Small mountains and larger ones

Anna Kempe lived as a young girl at the westcoast of Finland. In her life this was then a part of Russia. But at home Anna and her siblings spoke swedish. The region is also called Österbotten, because it was the name of the region from the period when Finland still belonged to Sweden, I think. On the swedish side there are regions called Norrbotten and Västerbotten.
Today Finland and Sweden are linked in many ways. Of course geographically as before. But different countries today. Different governments, different administrative systems. Different languages in some parts. (In eastern Finland more people speak finnish than swedish )

Mountains on the westcoast are not the Himalayas. But Anna wanted maybe to get higher...

For Mothers

Yellow flowers to all women "who are like mothers" to someone. Anna Kempe had a friend who when he was old, and she even a little bit older and had moved back to Finland, wrote a letter to her with this sentence: "You were lika a mother to me"

So if you have adopted or sponsored children, you can feel like a mother to them and enjoy these yellow flowers.

Anna hiked in the mountains

Many times, she used to walk around with christian brouchures and small magazines. She tried to get to know people in her region. So rather than Bollywood dancing she kept herself in good condition by walking. Since the region is almost in the Himalayas there are many hills to climb.

Life is not always easy

Anna Kempe, Peter and Esther. On a photo she is together with a teenage girl. Everybody in the Kempe family here in Finland name her "Esther". But who was she? She looks like any other girl from India, the photo show a little bit of a small white house. Anna Kempe succeded to build her own livinghouse / schoolhouse or missionary station. In an other photo there is also a younger boy, aged maybe seven.

This is the intriguing parts of Annas life in India. Who was the photograper? To start with the first obvious question. At that time nobody used "selfie-sticks"!

Anna Kempe travelled twice to India

Anna Kempe worked for forty years in India. Her first period of work lasted seven years. Then she went back to Finland and gathered some more money for a second worksession. The second one lasted more than thirty years and she participated in building her own missionary station. Kalimpong and Pedong are small mountain towns in the area between Bhuthan and Nepal where she worked. The region is famous for tea: Darjeeling is maybe the best known of the many different labels.

Anna wanted to go up in the Himalayas

...but in her time it was not so easy. Aku Pema is a traditional melody from the Himalayas, in this video performed at a place where Anna Kempe wanted to go. Here is a a young woman also named Anna who studied folk music, but she has far as I know been working totally without knowledge of Anna Kempe.

Anna Kempe, seems to have been more interested in languages and handicraft, she quite seldom mentions music in her letters.