I just had a fight on the phone with some guy from IS Bankasi. He maintained his polite manner to missus Geerdink, while I begged him on my knees (but he didn’t see that) to give me some real assistance. After going to the bank a few times to get the required numbers, codes and whatever else they wanted and …
Children, phonecall and chocolates
Next year I will do everything right. At Ramazan Bayrami (end of Ramadan festival) I mean. What went wrong this year? Well, nothing serious, but still. I remember my first bayram in Turkey, which was, I think, three years ago. I knew nothing, really. Children in the street wished me a happy holiday, and I liked that so much. Then the …
There’s this feeling of togetherness that I like about Ramadan. Even if, like me, you don’t join in the fasting, you feel the special atmosphere, especially around the time the fast is broken at sundown. Forget for a moment the grumpiness people display when they are hungry and thirsty, and just look around on the street at sunset.
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Picture this: A school in Kayseri, a vibrant city in the heart of Turkey. Not a big school, only 450 students. Girls only, aged between let’s say 13 and 17. And then picture me coming in with Allard, a Dutch photographer I sometimes work with. At first the girls are shy; when we try to get the ones I interview …
Every time we visit his parents, his father talks to him. Almost every sentence starts with ‘Oğlum bak’, meaning: ‘Look, my son…’, after which advice and wisdom about life follows. Father tries to get son on the right track. Son is 31 years old now, and to put it mildly we can say that in his parents’ eyes he
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I got up early to finish a story I got stuck with yesterday. Around 6 I was already busy typing. Now and then I got up to enjoy some fresh morning breeze at the open window. And then I saw one of my neighbours sitting on the threshold between her living room and her balcony. She was silently mending …
I was the guest of a Turkish family for a few days. The mother of the family sometimes likes to watch Roj TV, the Kurdish channel that broadcasts from Denmark and has for ages been a pain in the ass for Turkish citizens and the government, which labels it as a PKK propaganda channel. The mother watches …
For many people, this is what Turkey is like: dancing in outdoor restaurants, walking on the street practically naked, eating pork wherever you like, beer available everywhere. For me, it’s the first time ever in a typical tourist resort and it feels like a different world. I adapted quickly. As soon as I got to my hotel, I changed from …
It’s good business in a hot city, of course, selling soğuk su (cold water) on the street. Soğuk su soğuk su soğuk suuuuuu!, you hear everywhere. The vendors either sit in the shade with a bucket of ice containing ten bottles, or they wander around looking for a sale at the bus stops or to drivers stuck in traffic jams.
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I read a lot of newspapers, but the local rag is not one of them. Probably it’s called ‘Our Istanbul’ or something like that. I’m told this rag publishes a list of which days the water will be cut off in which parts of the city – that’s how the municipality tries to make the water supplies last for …
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