Purple And More - Turkey, Day 10

Monday, June 6, 2005

We woke up Monday morning and after breakfast we all walked out to the corner of Işiklar and Attatürk to meet some friends who were going to take us out to a poorer area of northern Antalya. When we got there, we prayer walked for about an hour in several different groups. I was with Jay and Jennifer. We were a bunch of white folks walking through neighborhoods that probably never saw white people. We stood out in a major way. As we were walking and praying, there was a point when I could see 4 different mosques from one vantage point and they were all within about 2 blocks from where I was. You could tangibly feel the spiritual oppression in that place.

When we gathered back together, we started to attract a whole bunch of kids. There were probably about 25 kids that had flocked to us – it was awesome. For some reason, it seems like children of all cultures are really beautiful. We had a good time joking around with them and showing them pictures from our digital cameras that we took of them.

After a while, we walked over to a women’s center that was sponsored by the local government (I think). It was basically a place where women of the neighborhood could come for all kinds of classes, ranging from reading to cooking. It was the nicest building in the neighborhood and our friends there were really trying to build a good relationship with the administration so that they could do English classes there. They wanted to do this as a way to build relationships so that they could share the gospel with them. We sat around for a while drinking çay (tea) and talking with some of the leaders there. Then we bought some head scarves from them that the women had made in a sewing class. They had something like 8 scarves and we bought every last one of them. It was probably more than they had sold in the past 6 months.

When we left, there were several boys in a field flying kites… made from newspapers. It was one of the most resourceful things I’ve seen.

We soon left and drove to a place called Düden Falls. This was a spot about 1 mile away from where we had prayer walked. I was caught off guard because I expected it to be quite a ways away somewhere in the mountains. Instead it was in a completely flat area where the earth just gave way to erosion at one point and created a dramatic waterfall. We spent about an hour walking around and admiring the river and the falls.

Then we hopped back in the van and drove to Akdeniz Universitesi. We headed over to the outdoor food court and ate at Han Pizza. After lunch, we prayer walked in groups. My group walked a long ways, but mostly in the vicinity of the medical school and University hospital.

After prayer walking, “T” and I rode the Dolmuş back downtown to meet Metin, the Associate Pastor of the Church while the others walked down to the beach park. Metin wanted to order a computer from Dell and needed some help configuring it, so I offered my assistance. We met him in a smoky internet café (there are no non-smoky internet cafes in Turkey) near his apartment. Ordering the computer took a while because the connection was slow, but we eventually got it worked out. I took the opportunity to check and send email before we left.

We bid Metin farewell and rode the Tromvay to Konyalta (where the beach park is). We walked down to the beach and started looking for our group. After calling them on the cell phone, we found out that they were hanging out at the Nargile Salon. We first stopped at a little food spot and grabbed a snack of potato and cheese filled pastries. Then we walked to where the group was. After we found everyone, we all decided to grab a bite to eat at a restaurant near the beach. By this time, several Turkish friends had joined us. We found a restaurant and ate at tables outside. I ordered a chicken sandwich (cız mayonnaise). When my sandwich came out, lo and behold it had mayo on it. This was kind of funny because in Turkey, they pretty much put mayo on everything. Each time, I requested no mayo and they always got it right. This was the one time that any restaurant made a mistake. I guarantee I wouldn’t have had as successful of a run in the U.S. Half of the time when I order a sandwich without something on it here in the U.S., it comes out wrong.

After dinner, some of us had planned on staying at the beach park to see a great Turkish rock band, Mör Ve Otesi play for free. The others headed back to Kaleçi and to the pansion. On Friday, “I” handed me his iPod and insisted that I listen to Mör Ve Otesi, saying that they were the biggest band in Turkey. They are from Istanbul and their name translates to “Purple and More”. I really liked them, so on Saturday, I went by a music shop and bought their CD. Then on Saturday night, we heard that they were going to play FOR FREE at the beach park on Monday night. Sweet. Free show. Big Turkish rock band. I’m in.

So me, James, “I”, Jennifer and some Turks walked over to where the show was going to be. They weren’t letting anyone in for another 30 minutes, so we hung out and chilled. Finally they let us in, so we headed inside. There was no opening band, but Mör Ve Otesi put on a great show. Other than the fact that their lyrics were all Turkish, they sounded just like any good band from the U.S. I did notice one interesting thing. First, a bit of background. Turkish men are very affectionate with one another. It isn’t unusual to see 2 guys walking down the street with their arms around each others necks. Or even holding hands. So at the concert, several times we would see a line of 5-10 guys with their arms around each others necks. Then they would all jump up and down in unison, keeping the line intact. We tried it with some of our Turkish friends, but apparently it takes special skills that Turks learn at a young age because we Americans failed miserably at it. Oh well, we still had lots of fun trying.

After the show, we had to walk all the way back to Kaleçi because the Tromvay stops running at 9:00 and the show didn’t end until somewhere around 11:00. About halfway there, “I” and I walked Peylin (a Turkish girl that had been hanging out with Jennifer) back to her apartment while the rest of the group headed back to the Pansion. Apparently her neighborhood wasn’t the safest of places for a single girl to be walking by herself late at night. When we got to her building, we met her dad who was just coming home from a fishing trip. He offered to cook us some fish – he was just getting ready to cook it up for supper – at 11:30 p.m.! We kindly declined, saying that we had already eaten. He did insist that we taste his homemade red wine, which he was carrying in a 2 liter bottle. We tried the wine and complimented him on his winemaking skills. He thanked us for walking his daughter home, we bid them farewell and took off for the pansion.

About halfway there, we came upon a beautiful area in Antalya where you could see the old clock tower and two beautiful mosques that are lit up at night. I had wanted to take night shots of these landmarks, but we hadn’t been in this exact spot at night until now. I asked “I” if he would mind if we stopped so I could take some shots. He agreed, so I spent 30 minutes or so taking shots.

Then we walked back to the pansion. We actually sat outside the pansion for quite a while talking about life and such – we probably talked for another hour. Finally, we both got quite sleepy, so he headed back to his apartment and I headed upstairs to catch some shuteye.

Another amazing day.