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The last CHAFF meeting on Sunday was rather crowded.

We had Dilip and Reshu Joshi drop in to say goodbye as they are returning to India. They paid great compliments to CHAFF for having made their last weeks here meaningful. They are really looking forward to coming back to Finland and especially Oulu.

Ashesh Kumar, the CEO of the GMP facility in Medipolis returned from India and attended. Mika, our Thai food connoisseur was there before he pushed off for his afternoon round of golf. Kevin from China came along with Anoop Sharma from Nepal and another Nepalese student.

Jude, a Sri Lankan, who has a reputation in Oulu for going out of his way to help people made his first attendance at the meeting. Another new attendee was Oulu long timer Barbel Fink. Olga Soranova, our linguist from Russia, who speaks Russian, Finnish, English, Polish, Spanish and Norwegian brought along a Visiting Professor from Russia who speaks a Finno-Ugric language. We also welcomed Rachaya from Thailand and her husband Ari Ronkainen, who have just recently moved from Helsinki to Oulu. Ari is an expert on cars and a really wonderful personality. Rachaya is a dynamo for activity and has helped to get the new Pohjois-Suomen Thai Seura Association off the ground as they held their first meeting to found this organisation right after the CHAFF Meeting.

June and her daughter Pupe, Ann and her husband Petri and children, Eero and his wife, Nitaya, were also on hand for both meetings. Of course our host and hostess, Unnop and Pailin, were very busy and involved with everything, including serving up some delicious food.

The Flea Market had its share of happy visitors and I was the lucky seller of quite few bargains! The Sunday Flea Market this week will be between 12 noon and 1600 hours. The CHAFF Meeting will be again between 14:00 hours and 16:00 hours, so drop in if you can, and meet a broad spectrum of really lovely people.

Yrjö Mikkonen has informed me that the National Bahá'í Summer School (in English) at Kaakkurin koulu, Pesätie 15, will be held between 29 June to 5 July 2007. Anyone is free to attend and the accommodation (if one wants to stay) and refreshments and food are at very reasonable prices. The discussion theme of the week is "Mankind at the threshold of maturity." Guest speaker, Mr. Ian Semple (Great Britain), former member (1963-2005) of the Universal House of Justice, the Supreme Administrative Body of the Bahá'í Faith. You can see the whole programme on this web page.

There is also another theme for the week where John Jason, a teacher of English from Joensuu presents his topic "Covenant". Although the topic sound dry, it is interesting - if one is interested how vast this subject is. John can make "dry" issues really interesting. It deals with the question of succession of religions, protection of religion, bond with God and man etc.

There is a Special Program with the visit of Naantali Theatre to perform "Mona." This is a drama basing of factual happenings in Shiraz after the Islamic Revolution. Khomeini rises to power in 1979. The organized qaders of Shiah Muslims start the waves of religious terrorism. Their objective is to eradicate all religious dissidents in the country by all usable methods. The biggest religious minority, the Bahá'ís, becomes the specific target of deliberately brutal and cruel persecution...Mona is the story of the fate of her family during the turbulent years of the 1980ies in Iran. The play will be performed on Sat. 30 June at 7.30 pm. Tickets: 10 €/adults; 6 €/students, school children and youth between 7-16 years.

Have a great week.