I'm officially on vacation, hooray! Cathleen and I arrived in Kas at Jeri and Curt's Spa for the Soul. It is breathtaking here, the scenery, their home, everywhere you look is beauty, it is THE place to come for peace, rest and renewal. I guess the stress of the last 3 weeks in Antalya got to me, because after arriving here I became sick. I had a terrible stomach ache that developed into chills, body aches and over all sense of yuckiness. Today I felt much better even tho the stomach thing still lingers. Now Curt is sick, we are hoping he will be better tomorrow so we can all go hiking in these beautiful mountains.
Some of you have already seen the next picture I'm going to post and there will be some you haven't seen following, but I'm putting it here because it was such a special time. Jeri who lives here with husband Curt 8 months per year has relationships in this village and so she was invited to attend a fund raiser for a very conservative Muslim school. So the three of us went. We were treated like VIP's and escorted around to see the various projects going on to raise money. Lots of food stands of local specialties, here is a fresh pan of baklava!
We bought 10 or so pieces to take home for around $3. There were many handcrafts, the textiles here are exquisite. I bought some homemade lace doiles and a scarf that the ladies decorate the edges of by hand. In a separate area was where we came across a group of about 20 women of all ages on the ground with mounds of fresh yufka dough, rolling them, cooking them and turning them into the special turkish food called gozleme (gooz la may).
Even though these ladies were somewhat isolated from the main attractions it was clear this was the heartbeat of the event. The wonderful laughter and community that permeated from this area was palpable. I wanted to join them but dare not say so! So instead I turned to our escort and said that I was a cook too and as if she understood me a lady got up and started talking to him, Selcuk was his name. "do you want to make one?" he asked me. I didn't hesitate one bit, got down on my hands and knees and while the ladies watched I proceeded to make one mistake after another in rolling out my yufka!
I marvel at these beautiful women, denied of living up to their full potential and in some ways not even aware of it. I'm grateful to be born American even though I am more and more discouraged with where the USA is headed. But here in the Middle East women ARE treated differently. My Iraqi friend who just returned from visiting her family in Baghdad told me being a women in Iraq is like punishment. In one month stay she was only allowed out 4 times. In church last Sunday we had an Iraqi man stand up and tell us in broken english that he fled Iraq otherwise he would have been killed for believing in Jesus Christ and that one and half million Iraqi believers have already been killed. It was sobering to say the least.
Please pray for these lost souls, their culturals are marvelously different than ours, their thinking and their way of life too but in many ways they are the same as us. They are much more warm and hospitable than we are. Today Jeri's housekeeper is here and about noon we all stopped what we were doing, she called the neighbors over and we sat down and drank turksih cay tea and visited! I thought I never do this at home! I'm too busy! But why don't I take the time? Jeri admitted it was hard for her to adjust, it is hard for her, but she makes the time. This is intentional living.
Learning so much here in Turkey!
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