A week of Festivals

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Well again it has been a long time since I have written here so I expect you are all wondering what I have been doing with myself. Recently (other than this week) my life has taken on something of a routine: I wake up in the mornings and go teach English a poor neighborhood of İstanbul (one which is entirely made up of migrants from the East, Africans, Gypsies, and various peoples from Eastern Europe) then I go to my other volunteer job at İnsan Hakları Derneği (Human Rights Association). After that I go and hang out at my friends office and practice my Turkish or go to my other friends restuarant and trade English for Turkish and left overs during his breaks. I am really starting to enjoy it. My spoken Turkish and my understanding has improved tenfold although I could probably be progressing faster if I went back to the course. I dont really feel like doing that yet…maybe in a few months, after I get bored working at these two places.

I have made a farely arbitrary decision that I would like to stay in İstanbul until February and then about halfway through the month start my trek east. I dont know where I will work but I will probably end either in Van, Mardin, Hasankyf, or Diyarbakır. I will almost certainly be heading to Mardin in December for Kurban Bayramı (Sacrifice Festival) where I will be spending some time with my friends family during the feast. I am really excited but on the other hand most of my friends will be vacationing on the southcoast of Turkey. Oh well…I am here to see things like Bayram not to sunbath in December. Anyhow my immediate plans are just to finally chill out in İstanbul, work some, make contacts with people who are doing social justice work here and in other places in Turkey, and buy new sweaters for the snowy İstanbul weather.

The reason the past week hasnt been normal is because Ramazan has finally ended on Monday night. Now there are people practically partying in the streets: everyone has been busy buying new clothes, visiting relatives, collecting sweets (as it is Şeker Bayramı or Sugar Bayram), and getting back to their normal eating schedule. Also almost everywhere is closed for the week so I have been chilling during the day again. My friends got wind that I have some bits of Jewish culture in my life and conned me into cooking for them on Tuesday night (the second night of Rosh Hashanah or New Years). So instead of celebrating Şeker Bayramı in Turkey I celebrated Rosh Hashanah here with a bunch of cosmopolitan Turks. It was actually really fun but it lasted two days - one to cook and eat and the next to sleep it off and clean up the mess. I will write again maybe tomorrow about this article I recently read and tie it into a lot of my personal experiences here in İstanbul. Hope to hear from you!

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