Spiritual Voids

Saturday night a group of us went out dancing, to the one club that exists in Antep. I tried to loosen up and enjoy myself as much as possible, but the reality is, the night was a good reminder of why I never really got into secular party culture. As I looked around, all I could see was hurting people, desparation, and escapism. There is no true joy in that atmosphere.

Now, I do not think it is necessarily wrong for a Christian to go clubbing, but for me, I couldn’t handle it on any regular basis. It’s too depressing, seeing the soullessness of the experience. Customers at a dance club may be having fun, but it doesn’t pierce to their soul. At least that’s how it seems to me.

The worst thing is that we were sharing the dance floor with real live prostitutes. One of the girls who was with us, who works at a cafe near our apartments, told me after we had danced some, “You can find Russian girls here.” I had heard about the “Russian girls” in Antep before. “They are working,” the girl told me, which just confirmed it. Then she asked if I like Russian girls. “Not like that,” I told her.

But again, just knowing that some of the women there live that kind of lifestyle broke my heart a bit. These women will never have the chance to experience true life. They will always be trapped in a lifestyle of being objects, tools for men to satisfy a desire that is only a shadow of the real relationship with other human beings, and ultimately, with God Himself, the desire for which lies at the heart of their hurt, if they only knew it. It’s horrible that these women will most likely never know true humanity.

It made me think of the Samaritan women at the well. Her five husbands, and the lover she had when Jesus spoke to her, labelled her as lascivious. As a marginalized people, there were surely all kinds of stereotypes about the Samaritans. Could one of them have been that all Samaritan women are “loose women”? If so, then Jesus’s encounter with this woman was that much more a display of grace.

I say so because, in the liberal mindset that demands political correctness and never saying ill of a people group, there is a sort of morality that says it’s wrong to stereotype, but if a particular individual fulfills that stereotype, then he is even more wrong, because his actions reflect poorly on an entire people. In other words, if the stereotype is accurate in a particular case, it’s okay to marginalize that particular case. It’s a double standard, really.

But in the case of the Samaritan woman, if indeed there were such a stereotype, Jesus not only went against culture by talking to a Samaritan, a woman, and a promiscuous one at that, but also by talking to someone who fulfilled a stereotype, whom even supposedly tolerant modern liberal morality would accuse.

On the whole, this night club experience was a glimpse into the darkness that grips this city. So pray for Antep. Pray that the gospel would loosen the grip of darkness. Pray that I might have opportunities to share this view with my colleagues and friends here, that the gospel might be reflected through conversations about it.

Students and Such

October 16, 2009

After rather frequent updates, I seem to have left everyone out of the loop for a while. Blame it on suddenly missing internet routers in our apartment, business as we’ve really gotten into the swing of things here, and the simple fact that I didn’t want to make so many updates. Today is Friday, though, so it’s as good a time as any.

Students

I teach two classes, the same level and subject, which is Communication, level A. Communication classes focus on Speaking, Listening, and Reading, as well as Vocabulary. Level A is the lowest level, where students have esentially no English. However, that’s not strictly true. My first class has less English than my second class. A recurring problem for me has been the second class’s quickly plowing through all the activities I have planned, and having extra time at the end. Even when I have extra activities for them, they seem to get through them with ten minutes to spare.

Because we teach using the communicative method at Zirve, which involves game-like activities and group work, pair work, or what have you, our students have trouble taking things seriously. So in my second class especially, they always want to get out early, and even earlier than the ten minutes that we have when they finish everything. I absolutey refuse to let them out thirty minutes early, though. I might be willing to let them go ten minutes early occasionally, but the other is ridiculous.

To combat this, I’ve tried simply planning additional or harder activities, or multiple parts to the same activity, but still, ten minutes before time is officially up, they are usually done. They spend so much time pleading with me to let them go that they might as well stay the extra ten minutes to play another game, though. My co-worker Judy had a great idea though. Yesterday, since she’s been having the same problem, she told her students that if they could form the question correctly, they could leave. What they usually say is something like: “Teacher, finished? Go to home?” So Judy made them ask the question correctly before letting them go. I didn’t try that today, but I will next week.

Because there is the perception that our classes are a joke, I’ve begun to be stricter in general. Next week, I will start kicking people out if they aren’t prepared - meaning, they haven’t done their homework or they don’t have the books, etc. And that will count as an absence for them, of which they can only have five before it’s possible for them to be dismissed from the University. I should have started this week, but there have been problems having the right amount of books available for the students, pricing, and all sorts of what have you.

Such

So that’s life teaching Turkish students. In other news, it seems that every time we go out, we go to a new teahouse, each more wonderful than the last. There are some real hidden gems here, as per my last blog post. Last Sunday, one other teacher and I spent time with some of the students at Gaziantep University (NOT Zirve, so there is no conflict of interest), and went to a couple of different teahouses in the same night. In fact, we were out much later than we should have been with school the next morning. But the most interesting part of it was the diversity of the group. There was an Italian, a Spaniard, an Iraqi, two Americans, and four or so native Turks. It’s always amazing and interesting experience when abroad, meeting people from all over the world, not just the particular country where you happen to be.

Last couple of things: tonight, October 17th, we had a cookout, with a grill on the top floor. It was pretty good, and reminded us all of home, I think. Future plans include holiday parties for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. It should be fun. I’ll certainly let you know how it goes.

Hidden Gems

Friday night, after our second week of classes, several of us got together and went out for tea. The place we went was pretty amazing. We started out by going to the city center, the downtown area, with which I’m pretty familiar now. But not familiar enough, apparently. We took a right of the main drag up a slight hill with lights in the middle of the street, towards the copper smith’s bazaar, where we had also been before. But suddenly, for no apparent reason, we took a left into a nondescript doorway, with nothing to suggest what was beyond.

It turned out to be our destination, a lovely open air tea house in a small courtyard, surrounded by very lovely old buildings, and full of pomegranate trees. So before anything else - before even bringing the cay, which is an anamoly in Turkey - they brought a couple armfuls of pomegranate, and the knives to cut them with. The knives quickly became fodder for silly photographs, and they were useful for cutting the pomegranate, too.

Before I came, I had read that backgammon was a popular game in Turkey, but I hadn’t seen it played very often, even though the boards are readily available at any tea house. But this night, a couple of my colleagues did play. I was too busy nursing a melon flavored nargile - that’s hookah, for the Yanks in my audience - to join in.

All in all, it was a lovely evening. We ate some baklava on the way back home, stopped at a park to take more silly photos, and crammed into a bus already too full before the eight or so of us got on. I came home at about midnight, stayed up another hour or so, then got up Saturday morning to play ultimate frisbee, and teach the Turks how to play it. Saturday afternoon has been just a pleasant time of relaxing so far. I even Skyped my dad, but the internet died right in the middle of our conversation. I could stand to do some more lesson planning and dishes, so maybe I’ll use this period of dead internet for that.

But the adventure with tea from last night just goes to show you that taking the slightest turn here can lead to some wonderful things. And it’s those slight turns that make all the frustrations and challenges worthwhile.

A Very Rough Day

October 5, 2009 (Written yesterday when the internet was down, posted today, October 6, 2006).

What a day! Frustrations upon frustrations, it seems. First, there were all the usual problems of not having enough copies, copiers not working when you needed them, etc. Of course, these didn’t bother me so much because I’ve been planning my lessons assuming I wouldn’t have such luxuries. I’ve learned that much at least. But apparently I haven’t learned well enough.

The first frustration that affected me was that we were scheduled to have a meeting at 5:00, by which time we are supposed to be done working. However, God knows the bus schedule has changed every day since we’ve been here, getting later and later, so the meeting wouldn’t have interefered with getting home. But this was a problem fort me because it interfered with my plans to take my pay to a bank, and wire some of it home, exchanging the rest of it to use for the month.

The first proposed solution was simply to go and come back, but there was another meeting at 2:30, and supposedly we couldn’t miss either one. Fortunately, our coordinator was kind enough to allow us to miss the 2:30 meeting, so everything seemed fine. Buses leave every hour on the half hour, so a couple of us planned to leave at 1:30, take care of our banking, and be back in time for the meeting.

That was the plan, anyway. Enter frustration number two. I was at the bus, ready to board when I realized I had left the envelope full of my money in the secure drawer in my office. So I charged back up there, got it and came back, only to watch the 1:30 bus driving blissfully away. No problem, though, there would be another at 2:30, and I wasn’t the only one who needed to take care of banking who had missed the bus. No problem, right?

WRONG! Turns out that today, the bus schedule had changed such that there were no buses after 1:30 until the 5:30 one that takes us all home. Again, no problem. We can call a taxi and between the six of us, splitting the fare wouldn’t be so bad. Again, wrong. The security desk doesn’t know any numbers for taxis.

So I still haven’t done my banking (as of a qurter to 10 on October 5th). I’ll have to try again tomorrow. And to top it all off, the electricity and water went out at work today for a while.

Such a stressful day required some major stress relief, and it came as unexpectedly as all the problems. My neighbor and colleague seems to have developed a love for going out all the time, as much as is possible in Antep, anyway, so she was immediately asking upon our return what we should do tonight. Failing anything definitive, I suggested we get on a bus, see where it takes us and take a walk around the downtown area to see what’s shaking. At the least, I thought, it wouldn’t be hanging out in the apartments.

Enter another pair of Americans who live in our building, but are teachers at a primary school here. They were headed across the street to see some live music at Gaziantep University. So we joined them. The live music consisted of one guy playing guitar to a circle of friends and acquaintances, students at Gaz U, except of course, for us. So we sat in a circle in the grass under the stars, he played lots of songs, I played three or four, and it was a perfectly relaxing evening to follow one of the hardest days so far.

Brothers in Antep

The Tea Garden mentioned in my last post was raided sometime Friday! We were all severely saddened, as we need a new hangout spot. But another American, working at a local middle school contends that that’s just the way things work here in Turkey, and that it will probably be back in operation in no time.

Last Sunday and today, I experienced a Turkish fellowship group. It was a small, intimate affair, since the majority of people are Muslim, but it was enjoyable. It’s always a joy to find brothers and sisters with whom you can barely even communicate. But the assurance that they are closer to you than family remains nonetheless. You may have thought your congregation was tone-deaf, but I assure you, they’ve got nothing on these guys.

In fact, it’s quite difficult for them to be Christian in an Islamic country. They face the disapproval and rejection of their families, the scrutiny of a suspicious government, and they aren’t very likely to find an eligible spouse! The group was almost all men, with the exception of one whose wife was there as well. There were also a couple of Korean girls and Australian ladies, who, as I understand, were just visiting.

The difficulties these Turkish men face but which fail to overcome their faith drives it home that walking with Christ must really be worth it.

I returned again today, and even helped lead worship with my guitar. It is such a joy to be reminded of the beauty of the gospel, even when I can’t understand the language in which its beauty is being proclaimed.

I got connected to the with these friends through two independent sources. First, I had my church at home working their connections to find some kind of local body here with whom I could fellowship. Second, I met a lady and her grandson in the Chicago airport who were going to the same place I was. Turns out that both sources led to the same guy, and the same place. Knowing this city as well as I have come to know it so far, it doesn’t surprise me that there’s probably only one such body here. There are almost no Westerners here. But that’s actually a wonderful thing, because it means the city is unspoiled by endless catering to tourist, and it turns out to be a much more authentic experience, than say, visiting Istanbul. Of course, that’s a visit I do intend to make as soon as I can, and it will even be nice to have more and better English speakers readily available. But I’ve enjoyed Antep so far.

Çay the Turkish Way

First, you need the appropriate materials. The first one of these is the right teapot. I bought one today, which you can see here:

As you can see, the teapot comes in two parts, a smaller pot and a larger pot. You’ll understand why after you read the rest of this post.

The second thing, of course, is the çay itself. To make Turkish çay the right way, you use tea leaves independent of any bag or other cumbersome package. For an example of Turkish çay:

No çay is complete without the right glass to serve it in. In Turkey, they use glasses like the following, and a small teaspoon:

This brings us to Step One. Fill the small pot with a little bit of water, and a whole lot of tea, à la photo:

Simple enough, Step Two is to fill the bigger pot with water. Below it shows this:

Step Three is also pretty straightforward. Just put the small pot of tea on top of the large pot of water, ah like so:

Then you heat to boiling, then turn your range top to low or off. Allow the tea to seep for ten minutes after boiling.

Then pour the tea itself from the small pot, but just a little bit:

This nearly pure tea by itself is too strong even for the Turks, so you have to water it down with the water from the big pot:

Add sugar cubes (cafes usually give you packs of two) to suit your taste, and buyurun: the perfect glass of Turkish tea. You can use the same pots for making Turkish coffee, but that will be a post for later.

Çay with Music

Across the main road running perpendicular to Gaziantep University near my apartment is a fairly sizable outdoor cafe. Now, the first thing you have to understand about Turkish cafes is that they really aren't so much about coffee. You go there to drink tea, out of small glass cups with no handles. Frankly, I've learned to love it, and I will usually have several glasses a day. I was really excited when the cafe at Zirve opened up to serve çay. It was the perfect complement to a day spent trying to plan for lessons without knowing if we would have books or copies or what have you.

At any rate, last night at the Tea Garden, as it's called, they had live music. I knew that they did this on the weekends, but apparently it's much more frequent than that. In fact, I believe there may be some going on right now, but I'm too wiped out to go now, and it's about 9:30 PM anyway, so a little late. The live music was great in and of itself, but that wasn't the highlight. I'd seen somewhat similar live music before, although last night's performers were quite talented.

The highlight was the impromptu Turkish folk dance that broke out. I have been hearing for weeks about Turkish folk dancing, even had my colleagues offer to teach me "sometime" which may mean never, but this was the first time I had seen it. The first involved several men in a circle, and consisted primarily of simple steps, but the circle grew and moved around the area of the dance as long as it lasted. The second involved only two men, circling each other and making winglike gestures and martial (to borrow Devon's term) advances towards each other. My first thought was that this must not have the same connotations of similar dances elsewhere, which are all symbolic courtship rituals. But as it continued I saw that Devon was right. This was a symbolic contest of masculinity, not entirely unlike the dance floor showdowns to be found at nightclubs everywhere in the States.

The whole experience was really amazing. And today, after work, I told my colleague Hasan about it. He told me again that he will teach me sometime. There is supposed to be an "office" party soon, so that may prove a fertile time for learning. I'll show it to you when I get back home!

Close to One Month

It's been an interesting ride so far. The stresses of a new University starting from scratch are affecting everyone after this first week of classes. But since this is my first blog, let me attempt to catch you up to speed. Since I don't want to spend too much time reliving the experiences of an entire month, I'll keep it brief, mimicking a telegram:

-First few days boring. Unsure if I'll be called upon to work or if I can explore a bit.

-Fellow teachers arrived, and it seems a good group.

-Teacher training "Boot Camp" held at a local elementary school for two weeks.

-The Turkish teachers, our colleagues, are great! So welcoming and helpful.

-Boot Camp revolves around the Communicative Method of ESL teaching, which involves group work, group work and more group work. Large groups, small groups, pairs, teams. Lots and lots of interactive activities.

-It was Ramadan when I arrived, an Islamic holiday about which I knew very little before I came. It involves fasting during daylight hours, and the meal that breaks this fast in the evening is called Iftar. The Turks invited us to join them for Iftar twice.

-The end of Ramadan, in Turkish, is called Bayram, and it involves people visiting their families, celebrating large meals, and older people giving younger people candy, money, or gifts.

-It also means we get a four day weekend. Perfect time to explore Gaziantep.

-Saw the museum with mosaics recovered from the town of Zeugma, some kilometers up the road from Antep. The town was buried under water when they built a dam, but some of its ancient treasures were recovered and now reside here. There are also artifacts from as early as the Hittite empire, which is pretty stinkin' cool. I put my hands on an original Phoenician inscription!

-Saw the castle the next day. It's basically a museum dedicated to the establishment of Modern Turkey after the end of the Ottoman Empire resulting from World War I.

-"Work" starts, meaning we begin planning without really knowing how our materials are going to be, because the situation changes very nearly literally every five minutes. Classes to start the upcoming Monday.

-Classes began this week. I'm very happy to be teaching again, since I love it and feel comfortable doing it. I teach the very beginning level of English, so they only have what they remember from school, which for some of them wasn't so long ago.

-There is one student who is a little older, and knows almost nothing. I need to find ways to help her, but it's tough because the others are more knowledgeable, but there isn't any lower class for her to go to.

-We got Apple computers today to use for work, and so I am coming to you live from my very own laptop. I'm not sure what happens to it when our contract ends, but I'm happy to have it for now.

All this is really only part of the picture, but the rest will have to come through as I continue to blog about this experience. I think a blog about last night's sojourn at the tea house is in order, however, so I will have it out shortly.