International 4-H Youth Exchange

Hello Everyone,

My second host family stay has ended as of today. I am now travelling to Östersund where we will be having a 4H camp and get to meet all of the IFYEs from all over the world who are currently staying in Sweden plus many others who are involved in 4H here in Sweden.

My second host stay was with Gunnar and Lena Nilsson. They are dairy farmers up near the northern border of Sweden and Finland on the Baltic Sea near a small town called Töre. Töre is located about 40 minutes north of Luleå. Gunnar is also a professional fisherman when he is not taking care of the cows or bringing in crops. I have four host brothers who range from 13 years old to 7 years. The oldest is Anders at age 13. Then it is Göran who is 11, Lennart who is 10, and Simon who is 7. I spent most of my time with Anders. Lena also helps out on the farm and has no other job but farming. I guess you would class her as a housewife.

When I first got to this family they showed me where I can put my stuff for my stay. It ended up being in a separate building across the driveway. There were two rooms in there and I had the largest room. The family told me that was the guest's house.

As I said above, Gunnar does fishing on the side from working with his dairy farm. He fishes for salmon, perch, and northern pike. I have helped him with all three. The salmon net is a very large net and we only brought in maybe two or three salmon my entire stay. This isn't a very good time to be catching salmon right now. We brought in lots of perch though. They are caught using cages in the shape of a heart. The fish swim into this trap and then can't get out. The traps are suspended in the water with a bottle and a string. Gunnar has over 200 traps located all over the Baltic Sea up to one hour by boat away from their house. The northern pike are caught by chasing them into a trap. You first string a line of net in 3 or 4 feet of water for about 100 yards. Then you take the boat on the shore side and scare all of the northern pike into the nets. They get caught in the net and we bring them in. We caught 8 pike with a total weight of about 37 pounds. That was a lot of fun. Besides fishing Gunnar and Lena run a 20 cow milking herd. They have a stanchion barn and have 4 milkers. They bring in only one crop to feed the cows. That crop is grass, or what appears to be weeds most of the time. They have a silo that looks like a harvestore that feeds from the top. They also blow dryer grass into the hay mow as dry feed for the cows. The hay mow was interesting because it has holes in the floor and there are fans on one end to dry the grass even more.

On the first day that I came to this family we went to the market. I had never been to what they call a market before and come to find out it was just like a fair or the special days each city has where there are rides, people selling things, and lots and lots of people.

My first experience driving in Sweden was during this host stay. This family didn't have time to be taking me to show me what this area had to offer so they told me that I could drive the car. At first I wasn't sure if I could but after checking with my advisor I was able to drive. I took the car in to Tore for my first experience. Driving in Sweden is definitely different. The biggest difference was the fact that there were very few stop signs. Instead everyone yields at intersections. That was very hard for me to get used to because of almost every intersection in the USA is controlled by a stop sign. I didn't have any clue as to who was suppose to stop. The signs were also in Swedish and so it took me a while to understand what each sign meant. One thing that was really hard for me was the fact that there were no road names on many of the roads like we have in the USA. That was hard because you couldn't find the road on the map if there were no road names. That was mainly on the back roads not the major highways. I also made one trip into Lulea and several trips up to Anita's house, the county coordinator, so that we could go see the different parts of northern Sweden. She took me to the Finish border and to the Arctic Circle. We were in Finland along the border when we got to the Arctic Circle. Finland really makes a big deal about crossing the border because they had a painted line showing where the Arctic Circle was, a nice gift shop, and a cafe. There I got a certificate saying that I passed the Arctic Circle. Also when you pass the Arctic Circle you enter into the zone where they have what they call the Midnight Sun. That is where the sun never sets EVER! That was hard to understand and get used to but eventually I got used to going to bed when it was still light out. We also swam in the Tornea River, the one that separates Sweden from Finland, and the Kalix River.

I hadn't planned on doing an American meal because I didn't have any room for the stuff required to bring but one day, while Lena was gone on some kind of vacation with Goran and Lennart, Gunnar told Anders and I that we were in charge of making supper so I made a noodle hotdish that had noodles, bacon, and eggs in it. Gunnar, Anders, and Simon liked it. I also cooked up some rhubarb crisp. They have heard of it and call it barber pie. Barber is rhubarb in Swedish. I also learned real fast how to wash my own clothes. I have really never had to wash my own clothes because my mom is really nice and washes them for me. That was a great experience as I will be out on my own when I get home. Before I could wash my clothes I needed to make some hot water by starting a fire in the wood stove. They heated their water and house using a wood stove. It wasn't hard to do but I came close to burning my hair because I let too much oxygen in at a time and it made a mini explosion. I learned quickly what not to do.

The final activity that I did while I was with this family was to go white water rafting down the Tornea River. It wasn't very rough but it was rough enough to get us wet. We also got the opportunity to jump in part way down and do a little swimming. That was a lot of fun. After the rafting we went to Haparanda where there was a market going on. Some of my newly acquired friends surprised me with a gift of metric measuring cups so I can bring home some Swedish recipes and make them without having to translate them into the English measuring system

Overall, I had a pretty good experience with this family and learned a lot about fishing and farming in Sweden and also found out that very few people live in the north part of Sweden.