Adventure in Cyprus

In order to renew our visas for our last three months, we went to the nearest foreign country, Cyprus. It’s beautiful, with plants and climate like Southern California at this time of year.

Nicosia is the capital city of both North Cyprus (under Turkish occupation since 1974) and the Republic of Cyprus in the south. Turkish is spoken in the north and Greek in the south. There is a wide no-man’s land separating the two parts of the city, under UN control. We landed in North Cyprus at night, went to the checkpoint and then had to drag our suitcases through the abandoned area to the other side, where we were able to take a taxi to our hotel in the south section of the city.

Old Nicosia is enclosed by huge walls built by the Venetians in about 1500. The walls and bastions are still intact, and the few gates in and out of the old city are still in use.

Because of the long “administration” of the British, cars drive on the left side of the road, and most cars are right-hand drive. Because of that and the signs in Greek, we were a little disoriented at times in the south! But we loved the many beautiful museums there. We also loved seeing Greek orthodox churches and a whole museum full of icons and mosaics in the south. We also loved the Cyprus Museum, with exhibits dating back to 10,000 BC.

In the northern section of the city Turkish is spoken. There are no Christian churches remaining. Some of the beautiful gothic churches built from 1200 to 1350 still stand but are in service now as mosques. It is a little sad to see all the art painted out (representations of people or animals are forbidden in Islam) and very strange to see a minaret stuck on the side of a gothic church complete with flying buttresses. But of course the Turks have always been the soldiers of Islam and their victories always included replacing the existing religion with Islam. (That is one reason for the enduring hard feelings between Turkish and Greek neighbor states.) In the north we also saw an old caravansary (inn for caravans) built in 1572. (Shown above.)

We had only one day to see the sights, and we nearly walked our feet off. That evening we relaxed with some Greek food at a little café near our hotel. Our return flight left very early the next morning, but we returned with great memories—and new visas!

Easter in Turkey

We had a wonderful Easter with our friends and the Ankara Branch family. We had already enjoyed a little of General Conference weekend. The Saturday “morning” session came on from 7-9 p.m. on the Internet. We didn’t stay up to 1 a.m. to watch the “afternoon” session! We had hoped to be able to watch a session of General Conference together on Sunday morning, but no Turkish (or German) translation was available, so we had a regular sacrament meeting so that everyone could understand. We’ll watch the Sunday morning session in a few weeks, when the one session that is translated into Turkish is available.

After meetings, we came to our apartment for Easter dinner. It was a real American feast, with ham, turkey breast, potato casserole, green beans, and biscuits. We even had apple pie and a strawberry dessert--along with jelly beans, M&Ms and peeps. Eight adults and three children came, and we all had a wonderful day together. It was a lovely end to the day to watch General Conference again in the evening.

We continue to enjoy our Humanitarian work and feel we are accomplishing much here.

Birthdays!

We always celebrate birthdays in the Ankara Branch. This month Elif turned two, and Ron turned . . . well, a little older. Elif ate the pink frosting off three cupcakes, but Ron was a little better behaved.

We were surprised to see birthday greetings from our satellite company. It looks very official, doesn’t it? That's a BBC World News Broadcast behind the birthday greeting banner.

We celebrated the Relief Society birthday with a luncheon. The picture shows almost our entire RS, minus one sister who had to return to work. Although our numbers are few, it felt great to view the broadcast and feel part of a world-wide sisterhood.

We’re currently working on projects to buy electronic readers for students with limited vision, sewing machines and computers for women prison inmates, and computers for an association that serves children with cerebral palsy. Recently we bought surgical instruments for a children’s hospital, equipment for schizophrenics, and sewing machines for a sheltered workshop for paralyzed people. We are also working hard to order a shipment of 250 wheelchairs. This is the best job in the world!

First Snow

It has been very cold for the last week—in the teens—but there was no snow that stayed on the ground. This morning, however, we woke to 3 to 4 inches of snow! It was beautiful. In midmorning the electricity in our apartment went out, so we decided we may as well take a “snow day” and walk around and enjoy the beautiful snow. The snow was especially lovely on the berries of the pyracantha shrubs, which are very abundant here.

The school children are on their winter break, so we enjoyed seeing many snowball fights. In the park, they also slid down the hills. One of the places we visited was Kuğulu (Swan) Park, which has many swans, geese and ducks. Many of the fowl were in the little houses constructed for their protection near the pond; but many of the swans were standing on the pond, as it was frozen except for the areas where the motion of the fountains kept the water unfrozen.

After walking for nearly an hour we stopped to warm up and enjoy a winter drink that is popular in Turkey: sahlep. It is warm, sweetened milk flavored and thickened with the ground bulb of the wild orchid plant which grows on the Anatolian plateau (around Ankara). It’s very aromatic and lovely, especially when sprinkled with cinnamon. This drink was popular throughout the world in the 17th and 18th centuries, before the popularity of coffee and tea. It’s delicious!

We continue to love our humanitarian work. Currently we are working on projects for a school, a hospital, a foundation that works with schizophrenic young adults, and organizations that serve refugees.

Noah’s Pudding

Turkish food is great, and most of the desserts are delicious. “Noah’s pudding”, however, is a dessert which I probably won’t make again. It’s traditional at this time of year, and many housewives cook enough for their neighbors as long as they are making a big pot of this favorite dessert. Tradition has it that when Noah’s ark landed on Mt. Ararat in Eastern Turkey (shown in the picture below), they took the remaining dried foods and made them into a pudding to celebrate their arrival on dry ground. The pudding contains oatmeal, beans (both red and white), barley, dried fruits of many varieties, and nuts. It is boiled into a sort of glutinous consistency, then chilled. Afiyet olsun! (Bon appétit!)

We finally saw a “Van kitty” on the streets of Ankara. These cats come from Eastern Turkey, around Lake Van. They are very large and fluffy, and they have one amber eye and one blue eye (hard to see it in the picture). Most interesting of all, they are very friendly—and they love water. They seek out water and will play in it. They are highly prized, and consequently are protected; they can’t be taken out of Turkey.

Happy New Year! Mutlu Yıllar!

Christmas Oddments

In Turkey, a Muslim country, Christmas is not celebrated, but we have managed to celebrate with fellow Church members. We had a small but wonderful Christmas service last Sunday; and Tracy and I baked holiday cookies. We have seen some odd reminders of Christmas, though:

School bells play songs when it is time to change classes. We heard “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” repeatedly last spring. During August we dined twice with friends at a hotel in Ankara, where they played about two hours of Christmas music each night. It was so strange to hear “Winter Wonderland” and “White Christmas” in the heat of August evenings! Recently, I explained to my Turkish teacher that we play Christmas music only at Christmas time, and she was genuinely puzzled.

Turks exchange presents on New Year's Day, so the stores are filled with “New Year” decorations, which look just like Christmas decorations to us. They include lights, trees, bright balls, Santa Claus and we’ve even seen a couple of “New Year” angels.

Speaking of Santa, St. Nicholas was born in Turkey. Every December people make pilgrimages to a 4th century church near Altalya, on the Mediterranean, and there are symposiums and debates.

There are a few poinsettias everywhere, but they are called “Ataturk flowers.” Apparently Mustafa Ataturk saw them in Europe and brought them to Turkey, thus they are named after him.

We found a box of Christmas decorations in our missionary apartment, so we have a very small tree with lights and a few other things, including the carved wood crèches we bought in Armenia when we were there last April at a Humanitarian Couples’ Conference. I also pieced a quilt top a little at a time during the autumn, so that makes the apartment look cheery. About 15 people will come to our house for dinner on Christmas Day. We are luckier than most people and have a real though small oven in our kitchen; our 18-lb turkey just barely fits!

We enjoyed singing Christmas music with Ankara A Cappella Choir, a small group of mostly American and British expats. We gave two concerts and will sing at the candlelight service at the British Embassy chapel on Christmas Eve.

We wish our friends and family a very merry Christmas! We're grateful to be serving the Lord at this season of giving. Our Humanitarian work feels like Christmas all year. We hope you feel the love of the Savior in a special way during this joyous season. We wish you "Noel kutlu olson" - May your Christmas be blessed!

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!