Mama and baby peacocks
Duckes and kitens were drinking together from the same puddle.
We drove deeper into Izmir, to the more eastern side of the city to a tiny hotel that only cost a few American dollars a night and wait until you hear the stories that arose from that place, but more to that later.
We freshened up then jumped back in the car for an hour long drive to a backyard restaurant on the rural side of town. The dinner was literally back yard barbecue and our hosts were a lovely couple who were extremely welcoming and wonderful people. The food that we ate was so well seasoned and incredibly fresh! We ate chicken, beef sausages, rice, a carrot and yogurt dish, fresh vegetables, soup, the list went on and on, but we were most excited about the fresh plate of fruit which included peaches, grapes, and figs. We were all stuffed to the brim, a my grandma would say, but our host kept cutting pieces of peaches and putting them in front of us. Mesut translated all of the conversations and one of the many wonderful stories that we exchanged was from our host. He said that there were Americans at a restaurant once and they were not eating very much, so the owner started to literally feed them. Then, some time later, he went to the Americans' house and he was not eating so much and they started to literally feed him.
We went around the table and introduced ourselves and likely them to us. The hosts and their friends who accompanied us were very impressed with all of our work towards developing global communities, but they were particularly appreciative to Rosemary who after 9/11 developed a Get to Meet your Muslim Neighbor program, (may not be correct word for word) so that people could see and understand that the majority community of Muslims are not extremists. One of the gentlemen who was with our host said this, "Terrorists are not Muslim, and Muslims are not terrorists," meaning that no one who would truly be considered Muslim would be capable of such atrocities. They really appreciated that we all not only understood this, but that we were here with the intent to help our neighbors back home understand this as well.
Margie described her background in organizing retired senior citizens into a network that would link their skills to non-profits in need, thus helping them and helping the community. I swear that I could see the spark of inspiration in his eyes. He was fascinated in this program that she developed and asked several questions abouot operationalizing this idea in Turkey as he too is involved on a minor scale in such work. So Margie offered to advise as a pro bono consultant because that is why we are here; to do what we can to make the world a better place.
At one point in the night, I started to realize that we were not the only ones eating. Mosquitos had feasted on my legs, so Margie and I began to move our legs around under the table so to be moving targets and not simply complacent sacrifices. We would look up at each other now and then and start laughing because we were tap dancing under the table. One of the hosts' friend asked if I was cold because I was moving around so much and I answered that I was being eaten alive by mosquitos and then we all began a really fun conversation about mosquitos. For me this was one of the most connecting moments between our cultures even though it seems so minute. We are all the same. No matter our backgrounds, our language, our religion, our dress, our moods - we are all mosquito food. It sounds like I'm making a joke, but it is true. At the end of the day, we are all dealing with the same problems. Now we need to come together and fix them in a united fashion instead of wasting our time and resources bickering over nonsense.
We took photos with the family and they brought us out gifts, which we later discovered were sets of coffee cups. (photos will follow soon).
The drive back to our hotel in Izmir did not seem as long even though we got turned around a time or two on those country roads. I'll tell you that I have NEVER seen drivers better than the gentlemen who have been driving us on this trip. We all are so appreciative to their incredible ability to safely maneuver large vehicles through seemingly impossible spots.
Once back at the hotel, I decided to freshen up and take a shower and more about that wild adventure will follow - we've a whole fleet of stories about this hotel from the lot of us, so I'll wait to tell them chronologically as we didn't share them with each other for another full day.
We've had scattered access to the internet, which is why I'm having a difficult time keeping you all up to speed on our adventures, but I assure you that I've been vigilent at keeping notes to remember it all!
Until quite soon, dear readers!
Your humble author,
S. Faxon
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