We went to Lucy's bosses boat house which is just one of those little houses where people are supposed to keep their boats. But the people here fix them up and use them as little houses so they have another place to go. It was really nice and a cute little house and they say in the summer they can swim. That part would be nice since the water is only a couple of feet outside the back door and in a nice little harbor. The people who own these houses just spend the weekend and stuff in them it is kind of like having a cabin in the woods except it is a lot closer and not as cool. They had electricity and everything.
He had invited us over for diner. It was just him and his wife. His wife is really nice and knew a bit of English. I learned that they catch little wild birds for pets or to feed to their hawks, by using a bird they already own and a net. Actually that is about all I got out of the explanation but some how the people who own hawks catch little wild birds. They say that if they put out a bird they already own in a cage it calls out to other birds and they fly down and then some how they use a net to catch them.
Diner was baked potatoes but they put different things on them than we would. We ate them with olives (the fresh kind that still have the pit in them and a lot more flavor) cheese (it is a white cheese that is too soft to cut but not quite cream cheese) and hazelnut honey (which looks like normal honey but isn't sweet it is more sour). We also drank tea and ate these weird chewy stick things that are hard to describe. I was not a fan of the stick things at first but have grown to like them. They are almost flavorless and kinda a weird consistency/texture that takes some getting used to.
We had a good Thanksgiving meal even though it was a vegetarian meal. I made pretzels while Lucy made Kofte (Don't know how to say what this is I will send a picture) and Peynirli Borek (cheese pastry things). Then we made a carrot salad and a potato salad. That along with the pudding dish we made yesterday and tea was our thanks giving meal.
Lucy likes to visit people and has a lot of friends. A lot of the people we visit have kids so she gets the chance to do crafts with them or tell them B-book stories. The more people she meets and talks with, the more chances there are to see lives changed.
We just don't like it if we go out they are watching trashy TV and don't want to talk because then it would be rude to leave and a waste of time to stay.
It is normal to visit people a lot here, we only go out a little more often than most people. We have the advantage of being single girls so we don't have to ask our husbands if we can go out. But most people either go out or have visitors 3-4 times a week. Even if they do just watch TV together.
We would rather go out then have people over. The whole thing of having to serve tea and food and that once people come it is up to them when they leave makes it nicer to go out than to be the host. Other people don't seem to mind and actually seem to prefer us coming to there house. Part of it might be that women wouldn't go out alone and cant leave without their husbands permission, while if we come over the husbands can do whatever and they don't have to ask permission to receive guests.
11/27
I amused myself playing with a little boy today. He must of been around 4 or 5. I am not sure why he was not in school and he did not realize I didn't speak the language. When he realized that I was watching him he started to shop for a new sweater and would pick up a shirt check the size then hold it up himself to check and see if it was the right size. If the shirt was to large he would tell me it was to big and put it back. When he finally found one that fit he would then look at me to see if I approved. I know enough of the language to discus the color of his choice or say if I thought it was to big or small. He was so cute! and would ask me to zip and unzip the shirts if they had zippers. As we where leaving he decided his next method of entertainment would be to yell and guys as they passed by to see if he could annoy them. I am not sure what all he was yelling about but it involved lions and dogs and he was successful in annoying some guys walking by.
11/30
Today we went to teach the little girl. She is so sweet and likes Lucy so much. Today she suddenly interrupted the lesson to say that teachers do not get married. Then waited to see what Lucy would say. She knows that her other teachers are married but wanted to see if Lucy was planning on getting married. Lucy said that she was not planning on getting married to which the little girl smiled and went back to her lesson happy to learn that there was no fear of Lucy not being able to teach her any more. Then later we took a break to eat some oranges and the girl kept eating the peels. She has done this before but Lucy decided to ask her why she was eating them. She replied that Lucy liked to eat them right?? When Lucy said no, that she only ate apple peels, the girl stopped eating the orange peels. She has warmed up to me a bit but is still a little unsure if she should be friendly or not. I think she realizes that I am not a threat to her friendship with Lucy but now has to decide if we should be friends or not.
Our neighbor has not been as friendly since she learned how old Lucy is. We have decided that she thought Lucy was younger then she is and would of made a great match for her son. Ever since she learned Lucy’s real age we have not been invited over. So that is kinda sad since she was a nice lady and we really enjoyed spending time with her. There is another lady who is trying to marry Lucy off to her nephew we don't know her real name so we call her the annoying lady. She called 8 times today before noon to try and set up a time to drink tea with Lucy.
12/1
The neighbor girls insisted we come in and drink tea so our 5 minute visit turned into a 2 hour visit. We had a good time though and got to hear all the horror stories about having an operation here. They failed to numb her hand even though they gave her 5 painful shots. So she felt them cut into her hand and everything. It didn't sound pleasant at all. She was feeling OK though and was up and about helping serve the tea and everything so she should be fine.
Today we went and visited the lady who had a baby recently he is just 25 days old so she still has 15 days before she can leave the house. She is a good mother and nice to talk to. She is different than most of the women here. She is breast feeding even though every one here uses formula and insists it is better. She seems like she is actually researching what is best and ignoring a lot of bad advice from the people here, which is rare and very good. They think that if you breast feed that the only way to have enough milk is to eat sweet things so the few women who breast feed are super over weight. But she says this is stupid and is eating healthy things. We stayed and talked with her for quite awhile and we had made fresh apple muffins to take over to her so that took up a lot of our morning. The girls last night gave us a big bowl full of fruit which is nice since the fruit here is good but we rarely buy any since it is only cheap from the market and we don't usually shop from the market. They had picked all the fruit from their village and had more than they could eat. They have several kinds of pears here that we do not have, but not all are good. I tried a new kind of pear yesterday that was a sour pear and tasted a lot like a lemon but it did look like a pear and had the same crunchy pear texture so it was just weird. They also have another pear that is called the pear that killed the donkey or something like that. Apparently it is is poisonous unless it turns brown.
People here are very surprised when Lucy tells them about how cold it is in America and then they say that must be why I am still wearing flip flops and t-shirts.
Today we haven't done much besides go to teach the little girl. She had a friend over so we taught them both. She does a lot better when she has competitions and her friend was pretty quick. They had a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs. We taught them for over and hour and at one point they got wiggly so Lucy tried to teach them how to do some of the jumps she does on skates. The one girl can jump in the air and spin in a circle super fast. She barely gets off the ground and moves so quick it is almost hard to tell if she actually spun or not. We where super impressed and she would make an amazing skater except she had pretty bad balance. We had them see how long they could stand on one foot and they had horrible balance but that could of been in part that they where wearing 3 pairs of pants! The house was warm enough to be in t-shirts and that is how they where dressed.
Tonight we have at least one private lesson maybe more. Lucy is going to start two new groups and then got a phone call during the little girls lesson and I am not sure if it was another group or not. Our evenings are going to be busy though. She will now teach from 3 until 8 with almost no breaks 4 nights a week and then from 8-5 on the weekends. Which isn't really that much during the week but we still plan on visiting people and that doesn't count the time we spend with the little girl and we told 2 other girls that we would stop by the store where the work and teach them some in the afternoons.
12/5
Today I had a lot of fun. I went with a family to a nearby water fall. Lucy didn't know what would happen but she knew that a lot of people get together and go to this water fall every year and this one family invited us to come along. Lucy of course had to work but said I could go if I wanted to.
First we wandered around town and I could not figure out why but eventually we found a car to throw some stuff they had brought from their house into. Then we headed to the town square where about a hundred people with bikes where standing around waiting to leave. Lucy assumed we would be walking to the water fall and back and that we would spend most of the day just walking slowly there and back. I didn't think the lady who had invited me could walk to the water fall let along there and back. I was told to have a seat so I just sat down to see what would happen.
A lot of people had gathered and I didn't think half of them would actually be able to make it. In about half an hour the bikers finally took off with a police car leading them and an ambulance following behind. I guess I wasn't the only one with doubts about people making it. I was then relieved to discover we would be driving most of the way to the water fall and piled into a car with 6 other people.
The lady who was driving us decided that she was in a big hurry so she sped up and got right behind the bikers who where all in a big pack. Then she started to weave into and out of the pack of bikers, switching between driving at head on traffic and nearly killing bikers as she forced her way back into the right lane. Luckily we all survived- even if it was a close call for a few of the bikers. Then the lady slowed down and drove at just over 10 miles an hour! I am not sure what the point of this was as she had just been in such a hurry. But she not only chose to drive at this place but also took a long scenic side track so that it took us well over an hour to get to where we would park the car before walking to the water fall.
Once we parked the car we all got out and took some pictures and then sat around for awhile. I again have no idea why we did this but was entertained by the two kids who where part of the group I was with. We had our own fun while the other adults just sat around. Finally, we started up towards the water fall. About half way to it there is kind of a flat meadow and everyone stopped here and other people where already there. It turned that most of the adults would be staying here to cook food for a picnic.
The kids and I headed off to the water fall and spent some time climbing around on the rocks and taking pictures before heading back down the trail to see if the food was done. It was so we ate lunch which was fish sandwiches. Well that is what Americans would say we ate. But what really happened was that they threw down a tarp and then put a pan in the middle of it which they then dumped a bunch of little cooked fish into. Then they put a bag of quartered onions out and passed around loaves of bread and said dig in. So I and about 10 other people grabbed hunks of bread and started eating. The guys would just break open the bread put a hand full of fish in and eat it. But that means they were eating all the bones. So most of us women would take the fish and remove the bones one little fish at a time and eat a bite of bread with each fish. It was a very good but very slow messy lunch. They did not eat any veggies and dessert was tangerines. Some of the other family groups ate other things but most people where eating fish like us. I have some pictures which will help make things more clear that I will post probably next week.
After lunch I played a type of charades with the kids for awhile and then when headed back up to the water fall. The kids thought it was great that I could watch them and liked to be out of sight of their parents so they could do things they would get yelled at for. At first they thought I would make them behave and behave myself and any time I tried to climb anything or get even kinda close to an edge they told me birdaka! which means be careful. And should I keep doing what ever it was they would tell me no! and then say “come” so they could lead me to a safe seat.
I found a lady who would take my picture and headed up the hill to climb part way up the water fall since it would make a great picture. The kids promptly started to yell that I needed to be careful and come back. I ignored them and while I think they where annoyed that I did not take their life saving advice they quickly got over it when they where allowed to come up after me. They quickly learned that as long as we where out of site of their parents that I would not only let them act like normal kids and climb on stuff but that I would do it too. So we had a great time and played a lot of follow the leader on the rocks surrounding the water fall. I never had to worry about either because they where horrible and climbing rocks and even in their bravest moments never got very close to the edge.
We eventually headed back to the parents and then home. I was invited to the home of the lady who invited me but decided that 6 hours of fun and trying to communicate was enough. It was a super nice day and nice to get out and have some fun with the kids.
I was asked by every adult though if I was cold since I was the only person in a t-shirt. I don't see how they survived since I was sweaty but I guess most of the adults just sat around still the poor kids where all wearing sweaters.
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