For a Finnish Soldier, Home Is His Sauna

L I P L J A N, Yugoslavia, Aug. 31 -- After a hard day’s peacekeeping in Kosovo’s sweltering summer heat, there is nothing a Finnish soldier likes better than to take off his clothes — and enjoy even more sweltering heat.

For Finns, the sauna is a way of life and an important partof any military camp, even in Kosovo, where summer temperatures top 100 degrees, which most northern Europeans find more than hot enough already.

The Finns have built some 20 saunas at their bases here for their 800 soldiers. Officers believe the sauna has an important social function and can help beat stress in tense environments such as postwar Kosovo.

“It’s a form of social communication in Finland,” Col. Matti Ponteva explained in baking sunshine outside a pinewood sauna, an incongruous feature among the gray prefabricated huts of a Finnish camp in Lipljan, central Kosovo.

The colonel, head of mental health research for the Finnish armed forces, says the relaxing environment of the sauna is ideal for debriefing after tense situations such as coming under fire or finding dead bodies.

“A team or squad goes in together, all of those who were involved in the critical situation, that’s the place where they discuss it.”

Cooling Off

Ideally, a stint in the sauna, where the average temperature is 175 degrees and can go much higher, should be followed by a dip in a pool of cool water. The Finns are used to foreigners being baffled by why anyone would want to go from one temperature extreme to another in this way.

“It’s pleasant to do so,” the colonel said simply.

Finns are also accustomed to sniggering among some nationalities at the fact they think nothing of going naked into the sauna, even with complete strangers.

“We don’t think it’s a big deal,” said Capt. Jarmo Hyrynkangas, the camp’s dentist, as he enjoyed a pre-sauna drink in the soldiers’ bar, a large building decked out as a giant log cabin, complete with fake dark wood across its walls.