So right now we are over in Vancouver, Canada as you might have gathered having a break and visiting Maarjas mum and dad (Katrin and Alari) who are over here on a sabbatical (of sorts) Alari is currently the pastor at Vancouvers United Estonian Baptist Church...
Its really interesting seeing the Estonian minority who came here as refugees during the second world war (to escape the "liberating" USSR), so far we have spent a lot of time visiting Alari and Katrins new friends, speaking Estonian (and getting lots of compliments for speaking Estonian) eating Estonian (sült which isn't too popular in Estonia nowerdays), singing Estonian folk songs and so on... The local Estonians are almost more Estonian than the Estonian Estonians who live in Estonia :)
The Estonian churches (Baptist, Lutheran and Orthodox) here all conduct traditional meetings in Estonian and the baptist church seems to be wrestling with how to move forward and reach out, Alari is doing his thing stirring things up (english language outreach etc) Its interesting that national culture and national identity have been such a key part of the church here and have shaped the churches model to such a large degree, for a country with such a small population but such a strong national identity all expressions of national identity become so much more precious, its means a lot to the first generation of Estonians here that their children and grandchildren know that they are Estonian and speak Estonian...
Vancouver is beautiful and the people are great, very friendly, very caring, very generous, and very kind... very Estonian and very Canadian which is a good combination.
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