Another Fair Has Come and Gone

The saddest part about the Fair, other than missing it completely, is seeing it go. Another Fair for Cabin #228 has come and gone. We certainly missed it this year and from the looks of things, it seems to have missed us as well. We received calls most mornings letting us know how exceptionally cool it was this year and how afghans were needed after 10:00pm. We heard of new visitors, some with age and some without. We got the rundown of each day's menu and how it wasn't quite the same without Jayme helping out in the kitchen. We even got to hear as Stan called in the first few racers in the triathlon. It was an uneventful week here in Adana, but we are thankful that we got to participate - from a distance - in this year's fair festivities. If we are still here this time next year, we are defintely finding some red dirt and sawdust for the balcony so we can feel even more at home.

Adana in July

With a strong wind blowing through, these past few days have been a little cooler with the high being around 98 or 99 instead of 110! At least when the wind is blowing, it takes 3 minutes instead of the usual 30 seconds before your skin reaches the boiling point. I think the only place on earth that may be hotter during the last week of July is The Neshoba County Fair! We are certainly going to miss it this year; a first for me in my 28 years and possibly even tougher for Jayme as she has grown quite fond of it. Both of our families will be there taking in the food, fun, sawdust, games, flea-market, horse races, beauty pageant, concerts - well enough about that. However, if the elections here in Turkey go array on Sunday, we may be home for the second half of the Fair after all. Elliot, save me some chess squares, just in case.

As I mentioned earlier, the temperatures are getting close to 100 everyday and they don't cool off too much at night, usually down to the mid 70's. The problem with the way the apartments are constructed is that they have zero insulation and they are 100% concrete. So in the winter they keep the cold in and in the summer they keep the heat in. With no central heat or air, people are forced to buy Klimas (something similar to a window unit.) The only problem is that they are fairly expensive, especially when the average salary is around $5,000. Therefore, some people opt out of paying for the AC and just go with sleeping outside on the balcony. I haven't figured out how they get much sleep since things don't start dying down until midnight and the sun comes up at 4:30am. For the sake of our marriage, we made the sacrifice and went with the Klima in our bedroom, as well as the heaviest, darkest curtains Jayme could find. When different neighbors come over, they ask why we have upholstery fabric for curtains.

Last night we were going out to eat with our neighbors at 8:00, which is late for us so we of course ate a pre-dinner dinner. Then they called and asked if 8:30 was okay. Then the wife came by and said, how about 9 since the husband is having a hard time getting away from work and we also have to go to the hospital on the way to dinner, b/c the 2 year old baby got scratched by a street cat two nights ago and needs one more shot from the doctor to make sure he doesn't catch anything. Knowing there usually aren't any quick trips to the hospital we figured we ought to reschedule for Sat. or Sun. When our neighbor agreed that would be better we quickly put on our pj's and were thankful for the early night in. Within 5 minutes we had another knock and she was back saying her husband was off of work so we could go. It was already 8:45 and we still had to go to the hospital, and since Jayme and I are way past our years in time-for-bed requirements, we stuck with the Sat. or Sun. plans. We also had other neighbors stopping by to bring desserts over. It was a special holiday preceeding Ramadan and they celebrate by taking dessert to their neighbors. We have just started the three holy months here, the last of which will be Ramadan. We were not adequately prepared as we had just distributed desserts 2 nights before and we figured we don't know any devout Muslims in our building so they probably won't even celebrate. What we didn't realize is that devout or not, (just like at home) everyone celebrates holidays involving food. We are still trying to get used to this culture and it will certainly take us more time, but somethings I just can't understand. How do you eat lunch at 12 and then not eat dinner until 10pm. I guess it's all in the 20 cups of hot tea they continue to drink, even if it is hot outside. Maybe we will figure it out one day. Here's a few pics of our neighbors making the best of their balconies.

Delta Delta Delta!

Well I just finished a four week children's English camp at a language school called Delta School of Languages. It was an intense four weeks with lots of hyped up Turkish children! Katie and I taught Tuesday and Thursday mornings, each morning we taught three different classes. The kids were actually a lot of fun and the time passed quite quickly. Last week as I was sitting in the manager's office after class he informed me that there would be a program on the last day, a party really. This was all going on in Turkish so I just nodded and told him we would definitely stay around after class to drink tea and eat cake. I was still nodding away as he was talking and I heard him say "okay, so what will your children do for the program?" in Turkish! I was a little surprised since I think I had already agreed for our class to do something with my profuse head nodding... I should really try to listen more closely! Anyway - turns out he really wanted Katie and I to have our classes do some sort of 'program' at the program! We taught our youngest class If You're Happy and You Know It and we taught our older class The Hokey Pokey. Fortunately most of our younger students showed up and the song went GREAT! Unfortunately we had all of 4 older students come and the hokey pokey was a bit of a disaster.. the whole left and right issue was a big stumbling block for most of them! So as you can see Katie and I stood in the front making fools of our selves as we kicked our feet in the air and shook them all about!

Happy Birthday Craig!

Birthdays might be an even bigger deal here than at home, at least we do everything we can to help them be. Yesterday we had the opportunity to celebrate Craig's birthday and we didn't hold back. We began with some guy time at the Varner's where football and tavla were the main activities. Unfortunately, Craig's team was hampered by the 100 degree heat and struggled in the second half, whereas Harrison, Tom and myself were able to replenish at halftime with some H2O and managed to pull out the win. After games with the Varner's we brought the party to our balcony where the girls had already decorated for the celebration with confetti, masks, leis, party hats and everyone's favorite, sparklers! We grilled hamburgers (lamb-burgers were outlawed this time) and ate plenty of french fries and salsa. We concluded the party with two episodes of 24, with a break in the middle for some incredible birthday cake. It was a lot of fun and Craig got plenty of good birthday presents, including my favorite, soccerball soap-on-a-rope.

Pre-Wedding Festivities!

Last night we thought we were going to have a quiet, relaxing evening with a movie, however, late in the day we noticed people outside our apartment setting up for some type of party. They placed about a hundred white plastic chairs in a big square right in the middle of our street and strung up lights. We didn't know if it was for a wedding or a funeral. We were hoping for a wedding, for some of the obvious reasons, but also because wedding celebrations only last one night, where as funeral get togethers last for 7 straight nights. At about sundown the drums and super-loud clarinets started up and the party was on. They played and danced in a line for about three hours straight. Towards the end of the night the bride and groom sat in the middle of the square as folks danced around them holding candles. For this portion the bride was completely veiled as well. From our best guess, this was the pre-wedding party. The actually wedding probably won't be for another few days. Fortunately, the law in Adana is that the party has to stop by 11 pm! For a short clip of the festivites, use the address below.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8018369659192164238&hl=en

Election Time

Things are definitely shaking up here in Turkey as the July 22nd election nears. Speculators are claiming that this is the biggest election in Turkey since Atatürk helped form Turkey as an independent country 85 years ago. The election is for the 550 Parliament seats and instead of voting for individual people, you vote for the party and based on that party's percentage of votes, they hold that many seats in Parliament. It's also a big election because as soon as Parliament is decided on July 23rd, those representatives will then elect a President. Turkey is trying to move towards a system where the people get to vote for the President, but currently Parliament members are the only voters. With so many issues on the line, the campaigning has been not stop and out of control. Several times a day we hear a van or bus drive by our apartment blasting their campaign message through speakers on top of the vehicle. Some of the key issues that each party takes a firm stance for or against are: European Union, education, Cyprus, Armenian genocide, ties with America, and the PKK terrorist group. We are excited to be here during this historic event and we look forward to seeing what the future holds for Turkey. Below is one of the common forms of advertising.