Kocatepe Mosque

Not far from our apartment is the Kocatepe Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world. It is a four-minaret replica of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. We walked there one afternoon and could easily find our way since the minarets are so high. We watched what others were doing, and followed suit. We took our shoes off at the door, Elizabeth made sure her head was covered, and we entered. The inside is cavernous, with one huge dome from which a humongous chandelier hangs. There are other smaller vaults, and the ceilings are all highly decorated with geometric and vine-and-leaf-like patterns. The wall facing Mecca was also highly decorated, with beautiful painted tiles, mostly in blue. The red carpet was deep and plush, and there were many gold accents around the mosque. Several men were praying downstairs, and upstairs on sort of a mezzanine, several women and children were also praying.

First Impressions of Turkey

Last night we went out to dinner. Since we live downtown, there were lots of bright lights on the buildings and twinkly lights in the trees. It was very beautiful. As we walked along the street, we heard the prolonged call to prayer floating in the air, and it was very exciting to be in this exotic place. Our dinner was excellent. The food is so good! (I mentioned to someone that it is like Greek food, and she quickly corrected me: Greek food is like Turkish food. The Turks invented it!) This is a traditional Turkish breakfast, with Apple Tea, hard-boiled egg, cucumbers, tomatoes, white cheese, olives and simit (a sesame bread).

In the daytime, downtown isn’t quite as lovely, because the streets and sidewalks are uneven and in poor repair. But it is pretty clean, and we feel very safe—except when we are in a taxi. I was surprised to see that there are lines painted on the streets, because cars are squeezed in every which way, inches apart. We’re very careful as pedestrians!

We see lots of traditional dress here. Almost all the older women wear headscarves and long dark coats. Young girls are very fashionable, though many of them, too, wear some sort of covering on their head outside. Since Turkey is a secular state, it is against the law to wear clothing with religious significance (the headscarf) in a public building. Most girls don’t begin to wear the scarf until they are 16 or older, so it doesn’t become an issue until the girls want to attend higher level schooling. If they decided to wear the scarf, then they can’t continue with school. At the airport we saw a wide variety of clothing. Some women wore the traditional pants that are very full, gathered at the ankles, with the crotch coming below the knees. Looks very comfortable!

As we drove from the airport, we saw countless minarets along the skyline. There are many, many large mosques here in Ankara, all newer and less historic than the famous ones in Istanbul.

We attended a ceremony yesterday with our Country Directors, who had come from Istanbul to present 250 wheelchairs to a local organization benefiting the disabled. Only about a dozen or so wheelchairs were presented at that time, but they were very happily received. It was very satisfying to be part of such an effort, even if we just attended the closing ceremony.

We attended our branch for the first time today. There were 11 in attendance (including our two visitors from Istanbul). Ron was sustained as the one-and-only counselor to Başkan (President) Mehmet. This will be a challenge. Mehmet learned German while working in the West several years ago, and we remember a little from our studies there almost 50 years ago! Surprisingly, we are able to communicate in a combination German-Turkish-English!

Arrival in Turkey

Our three flights to Turkey were all on time and relatively easy. For the long flight from New York to Istanbul the plane was quite uncrowded, so both of us had a three-seat place to stretch out. The only problem was that our body clocks weren’t quite ready for night, so we didn’t sleep very much. Then we arrived and it was morning and our body clocks weren’t ready for that, either. We got separated from our luggage twice, but we had plenty of time to retrace our steps and retrieve our luggage, and all in all it was pleasant and easy.

Our apartment is on the third floor. There are no elevators. The outside door is locked, and after the entry, the marble staircase turns pretty tightly as it winds up. Marble sounds pretty toney, but actually the stairs are narrow and dark. The lights are motion sensitive, so they don’t really turn on until you’re practically under them and then turn off seconds later. Our building is a mix of small business (like lawyers and import businesses) and residences; so it’s very quiet, especially after working hours.

In our apartment there is a wide entry hall with many cupboards with mirrored doors and then a large living-dining room. We have a small kitchen with a table for two, two bedrooms and an office. There are also two bathrooms. I thought the larger bathroom was the most hideous room I had ever seen until I realized that it was the “western” bathroom and the second one was the Turkish bathroom. This is just a very small tiled room with a small sink and a hole in the floor. IT is the most hideous room I've ever seen. The previous couple used it as a cleaning closet, and I’m sure I will, too. I’m attaching a picture of the larger bathroom/laundry room because you must see the tile to believe it. Someday I’ll take everything out of the Turkish bathroom and take a picture of that, too.
The kitchen is quite nice, though different. We have a convection oven which we still haven’t mastered. We haven’t yet figured out what the Turkish words on the dials mean, and the pictures aren’t very helpful. There is no disposal, no dishwasher and no microwave. There is a great little shop across the street that sells pide, which is like a long, narrow boat-shaped pizza. Really scrumptious, but we miss the microwave every time we want to reheat a piece. We’re careful not to use tap water for cooking, but we do use it for washing dishes—after we add a few drops of Clorox to both the washing the rinsing water. It seems to work for everyone here. We drink and cook with bottled water.

We met our Branch President today when he stopped by our apartment. He is a very friendly man. He was the first Turk to join the Church a few years ago when he was working in Denmark. He also worked in Germany, Sweden and Holland and speaks a bit of German. We had a very funny conversation—part in English, part in Turkish, and part in German. I was very proud of Ron for remembering so much German. I think we’re going to do fine!

Humanitarian Training

This week we are receiving Humanitarian training at the MTC. We are in a small group of 11 couples. Four couples will work in the field in Humanitarian work. Six couples will work in employment service, and one couple will go to the Navajo reservation with LDS Family Services (she is a psychiatrist). The countries represented in our small group are astonishing: Turkey, Armenia, Belarus, Kenya, South Africa, Argentina, Australia, Ecuador, Hong Kong, and England.

We are so very impressed with the Humanitarian training we have received! What a great program! It is certainly not a hand-out to victims—it is a program which builds dignity and capability. It is based on the principles of self-reliance, participation and work, local leadership, and sustainability. We have found out a lot about what we’ll be doing—and it’s hard. We’ll be facilitators. We work by asking questions to help people clarify what they can and will do, and then we apply to the Church for money, talent or materials to complete the project. The Church has four major initiatives at this time: Clean Water, NeoNatal Resuscitation Training, Vision Care, and Wheelchairs.

We leave early Saturday morning (Jan. 17) and arrive in Ankara Sunday afternoon (Jan. 18). We're really excited about getting to work! Although we won't wear our Turkish nametags because we won't be proselyting in Turkey, we will be known in Church as Yasli and Kizkardes Keeler.

At the MTC

Our mission has really started! We're here at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT.

It was snowing softly when we arrived: big flakes that floated down softly. It was beautiful! It snowed continuously for two days, from Monday morning until Tuesday night. There aren't many picnics at the picnic tables shown here!

Most of the senior missionaries (including us) are housed on campus. Our rooms are small but have lots of desk room and drawer space. We’re not in them very much, so they are just fine. We’ve only felt frustrated about living out of a suitcase a few times.

There are about 100 senior missionaries here right now, and we love to hear about their past missions (one couple has served five, several have served more than two, and many have served a previous mission). They are going an astonishing array of places: India, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Micronesia, the South Pacific, West Africa, South Africa, Russia (4 couples to Siberia—with one couple returning to Siberia for a second mission there), Armenia, several different countries in South America, and—of course—Turkey. They are going as medical missionaries, welfare and humanitarian missionaries, family history missionaries who will spend their time microfilming records, office missionaries, and proselyting missionaries.

The senior couples are wonderful, but we love the young missionaries. There are about 1,700 of them here right now, and they are so polite to us. They are happy and enthusiastic. They arrive every Wednesday, and as the day approaches, everyone gets very excited. Elder Clove, from our home ward, arrived on Wednesday, and we saw him that night. He looks great.

The spirit of the MTC is indescribably wonderful. We hated to see friends leave today for their missions. We’ll stay another week for Welfare training.