Turkey's Magical Highways Day 6

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We visited a middle school today, grade 6. The visit was not a pleasant experience as the 5th graders were unruly. The new teacher was overwhelmed with these children and was trying to teach them English for the first time. Just last year the country made it compulsory to finish 12th grade (vs. 8th). They will begin English in 2nd grade. After the visit we traveled to a neighboring village where we met with the Muhtar (Governor) of the village of 266 people. This gentleman met with us, explained his duties and answered questions. He is the go-between of the village with the larger regional government. He trouble shoots things such as sewage problems. He keeps records of births, deaths, marriages, education issues etc. The village is made up of farmers and most young are leaving the village for the bigger cities because the land is not worth much. All Turkish villages have a speaker system to make announcements as well as call to prayer. They all seem to have one or two mosques at the minimum. This village does not have enough children for their own school so the 24 youth are transported to a nearby school. All people who work in Turkey put money into a Social Security type system that includes health care. Farmers pay less. There is virtually no homelessness. The only ones homeless would be Syrians who have crossed the border.

We visited their local farmers market and perhaps most interesting was their communal bakery. Women will go there to bake their bread for as much as 3 months for storage over the winter months. It is dried out, then revived with water for later consumption. Five women were rolling out the flour and baking bread in our honor and we got to see it, taste it and talk with the women. The bread was then taken to the house where we ate a delicious home-hosted lunch. They lived in a small house built of mud & straw which has to be redone periodically. They have a small garden and their cow is kept at another house down the road. We visited the village square with mosque. For dinner, we drove from the town center to a nice restaurant on the Red River where we had a fish meal. Very nice.

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Photos

Middle school visit in Hacibektas
Lining up for drills & songs.