What I miss

Just newly recovering from a bout of holiday depression, I am in a bit of a better place now to take a look at what it is that I really and truly miss about home, Louisiana, USA. During the holidays the obvious components-family, friends, our food and traditions- definitely take a huge toll. Now, here, on maternity leave I have a new found chunk of time to due those extracurricular things that bring me pleasure. When I wake up in the morning and think about what I would like to do for the day involve whole foods, reading articles in a local coffee shop, walking in the woods, having sushi for lunch with friends, going to meditation at the Thai temple, seeing an independent or foreign film downtown, taking a yoga class... Unfortunately, all of the above are inaccessible to me in this country. So I realize my dilemma has both American and post-modern dynamics to it- nevertheless it brings me to realize what I miss the most about home, about my life and the things that I have learned since birth which bring meaning to it. I miss multiculturalism. Its the feeling of knowing the best of worlds, of growing up with an awareness, interest in, and tolerance of others. It is the beauty of living in a world surrounded by alternatives in every aspect of life that bring a plurality to everything you could think is possible.
Turkey is a country like none other I have lived in or traveled to before. Unlike Europe or even Latin America there is virtually no immigration from without the country (save a few expat spouses, military personnel, businessmen, and the rarely accepted refugee). Istanbul has its own story of diversity and move at a unique cultural pace than the rest of Turkey. We, however, are in Ankara and while all throughout Turkey there is an evident internal diversity-- pertaining to various regions (Black Sea, Aegean Sea, Eastern Turkey, Central Anatolia, Mediterranean), ethnic groups (Kurds, Lazics, Greeks, Turkmen), and religions (overwhelmingly Sunni with the most notable exceptions being Alevi muslims and the tiny Suriani Christian community)--there is not multiculturalism and tolerance of difference, well, that beckons another voluminous post to even touch the tip of the iceberg. For example, compared with my other experiences abroad, I virtually never get asked by Turkish neighbors, family members, friends, or even random strangers about my life in the US, what kinds of foods I like to cook or eat, what my family life is like, what traditions we have, what my city at home is like. When I first arrived in Ankara nearly two years ago I quickly noticed-what I then felt was- an eerie lack of curiosity about the only foreigner most of the people I came in contact with had ever met. I constantly received, at the time overwhelming and/or repetitive, explanations about what things Turkish people like, why they like them, that Turkish food and music were among the best in the world, and that the landscape of Turkey was so diverse and colorful. I later realized that most of these people weren't being haughty. More so, they had no springboard of cultural difference to work with to even begin to understand how it is that Turkey in my eyes could be different from their own. The few who had been to Germany at one point instantly assumed that I could speak German and were eager to share with me things about their experiences there in the language.

The nature of compliments I have received, for example, always related back to my ability to show acclimation to Turkish culture and language rather than being a unique expression of my own (odd to imagine some in the US complimenting a foreigner for being... so American): you are learning Turkish fast, you are like a good Turkish girl, you are a warm person, like us, you seem Turkish you are so open, etc.

I suppose life in the 40s, 50s before tolerance and multiculturalism became a large part of American life via festivals, film, and food could have resembled the Turkish situation.

There is, I assume, a sense of security in holding such a intimacy and singularity with ones own culture. However, there are benefits, at least to me, of experiencing the dynamism that living cultural diversity can bring.

Love the girl who holds the world in a paper cup: love her and she'll bring you luck...

What is it like to live on love, not money? Its a feeling of real world desparation and supernatural committment. It's always thinking, in the back of your mind, that everything will bring a chain of goodness if you just keep fighting, keep living to love. In cross-cultural marriages like mine it can take on an additional dimension of sacrafice of security and stability for that supernatural committment that, you are convinced, is really your destiny; its what all other faces, relationships, and life decisions has led up to.

The Saturated Family

This second semester at METU has brought me the pleasure of taking a course on Family, Marriage, and Kinship Dynamics in Turkey. I cannot help but delve into the sources that describe the familial situations and relations in the US.

If you, like me, are born of parents from the savory freedom infued want all, have all, be all generation of the 60's and were raised in the 80-90s amongst the peers from the enormous American middle class then you too may have experienced going through a permeable family- one that pushes us to grow up at the speed of sound and never look back. Some of us burned out after highschool, others have stayed where they grew up-all though too big for their britches-, us other members ran to far off lands to actualize personal ideologies and make the most of our international generation. The search for like-minded people in post-modernity is something of a wild goose chase. Each individual in our exotic whirlwind of self-actualization and hurried over involvement becomes a rare species diversely extended in a rain forest, or in an actualization of the old adage, Every man becomes his own island.

Post-modernity's role in social science is obvious- slather indelibly over every informed academic work since the nineties. Post-modern science, the age of questioning all things, the harbinger of no absolute truth is taking the certain out of uncertainty and leaving us with 'un'. We have elaboration, ornamentation, pluralism, eclecticism, doubt, uncertainty, and instantaneous access to 'factual' simultaneously viewed and captured media. Now, before getting carried away, things most people value as indisputably necessary to a sound and prosperous society are characteristic of post-modernity: inclusiveness, democracy, religious freedom, mobility, and consumerism.

Amidst these pros and cons, I ask myself, here in Turkey, what does this mean for partners, families, and children were I come from?

The University of the United Nations based in Tokyo takes a good stab at addressing this in Their book "Strengthening Families- Implication for International Development". It can be accessed online. http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu13se/uu13se00.htm#Contents

Sünnet Düğünü When Turkish boys become Men

sünnet

I recently was invited by my host counselor to attend the sünnet düğünü of his nephew. The word “sünnet” (the word used in Turkish for circumcision) is of Arabic origin and means “busy path”. In a broader sense; it refers to the path to God and the good or bad attitudes which human being adopt. Düğünü means "day of".I was initially told that it would be held at an event hall and that the boy's becoming of a man would be celebrated with the Turkish signature combination of abundant food and group dancing. Later I learned that this was a rite of passage ceremony that is among the most significant traditional procedures related to the male child in Anatolia. Circumcision is believed to be one of the features of a `heliolithic' culture about 15,000 years ago and has spread over much of the world. People speculate that it might have originated independently within several cultures depending on evidence that inhabitants of the new world and Australian aborigines were circumcised when these continents were discovered. The observation of 6,000 years old circumcised mummies point to the fact that this may be one of the oldest surgical procedure. Today although most male babies are circumcised in hospitals at birth, the celebration of sünnet düğünü is held for boys sometime between the age of 5-12 years.
Above I have included some photos of the festivities.


References:
www.turkishculture.org
www.cirp.org

The beginning of the Year's Rotary events

So the year has begun here in Ankara, Turkey. Amidst the frenzy of settling down, going to host Rotarian functions, and plunging into graduate course work in social anthropology I have just found time to update my blog today. I am very pleased with the helpful group of international professors in the social anthropology department at Middle East Technical University (METU). Currently I'm taking one graduate lecture course on Political and Social Issues in Turkey that focuses on the Turkish sociologists an one seminar course on Migration and Transnationality that looks at some very interesting aspects of ethnic and civil nationalism and issues of citizenship in Turkey and around the world.

I have attended a several of the Aniteppe Rotary club meetings so far and I have been able to schedule my first two presentations the first and second week of November. Three weeks ago the Koru Rotary Club hosted a fundraiser at the Austrian embassy. The food was as amazing as it was plentiful; amidst the cold appetizers there were all varieties of roasted vegetables in olive oil or yogurt with herbs as well as hot borek (a pastry filled with meat or cheese and topped with black sesame seeds). I also had the opportunity to try salep, a hot drink with cinnamon made from orchid root. There were two live performers, the first a women dressed in interesting gettup who sang in English (she had me singing along) and later on a man who sang Turkish pop songs that really got the Turkish ladies dancing and waving arms while standing characteristically shoulder-to-shoulder. The weekend later I have a very Rotary Sunday: in the morning I attended a beautiful brunch on the grounds of one of the Aniteppe Rotarian's manufacturing plants. We sat in a gazebo in the plant garden area snug between a apple orchard on the left and a field of grape vines on the right. I was given a bag to fit as much fruit as I wanted to bring home with me. In the afternoon we attended another Rotary fundraiser that was an outdoor picnic and live music with a special guest, Deniz Arcak, who I was told was pretty famous around Turkey. What she sang in Turkish sounded good to me, but she really shined when she did her rendition of Rollin' on the River. The photos below say a little bit more about my Rotary adventures thus far.

Aniteppe Rotary

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Sunrise Rotary

Thank you Baton Rouge Sunrise making this experience possible! You have given me the chance to opportunity to represent goodwill, peace, and understanding across the world!

Club Board Meeting


Merhaba Host Rotarians,

Here I have included a little bit about my sponsor club, Baton Rouge Sunrise Rotary, and its wonderful members. Sunrise Rotary was founded in 1988 and is part of district 6200. Among its many service projects and avenues of community service, two of the clubs permanent projects are Good Fellows-Good Samaritans Christmas Fund, a fund to raise money for poor families in the community during the holiday time and Habitat for Humanity, a program for the rehabilitation of residential homes for the needy in the community. Our current club president, of 132 members, is Marcel Dupre.



Ambassadorial Sponsor Counselor, David D'Antoni with his Grandson




Ambassadorial Scholar Sponsor Counselor David D' Antoni with Wife and Granddaughter


Here is the club website:

http://www.sunriserotarybr.com/

Ankara, the beginning of a Beautiful Friendship.

This is the very beginning of what I hope to be a passionate and informative series of observations and reflections on the cultural plurality of Anatolia's people. As I fumble my way through culture shock my first few months here in Turkey and experience indescribable and unprecedented hospitality I will pave my path towards the uncovering of the layers of civilization that the modern Republic of Turkey, Türkiye Cumhuriyet, was built upon. Through Rotary meetings, service projects, (koy) village life, to street protests, cultural events, and a taste of Turkish academia I hope to act as an excellent amabassdor of goodwill and to contribute a greater understanding of the cultural and ethnic identity struggles of the Anatolian peoples and inherently, the beauty of their diversity. Stay Tuned!
Above: The Eti is a religious standard used by ancient Hittie priests in what is now Ankara. The symbols adorned with large stags (important animals for their religious and nutrition value) are found made of bronze, silver, and gold.