Bits and Pieces

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I bought a wooden spoon from this man, and talked to him in Turkish. He laughed and encouraged me to take his picture, but then wouldn't look up when I did. (He's whittling spoons).

Linda and Susan

Enjoying Phil and Linda's hospitality

The view from Phil and Linda's beautiful home

Another nap???? He works hard when he's not with us, so when we're together, Anton crashes. In all fairness, the women nap, too, at times. This heat and cross-culture stuff wears you out!

Public transportation in Antalya. (Sorry it's not a great pic of Cindy.)

They have beautiful spices here.

The Sabbath. We attended the International Church, pastored by Jim B. I felt so at home in this environment, singing familiar songs with brothers and sisters from around the world. Afterwards the church garden was filled with people of all colors and speaking many languages. I love it!

Linda, who has been our amazing interpreter at the center, and her husband, Phil, had us to her house for dinner. We had great food, good conversation, enjoyed the beautiful scenery, and relaxed. (I can see Jim, my husband, fitting in so well with these amazing men here. As a bonus, they love Starbucks like Jim does.)

Here are some random thoughts from the past week:

I am applying lessons learned in Albania. The Turkish people want us to BE, not to DO. It’s about the relationship.

The people who live here think Americans are a bunch of whiners when it comes to gas prices. Fuel here costs $10 a gallon, so it costs almost $200 each week to fill up their tanks. Everything costs a lot here. Balloons cost $1 apiece (meaning, per balloon—no wonder they are so happy to get them!).

The Turkish language used to be written in Arabic script, but like Pinyin in China, the orthography has been Romanized, so it is now completely phonetic. This makes reading Turkish words extremely easy. There are no irregular pronunciations: it is pronounced like it is written.

There are no dog pounds here. Homeless dogs have their ears tagged and are left to roam the streets. People take care of them and feed them, but when their numbers grow too large, the government puts out poisoned meat at night.

I’m thankful for God’s love for the people of this world, and am celebrating His goodness to us.