Baclava! Baclava! Baclava! - Turkey, Day 11

Tuesday, June 7, 2005

At some point on our trip (I think it was in the Amsterdam airport on the way to Turkey), we came up with some code words for our team. Here they are:

Baclava! - means "I'm in trouble", or "get help quick" or danger" (usually said 3 times rapidly)
Warsaw! - a battle cry
Schnitzel - a universal term that could mean pretty much anything

These words were used many times on our trip, usually accompanied by much laughter. Little did I know I was going to be able to eat some baclava today.

This morning, we had some free time. After breakfast and team time, I just chilled out around the pansiyon and washed some clothes in the sink. I wore one change of clothes and brought 2 others for the entire trip, so I did laundry in the sink every other day. This tactic was a first for me - it was awesome to have light and small luggage for our travels. It also allowed me the room to bring my camera and associated gear.

Around 11:00, James, "I"and I were off to the Joy Store (a CD shop in town) to pick up the new Coldplay album, X&Y! I was very excited to purchase the CD. James had brought a CD player in addition to his iPod just so we could listen. Of course, I didn't have a CD player with me, I just had my iPod, so I wouldn't be able to listen to my own CD. That didn't matter, I wanted to buy it anyway, just to say that I purchased the new Coldplay CD in Turkey. We were bitterly disappointed to find out that the 'ol Joy Store didn't have it!

Dejected, we walked down the street a bit to a Canon Camera store. I had filled all of my Compact Flash cards (2.5 gigs) with pictures, so I wanted to have them dump the pictures onto CD-ROM so that I could continue to take pictures. This process took about 20 minutes, then we were off to the church to meet a couple of folks for lunch.

Dick, James, Jennifer, "I", me and a missionary we'll call "T-money" all walked to a little outdoor döner place called Golf (I guess because they had astroturf?). We all ate while "T-money" shared about his ministry. He works with a group based out of Istanbul and their primary focus is to train and equip local pastors in Turkey. He was a pastor of a couple of churches in California, but had sensed that God was leading him to Turkey a couple of years ago, and so here he was. While helping to put on training events in the region, he also works very closely with Ramazan, the pastor at the church in Antalya to train and equip him for ministry. It was inspiring to hear about how God is using him there.

After lunch, all of us headed back to the church.

Dick, Jay and I from our team, the "M" team in Antalya, "T-money" and the pastors of the Turkish church had planned to meet to discuss small groups. Apparently, the church there had attempted to start a couple of small groups in the past, but they had failed. Now, they were interested in how to implement groups into their ministry, but were seeking some help from us. Since both The Grove and Fellowship are heavily focused on small groups, this seemed very natural for us to share some of our experiences and convictions about them. Jay was the one who mostly shared and discussion ensued from there. There were a few times that I stepped in to help clarify what Jay was saying for the sake of our Turkish brothers. I believe that it was a fruitful meeting. However, some of the ideas shared, like releasing leaders to do ministry within their small groups, will be challenging culturally for Turks to adapt to. I pray that God will guide them on their quest to release the ministry to the people.

After the meeting, or team was set to meet with all of our Turkish friends in front of the Burger King (this and the McDonald's were the only American fast food chains I saw there) to go on a photo scavenger hunt. We divided up into teams and were off to shoot pictures of our team doing silly things in the old city (posing like Charlie's Angels in front of the fountain in the park, picture with an ice cream vendor, etc.). One of our assignments was to tell a story with 4 pictures. We decided to tell the story of how Jennifer and Pelin were walking through the park when James tries to steal Pelin's purse. Jay (the hero), then proceeds to clothesline James, and gives Pelin's purse back while they all proceed to kick James to a pulp.

After the scavenger hunt, we headed over to a teahouse to chill out for a while before dinner. I proceeded to take some random pictures of people without looking through the viewfinder. Later, at Zeynep's Kitchen for dinner, I did the same thing and captured some great moments on our team. It seemed like we were always laughing...

After a tasty meal (I don't remember what we ate), we split up into 3 groups to visit some families from the church. I was with Jay and "T". We were slated to go visit an elderly couple. They call the husband "dede", which means grandfather. I don't remember ever hearing the wife's name. Apparently, she isn't a Christian and doesn't really attend the church.

We walked for several blocks to their apartment building. When we got to the door, we rang the doorbell several times. (A small aside here, most doorbells in Turkey actually sound like birds chirping...) When no one came to the door after several minutes, we prepared to head back downstairs to the street and head home. Well, just then, the door opened and there was dede and his wife, looking a little surprised and shocked that we were at their door. They slowly invited us in, we took off our shoes and settled into the living room. Dede had been watching TV and had it turned up pretty loud, so that is why they hadn't heard the doorbell. Apparently, there was a bit of a communication mix-up and they hadn't been told that we were coming to visit them this evening. They seemed to take it in stride. The wife proceeded to drench our hands in this lemon scented cologne that is common in Turkey. Then she retreated to the kitchen to prepare some Turkish Coffee. Meanwhile, we began a slow laborious conversation with dede. It seemed that they were pretty tired and were planning on heading to bed pretty soon, so we decided not to stay too long. Also, the wife began to appear quite irritated that we had arrived unexpectedly, so we were getting the cue to keep our visit short. We talked about their family and how they met. We tried to ask dede about how he came to become a Christian, but somehow, we never really got the full story. He showed us his Bible as well as an old Koran he had from before he was a Christian. I think he said something about reading them both and comparing them. I wasn't sure if that meant that he believed that both of them were truthful books. Maybe it was just a difficulty in translation.

Dede's wife brought out the Turkish Coffee and we thanked her. Turkish coffee is served in little mugs that resemble espresso mugs. They grind up the coffee really finely and usually mix it with sugar. Then they boil it and pour it into the mug. You then have to wait a while for the grounds to settle before you drink it. It is usually really strong. This evening, dede's wife didn't put an sugar in it, so we were in for a real treat (note the sarcasm in my voice). Additionally, Jay had never in his life drank coffee of any kind, so here we were, trying to be good guests and we were going to have to down some really strong black coffee. Jay was a good boy and drank about half of his little mug. I was really proud of him for forcing it down. I drank my entire cup, which didn't turn out to be as bad as I expected. Usually, I add tons of sugar and creamer to my coffee before I can drink it. The idea of strong black coffee isn't my favorite. However, this coffee was really smooth, so after a bit, I drank it with ease.

After some more slow conversation, we thanked them for hosting us, took a picture with them and left. Even though it seemed that they were glad that we left, I think dede was encouraged by our visit. I pray that God will use our time there to plant more seeds in his wife's heart.

Since our visit was pretty short (only about an hour), and the night was young, we decided to head to a pastry shop on Işiklar Caddesi to have some baclava. Several of us had been talking about how tasty baclava was for our entire trip, and we finally were going to have some. Baclava is a flaky pastry with lots of layers. The baclava that I have had in the past had some sort of fruits or nuts inside and was soaked in honey. Baclava in Turkey usually only has nuts and instead of honey, it is soaked in sugar water. We got a couple of sampler plates and dove in. My favorite was the walnut - my least favorite was the pistachio. After eating way too much baclava (it is very rich), we took off for our pansiyon. It was only about 9:00.

On the way to our Pansiyon, we stopped and chatted with the Ali Baba guys for a while. We showed them pictures of our family, friends, and Arkansas. They seemed really interested in knowing more about our homes and families. After a while, there were quite a few teenagers all walked up and down the streets, so the Ali Baba guys seemed a little on edge each time they would walk by. I never did find out what was going on, but these guys didn't seem to like all of the loitering around. After hanging out for an hour or so, we headed back to our pansiyon.

The other two groups hadn't returned yet from their visits to families. Jay decided to go for a walk out to the harbor to write in his journal and think. Since I was still pretty hopped up on the caffeine from the Turkish Coffee and it was only about 10:30, there was no way I could go to bed yet. I wandered around Kaleiçi for a while, then I settled in the garden at the pansiyon at one of the breakfast tables to write in my journal. After a while, the other 2 groups returned and headed upstairs to bed. I continued to write, occasionally taking breaks to talk with Salim, the desk clerk, and to Catherine and Conlaodh when they came in.

After I was finished writing in my journal, I went upstairs to Jay and James' room to hang out and chat. It was late and soon we were all feeling quite sleepy (apparently the caffeine buzz had finally worn off). I tried to get comfortable on James' bed without falling asleep, but after a few failed attempts, I headed upstairs to my room and crashed.