Cat Showdown

There are constant street sounds in Istanbul that are very audible from inside our apartment. Everything from car horns, to street salesmen, to calls of prayer, etc. This evening was no exception, as we were trying to watch tv and were interrupted by arguing cats. The video shows the last 20 seconds of a 3 minutes long very loud cat conversation.

Spring is here!

This week, the weather has been gorgeous, so yesterday we went to Gulhane Park right next to Topkapi Palace. It's the oldest and one of the largest public parks in Istanbul. It is a lovely place. There are so many flowers that have bloomed recently and we're still waiting for a lot of the tulips to show their faces. Here's a few pictures we took.

Amarillo and Apple Tea

It's taken me six months to finally go in a Turkish carpet store. I have walked by them many many times over the past few months and been encouraged by salesmen to just come in and take a look at what they had to offer, but I've always been nervous about what the experience would be like once I was inside. I would like to bring home a rug that I can say was handmade here in Turkey, but I still don't really know what I'm looking for.

So, we went in a store today. We walk in and the salesman says hello in perfect English. He asks what we are looking for and I look to my right and see a runner so I point and say that's what I'm interested in (I figured it was not to small to offend him and not too large to be astronomically priced). He motions for us to take a seat on the sofa and the madness begins. Another salesman brings us apple tea freshly brewed and together three of them spend the next 15 minutes bringing out rug after rug after rug. Each one has a different story that he loves to tell. All handmade (maybe). All different colors. By the end it is quite overwhelming. Then he takes a break and talks with us a while. He asked us where we were from and then said he also has a friend from Texas who just came to visit him (might or might not be true) then said he drove through Amarillo, Texas once and had a great hamburger (again might or might not be true, but I'm impressed if it is true).

Then we got back to the topic of rugs and he asked me to choose the ones that I liked. I chose only four from the thirty or so he had put before me. Two wool and two silk. He says what nice choices I made (would he tell a customer he/she made a bad choice?) then describes the motifs in the two silk rugs and then the regions that the two wool rugs come from. Then I said, "So this is the part where we talk about price..." He laughed and said, "If that's how you do it in Texas." Surprisingly, all four prices he gave we found reasonable. Since we just started looking I wasn't ready to pull the trigger yet, so we began the exit process. As we're trying to leave he comes down on the price on all four rugs and asks us to reconsider. We said thanks and that we'd come again. One rug shop experience is enough for one day, but now I am intrigued to meet other salesmen who perhaps have driven through Amarillo as well.

We can all be refugees

The United Nations' definition of refugee:  A refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.

We can all be refugees.  It doesn't matter how much money you have, or how educated you are, or if you've ever committed a crime, or if you're a good person, etc.  It's tough to imagine from a US mindset, because we believe in our judicial system, the government's power to protect us, and our freedom.  But, a group could come to power and seek to eradicate all opposition.  Those who oppose are forced to agree, die or flee.

Or someone could pick a spouse that their family doesn't agree with.  The family threatens, and takes, violent action against the couple.

Someone could change religions, and their previous religion could persecute them.

Someone could live a lifestyle that their family, community, state and government don't agree with, and the individual's rights are no longer protected.

Someone could have harsh opinions about the government, or those in power, and be persecuted for them.

In each of the situations the person is forced to flee and go to a different country.  But what if you have to go to Mexico, but you don't speak Spanish?  You might go to Canada and be able to speak English, but you don't have a work permit and local law doesn't allow you to work without a permit.  Not to mention you would be competing will all the other people who fled for what small jobs you could find.  On top of all of this, if you had kids, how would you provide for them?  How would you feed them?  Local schools in the country you fled probably will not allow non-citizen children to attend their schools.  Where do you sleep?  What do you eat?  How do you earn money?  Where do you hope to move after?  How do you start your life again?

This the situation of most refugees.

We can all be refugees.  It's tough to comprehend for those of us fortunate enough to be born in a country that protects our rights and freedoms, but it's true.