Local Personalities

Leena Kettong

by Dr. Iain Corness

The Finnish co-ordinator at the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital is a tall Finnish lady, Leena Kettong. Leena is a remarkable woman for many reasons, including being fluent in Finnish (her native tongue) and English and also Thai, which she can read and write as well as verbal communication. She also studied Swedish and German at school, but claims to have forgotten most of those two languages. However, what really makes her stand out in our local community is that she is married to a Thai man. There are many, many cross cultural couples in Pattaya, but the vast majority is represented by foreign men married to Thai ladies. Not the other way round!

Going back to Leena’s life and long before the Thai equation, she was born in Finland, in Helsinki. Her father worked for Finnish MTV, while her mother was a laboratory nurse. In her early childhood there was no indication of the wanderlust that was to take her around the world later.

After finishing her secondary schooling, she had thought she might do Medicine as a career, but the university entrance examination was just a little too tough. The next choice was Pharmacy, and so she enrolled in the three year course to become a pharmacist. Pharmacy in Europe is very tightly legislated. Powerful medicines over the counter just does not happen, and whilst this might have certain benefits for the general public, it tends to reduce the scope of the profession. “Much is routine,” said Leena. “It is customer service (as a pharmacist), but it’s a little bit boring if it is your whole life.”

To stop getting bored, the young pharmacist would go overseas from Finland every year for holidays. Europe, and Italy in particular, was an eye-opener for her, where she liked the shopping and the food. Part of the travel was to also get away from the cold of the Finnish winters, and in 1991, she decided she would visit SE Asia, where she had a relative in Pattaya at that time. Her initial impression was one that many of us have experienced. “It was hot and smelled!” It was also the durian season, so the smell was that unforgettable door, so foreign to our noses. Everything was new and different. She walked everywhere because she did not know why there were so many young men riding motorcycles, wearing some kind of vest, or uniform. “You couldn’t understand what was going on around you,” said Leena.

However, a couple of years later, she returned for another SE Asia holiday, after her travelling companion had an accident and she had to cancel a South American journey. This time Leena was a little better informed. She was also to come across the man who was going to change her destiny. Sitting in a bar, an expansive Austrian was buying rounds and included Leena, and a Thai man who was sitting there quietly. The Thai was obviously taken by the tall blond from Finland and asked her out to go fishing the next day. Their first misunderstanding happened right then. Leena thought that he was obviously far too young for her. It was only later that she found out that the man was a Thai policeman, and he was actually older than she was! Thais have this wonderful ability to look so much younger than their chronological age.

She returned to Finland, but returned after six months. “I was really fighting against the whole idea. I was sure it could never work.” However, the attraction was still there, despite the cultural barriers. She then returned the following year for two months after writing letters every week. Those were the days before emails and the universal mobile phones, and her Thai boyfriend would send her postcards. In Thai! But Leena had by now enrolled in Thai language classes in Finland. “Every letter was like homework,” she laughed.

It was getting closer to decision time and she took a six month vacation without pay and moved in with her policeman in Pattaya. “I just wanted to see if I could do it,” she said. Once again there are some cultural differences. In Finland, young couples only get married when the woman becomes pregnant. The day before she was due to return to her homeland, she received the news that she was going to have a baby!

Again the young couple had to bear separation and letters and postcards, as Leena stayed in Finland for the pregnancy. After the birth, Finnish women can have a 10 month paid maternity leave, and wrapping up her son, she came to Pattaya so that the little boy could meet his father.

She and her baby then stayed with her son’s Thai father’s family, and then in 1995, they got married. I asked Leena if her mother accepted the fact that her only daughter was marrying a Thai. This was not a problem, the concern was that she was going to live outside Finland. Her mother-in-law also accepted the fact that her son had chosen a ‘farang’ lady, and Leena settled down into Thai village life, as a young mother raising (by now) a boy and a girl.

Leena has a very pragmatic outlook, acknowledging the fact that in a mixed marriage, there can be communication problems, but initially child raising took up all her time, until the children went to school. Suddenly she found she was on her own in the village, and wanted something to do. “A policeman’s pay is not high,” so she looked at what she could do. Having been a pharmacist, it was natural that she gravitated towards a hospital, and in 2002, the position of Finnish co-ordinator became available. She jumped at it.

So that is Leena Kettong. A woman who is happy with her lot in life, the acceptance of it coming from her exposure to Thai culture, she believes. She wrapped up the interview by saying, “I have two lovely children, a husband and a job that I like.” There are many who would envy this remarkable young woman.