I have made it home for another Christmas with my family, my second Christmas home since I have left for Istanbul. There are many things to be excited about. I have a new nephew, Luke, now one month old, to meet. I have another nephew , Blake, who recently turned one and is just a bundle of happy energy. And of course I have my opinionated little niece Emma, two and a half going on thirteen, who I hear story after story about. My younger brother Dave has also gotten up and moved to San Diego since I last saw him. This will be my first time seeing him since this move. To top it off, Chicago has been blanketed with a thick layer of snow, making it a beautiful white Christmas.
Life leading up to this has been busy, as always, but good. After sending my parents off in October, I got back to work. During the Thanksgiving holiday, Joe and I chaperoned a group of 11 kids to Munich. It was a wonderful escape from Turkey. I always feel closer to home when I leave Istanbul and go to Europe (I know you could say Istanbul is in Europe, but the feel is so different). Trains leave on time. People wait in lines. They clean up after themselves. They recycle. The students stayed with host families, making the chaperoning job very easy. We went to school (a school just outside of Munich) in the mornings, then left and toured around Munich in the afternoons. After sending off the kids in the evening with their hosts, we were able to go back to Munich and check out the many Christmas Markets. We took one full day to head up to Regensburg, a medieval town so well-preserved it is a UNESCO site. We toured around the town. Joe had attended school here and we actually saw where he lived as he picked up all his German. The trip came to an end too quickly. Before leaving, we loaded our bags with Advent calendars, chocolate Santas, and marzipan.
Back in Istanbul, athletics has been a big part of my busy life. The running group was training twice a week for the November 17 fifteen kilometer race (9 miles). Now, I had not exactly been easy on these girls during training. I see athletics and especially girls' athletics much further behind in Turkey. With this running club, I wanted to push these girls past their comfort zone so they could see how much they were capable of. This means, I often was on them to continue running. Girls who would take frequent water breaks or stop to catch their breath were reminded by me with a stern yell that "this isn't a walking club!" or more directly "run!!!" I found girls always looking over their shoulder to see if I was there, and a few resisted ("you're going to give us a heart attack!"), and a few girls dropped out, but most remained and really did push themselves. When the 15k date came, fifteen of them showed up and ran the entire 15k. It was so evident how important this experience was for these girls. They were absolutely glowing after the race, eager to know when the next race was. Although the club stopped for the winter, some have continued to meet on our regular days and run together. The sight of girls running around campus, what was once a nonexistent sight, is now common. Due to this enthusiasm, a few other teachers and I organized another race in April. We had an interest meeting, opening it now to boys as well since they wanted to join to, and over 80 students showed up! It looks like we have started something new at Robert College.
Basketball is my other happy time. The girls team is young, but enthusiastic. As I said, girls' sports here are a little behind than sports in the States. My girls would seem more like a middle school beginner team than a high school team. There are many basics that need to be taught. Much credit has to be given to my group of girls. They are not only learning a new sport, but doing it in a different language. Often on our travels, my assistant and I are the only foreigners. This gives the girls another challenge. They are not only interpreting everything I say, but translating what is being said between the coaches, refs, and me. Although it is easy for me to focus on the challenges I encounter speaking a foreign language and coming from a different culture, these girls have just as much if not more of a challenge, needing to translate constantly as well as understand their coach who is not only speaking a second language, but also coming from a different culture.
This language and cultural challenge was highlighted at our last game. We arrived at our game quite early (you just never know or understand traffic in Istanbul). The girls got changed, then we spent some time shooting around before our game. Before the start of the game, we headed back to the locker room only to realize we had been robbed. Wallets and iPhones had been taken from all the girls. I went out with a few of my girls to find those in charge at this rec center. The security officer was able to find this guy on the cameras, and many people were able to identify him. That being said, no one knew who this guy was. Now, as I am telling you this story, you can remember my position in this. The security guard is looking at video with many huddled around him. A few of my girls are in here, talking very quickly. Refs from the game have entered and are talking to them and adding their own pieces of advice. Meanwhile, I am standing in the middle of this room and NOT UNDERSTANDING A SINGLE WORD. So everything I say was said is what I ASSUMED was said. At this point in time, I cannot ask my distressed kids to translate for me. Finally, after about 10 minutes of this chaos, I chime in. "Has anyone called the police?" For talking in a foreign language, many people understood me. The security guard considered it, then nodded his head, picked up the phone, looked at the phone book (they don't have 911 like we do), and called someone I assumed was the police. I leave that room and go to find the rest of my kids. Many are now spread out on the court on their laptops (which were not taken) locating their iphones on the iCloud. Some kids located their devices and reported it to those in the security room, who decided they knew where this was and were going to go recover it themselves (still no police sighting...I never did see any police). Before I knew it, they with a couple of my kids were walking out the door to go to the said street to recover their things. I was shocked. By this time, I had discovered one ref spoke English, and told her firmly that my kids were not going anywhere unless it was the police station. Since we had not yet played our game, I asked the officials (translated by one of my kids, of course) if we could postpone it (it was an official Turkish game), but told we could only forfeit. For what my girls had gone through and how little they knew about it, they responded wonderfully. They decided to play, sucked it up, and played tremendously although they came up a few points short. As soon as the final bell went off, the tears started flowing again. By this time, a security official from Robert College had showed up and taken over. He promised me they were doing everything, to my frustration, giving very little detail. As an American, I wanted to know exactly what was happening. As a good Turk, he was reassuring me that everything was getting taken care of. We left that place. None of my girls or I had seen a single police officer nor knew what was happening.
I am right now on a one-year contract, needing to make my official decision shortly after I get back. As you can probably understand from this story, there are many frustrating parts of life here that I am ready to leave. Add into the equation my young niece and nephews, coming back State-side is very tempting. On the other side of the coin, there are some truly remarkable students and teachers here I would really miss. I have also been able to travel to some amazing places thanks to this job. I have traveled all over Turkey, to Egypt, Jordan, Crete, Athens, Amsterdam with Sicily and Pompeii up soon.
