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!