Going Global 2012: New City, New People!

Luckily, I get to blog the day that had so much going on! There’s so much culture, people, and traditions to absorb in Turkey, so today I felt truly productive and exhausted. First, our landlord, Hikmet, served us a wonderful breakfast! We had delicious scrambled eggs, several types of cheeses and sliced turkey and beef bologna. He and the housekeeper continued to serve us watermelon, bread and jelly, peaches, orange juice, and of course, chay tea. I have a strong feeling that he did this today to make up for having the guys move into the upstairs room. Anyways, I’m thankful that he even wanted to prepare and cook us breakfast. Our morning continued with our task to visit Zeytinburnu and find how nodes, landmarks, paths, boundaries, and edges define a neighborhood in the big city.

Ron, Rachel, Cidnee, Alisha and I rode the train from to Kumkapi to Zeytinburnu. The train ride was quite interesting, because we could see the train from the inside swaying a lot. When we got off the train, its station was squished between stores. I don’t think the train station there tried to convey its importance, just because there wasn’t a big sign that screamed, “Hey! Look here! This is a train station!” Right when we climbed up the stairs, there was a medium-sized street, which is considered a path, which split into two streets. When we saw Burger King, which looked most familiar to us, we headed straight to it. There we met a man who spoke Turkish and English. He spoke kindly to us, but we wanted to finish our assignment on time, so we had to kind of rush his friendliness. Walking along, what seemed to be a large path, we noticed that this walkway was purposefully put there for people to look at the stores on both sides of it and for people to sit at tables located on the middle strip of the walkway. We reached a node, where men packed together sitting under a rectangular umbrella, and other people sitting around trees. There was a road that cut the previous pathway into a new area. This node area was kept clean compared to the Nuripasa neighborhood.

We walked around for an hour, while I tried to make a map of the neighborhood. After getting a bit tired, Cidnee, Alisha, and Ron decided to people watch. Rachel and I went inside the pharmacy to check out the hair products there. It was a challenge trying to talk with the people there, but thank God for Google Translate. We used their computer to try explaining to them what we were looking for, and then it led to asking them for help with learning about the Nuripasa neighborhood. Rachel and I started to get some good information, such as how the neighborhood was a mixed with different nationalities. There were people from Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Pakistan. We asked so many questions, that there were a few they couldn’t answer. Fortunately, a brother of theirs had arrived, so he and his sister led us to a person at a Kazakhstan foundation who could answer more questions about Nuripasa.

We met with the people at the foundation, and one of the men called his niece, who spoke English well to come over and talk with us as a translator. They were very hospitable! They brought out tea for everyone that just arrived and the president of the foundation even played a Kazakhstani guitar instrument for us. After a long time talking and getting a lot of information, the president suggested we go to the mayor. Our new friend, Recep, practically was our Nuripasa tour guide and led us to the Mayor’s simple office, his Primary School, and Town Hall, where he could easily just walk in and talk with the people there. The community here in general is very helpful. The mayor gave us a legitimate map of Nuripasa, and the lady at the Town Hall gave Rachel and me each two thick books: a historical book of Zeytinburnu and a Zeytinburnu guidebook. We were so thankful that Recep had helped us navigate around the neighborhood to people that he knew.

The day ended with a Sema Service, which is a whirling dervish ceremony. The ceremony consisted of the members doing a kind of singing prayer/chant. First they moved their heads in a swaying side to side motion slowly, and then when the music picked up, their heads bobbed forward with intense motion. I was kind of scared, but if that is how they want to worship and as long as they aren’t hurting anyone then it’s all fine. The whirling dervishes, who are all men, wore white dresses and a black sheet-like coat. Their movements and same clothes made each person look equal, except for two. Their palms upward reflected on the idea of giving to Allah. Their spins are consistent and the ceremony took a long time to end. Even though we have seen so much, there is still so much we have yet to discover!

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