Yuvacali

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Yuvacali

As promised, there was a young man with a sign saying Nomad Tours Turkey and an older man there to collect us. The young man introduced himself as Fatih, and turned out to be the son of our host family in Yuvacali. He spoke quite good English. The other man was the driver for this short journey. We loaded our gear in the car, ducked to the loo where Kim changed into her long skirt (required for women visiting the village), and then headed off on the drive to the village of Yuvacali (pron Yuvajaler). The village is in the middle of a flat, pretty much treeless plain, with a large settlement mound sticking up in the middle of it. It's a small village built of stone and concrete.

We arrived about 9:30am at the house of Pero and Halil. Our gear was unloaded and we were invited into their house (shoes off at the door). There was an entry room, a big sitting / eating / sleeping room to the left, another room to the right, a kitchen behind with a bathroom off to the right behind that. Most of the action seems to happen in the room on the left, which has lovely rugs on the floor and cushions around the walls. It also has an air conditioner on the wall, that was only a couple of weels old and definitely welcome! In the kitchen they also have an electric stove, a dishwasher and a front=loading washing machone, all of which I suspect are fairly new and are some of the benefits of doing the homestays. Otherwise, the average income per family in the village is about a dollar a day.

First on the agenda was cay and some delicious sesame-flavoured biscuits that Pero had made and are eaten during Ramadan (if I correctly understood her explanation). After that Fatih gave us the introductory spiel from Nomad Tours, explaining how everything works and what we can expect. Then we sat around and chatted for a while with the family. Halil and Pero don't speak English but do seem to have quite a few words and understand a fair bit (at least more than we understand in Turkish). Aylin,. the elevan year old daughter, won;t speak English to us but I think understands a lot. Fatih has only been learning English for two years but is already very good. He wants to work in tourism when he completes school. He is 18 and �I think has two years to go. For Fatih, as for others in the village, they didn't start school until age 7 and at that time spoke only Kurdish. This put them behind at school where teaching is only in Turkish, so he is doing remarkably well. In high school he is studying Turkish, English and Ottoman History. Apparently only a small proportion of the students take any maths or science.

Later, as the family went about their activities, we had a shower. The batchroom is off the kitchen. There is a tap with a hose for hot water, and a water heating tank with another tap you use to put some hot watter into a basin, mix in some cold and use a jug to wash yourself.

Lunch, as for all meals, was served in the family room. A long plastic table cloth was spread on the floor and we all sat around it, with a whole range of dishes arrayed before us and of course a whple pile of flat bread. Cig (pron. chee) kofte is a specialty of the area. It is usually made with uncooked meat but this was a meatless version. We also had greens, tomatoes, green chillies and I can't remember what else. It was delicious! Jeff provided some entertainment by taking a big bite of a green pepper, thinking it was like a capsicum, only to find it was quite hot!

After lunch, Jeff had a nap and I read for a while and also played cards with Aylin. she taught me a game where you each get four cards, and four on the floor and you have to try and make eleven, or a pair of queens or kings, and with jacks you can pick up all the number cards that are out. I only partly worked out the rules, but we had fun and were also joined by a friend of Aylin's for a while.

Later in the afternoon a car pulled up, with Alison (who runs Nomad Tours, husband Omer (who will be our driver), daughter India (almost 3) and baby Lulu (about 4 months), along with another traveller, Eva from Sweden. More cay and chatting, and then Alison talked us through our itinerary for the next few days. Eva had just returned from doing the same tour so also had some info.

About 6pm Fatih took us for an archaeological walk, which basically took us around the base of the mound and up to the top. This village has been occupied for thousands of years so there is a great deal to see. The remains of stone walls and fences, some tiny mosaic pieces from roman times, some walls that appear to be from really ancient houses and meeting places, etc. Back at the house Fatih also has a small collection of items that includes an ancient coin among other things. It was really interesting and I wish I could remember maore of the detail he told us about. From the top of the mound we had a great view of the village, including the preschool (where kids go from age 4 and start to learn turkish), the primary school and health clinic. Lots of people were out in the slightly cooler evening air, including lots of children playing.

We returned to the house and it was soon dinner time, once again a feast was spread out on the mat and we had an over=abundance. Soon it was time for bed. Most families in this part of Turkey sleep outdoors, often on the roof, and that is where our beds were = a mattress, pillows and blankets under a mozzie net, under the stars and full moon. It was lovely and cool, fresh and peaceful. A real treat!

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Comments

[MuzzaT]

Home Stay
We also stayed at Yuvacali recently, a wonderful family and a fantastic experience.