From March 11, 1999 I worked as a live-in socio-therapist in Föreningen Staffansgården. This is a community for mentally handicapped located 300 km. north of Stockholm near a small town called Delsbo in Hudiksvall Kommun which is a part of a historical province of Hälsingland.

Hälsningland. The "capital" of the province, Hudiksvall (called informally "Hudik"), is one of the oldest cities in Middle Sweden. Founded on the sea shore in 1582, it was completely burned down by the Russian army in 1721. The strong eastern wind there is still called "ryssen" (the Russian). The chief industries in Hälsningland are fishing and timber processing.

Delsbo (30 km westward) is known for the summer music festival, which is also held in a number of surrounding villages. You can listen to people speaking the local dialect.

A map of Delsbo and Staffansgården.

Staffansgården

I lived in one of the houses together with villagers (that's how the handicapped are called in Staffansgården, bybor in Swedish), cared for them and worked with them. We cut firewood, worked in the animal farm, the garden and the weavery.

Almost every month I accompanied my charges during their home trips home to various cities. We went by taxi, train, and bus. In Stockholm I used metro and local trains.

I only didn't fly in Sweden, but we all went by plane to Italy (Toscana). That was a vocation for our charges. For me it was both work and an excellent holiday (see the photos).

In general, this caregiving job was a useful experience. I learned new skills, such as caring after handicapped, working with animals and wood cutting. However, I didn't like the Camphill ideology (a mixture of mysticism and communism). For the first few months the job was interesting, but then it became monotonous: same place, same things to do, and few new faces.

You can read more about my personal impressions of working and living in Staffansgården and see photos.

You can also read official information about Staffansgården.

Trips in Sweden

It was too expensive to travel for pleasure, I only went to Hudiksvall once a week for the computer course, the library, and shopping.

There were also "home trips" for villagers, and I went with them as often as an opportunity presented itself - about once in a month or two. It was a way to see the country, change the surrounding, and get a little extra pocket money (180 kr. per trip). The villagers that I accompanied all lived in the direction of Stockholm, so I went several times to Gävle, Uppsala, Märsta and Stockholm, but I couldn't explore other cities. Here are notes on two of my trips:

15-17 October, 1999. I went to Stockholm to accompany our villagers on their trip home. There were 2 co-workers with us as well. I Stockholm we stayed at City Backpackers, a good clean hostel near the Central Train Station. I went to Gamla Stan again, as five years ago. Museums here are quite expensive, so I just looked at the city. I also did some window-shopping and went to the City Library.

Next day I spent three hours in a second-hand bookshop. New books are 20 times more expensive than in Russia, but second-hand ones are affordable. I bought textbooks on languages and spent all my two-day trip allowance. Then I went to Stockholm's library and after that to a place called Lava - a youth centre. There is always something new there; this time it was a band from Africa playing the drums.

Other impressions

My Swedish improved significantly. I read the press (translating some articles) and books, went to a computer course, dance and horse-riding courses. I also took the SFI language test, which was quite easy for me.

For a few months during my spare time I went to Arbetsförmedlingen trying to find another job in Sweden. Even though I sent dozens of resumes, I didn't get a new job because I didn't have the authorisation to change my employment. Still, it was an interesting place: I filled in various databases, both at AF and at other employment agencies via the Internet, looked information on various courses and work-related regulations. It's a great system, I don't know why many Swedes have such a low opinion of it.

I got acquainted with the Swedish banking system: got a bank account, a credit card, and saved in mutual funds. Every day I looked through financial supplements to newspapers. I even bought Telia stocks when the government privatised this company (but then the Telia stock performed disastrously!).

I got used to living in Sweden: to the people - polite and good-humoured, to the state sector - efficient and informative, to Swedish goods - reliable and well-designed (also very expensive), to the Swedish nature - clean and well-cared for. I enjoyed using Swedish libraries and Internet.

I liked the country a lot, especially the Swedes' positive attitude to life, to each other and to their country.

There were some aspects of that I didn't like (e.g. overregulation of the economic and social spheres by the state, discrimination of foreigners and certain cultural self-centredness), but of course it was nothing compared to Russia's woes.

I felt very secure there: no thugs, drunk and homeless people (I saw only a few homeless in Stockholm and one drunk man in Hudik sleeping peacefully on the grass near Systembolaget), everyone is polite and helpful. People respect each other. In Russia this is so rare nowadays!

If I could I would have stayed in Sweden for good, but there was no possibility to obtain permanent residence and change the employment in the foreseeable future. The country had very strict immigration laws. That is why after 1.5 years I went back to Russia.