When being in a strange place halfway around the world from home, feeling theicy coldness of a heavily snowy day when temperature falls 30-40 degrees Celsiusbelow zero, hearing a strange voice in your own language is just enough to warmyou up.
That’s the way Marjo Paavola, director and senior consultant ofRamboll international group in Finland , chose to welcome a delegation ofVietnamese experts who came to her country to learn communications experiencesin relation to science and technology. “Hi everybody. How do you do!,” shewelcomed the visitors in the Vietnamese language.
Her natural salutationtook the group of visitors by surprise and refresh their sleepy, tiring mindsalmost worn out after a 26-hour flight plus eight hours waiting to transit.
As her company won a bidding contract to implement a support programmefor Vietnam under the Innovation Partnership Programme (IPP) scheme of theFinnish government, Paavola was assigned to be a liaison officer for thevisiting Vietnamese delegation from the Ministry of Science andTechnology.
The assignment partly came out of her working experiences inVietnam in the early 2000s and her proficiency of the Vietnamese language.
Back to the time from 2001-2005, Paavola was a familiar name among notonly the authorities of the northern port city of Hai Phong, but also to thecity dwellers. She was then among a group of Finnish experts joining in aproject on water supply and drainage and environmental protection for the portcity.
During the time, she frequently showed up on the local TV andnewspapers and sometimes even on the central television to introduce about theproject. Her work has contributed to settle the many issues of practical needsregarding environment and drainage for local people.
Paavola also tookpart in another Finnish project on poverty reduction and hunger elimination fora number of cities and provinces in northern Vietnam. She had for many timescome to ethnic people in remote villages of Bac Kan, Cao Bang, Lang Son and LaoCai provinces to examine the effectiveness of the funding allocated to theprovinces.
Thanks to her active lobby, Hai Phong has received aone-million-USD funding from the Finnish government for poverty reductionwork.
The thread that kept her in Vietnam later turned out to be the onethat tied her up to a Vietnamese husband in 2005. Paavola bumped into DinhQuynh, her present husband, when she was jogging on a sunny, beautiful day.During the three year’s hanging out together, Quynh helped Paavola learnVietnamese language as well as tradition, culture and gastronomy.
Thecouple is now living in the capital city of Helsinki , where she continues towork in support of Vietnam and Quynh worked for a food supply company. Despiteboth holding Finnish citizenship, for Paavola, the sentence “I am a Vietnamese”is always her favourite expression.
She is now applying to be an expertfor another Finland ’s project to be carried out in Vietnam in order to bringher knowledge and experience back “home” and help the people here./.
That’s the way Marjo Paavola, director and senior consultant ofRamboll international group in Finland , chose to welcome a delegation ofVietnamese experts who came to her country to learn communications experiencesin relation to science and technology. “Hi everybody. How do you do!,” shewelcomed the visitors in the Vietnamese language.
Her natural salutationtook the group of visitors by surprise and refresh their sleepy, tiring mindsalmost worn out after a 26-hour flight plus eight hours waiting to transit.
As her company won a bidding contract to implement a support programmefor Vietnam under the Innovation Partnership Programme (IPP) scheme of theFinnish government, Paavola was assigned to be a liaison officer for thevisiting Vietnamese delegation from the Ministry of Science andTechnology.
The assignment partly came out of her working experiences inVietnam in the early 2000s and her proficiency of the Vietnamese language.
Back to the time from 2001-2005, Paavola was a familiar name among notonly the authorities of the northern port city of Hai Phong, but also to thecity dwellers. She was then among a group of Finnish experts joining in aproject on water supply and drainage and environmental protection for the portcity.
During the time, she frequently showed up on the local TV andnewspapers and sometimes even on the central television to introduce about theproject. Her work has contributed to settle the many issues of practical needsregarding environment and drainage for local people.
Paavola also tookpart in another Finnish project on poverty reduction and hunger elimination fora number of cities and provinces in northern Vietnam. She had for many timescome to ethnic people in remote villages of Bac Kan, Cao Bang, Lang Son and LaoCai provinces to examine the effectiveness of the funding allocated to theprovinces.
Thanks to her active lobby, Hai Phong has received aone-million-USD funding from the Finnish government for poverty reductionwork.
The thread that kept her in Vietnam later turned out to be the onethat tied her up to a Vietnamese husband in 2005. Paavola bumped into DinhQuynh, her present husband, when she was jogging on a sunny, beautiful day.During the three year’s hanging out together, Quynh helped Paavola learnVietnamese language as well as tradition, culture and gastronomy.
Thecouple is now living in the capital city of Helsinki , where she continues towork in support of Vietnam and Quynh worked for a food supply company. Despiteboth holding Finnish citizenship, for Paavola, the sentence “I am a Vietnamese”is always her favourite expression.
She is now applying to be an expertfor another Finland ’s project to be carried out in Vietnam in order to bringher knowledge and experience back “home” and help the people here./.
