Blog Entry 4 Day Two at Kara Tepe

April 18, 2018

Blog Entry 4    Day Two at Kara Tepe

Gentle Reader,

So many highlights to share with you today...

1.  I worked in The Shop again today, helping folks pick out clothing and shoes.  What is heartbreaking for me is when a woman finds two long dresses she really likes, but has to choose one.  Since we have a very limited number of long dresses, the policy is that a woman may select one long and one knee-length dress.  The woman (mama of the family) will often show the heart sign with her fingers, blow a kiss, and ask for both long dresses with her eyes.  Communication happens.  

Then, in a position where she must choose, the mama will often ask the advice of her children or her husband.  We have the same shortage of headscarves, so women must choose just two.  We have a mirror in The Shop, so the women often end up choosing the two most colorful scarves, or the ones that look best with their eyes and skin tone.  I secretly want to sneak all three scarves into the shopping bag, but word gets around fast in Kara Tepe, and the very next family would know that I gave the previous Mama three scarves.  So, I resist the impulse and sometimes help the Mama decide on which scarves. The Mama is happy, but not as happy as she would have been with three new scarves.

We are desperately short on men's shoes.  We do have a lot of dress shoes, some the old fashioned wing tip kind my father used to wear in the 1960's.  None of these are appropriate for the climate and culture at Kara Tepe.  Men want flip flops, sandals, and sneakers to place football.  We currently have about 160 men on the waiting list for shoes.  In the meantime, our tailor does some shoe repair to wait out the time when a new shipment might arrive.

2.  I also worked in the Digital Learning Lab today.  I thought I wouldn't be able to be of any significant assistance, as folks work on programmed typing and English exercises.  As it turns out, I was able to offer quite a bit of advice on grammar, word choice, and sentence structure.  I want to feel useful.

Even though there are 1200 residents at Kara Tepe, you'd be surprised how many times you run into the same people throughout the day and over a few days.  Aliza, another daughter in the Pakistani family that was in The Shop yesterday, was also in the Digital Learning Lab.  Her English is excellent, so she helps serve as a translator and as a helper with the English exercises.

Aliza and I had a long conversation about hopes and dreams, and she told me about the ambitions she has to go to college.  She is 17 and her life is on hold.  Her English speaking is excellent, her writing is quite good, but she feels she needs practice reading.  So, we engaged in a conversation about books and I asked her if she was familiar with The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns.  She had heard of them, but had not yet read them.  After discussing basic plot lines, she decided she would like to read The Kite Runner with me.  

So... I contacted my daughters and put them to work finding two English copies of Kite Runner to send to Kara Tepe so that Aliza and I can read and discuss the novel together.  Within a few hours, my daughter Alicia had it all figured out.  We needed expedited shipping because regular could take up to 32 days, and I am here for only a month.  As of today, then, Alicia is having two copies of the Kite Runner shipped to Kara Tepe.  It cost a pretty penny for the expedited shipping, but the 67 bucks will be well worth the cost.  I told Alicia I'd have Scott send her a check to cover the cost, but she said that it could serve as my Mother's Day present this year.  I suggested all four daughters split the cost and call it good.  Hope they will.  Regardless, two novels are on the way and Aliza and I are about to embark  on a beautiful reading experience together soon!!!  I cannot begin to tell you what joy this connection with Aliza has brought to me, and I hope to Aliza, too.  Her name is remarkably close to Alicia's name, too.  

3.  Another encounter happened in the DLL, with a Majda.  She was working on one of the English exercises on the computer and called me over for some grammar assistance.  The exercise asked that she create a Wanted Poster for something that she had lost.  The exercise was designed to focus on keys or cell phones or backpacks or necklaces, or something of that sort.  

When asked to write What Have You Lost? she wrote "my future."  

When asked to write What Does It Look Like?   she wrote "it looks like my life."

Then she looked at me and said, " I do not want wasted time."

And then we both cried.  And embraced.  I didn't want to let go.

Majda is 21 years old.  A brilliant young woman.  Her life is on hold for now.  

4.  Today I made friends with Mosen, a generous man who lives in Mytilene and volunteers his time at Kara Tepe Chai Shop.  He and his wife were once residents of the village.

Mosen offered me a cup of chai.  The rule is that one must have a cup to get chai, but he had an extra and offered me chai and conversation.  We talked of bikes and cars and all manner of transportation.  We talked of life partners and children.  We shared photos from our phones.  

All over a cup of chai.

5.  In the evening, from 8 to 10, a Dance Party was held for the women.  There is much freedom here to dance, to move, for some to remove hijabs to dance.  The small children up through the Mamas danced, but the teenage girls were the most joy filled.  Many of them dressed up for one another, wearing some of their brightest and most colorful clothing.  It was a party like no  other I have ever attended.  

We did many line dances, all with simply repetitive moves that were easy to pick up on.  After an hour, I needed to take a break, but one of the older Mamas pushed me out on the dance floor to dance some more.  She was definitely insistent.  All with a big smile and a wink of the eye.  

A beautiful young woman named Malik, which means Angel, was the most accomplished dancer on the floor.  She had moves more complicated than anyone on the floor.  At one point, she pulled me up and had me imitate her moves.  I could do most of them, but not in the alluring way she could move.  She was free and very much alive and willing to share her love of dance with me.  I was profoundly moved by this experience.  Malik and I have run into each other numerous times since the dance on Wednesday night.  She is also working as a volunteer resident translator in The Shop.  

This is a small world, this peaceful village of Kara Tepe.

I will close today with quotes about the power of drinking chai, to honor my new friend Mosen....

"If you are cold, tea will warm you; 

If you are too heated, it will cool you;

If you are depressed, it will cheer you;

I f you are excited, it will calm you..."

                           -William Gladstone

"Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it, and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space..."

                                                              -DT Suzuki

"...There is no problem on Earth that can't be ameliorated by a hot bath and a cup of tea..."

                                                                             -Jasper Forde

I wish you many cups of tea, as well as long hours of conversations with the beloveds in your life...

Namaste,

Marianne