 Visitors to Oulu’s main Post Office this week might be forgiven for thinking they’ve entered some kind of time warp. The corner of the office includes a gramophone, magazines from the 1940s, a fireplace and pictures of former president Urho Kekkonen.
It’s all to get older people chatting’ says Kyllikki Holapainen, who is the Chatting Office’s head ‘chatter.’ ‘At first when they come they are suspicious and ask, “Why are you giving us this free cake and coffee?”!’ she says. ‘But it’s just so older people can come here and speak together.’ The Chatting Office is open from 8am to 4pm.  Paid for by Leiras (a charity which helps the elderly), the installation began in Helsinki last year and attracted over 150 people to come and chat. The furniture and props are provided by MTV3.
‘Older people like to come here to speak together,’ says Kylliki. ‘They don’t speak about the future . . . they speak about the past . . . about the war times or when they were evacuated.’ Leiras’ campaign, of which the installation is a part, is called ‘Give Time.’ ‘It’s so we can give time to the elderly and the sick,’ says Kyllikki. In Helsinki’s main Post Office, the installation took up double the amount of space but the elderly are still enjoying the scaled-down Oulu version. ‘They really like the old magazines,’ says Kyllikki, as elderly man sits behind a desk with an old type writer on it and drinks his coffee. ‘They see them and they say, “These are the people that I remember!” and they begin to speak, the men more than the women!’ In the autumn, the ‘Chatting Office’ will be back in Helsinki and continues in Oulu until Friday.
|
