting expression which is used only here in northern Sweden, that is basically a inward sucking "shoop" sound which means "yes" or "affirmative". old people tend to do it a lot and i had no idea what it was until now.

so, yesterday was also the beginning of Lent, and Keira's sister Ylva invited me over to his apartment (which is less than a block away) for some movies and to eat semla, or Lent cakes. they are these amazing spongy cakes with a ton of cream on top and almond paste inside. amazing!




the rest of the night was spent drinking lots of coffee, petting their cute dog, talking about Russia and Ylva's many activities in Sami youth organizations, such as the Barents Region Sami Youth Council and other local groups whose purpose is to educate Swedish folks about the Sami and their past and present struggles in preserving their culture/reindeer husbandry. fascinating. i hope to hear more this weekend when they'll be back from taking care of Berghem while their father is gone checking on some reindeer in Norway. now i am off to English camp. shoop!

mondag

i haven't got the internet so much at my fingertips these days, thus the lack of updates. let's see: things have been pretty quiet this last week. my first whole week at living above the church has mostly consisted of drawing all day, drinking incredible amounts of coffee, and lots of reading - i got a library card! lost favorite t-shirt has been found in berghem. tuesday i went to dinner at Tom's house with his daughters and some German exchange students. what do i find when i sit down to dinner but... tofu! interesting story, turns out Tom's been a vegetarian since he was 17, when his whole family decided to stop eating meat on a long roadtrip from Uruguay to back to Kansas. awesome! on friday i went to Lulea, the capital of Norbotten, to get some new shoes. oh, and my stay with Katerina has been postponed until next week, as she's fallen ill. wednesday, i'm off to English camp with the 7th graders, which i'm kind of getting excited about. well, any excuse to do anything outdoors is a reason to be excited. more more more. it snowed all day yesterday and it was lovely, only -10 or so.

in other news, the kind folks at the Kunskapenhus gave me access to a great online course and a book to practice Swedish. from now on i'll be here way more often practicing...being in a country where most people speak english is great, but it isn't doing much as far as helping me learn any Swedish. it certainly isn't the most universal of languages, but i really like Sweden so far, and the language is similar to Norweigan and Danish in some ways, so it won't hurt to learn some basics.

here are some random photos of my existence here in Jokkmokk. a week from today i will have been in Sweden for one month.


view from kitchen window


the path i take to get to the internet at kunskapenhus


unfinished drawing of a sami woman from a 60s book i found at the church


jokkmokks kommunbibliotek library card


new shoes


things to do
-go look at the library collections the Ajtte museum
-pick up a roll of film i got developed, cost: $12 US dollars (!!!)
-PLAY INDOOR HOCKEY with Tom's daughter Meriam and her boyfriend Jonah at the school gymnasium

things to be

things keep moving along each day here in unexpected ways

in the next two weeks i'm going to be a little busy with these activities going on i somehow got invited to. a woman named Katerina who runs a Sami Homestay project called me this morning, saying she had gotten an e-mail from Eva and in the Area Laponia office about me. she invited me to come out to her place 15 miles outside Jokkmokk to check it out, and she even offered to give me a ride to and from town. i think since it's guesthouse situation, monies will be exchanged, but she said that we'd work out a special deal of some sort. why not...

also, Tom Rutschman, the pastor at the Mennonite church who is also a teacher at the junior high here, invited me to join one of his classes on a 3-day trip to Kvikkjokk, a small town about 150 km east of Jokkmokk. every year he takes groups of kids up there to do nature stuff, but also do these intense workshops that deal with xenophobia and racism, dealing with new (foreign) people moving into these small northern communities. i guess during the whole trip they're only suppose to speak English too. i'm becoming more and more intrigued the more i think about it, and i will most likely join them. it's free, and i get to check out a new town and meet the local kids from my temporary neighborhood here.

i spent all morning drawing today, as i've been doing most of the time that i'm not wandering around town. also, i think it's safe to say i have consumed more coffee since i've been in Sweden than i probably have in my entire life before now. i was not big on it before when i lived in the US, but a few weeks before i left i had some strange chemical change (i guess) and suddenly caffeine started to "work" on me. as opposed to making me tired and sick like before.

well. it's been snowing all day today, and i think i'll start walking back to the other end of town back home before it gets too dark.

home for now

hej. so i moved into an apartment yesterday, above a Mennonite church here in Jokkmokk. it has a kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom and a bedroom with two beds. the timing worked out very well, with the help of my excellent hosts Jonah and Keira, who only live about a block and a half away now. i'll be living here for about a month, and hopefully that will give me enough time to explore all the amazing things that are to be found in this part of Sweden. tomorrow i am going to Lulea and see what's going on there. perhaps do a little updating on the old wardrobe as well. i think i lost my favorite t-shirt...

small things i have learned in my time in Sweden so far:

-shoes with excessive laces are not a good idea if you plan on going over to anyone's house for any amount of time. no shoes in people's homes ever
-knives are a really handy thing to have
-getting used to the fact that "hej" (hello) may sound exactly like the more casual american phrase "hey", but isn't
-the supermarkets charge 2kr for using their bags
-Jokkmokk has no stoplights
-alchohol stops being sold at the systembolaget (government owned) at 3pm on saturdays
-snus is great!

i think i'm going to start attending some Swedish language lessons at the highschool with some Colombian families who just moved here in the mornings from now on. that should help with situations like going to the store and taking an hour to decipher things. hopefully, i'll also be voluntering somewhere around town. a sweet girl named Ylva gave me some good suggestions, especially since these would allow me to spend more time outdoors. in this kind of cold, unless you are actively doing something, there is simply no reason to be outside.

i'll post some photos of my goings on when i can get some wireless, i'm at the library at the moment. hej da!

berghem

interesting turn of events these past few days.

before i left for my trip i became a member of Couchsurfing.com, where travellers can connect with people who have floorspace or couches you can crash on for a few days in different countries. the girls i stayed with in Stockholm were from just such a site. on tuesday a guy named Jonah from there wrote to me after noticing the last time i'd logged in was from Jokkmokk, just to ask what i'd though of their little town. long story short, he and his roommate were going out of town this weekend, but he let me stay at his apartment in Jokkmokk (where i am now) for a few days while i got in touch with the folks i might be renting from.

i left my stuff at the apartment and went to the store to buy a few necessities. when i got back, his roommate, Keira, was there, getting some things before heading back to his father's place to take care of their reindeer. Keira ended up inviting me up to his father's house, in an area called Berghem about 45 km outside of Jokkmokk. when we got there, the first thing we did is go on a snowmobile drive over another frozen lake in pitch darkness! i drove for a while and it was so cold but so unlike anything else...i felt like i was driving through outer space.


the lake during the day

the house where his father lived had been built by has Sami grandparents in the 50s, and still had no electricity or running water. thus, to get water, one had to go to the lake, to a hole they'd cut out with a chainsaw and draw water from it.



keira chiseling the ice hole



keira, 24 years old. loves "snus" aka snuff tobacco, which is really popular in Sweden.


iron stove was the only source of heat


a neat painting

it goes without saying that to use the restroom, one has to go out and take care of business. this was not fun in -30C, or even -25C during the day....like today, when they had to feed the reindeer. this has been an exceptionally harsh winter, the harshest in recent memory. the reindeer are unable to reach their food because of the deep snow and ice, and so the herders must feed them. some people have built fences and corrals to make this easier this winter, but most people let their reindeer roam free in the forests at this time of year. every other day they must do this intense series of tasks, regardless of the cold, which is as follows:

1.) chop up frozen hay bales with an axe and crumble the hay into smaller pieces, enough to fill a huge sack
2.)load up snow mobile into a trailer, along with chainsaw and food pellets and hay
3.) drive for 30 minutes, unload snow mobile, food, and retrieve other snow mobile stashed nearby, with a sled attached
4.)drive snowmobiles really far across frozen lakes to first reindeer hang out spot, scatter food. do this twice more
5.)go into the forest and with a long stick shake free from the branches a special kind of moss the reindeer like to eat. this is especially exhausting work as the snow is waist deep in some places
6.) chop down several old trees for firewood, cut into smaller pieces and load onto sled
7.) return to car, load everything, drive home, unload everything

total time about 4 hours



getting ready to spread out food


reindeer food pellets


shaking moss loose from branches

i would've taken more photos of the action but i was more worried about staying warm and not getting frostbite. at one point i fell in the snow when i wasnt wearing a glove, and immediately my hand started to become so stiff i couldn't move my fingers. i secretly panicked for a moment before i stuck my hands into a backup pair of mittens i'd bought and breathed warm air on them.

reindeer herding it is hard work, but people truly enjoy it. it's a tradition that encourages a passing down, as most young people i've spoken with have said (looking forward to their own families and grandchildren). also, it has it's own advantages, such as everyone owning a summer place/cabin in the areas where you take the reindeer during the spring and summer, usually in the mountains.

fyi: it is considered rude to ask people how many reindeer they have




after the coldest day of my trip so far and helping out around Berghem all day, i feel like i could sleep for 10 years. what wonderful folks i've been able to find so far... taack Jonah and Keira!

Buorre Beaivi (Good Day)

alright, i think the only way to do this blog about my time at the Wintermarket without getting overwhelmed at the moment is to post just photos, with some summary of what's going on underneath them. this is just a taste of some of the things i did and the people i met. for now they will be organized under "things" and "people". ok!

i have to say it is difficult to type now, even though i am indoors it is -23C outside and my fingers are quite stiff...

anyway, welcome to Jokkmokk, population 3,200. except for the week of January 28th - January 5th, where 80,000 people converge for the market...

THINGS


jokkmokk is located within the UNESCO laponia world heritage site. nature here is, of course, incredible


view from the frozen lake


sled dogs going crazy for getting harnessed up


tasty swedish candy ropes


a pile of reindeer skins


a sled belonging to someone named "Garcia"


some foxes furs and furs of other creatures. i have never seen more fur being worn or sold in my entire life


more foxes


beautiful Sami reindeer skin shoes


a few of the things i bought at the market: a 7 inch recording of Sami hymns made in 1966, 3 kinds of ribbon, special kind of salt, kaffeosk ( a cheese you eat by putting into coffee to melt), mittens, and felt wool insoles aka THE BEST 50 kr i ever spent!


reindeer getting ready for the race on the frozen lake


more reindeer


Sami man harnessing a reindeer that did not want to be harnessed


reindeer after a race


Sami kids watching the race


one more reindeer!

PEOPLE


this is Per Westberg, from the south of Sweden. He is a craftsman/furniture maker who lives on a large piece of land in the countryside growing vegetables with his wife. He is also an artist and a self-taught expert on electromagnetism. Also, he makes models and displays for museums - one of his models of the ancient city of Uppsala is in the museum there.


Per and i spent a long time drinking coffeee and talking inside this Sami tent, where one could also buy reindeer stock soup and waffles with lingonberry sauce


Daniel P., from Hosjöbotten, Sweden, one of the Sami boys on Saturday night


Daniel's reindeer brand/cutting mark


his friend whose name escapes me at the moment


crazy kids


Sami youth at a dance at the Folket Hus


Nils Ole Anti (see entry below), from Finnmark, Norway. here he is writing some phrases in Northern Fell Sami for me to practice


Nils' shoes


Nils' reindeer markings/cuttings


J's reindeer markings


Drawing collaboration and notes between Nils, A. and J. in my book


i have become very interested in these marking cuts they use on the reindeer - i think learning about these might be something i will investigate in detail during this trip. they're beautiful.

tomorrow (february 6th) is National Sami day throughout Scandinavia. tomorrow in our little town there will be a small celebration at the main Laponia House, which of course I will attend. it is a little difficult getting from place to place here in the dead of winter, but I've managed so far. i hear Norway is even more difficult. but perhaps by saturday i will be in Tromso, who knows?