May 7th: Istanbul

Since this is our last city in Turkey and we are coming to the end of the trip, it is the appropriate time to help "re-ground" the students in the present. 

Morning Meditation

Someone said to me yesterday, "This is our last Sunday in Turkey."

And these last few days I have found myself thinking regretfully about the end of the trip.

and then I realized: I am not here.

I am somewhere else, thinking about other things, other places, other people.

This is natural.

And, we are still here.

Such an obvious statement.

but it brings me back to our first meditation:

There are opportunities everywhere.

Pay attention to each moment.

Before you know it, the time is gone.

I want to be fully present now.

so I remind myself.

What am I seeing?

What am I feeling?

What am I smelling?

What am I hearing?

What am I tasting?

Feel the connection

Think about your interactions with each other.

What reality do you want to create?

Be patient with each other.

Practice compassion

See if if feels differently to just listen.

Without judgement.

Remind yourself of all there is to be appreciative of.

We spent the morning and early afternoon at the Polish village of Polonezkoy, about an hour bus drive from the center of Istanbul. It is a location we will definitely not come back to, but it did provide the students a time to fine tune their plans for tomorrow. Starting tomorrow, the last 4 days in Istanbul will be totally student directed. They are in small groups of 4 or 5 students and one adult. Each group will plan their daily itinerary, including the route and the budget for food, transportation and entrance fees. Each evening at our class meeting we will share what we learned, traveler tips, and surprises. then student groups will plan their next day's itinerary. We have never done this before, and I am very excited about this process and the increased independence and responsibility for the students. 

We ate dinner at a little outdoor restaurant near our hotel. It was so delicious.

 Spicy tomato spread 

 Grilled squid

 Chicken kabob

 Salmon in a sweet glaze

 grilled eggplant

We had a very special treat at our evening meeting. The daughter of the head of our school has been living in Turkey for two years. She married a Turkish man. He offered to talk to the students about his experience as a Kurd. Before he spoke, he made a couple of requests. His name should not be mentioned, and it should be a private talk without and other Turks around. His wife mentioned, "There really is still no freedom of speech in Turkey."

The talk started with an overview of the situation, and then he answered questions. Since he has only been speaking English for 1.5 years, there was a lot of support from his wife. He spoke of the hardships the Kurds have faced in recent times: 3000 to 4000 villages destroyed, hundreds of thousands of Kurds lost their homes. Many fled to Istanbul. Kurds are the largest minority group in Turkey, about 25% of the population, around 16 million people. Many only speak Kurdish (which is similar to Farsi, spoken in Iran, which is nothing like the Turkish language). Until recently (around 1994), Kurds were not allowed to practice their culture. They could be arrested for speaking their language, listening to Kurdish music, or practicing their culture in other ways. Kurds also live in Iran (10% of the population), Iraq (20% of the population), and Syria (10% of the population).

He was born in 1981, and lived in Eastern Turkey the first 14 years of his life. He never went to school, for all the teachers spoke only Turkish and the children spoke only Kurdish. He grew up as a sheep herder. The city he lived in had a population of 30,000 people, with little running water and no garbage disposal. Many Kurds move to Istanbul to raise money and send back to their families. That is what his older brother did in 1994. While in Istanbul, his older brother got involved in the PKK, the guerrilla organization fighting for Kurdish rights. "Going to the mountain" is what they call it. His brother fought for the PKK for 13 months and was then captured. He has in jail for 2.5 year before his release. There were horror stories about prison treatment - torture and murder.

When his brother joined the PKK, the family fled to Istanbul. The transition to city life and Turkish life was difficult, for no one in his family spoke Turkish (He now speaks three languages). He worked in a restaurant as a dishwasher. All family members worked and contributed their incomes to the family. He spoke of the prejudice he faces on a daily level for being Kurdish. Three times he was stopped by the police on the way to his dentist, whose office was in an affluent part of Istanbul. "I think it is time to change my dentist," he told his wife. Turks are extremely patriotic and believe the stereotypes about Kurdish people: they are dirty, lazy and terrorists. He also has some Turkish friends who embrace him for who he is.

The talk lasted for over an hour. We are all grateful for this opportunity to hear his story.