Thanksgiving and Kurban Bayram (Sacrifice Holiday)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration here in Turkey! We managed to fit a 15-lb turkey in our small oven, and there were 13 of us for dinner. We even had a children's table. Two women brought their favorite dishes; and we had dressing, mashed potatoes, yams, green bean bake, rolls, cranberry jello salad and sauce, and we ended with pumpkin and apple pies. I mastered the Turkish rolling pin to make our family's traditional rolls in our tiny kitchen. We were lucky to have access to the commissary on the small US Air Force base here, so we could buy all the foods we can’t find here on the economy. We had a true American feast, and it was a wonderful day with our friends.

The day after Thanksgiving, the biggest Turkish holiday, Kurban Bayram or Sacrifice Holiday, began. According to the Koran, Ishmael was the son whom Abraham was commanded to sacrifice, not Isaac as the Old Testament claims. In remembrance of this event, Turks make animal sacrifices on the first day of the holiday. The man of the family will go to the place where animals are sacrificed and will buy a sheep or, with other families, a cow. The animal is then slaughtered. (The slaughter took place on the street near home until a few years ago, but now in the cities this is no longer done.) The man of the family may take 1/7th of the meat home, if he desires, and all the rest of the meat is distributed to the poor. At home, the women are preparing a large meal, which may include some of the meat from the sacrifice when the men arrive home. After a day of celebrating with family, the Turks will spend the next three days visiting friends and extended family. Trains and buses are crowded as people travel to visit with family. Very few stores are open during this favorite holiday of the year.

Although we missed our family very much on Thanksgiving, we were busy and happy. We were pleased that our latest project was accomplished just the day before Thanksgiving: we gave winter boots to all the children in a village school, so now they will be able to attend school even when it snows. The supplier of the boots was so impressed with the project that he donated 15 extra pairs as a "sacrifice" in honor of the holiday, so some brothers and sisters will also get new boots. We're having an amazing experience here as humanitarian missionaries!

A Visit to the Village of Hısarlıkaya

We had a most interesting experience at a small, isolated village which is at least an hour outside of Ankara and even 30 minutes from any other village. LDS Charities provided tables, chairs and educational toys for the kindergarten class and also a multi-purpose printer for the office. The school is just two rooms at present: grades 1-3 meet in one room, grades 4-5 in another. Although there is also a kindergarten room, right now the kindergarten students are divided between the other two classes, since the teacher had to leave a couple of months ago and has not been replaced. Each of the classrooms is heated by a wood stove, and the bathroom is a separate, unheated, very dilapidated building.

There are about 40 students in the Hısarlıkaya school, and they are very sweet. The older students wrote us letters to thank us for our donations. They called us “Elizabeth teyze” and “Ron amca” (Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Ron), which is common for younger people to do to show respect for their elders. Practically every letter said, “Sizi çok seviyorum” (I love you very much).

After visiting the school, we went with some Lions Club members to the community building where the women of the village were gathered to have their blood pressure and blood sugar checked by a doctor. What an amazing sight it was to see about 50 village women seated around the room on the traditional carpet-covered benches. They all wore the baggy pants that look like skirts until just above the ankle, where the skirt divides into two legs. They could easily sit cross-legged in such an outfit, and many did. They all wore headscarves and colorful outfits, and we “city women” looked and felt very different from them. Our interpreter said most of them have only the 5th grade education that they got there in the village. Now children must attend more school, but it was not required until several years ago. I wanted to take a picture, but I didn’t want to be offensive; so I admired a baby and asked if I could take a picture of the baby. Of course, I got a few women in the picture, too. The woman was very pleased (and so was I), and when she left, she hugged me and kissed me on both cheeks—even though most people aren’t doing that these days for fear of swine flu.

We talked to the doctor after the village women had left, and she said that they found many women with blood pressure and blood sugar which was too high, but she was convinced that they wouldn’t be able to do much about it. The nearest doctor is at least 30 minutes away, and we saw very few cars in the village. The doctor feared that even if the women got diagnosed and treated once, keeping up on regular visits and prescriptions would probably be too difficult for most of the women.

One of my friends told me that her mother had been "too old" to come to her wedding. I was surprised to find that this OLD mother was several years younger than I. "But village life is very hard," my friend said. It is! We feel very blessed!

Remembering Ataturk

November 10th was the national day of remembrance of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s great national hero. He died at 9:05 a.m. on this day in 1938, so everyone stops for a minute of (supposed) silence at that time. We went out on the main street in our district to see what would happen, and sure enough, all traffic stopped and pedestrians stood still for a minute. At 9:05 we heard a siren in the distance, and everyone stood still. Unfortunately, we were by a large number of stopped cars, and some of the drivers observed the minute by sounding their horns for that period. It was deafening. We were impressed that the minute really was observed by everyone in our sight. There was a major ceremony at his huge mausoleum and in other locations, and we saw flowers by his statues. Many buildings featured huge banners with his pictures, many stories in height.

Ataturk is revered by the Turks—and with good reason. His name means, roughly, “father of the Turks.” He was the first president of the Republic, but he also brought sweeping changes to the country, among them changing the alphabet and numbering system to coincide with those of Europe. He changed and westernized the language, calendar, dress, education and social institutions of the country. Before Ataturk, no one used last names, and women had little legal or social standing. He truly was a remarkable man. He faced Turkey toward the West.

Each schoolroom and office has at least one picture of Ataturk, and there are myriad statues of him in every city in the country. We counted four pictures of him in our own apartment, from "thank you" gifts we had received! We visited a school yesterday and saw the “shrine” above in the playground. The slabs in the foreground read “We are following you,” and “We miss you.” "How happy I am to say I am a Turk" is inscribed under the bust of Ataturk and is one of the most common quotes inscribed on his statues.

The school we visited yesterday, by the way, educates only children who have been cured of leukemia and are being monitored. Their immune systems are often weakened, so special care is taken to provide a healthful environment. LDS Charities outfitted a science lab for the school. A special ceremony was held yesterday, where we cut a ribbon in the doorway leading into the classroom. Since it is an elementary school, the scissors were very dull and blunt!