The edge of the house to the left is the edge of the second house that was built. It's also not used anymore except for the edge you can see, which is the kitchen. Everything we ate was cooked on the stove out there. And we ate sitting on the front porch - it was great! Yes, it's completely open to the outside on two sides. So sort of like cooking outdoors at a camp.
In addition to this place they also have a small one-room cabin up in the mountains. They go up there for one week or so. Here, Suphi's dad (on the right side of the photo with the sunglasses), me and a cousin of Suphi's dad are packing wood into bags for them to take up to the mountains. They have to take all the wood they need for cooking and heat, so they spent a lot of time getting bags and bags of wood ready!
Suphi's dad is really interesting. He was a teacher. He was a leftist - a socialist I think. After one of the military coups in Turkey's past he was arrested and put in jail where he stayed for many many years. Suphi and his brother remember visiting him in prison many times. So he was a political prisoner. I sort of can't believe that I know someone who was imprisoned for his political beliefs. We had a good conversation about political theory and economy, with a focus on how the US is dealing with the world today. (Suphi had a massive headache after all that translating!) Anyway, a very intelligent and fantastic person.
This is Suphi's mom. She was a great cook and really nice! She is also very smart and we had a few good conversations (but basic because my Turkish is so basic!) We walked around a lot visiting family and friends.
One day when we were walking around we came across this woman with her little lamb. It was very funny and not at all expected - I mean, when you're walking in a village in the mountains I guess it SHOULDN'T be a surprise to see a woman and her lamb, but it was... But people do have little farm animals, lots of fruit and vegetables growing everywhere, and we had a great time meeting and talking to people. I was the first American to visit this particular village so people enjoyed seeing the Aldemirs again and I think enjoyed meeting me!
Here's Suphi in a basement of a house with a calf!!! Just as I took this photo I stepped in a little present! But what can you expect when you visit a little calf in his little house?
Here's an outdoor bread oven. Cool, isn't it? This isn't at Suphi's house, but there are lots of them everywhere in the neighborhood. I like this one because it looks like it's still in use.
Just a couple of cool buildings we passed one day while out walking.
One day we went down from the village to a town called Giresun. It's the largest town in the neighborhood. It has an old fort up on the hill - the photo below is taken from there. It's a good view of the coast stretching back toward Keşap and the hills where the village is. It was a beautiful place with great weather.
Finally, the last picture is of the local minaret from the mosque. You might know that the European Football (Soccer) Championships were held while I was in Turkey. Turkey did amazingly well. The last game they played was played while we were up in the hills. We went with about 20 other people over to one of houses in the neighborhood. The host pulled his big screen TV out of the house, and we we sat in the courtyard and watched the match. It was freezing but very fun!
Sadly Turkey lost that match and so were out of the competition. But it was fun, very much the kind of thing you can do in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. I also met the local imam (this is the connection to the minaret in the picture) - a very cool guy whose name I've now forgotten. I always thought that imams have to had beards, but he didn't. That just shows how we can have misperceptions about the most simple things based on the difference between what we know and the full reality of things around us.
His wife and three girls were there - they were all very cool and we talked for a bit. Anyway, this is the minaret from his mosque.
Well, dinner is coming back (Fish & Chips from a real English place!) so I have to end this now!
More later!
1 comment:
Marco Polo,
Thanks for sharing a little of "real life" in Turkey. It makes my situation on "Chucktown" look pretty progressive and advanced, which is not easy to do.
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