Travel writing from my study abroad program in Turkey; the Burch Field Research Seminar through UNC-CH. Five weeks in Istanbul, two weeks traveling Western Turkey. Awesomeness.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

The Real Village People

Ah village life…

Monday began with a 9:00 a.m. discussion with Prof Sarah over breakfast. We talked about some our insights that we have gathered on the road the past week. Topics included urban and not-so-urban development, how huge charter buses can just stop on the side of the road and let people off, driving, and how the US and Turkey differ with their everyday laws.

After that, it was kind of a gradual get together at the front of our hotel as some of us dashed off for presents, others finished packing, and the Social Chairs (Amanda & Edward) went picnic shopping.

Then we loaded up in the van and began our drive to the Taurus Mountains. These mountains cover kind of West-Central Turkey and though they are shaped more like the Appalachian, they look nothing like them. Where the Appalachian is covered in forests, the land that we passed, including the Taurus is more shrub-like with a few trees, rocks, and lots of tall grass where the land is not being cultivated. That isn’t to say it isn’t beautiful. It’s a very different sort than I’m used to. Though deeper in the land, where we stayed in our village, there is no question if it is beautiful.

As we drove away from the city of Konya, settlements gradually got smaller and smaller until they were generally nothing but clusters of houses off the road. The land was mostly rolling hills at this point, gradually getting bigger and bigger until we hit the mountains. The tall grass was especially striking as the wind blew; making it look like waves crossed the land. I’ve never been driving across the mid-West, but I imagine it might be something like that; minus the hills and a bit drier – dry enough that my skin started to chap especially when combined with the breeze from our open windows.

I think the journey was about two hours. I read most of the way because I didn’t want to go to sleep. We stopped once for a pit stop and then we were back on the road again. The van we were in kind of putted along uphill, and, well, there were a lot of hills. Eventually, we made it to Esenler; first passing land some nomads occupied with their big mountain goats. As we pulled around a bend, there was our village, sitting on slope of a mountain.

We cruised along the bumpy road that circled around the outside of the village. We pulled in near to the small from there we could see that, before pulling into the small school building on top of the hill, there were actually two villages; Upper Esenler and Lower Esenler. Outside the school building were dozens of carpets; all of which were laid out in order to be faded by the sun.

We piled our luggage out of the van and after being informed that we would be staying in the lower village, we climbed back in and headed up the dusty road for a picnic. We selected some rocks on the slope, choosing to stay in the sun because the wind was cool. We had bread, cheese, and lots of fruit. BTW…the fruit in Turkey, if I haven’t already talked about this, is so much better (and cheaper!) than in the US. Peaches the size of both fists, red cherries, purple cherries, yellow cherries, green plums, purples plums, juicy apricots, bananas as long as your forearm, and more. Though I am still a bit skeptical about the origins of the bananas…

After our picnic, we climbed to the crest of the hill and spent a bit of time exploring the top of a mountain as well as searching for a suitable place to use the bathroom. After messing around a bit and scaring Muammer (our host from Konya who, with his brother Mehmet, helps organize foreign groups to visit their childhood home) peered over the ledges, we headed back into the village.

Muammer then took us to his orchards near the village where he showed us his cherry trees and allowed us to eat as many as we wanted. Of course they were delicious and he grew just about every type of cherry imaginable. I’ve never seen yellow cherries before. Apparently they’re “man cherries” (as translated by Yekta and expounded upon by Edward) and used just to pollinate all the other cherry trees. They can be eaten, but they aren’t as good as they others. A bit crunchy and bitter.

Once we finished up in the orchard, Muammer took us back up to the school where we collapsed on some carpets in the shade. We were served tea and gradually our party grew as more and more villagers showed up.

We spent about an hour just relaxing before they led the group of us down into the Lower Esenler. Our luggage went into a jeep/van/truck/box-on-wheels kind of vehicle, while the rest of us were guided through a winding path in order to see the village. Most of the houses are made of stone, and others were made of brick, but most were a grayish-tan color. Walking through the village, we stumbled on groups of children, cats, donkeys, and other people. There was no real set pathway either; the roads varied in width and were mostly dirt.

First Edward and Clayton left us as a girl led them to their home. The rest of us followed our guide down to the bottom of Lower Esenler where we met the vehicle that carried our luggage. Here we split up as Yekta, Kristina, Amanda, and I went to our house, David and Kevin each went to another alone, and Prof Sarah, William, Kelly, and Zoe went to theirs.

I know, I lucked out getting an actual Turk in my house. Thanks for being an awesome and patient translator Yekta!

Our family was Hasan, Emine, and Yasmin. Hasan grows just about everything in his farm down in the valley by the river and is also one of Esenler’s beekeepers. He’s very wise, hospitable, and open, but generally seems very serious. Emine, his wife, is so friendly and always seems to have a smile on her face. Yasmin is their second daughter. At 23, she’s sincere and seems happy; though apparently she has gone through some troubles. She was engaged to this man, but apparently he changed after their engagement and none of the family got along. Now they’re trying to get the engagement annulled. I know, at first I was confused too, but as Yekta explained, engagements in Turkey (or perhaps for Muslims) are much more regulated and official than engagements in the US. For one, there’s money involved that’s been given out as gifts between families. There’s also Yasmin’s dowry, which is this amazing collection of needlework, prayer rugs, and embroidery that she has been working on since she was eleven. In any case, they’re still trying to get the engagement annulled, but it looks like they have to wait until next year because of the money involved.

Yasmin escorted us inside her home where we met Hasan and Emine. It’s rather large for village standards I believe with two bedrooms, a television sitting room, a large open sitting room, and a kitchen and dining area. They also have a terrace, bathroom, and shower/washroom. One of the first things you notice when entering any of these houses is the complete lack of furniture. There is no furniture whatsoever; no dining table, no chairs, no beds, nothing. Instead, most of their open wall space is lined with thick cushions to lean upon and sit against. At night, they get down their beds which are nothing more than the same long cushions they line up against the wall, except a bit thicker. The walls are mostly bare, and if jackets or keepsakes are hung up, a sheet covers them, hiding them from view. Storage space is built into the walls so there are no dressers or vanities. Meals are eaten on the floor with a tablecloth (except I suppose it’s not really a tablecloth) spread out on the ground and a large round dish placed on something to keep it above the floor. You sit so the tablecloth covers your lap and works as a napkin. It’s very relaxing and leisurely way of eating, but it does feel a bit uncomfortable at first.

After we presented our host gifts to the family, they brought in fresh fruit from their orchards – peaches, cherries, and apricots. Fabulous. The four of us provided much amusement to the family as we struggled to eat still more fruit. Eventually I emerged as the kiraz (cherry) champion; though Amanda took the title for the apricots.

We spent the time talking about many things, moving to the terrace, and meeting other villagers until Kristina got the idea that we should show them pictures of our trip. Once we made sure they still insisted on us not helping prepare supper, we sat down to pick out the best of our stay in Turkey thus far.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell about the last member of the family, Josh. Josh is the family cat named after an American that stayed with them for about a month some years ago who still comes back to visit. He’s a temperamental little fella who meows a lot.

Before long, it was time for supper. This was one of my favorite meals in Turkey except for the aryan which was a curdled buttermilk sort of drink and was possibly one of the worst things I’ve ever tasted; just the smell of it made my stomach churn. I couldn’t stomach it so I asked Yekta if it was okay if I didn’t drink my glass. She said it was; but somehow the other girls managed by taking it like a shot. The rest of the meal was delicious. There was first spicy okra soup, followed by green beans and pilav. This was accompanied by fresh watermelon; that thankfully was juicy enough to work as a drink for me. In any case, the meal was delicious. And all of it was accompanied by heaps of flat bread.

They make all the bread for the village every six months when they get flour. They store it and just put water on it before serving to make it good to go. Every meal had plenty of bread and it was great to roll up the rest of the food in it burrito-style.

After supper we chatted with Hasan about his beekeeping before dispersing as others gathered in the large open room of our house. It was interesting because the men went to the television room while the women and our group remained in the larger room. Yasmin had to do all the serving of the tea because she was the youngest female in the room while the youngest male kept coming back into the sitting room where we were gathered to get more tea. Talking to Yekta, I found out that this was a traditional custom. Eventually some more people gathered and we ended up playing coin games with Yasmin and a few other girls that showed up.

Eventually everyone else left after we spent some time outside looking at the stars. Kristina, Amanda, Yekta, and I then had a brief discussion about sleeping arrangements because they had put two of us in Yasmin’s bedroom and the other two in the Hasan and Emine’s bedroom. Eventually we worked everything out as the family assured us they would be comfortable sleeping in the television room.

Kristina and I, like always, were sharing a room (Yasmin’s) and we promptly passed out as soon as the lights were out. Yasmin woke us up in the morning with repeated and increasing forceful good mornings in Turkish which I can’t even attempt to spell. I eventually rolled out of bed and by 8:30 a.m., we were all sharing a delicious breakfast which featured honey (from Hasan’s bees), walnut, small fried fish, cheese, and of course the flat bread.

It wasn’t long until we got out the door and piled into the back of Hasan’s vehicle where we took a perilous trip around and down the mountains to their farm by the river. Yasmin took us on a tour of the orchard and Hasan showed us his bees. We got to see him move a hive to container, which almost sent me scattering as the bees buzzed furiously. Hasan did say they weren’t angry though so they were unlikely to sting.

Then it was time to pick peaches! Well, we didn’t actually pick them.

Hasan and Emine quickly picked out peaches that were ripe for picking while we helped Yasmin put them into crates. We also helped by taking the buckets full of peaches from Hasan and Emine and bringing them to the small house and shaded patio where Yasmin was putting them into crates for selling.

We spent the morning thus occupied, and soon the family was firing up the barbeque. We had another great meal; this one of grilled chicken, pasta, fried squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, and the flat bread. We then had a little R&R as we waited for Muammer and the others to show up so we could go to the local waterfall and river.

Eventually Muammer came and the four of us joined the others in the van. We made it to the river where we did a quick van change into our swimsuits as the others continued on. Muammer was waiting for us halfway done the pathway and he took us to the side to show us the waterfall itself. I heard Amanda give her token phrase “What’s this little gem?” as she climbed the small rift to viewing point ahead of me, so I knew it would be something pretty special. The waterfall was surprisingly big and wide. It poured over the edge of the cliff in streams of white and around all the water you could see some type of cavern behind it. We looked down the river and could see rocks everywhere, dividing up the water.

It wasn’t quite as picturesque as the park in Egirdir, but it was still a surprise. When they told us they were taking us to the waterfall and river, I really wasn’t expecting much of anything; after all, we were in the middle of nowhere.

Muammer took us down river a bit where we found the others looking at the water a bit askance waiting for our guide. The current was pretty fast, but Muammer assured us that it would be fine as long as we were careful.

The water was of course, cold, but we had a lot of fun swimming back and forth; letting the current take us a ways before grabbing onto a rock. Muammer threw us peaches that our family sent with us from the bank and we only managed to lose one, but apparently they found it a bit down river later. Amanda was all over it and well, just ate it.

The others explored downriver a bit, letting the current take them along, but I was freezing so I voted to remain where I was, sunning myself on the rocks. I eventually got bored of this and decided to see how far I could rock hop upriver. I didn’t get very far, but I was pretty sure I spotted a somewhat perilous pathway amid the rocks and cliff bank that could take me to the waterfall.

Turns out I was right as soon Muammer was guiding us up the side of the cliff over rushing water, through mud, slick rocks, and general awesomeness to the cavern behind the waterfall. He didn’t want to take such a large group any farther than besides right at the entrance and so feeling really cold, I made my way back.

After washing off, we loaded back into the van to head back to the village. We stopped along the way to pick up Yasmin as Hasan and Emine left to go sell their peaches. I was a little concerned about how we were going to make it back up the dusty, bumpy, and steep mountain road considering the van just kind of put-putted its way along. Luckily we took a different, more winding pathway, stopping along the way so the driver could pick up some herbs for tea. Only in Turkey does the driver stop every time he spots his favorite herb.

We made it back to the village alive and my first order of business was to change clothes. Feeling a bit better, we then set about different activities as Kristina helped Yasmin prepare supper.

The meal was again delicious with small pancake type things as the main dish which was fabulous with the walnut and honey. We sat around for a long while just chatting (through Yekta) with Yasmin. Amanda and I did the dishes after a hilarious encounter in which Yasmin, in accented English, asked what Amanda was doing when she was searching around the kitchen for a washing pot.

We emerged from the kitchen to find that people were once again gathering in our house. Once our whole group arrived we gave Yasmin and a few of the other villagers a slide show of the trip thus far. Eventually everybody else left; some of our group was sleeping outside on the carpets and Kelly was staying with us for the night. Kelly passed out pretty quickly and still Hasan and Emine were not home so Yasmin showed us their collection of photographs including one of a 17-year-old Hasan. She then took us to the two chests that housed her dowry – a huge collection of handmade work.

We got ready for bed and just about when we were going to call it a night, Hasan and Emine came home. Even though we had just brushed our teeth, they announced it was time to eat some fruit. So gathering around a table, we ate cherries, peaches, and apricots that were fabulous after the first couple of bites.

I’ve never eaten so much fruit in one day before.

The next morning, I took a quick shower and packed before we sat down for breakfast with Emine and Yasmin as Hasan had already left to sell the rest of his peaches. Breakfast was, you guessed it, delicious featuring Hasan’s amazing honey on flat bread.

Gradually others gathered at our house and before long we had to say goodbye. We all had one last group picture before climbing into the van, waving goodbye as we drove away back to the rest of the world.