Bringing an End to Humanitarian Service

Loving a stray.  A day at "Dogtowne" a rescue
for the local dogs of Ankara.  A young
Women's outing with the girls.
Grandma needs a grandkid to hug!

Monday March 3, we traveled to Izmir to meet with our sponsors and partners for the various projects we initiated and completed in the area.  We needed to be sure the wheelchair project was properly set up to complete the distribution of the remaining chairs and we wanted to say good bye to our friends as we close out our humanitarian work.

Our partners wanted to celebrate our work and wish us a farewell so they took us out to a fancy Turkish restaurant and I suppose we were treated to the top end of Turkish cuisine.  Perhaps I should describe the evening.

Of course it all begins with kissing.  Yes kissing.  You kiss and are kissed by everybody, men and women alike.  Not a single kiss, but a kiss on each cheek with a lip smack to prove you are really kissing and not just conducting a head bumps.  We were guest of three couples so that is 6 people to kiss or a total of twelve different cheeks and my cheeks were kissed 12 times.  You cannot be in Turkey and avoid the touchy feely of relationships.

Then we sit down to a table that is already spread with all the premeal items.  We have never really figured out what you would call this selection of stuff, but it is always the same no matter where you eat or what the main course finally becomes.  Typically you select a few of these odd dishes, but when you are treated you get the full set of options.  To be completely honest, I have no idea what some of the stuff is, but I will attempt to describe it.

 

Good weather brings out the Roma, families
sitting on the sidewalks begging.  Note the
kids just hanging out.

It is all served in separate small bowls or plates and you either eat directly from all the choices or put some of it on your own main plate.  There seems to be no set manner.  All forms of Turkish yogurt, yogurt with olive oil, with cucumber, with dill, with peppers and what ever, about 5 different concoctions.  Then of course there are the always-present pastes of egg plant, again in a broad variety and perhaps the most inedible mix you can imagine.  Several bowls of weird pastes with peas, carrots and strange vegetables.  Salad with just lemon squeezed on it and baskets of bread that is dry and tasteless along with a variety of pickled peppers that complete the opening fare.

Our friends drink Raki (an alcohol made from anise seeds) and we toast with su (water) and the meal begins with a hearty “affet olsun” (may your food digest well).  Everyone is reaching across the table to season your food with turmeric, peppers and various ground spices.  The stuff is spread on bread, scooped up with tablespoons or daintily picked at with forks.  It is no big deal to just eat from the serving plates.  The chatter is none stop in Turkish and English translations.  Every 20 minutes or so the women with the exception of Nori leave for a smoke break.  The men wait until after the meal to smoke, but only one of the men smoked.

Granny pants.  Topic of long
conversation, why?  Of course
beauty is in the eye.

The main courses begin with a plate of what appears to be roast beef cut into small pieces and of course again some one adds the spices from plates of spices with their bare hand.  As the meal progresses we are served family style with chunks of fried liver, sheep throat, and the ever popular hunks of grilled intestine.  We never ordered, we just ate what they brought and laughed away the evening.  The desserts, also served family style were some sweetened cheese with a lemon paste, a flan custard and some honey laced yogurt with bananas and some type of cream.  Then some fresh fruit (best part of the meal) and of course the final relaxing serving of mud (Turkish coffee).  This coffee smells so strong and truly looks like mud until they add a little yogurt, sugar or cream to thin it down.

The next day we traveled to Denizli to visit our friend Javad and hold a brief sacrament meeting and deliver some books and money.  About 7 hours round trip by bus, but it is such a blessing to visit this humble man.  I am always amazed when I ask him, “are you well, is everything ok?”  He always responds, “but of course.”  For a man who has suffered so much tragedy, he is so positive in his outlook.  His patience and faith is such a great teacher.  He genuinely seems surprised that anyone would expect that things are not good.  The only thing he ever expresses any sadness about is the inability to see his daughter in Iran.  Hopefully he will complete his asylum in Turkey within the next 4 months and be assigned to go to the States.

 

Farshad and Elhan, newly weds.  We are
having a wedding celebration for them.
Married by Skype between Iran and Turkey,
then married legally by a Turkish magistrate.

 Well Eskan and Olga have arrived in the States.  They have an apartment near 33rd south and 2nd east.  We are so excited for them and cannot wait to visit them in SLC.  What an amazing feeling they must have finally arriving in a free country.  Of course they will miss Sheraak and we already know he misses them, but how exciting?  I would really love to attend church in their new ward this week.  They have never seen more that about 60 mormons in one place at a time.  Can you imagine what they will experience.  I pray they will be accepted and loved.

Back to Ankara and our last weeks of wrapping up the paper work and close out the mission.  Unfortunately for some reason the missionary work has slowed way down and the Elders are struggling to find new investigators.  It seems that since we were asked to terminate our weekly family home evening meetings, the flow of people has truly subsided.  The worst news is that one of our recent baptized Turks has decided to not return to Church.  He just says that he has been mistreated and will not be back.  He has only been a member for two months.  Some things are just so sad and weird.  In the past weeks, there has been absolutely no reason to translate into Turkish at any meeting.  We just need Farsi, Persian speakers.  We had grown to 4 active Turks and now we are back to the original 1 Turkish member.  Maybe a total of 6 Turks in the whole country still attending church.

Working the streets.

4 Weeks to go, but who is counting?  We just hope our inter country travel is over and we do not eat any more cheese sandwiches on Turkish Air.

The girls at DogTowne