Six is a charm

First of all I want to acknowledge the tragedy in Mumbai. I had BBC over the week-end so I could get more news. 185 people- so many families torn apart. Such a tragic situation in the Chabad house - amazing how the child was saved.

It's Sunday evening. I'll fill you in later on what happened during the week, now I'll tell you about the week-end. I left Friday afternoon for Istanbul. I was having a dinner with the Emory alumni in a neighborhood just north of Taksim - the center of the European side. We were meeting at 8:30 so I had time to wander around. I visited the nursing school library at the Koç hospital. This is a branch of our library. It's small; the librarian was so friendly.

This is a wealthy area with a lot of fancy shops and restaurants. The side streets were more interesting. They don't have a lot of trash cans on the sidewalks. When I finally found one near a grocery store, I tossed my banana peel. When I heard a plop I think I found the olive barrel instead.

Only 3 Goizueta alum showed and 1 Emory econ alum and a girlfriend. 2 of the alum work for family businesses - one with petrochemicals and the other manufactures steel boxes and tomato products. They travel to Syria, Jordan and the Caucasus- little different orientation than us!
The econ student is freelancing in Istanbul.

3 of us headed to the Asian side afterwards - this means crossing the Bosphorus. I took a bus to Mamara University. Seval, a friend of Kim Whalen, is a professor there. I stayed in the guest house. When I entered and saw rugs drying on the radiators, I thought maybe I made the wrong choice. My room was superb- I had a large living room area, double bed and best of all- BBC!

Saturday I met Seval and we wandered around Kadıköy and Moda. There are always a lot of transportation options - bus, train, tram, etc. I have an akbil- a little metal button that you keep adding money to- it's so convenient. They were passing out free tulip bulbs. ( you know the Ottomans sent the tulips to the Netherlands.)

I asked Seval if she had seen the movie "Mustafa," about the founder of the state. She had not and said some of her friends did not like the movie. I asked what was their criticism and she said that Atatürk was a great military commander with many victories. This movie depicts him as a womanizer and drinking a lot. Seval said- "why do we need to see such things about our leader?" Hmmm I was thinking- JFK, FDR, Clinton......

Seval is opposed to the current government. She thinks they give all the contracts to their buddies. She said her cousin was told she had to wear a headscarf in the grocery store where she was working. She quit instead of complying. There are very strong opinions about the government. I'm no political expert, but supposedly the current government represents the more traditional elements of society. The Kemalists - the founding party - are the elite secularists. They still control the army and the judiciary.

Late afternoon I took the boat across to the European side to a concert in the train station. The room was beautiful- sort of 1920s look. Easy to buy tickets at the last minute. I bought the cheapest. I was wondering if Turks move up to the better seats once the lights go out- when 2 guys near me whipped out of their seats as soon as the program started, I followed them quickly.
The pianist Tuluyhan Uğurlu was accompanied by 3 musicians on traditional Turkish instruments. Tuluyhan pounded way too much. The savings feature was the slide show during the music. I couldn't understand the captions so I was trying to figure out the theme, but after seeing scenes of the country followed by Jesus, Greeks, soccer stadiums and tea and cookies - I figured there was no theme! I think it was still rather nationalistic. The best part was when they came to the Atatürk slides near the end, the audience actually broke out into applause! Mind you, the country was founded 85 years ago by this guy. I had read somewhere that for Turks, Atatürk is a combination of George Washington, FDR and Jesus all in one.

Sunday morning I woke up early and thought I'd try to get the 7:10 boat to the Princess Islands. These are popular summer spots for people from the city escaping the summer heat. It's really unbearably crowded in the summer - today was just delightful. I witnessed the city unfold in the morning. Very few people on the 1 hr 25min boat ride that stops at the 4 islands. I was only on the island for 1 1/2 hours. The big island is like Mackinaw Island in MI. No cars allowed. There are horse and buggies around and everyone has a bike. A beautiful respite from the Istanbul traffic. I took lots of pictures of the old wooden houses that are nicely restored. The houses are on top of each other, but some have breath-taking views of the sea and the city. Only later did I realize I could have visited some churches and monasteries. On the return I chatted with 2 English women and learned a bit about the ex-pat community. I guess they are getting pensions and legally need to be living in the UK. So they go back every so often. One woman had lived on Crete - the other woman's son is a correspondent in St. Petersburg. They travel a lot, but hadn't been to the monastery on the next island!

I left the island quickly because I wanted to go to a carpet exhibit in the Galata area. The directions were - in the Crimean church, near the tünel, down from the German high school. Early on, someone told me to ask 3 people for directions because the first 2 will be too polite to tell you they don't know the address and will just point somewhere. Well, I decided that on Sunday, you need to ask 6 people.

I got to the tünel (the name for the tram that climbs the hill.) No church around - wandered up the street, heard some Brits, but they were only familiar with other churches. Then a German woman pointed me to the school, but the guards wouldn't let me pass the gate. I asked the police- he simply pulled out a map. The Brits had said that the churches are quite hidden. Then I stopped some Italians with a guidebook- but no entries under Crimea. I continued to wander around and saw a sign for a restaurant that a friend had recommended. I walked into the restaurant and finally the woman knew the church and gave me simple directions.

It was all totally worth it because this exhibit was indeed special- only takes place twice a year. A German couple started teaching some villagers about 30 years ago how to use natural dyes that their great-grandparents had used in their rugs. They had a great video about the whole process- "A piece of Carpet History," by Barbara Trottnow. Someone at Emory should purchase the video. Harald Böhmer is the German who researches old carpets at Mamara University in order to learn about the natural dyes. They have formed 2 cooperatives. Now the women in the villages are the main breadwinners. The film says that the men are proud to have their wives in the co-ops. The men work as dyers and some make the wooden tools used in the process and of course they herd the sheep. Now the people have employment and don't need to leave their villages which are located in western Turkey- near Troy and Bodrum. The video even showed the young kids collecting flowers for the dyes.

Some of the men were at the exhibit. I'm pleased to say I purchased a carpet. It was nice not to have to bargain and to know that you are paying a decent price. After watching the video and seeing all the work that goes into the carpet, I feel the price is well worth it. It's a great project- something our BBAs could think about - social entrepreneurship. Böhmer revived an ancient craft. Now 1/3 of Turkish carpets use natural dyes. I have the name of the carpet weaver and her village. The men even said that quite a few of their women went to a San Francisco museum to demonstrate carpet weaving!

An American was volunteering in the exhibit. Dee was very knowledgeable about the carpets and speaks Turkish so could ask my questions to the men from the village. Turns out she was here during the devastating earthquake in 1999. She was translating for NGOs. She was then hired by Mercy Corp and travels all around the world. She does logistics and said this is in great demand. Perhaps some of our BBAs would be interested in such work- Dee says NGOs really need business and finance people.

So she is off to Sudan in a few weeks. She offered me her apartment! So we'll see- all in all- it was a delightful afternoon. As I was leaving, we heard a lot of music outside and I was told that was a wedding procession. So I rushed out to take pictures. It was just a few women with 3 musicians. One young woman held flowers - maybe she was the bride? They were celebrating something and they didn't have much money. They danced a few minutes in the street. Then the small crowd dispersed and a woman brought new socks to the musicians- not sure if this was there full renumeration.

Mike Froman will be happy to know I took 7 forms of transportation from my guest room to home- bus, boat, subway, fernicular, tram, metro and dolmus (minibus.)