A long time wondering, news from the South East
'Kucuk Aishe! Ere? Chtoni Anne Aishe?'
That's the furthest my conversations go with my new kurdish mother. Her name is Aishe, she is Buyuk Aishe (big Aishe) and I am kucuk Aishe. This new name gives me full rights to family membership; long dinners sitting on the floor and sleeping on the living room's carpet. I now have 10 brothers and sisters' of which 6 are already married. So at home it's pretty quiet and I find some time to use my software engineer-computer expert sister's laptop. She just left for work after a breakfast of naan, spicy omelete and burn-your-throat peppers (nooo this one is sweet I promise! Yeah yeah I don't believe you anymore!!). The family is big and they seem to occupy the whole building. They are all intrigued by me, my blond hair, why I don't call my parents every day, and how I can carry such a big backpack. I have learnt some kurdish, so I can say some funny things like: 'what's your problem?', 'what are you doing?', 'who's this?', 'I love strawberries' and it makes them laugh.
My time since my arrival from Iran into the kurdish region of Turkey had been interesting yet lacking a little bit in memmorable encounters and adventures. What I was seeking seems to have been hidden in a little corner of Urfa all this time, waiting for me to come. First I met Celen, a dusty sculptor with a big smile and australian looks. Then, walking alone in the market, I was invited for some tea by a fruit stall, and my romance with the turkish police started all over again.
A man came, who was apparently drunk, and said that he wanted to be my friend. My new fruit selling friends pushed him away, but he got angry and they worried for my life. I tried to get up to leave, but they told me to sit, gave me some more cups of tea, and called the police. They asked me where I wanted to go next, took me into their police car, fed me some lahmajoon (burn your throat again!) and dropped me off at the fish lake wishing me a good time in Urfa. Here you go, attract some attention.In a shop while bargaining hard for some scarves with little boys in a mixture of farsi, kurdish, turkish and english, hemre shows up. He seems cool and speaks good english, so I guess that he is not just one of those lame guys looking for money or a foreign girlfriend. Hemre and Memmet are fantastic. Memmet sells carpets in Japan half of the year and spends his days walking around Urfa drinking tea and eating liver kebap with the whole city the rest of the year, and Hemre currently works in a jewelry shop. They are adorable, fun, and know everybody in the city. The first evening, we got offers to play in a kurdish movie, popped into a traditional wedding, and had our first dinner with the family that I am staying with now.
Going around Urfa with Memmet is a unique experience, he greets everybody, from the garbage man to the begger and the city's best restaurant's manager. On the bazar, we are offered tea and other things in every corner. In the carpet department, after 1 hour of tea and discussions, I get the cheapest of all possible prices for some 60 years old carpets. They are a little heavy, but good souvenirs to take back home...Soon, after working for a few days in a tea house to pay for my carpets, and maybe playing in that kurdish movie... I will go to Adana and then Ankara to see my lovely Sıla!