Alternate Vision

good weather makes me happy. bad weather screws my mood up. Ok, so that viscious witch called Katrina is reponsible for this gloom. But it doesn't help that overcast, dull-gray skies are but the norm here. Throw in icy weather and you have the perfect recipe to make me cross. Very little can easily destroy my lust for life. Shitty weather can. Scary part is I'm going to have to get used to this. Yuengling and my newly acquired hookah will be top on the savior list. That and a lady. Any other suggestions?

Towards the end of my time in Adana I started to get a little antsy with myself. I was overcome by a sense of dissatisfaction that occured for many reasons, half of them being job related. Deep within my body, mind and soul I had a void to fill, a high purpose to serve, though, to date, I am not sure what exactly this was or is. What I did know was that it involved something different than simply working for someone higher up just so he could afford an extra vacation to the much sought after beaches of Cyprus and sustain his covertly decadent lifestyle. I wanted no more to be tied down with my job. The thought of my then soon-to-come vacation was too much of a tease. My time wasn't done yet.

One afternoon, after searching the net for everything from "volunteer jobs in turkey" to "green peace in adana", I stumbled upon a group of kindred souls who worked for the Family Care Foundation. I sought them out overphone and had a few enlightening converstions about their work and lifestyle in the middleast. Sadly though I didn't pursue anything more after that since, for a mutitude of reasons, I decided to depart earlier than expected. Adriano, one of my many soul brothers, picked up where I left off. Talk about living vicariously. Yet again I steal a story from his blog. This has to do with clowns entertaining orphans suffering from leukemia.

No make-up, no red nose, just colorful clothes. I wear the large yellow and blue pants and the rainbow jacket. Ready.
I come out from the computer room where I've just changed clothes and I start walking to the bright door. The sun is blinding but my sight comes back after few seconds. The children of the orphanage are there in front of me and even just my clothes make them smile. I sit between them and inevitably they start to talk with me. I don't understand but soon the language-problem is overcome by smiles and hugs. Another clown is playing the guitar. We start dancing. I start dancing on my knees and still from down there I'm taller than the children I'm dancing with. Most of them are special, very special; I can't believe that they are alone. The seem so happy, so serene, but it's just because there's a clown with them, a clown who has everything, everything those children wish they had. How can I smile knowing that I'm much more lucky than those innocent children? But today they just want a smile and some colorfull clothes, and this clown cannot deny this to them, so I smile and I keep playing with them.

The next time you go backpacking I wanna come too. Even if it means braving sub zero temperatures in the midst of the white mountains. ok?

Biological evolution is to a large extent a history of escapes from the blind alley of overspecializtaion, the evolution of ideas a series of escapes from the tyranny of mental habits and stagnant routines. In biological evolution the escape is brought about by a retreat from the adult to a juvenile stage as the starting point for the new line; in mental evolution by a temporary regression to more primitive and uninhibited modes of ideation, followed by the creative forward leap.
- Arthur Koestler

Its almost like my body thrives of the experience of exploring a new city, of being able to learn its ins and outs and discovering its inner soul. Discovering that I live bang in the middle of a jewish community, and that the weather is not so bad, yet, after all. Realising that this is my first time living in the north east and that I could learn to love this. Ofcourse, its never all roseate and exciting. It comes with its fair share of potentially distastrous challenges which makes one question one's choices and decisions, mostly in retrospect. Having to learn the bus route, setting up bank accounts, not to mention nurturing your new apartment and dealing with its associated hassles.
But this is what keeps me going, burning twice as bright on half a wick. With each day, the sublime feeling of being sensitive to my various levels of consciousness and understanding the various triggers that stimulate it is increasing. In foresight, I can tell that the next two years will involve a caprcisious journey of discovering my neural ineptness, and something that I am nervouslt excited about. And he will be one of the key catalysts and participants in this journey.
The suns out. Productive day. I need a beer.

from someone who once took my breath away. she needs to get a blog.

In the afternoon Szymon and me were taken by our taxidriver from thos morning to some villages where nomads are living. Incredible, in the middle of this deserted, dry landscape there were a few tents. We went to sit down with the women and children (there were no man in this group of tents, they all went to work in the city) and talked to them through the taxidriver. Such beautiful people, with brown skin and different layers of coloured clothing. I got the chance to ask some questions about the way women live here, and it turns out its the same as in India and some other parts of Asia (and who knwos the rest of the underdeveloped world): The women have a double workload - they work like the men do (on the land etc) but also have to take care of the children and cook foos for the family, do laundry, etc. The axidriver told us that the women used to have damaged hands because of their hard work, while the man were just mostly sitting around using Opium, which is why there hands looked much better. But now the government is making it hard for them to live and the cash-economy has entered their lives. Nowthe women mostly stay in the tents (some pieces of wood and clothing) and the men go out to the cities to make some money in construction-work or other hard jobs. Its not hard to imagine this change must cause problems in the family-structure, with the men being away a lot. What was also interesting was that there was a woman with a 2 month old baby, so I asked how she gave labour. She did it in the tent because there wasnt enough money for the hospital. They explained the women used to have really strong bodies because of their hard labour, but nowadays because the man go out to make money and the wmen stay behing to just take care of the children, their bodies have become wekaer and giving labour this way has become more dangerous for them, Its better if they could go to the hospital now, but often its too expensive. For those of you who are not that into anthropology or sociology: These are just a few examples of how a change in life-sustainance (making a living) can change a whole culture of society and causes many problems for the people involved. 'Development' like the use of money instead of self-sustainance (completely providing in your own food and other basic needs) can actually increase poverty for people and/or make their life harder. (just some thoughts) I forgto to mention that we visited two groups of tents. In the second one (with the woman and the baby) we were offered tea and sat down for w while. people were really excited and were putting on nice clothes for us to take pictures (we took a LOT) We brought sweets for the children and just for everyone basically, including ourselves, which was a good way to brake the ice. Especially because they were so hard to open we had to help the little kids all the time. A smile really can go a long way... While the sun was going down we drove back to the city, and I just feel this was one of my most special experiences in Iran. Tomorrow we might contact a lady who gave me her phone-number to show us around. Her husband lived in Belgium for a while and after 5 minutes of talking to him it was all a bout politics, including the difficulties muslim-people face in Western-Europe at the moment. So there probably will be some heavy talking tomorrow. But its interesting. The day after we take a flight to tehran (the capital) and from there a bus to Istanbul: about 40 hours in a bus, woehoe!

Two years is a pretty big commitment. Amidst all the packing, planning and preparing I stopped for a second to reflect upon the present, the now and the imminent reality that I have imposed upon myself. A quick introspective glance at my overall constitution and orientation. How ready am I?

Until yesterday, my jetlagged and travel fatigued mind would easily lapse into reverie of a not so distant memory- the sights and sounds of Istiklal at 4am; inviting smell of fresh hot baklava; soft and prickly sensation under my feet as I strolled the pebbly beaches of olympos; waking at 4 am in sultry Adana, drenched in my own sweat; juan life; romp n stomp to the groove in Marmaris; transylvanian delight; melon nargile. But today, miraculously, I seem to be recharged . Rough and tough times ahead, or maybe not. Nervous and scared but excited. Yet again, I submit myself to the vagaries of destiny and let the inner voice guide me. Pittsburgh, brace yourself.

I wanted to make it to Oludeniz and the butterfly valley but time would not permit. Olympos is one of my all time favorites beach spots for chillaxing. Sleeping on buses or any moving vehicle for that matter is not my cup o tea. The sellers at the egyptian bazaar in Istanbul drive one of the hardest bargains I have seen. Mike possesses the skills and patience required to make prices drop unlike most westerners I know. Much has to be said about my last twelve days of travelling. Most of it was spent either on pebbly, turqouise blue watered beaches, on boats that took us from one little island or coast to another or on overnight busses that denied us any rest. I shall wait for the pics to attempt a good recount of our escapades. I'm going to miss Ayran(lassi drink), çorba (lentil soup), adana kebap, the smell of coffee being roasted on the streetsides, effes, the serene waters of the aegean, the loud and abnoxious bus conductors, Kaan's one year old baby and hell of a lot more. The short midgit at the front desk is waiting for me to pay up. Kumpir or kebap for dinner? One day I will triumphantly reconquer Sofia, Buigaria. Ya ya betcha!

After an unusualy cool and windy Sunday spent blissfully frolicking around in Adana's aqualand, we gradually made our way back home by foot. One shade darker now. The road home was a fifteen minute walk that took us past the elegant Sanbanci Merkez Mosque, over the Ceyhan river, past the hawkers selling shaved ice, turkish ice cream, fresh roasted nuts and tea and straight into the lush green Camii park. Ofcourse, being a Sunday, the park was teeming with people of all ages sprawled on the lawns soaking up the great weather. I've often told myself that if the summer weather here were a tad bit more cooperative am sure the city would become infinitely more habitable, and then maybe half the city wouldn't need to escape to the coast every weekend. Yesterday's weather proved my point. Spirits were higher, people actually left the confines of their homes to come outside and the city had come alive it seemed. As we made our way out of the park, we walked past an open air amphitheatre that none of us had noticed before. We returned later that night, after sunset, to watch a free movie along with some two hundred people. Prior to the movie, about 50% of the people present to watch the movie converted the center stage to a dance floor and were "movin to the groove". I found it quite funny to see a 7o year old grandfather dancing with his baby grandaughter to some pretty darn good trance. People took their seats and the movie started. A turkish movie with German subtitles wasn't what I was hoping for, but oh well liviu's mininal German helped us stay focused and enjoy atleast the first half. Definitely one of the better days I have had here in my short month and a half,credit goes to the weather. And with that, yet another chapter in my life is closed. Heading to Istanbul this wednesday and from there to discover the mysteries of the Blue Aegean. Cellphoneless.

Istanbul awaits