Friday was a long day. We had exams. My day was made longer by flawed communication with students desperate for help before another string of exams.
This started on Thursday night with phone calls around 9:30. Living here, more often than not, answering the phone to an unknown number results in multiple call backs and a frustrating string of Do you speak English? I don't speak Turkish. Please stop calling !
But I did make contact. Unable to make sense of which number belonged to which student I relied on vague text messages, such as, I will meet you at 4:00 in front of our building (who I was meeting, I wasn't sure). After a phone call back to what ended up being someone's mother (I'm not sure how this worked at all) I met two of my students, finally, after work.
They met me with ice cream, we had some tea, they asked me when I was getting married and why I used a razor to shave my legs when it's obvious I'm doing a bad job (multiple cuts from cheap razors). One of the girls invited me to her summer house. Another suggested I meet her cousin. She also told me her boyfriend was crazy. I asked them if they wanted any help, but I think they really just wanted to hang out.
Did anyone learn anything? Their exams were not any better than before...
Saturday
Saturday began with a run. It's now too hot to run after 10:30 a.m. but I tried anyway, to mixed success.
A trip to the grocery store resulted in another encounter with stick/bird boy. The original lost boy I most often come into contact with this kid while walking my friend's dog. He always has a large stick, he always jumps out of the bushes, he always asks if the dog likes sticks (Yes, but not large ones being thrown around by small boys). Anyway, his other hobby, apparently is hanging out in the grocery store, sans parents, eating the samples.
Grocery stores here have a motherload of free samples, to the point of obnoxiousness. Sample ladies will throw things into your cart and jump out from behind the shelves. During the course of my short shopping trip Bird boy ate yoghurt, cereal, juice, soup ... Maybe this in itself is a learning point, to take advantage of the free samples in life.
Sunday
We tried to have a bbq. The men that "protect and serve" the compound said no. They wanted us to take the bbq in our car away. What car and to where we didn't know. Paul decided the next best place to have the bbq would be in the taxi stand across the street from our compound. The taxi drivers donated news papers to help fan the flames, supporters honked and smiled (we really could have used a sign that read "Honk if you like BBQ's!") and the protect and servers threatened to call the police (they didn't, or the police decided not to come).
We moved to the front yard and had a picnic after the food was cooked. Bird boy came back, with a bird. There is nothing more creepy than a small child with a small bird and no inclination of what the small child was planning for the small bird. Luckily Beth was there. She leveled with the kid - "You're freaking people out". I like to think the bird is ok. Hopefully bird boy is ok to.
