Turkey: Antalya

June 9-12, 2010

Antalya is located on Turkey's Mediterranean south coast on the Bay of Antalya. There are mountains behind the city which has a coastline of both beaches and high cliffs. It is a ancient city dating back to 300 BC, but the Greeks and Romans of that era would could never have imagined the explosive growth the city has had to become a major international resort. Since 2000 the population has grown from 600,000 to 1,100,000 with no signs of a let up. The population grows to over 2,000,000 during the summer tourist season. This city which we visited in 2001 is almost unrecognisable to us today. This is the city of Gulden Alp, the exchange student we have come to see get married.

In many ways, Antalya reminds me of Cancun, Mexico, with hotels massed along the shoreline; instead of Americans inhabiting the resorts, it is Russians. They come by the thousands for all-inclusive vacations in the sun. The women are thin, almost anorexic, in their thong bathing suits. There is somewhat of a love-hate relationship, with the Turks taking their money and the Russian women wanting the Turkish men to marry, or so the Turkish single ladies think. It is a wonderful place to visit with historical sites everywhere, shops galore, McDonald's, Starbucks, expressway built through the center of town. What is missing is the Turkey we remembered during our last visit. We could find only one place that served home-made Turkish food.

Our hotel, the Adonis, was new, complete with Greek Gods and Goddesses. Built on the cliff's of Antalya, stairs/elevator took you down to the sea and into a different setting. The nice thing about a Muslim country is you don't have to contend with drunken vacationers. Certainly alcohol is available, but not emphasized. Mostly everyone was polite and well behaved, although you would have to get up very early to grab a deck chair.

View from our Adonis Hotel Balcony.

One of the many tour boats cruising the beautiful cliffs.

Russian ladies doing water aerobics.

Poolside lit at night.

Turkey: Cappadocia

June 13-15, 2010

Mary and Friends

About Cappadocia(Kapadokya)

No matter how you spell or say it, Cappadocia is a huge area of central Turkey. It reminds me of the Dakotas with its high, dry plains and badlands. Today Cappadocia refers more to the region around the city of Nevsehir. It is a popular tourist area, especially for those interested in early Christianity. Most of the tourists tend to be Germans, Spanish, English, and French.

Geologically this area was covered by deep layers of compressed volcanic ash. This ash can easily be dug out to form rooms, tunnels, and indeed entire underground cities. Early Christians sought refude here to avoid Roman persecution before the Byzantine Emperor, Constance, sanctioned Christianity in 313AD. The monastic movement and consolidation of Christian theology by St Basil, also took place in this area. Turks still live in these carved out rooms, despite the governmental efforts to remove them.

Getting there:

Our generous Antalya hosts provided us with a van and driver. This was a wonderful chance the interior of Turkey and to eat some great grilled food at a roadside stop. About halfway we passed through the city of Konya. All was fine except for what we thought was a four hour drive, turned into a nine hour drive, and a late night arrival into unknown territory. As Turkish hosptality would have it, some local residents drove ahead, leading to our hotel.

High mountains separate the coast from interior plainsView from our hotel in the Cappadocian town of Ergup.

Fairy Chimneys:

The area is marked by many geological oddities caused by the differential erosion of soft volcanic ash and harder rock. The most obvious are Fairy Chimneys where a harder stone on top remains perched as the underlying softer rock is eroded away. Of course over time, the erosion does cause the top rock to fall off leaving a cone shaped structure without its "cap".

Cappadocia today:
For protection, houses originally could not be seen. Erosion has worn away the walls of many to reveal the rooms inside. Modern houses and hotels are now carved into the rock where early Christians once lived.

Town of Uçhisar dominated by a high fortress rock with people living

in hillside hotels and rock homes in the foreground.View from top of Uçhisar fortressAnother view from Uçhisar fortress

Pigeon Valley, some homes have walls eroded, some not

Suburban Cappadocia

Adriana and Mary at site of old monastery with many walls eroded

Underground Cities:

Just how many underground cities existed is unknown. Many were thought to be interconnected by underground tunnels. The steps taken to insure residents from being undetected and surviving for long times without revealing themselves at the surface demonstrates their genius and ingenuity.

A living area
Tunnels, passages, labyrinths everywhere

What's in Your Luggage?

6/15/10

Goodbye old friend

Travel entails risks. We all are aware of that, but the risks we actually encounter may not be the ones we spend billions to reduce. The resources devoted to examining luggage is extraordinary. There are thousands of denials of any unknown persons touching our luggage, inspectors, stickers, waiting lines, x-ray and imagining machines, dogs, and who knows what else all designed to detect contraband. Yet we have little knowledge of what happens to our luggage once its disappears on that conveyor belt into the black hole of securityville. What is vomited up at your destination may not be what went in at your departure.

On a trip to Africa, Mary found a different pair of shoes in her luggage. She was very concerned about the woman who owned the shoes, until she realized her shoes were also missing. Wrong size of course, too small to be of any use. We laughed about the games being played behind the scenes by luggage inspectors with other people's clothes .

On this trip to Turkey, Mary opened her luggage to find a filthy woman's camisole and underpants, probably used to clean the floor or whatever. A couple of days later, she discovered her cell phone was missing.

We drew the only logical explaination to these international travel events. Mary's luggage was cursed. So we did what any other rational person would do, we threw it in the garbage.

Samoan Update

6/12/10

Peace Corps, Jim Metz and Spencer Narron, organizing a village program

Simple tools, like a rare bathroom scale and weight chart,
make for an effective demonstration

The Samoan Peace Corps Volunteers who followed Mary and I and who are finishing their stay within the next few months have exceeded anything I could have ever hoped to achieve in attacking the severe problems of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. They have gotten funds and are currently putting on programs with the Department of Health in several villages on Savaii, complete with screening, and educational programs on reducing the incidence of these diseases. They even have a skit where Samoans are asked to put on a costume with 20 pounds of rice sewn it to demonstrate how being overweight taxes the body!

Since all new Peace Corps to Samoa are teachers, they too receive training in implementing health programs at the village level, outside of their normal teaching duties. This presents a new and very challenging opportunity for Peace Corps to expand it's reach to a wider population.

A blog has also been established to provide wider exposure to their efforts.
http://www.thehealthcrusades.blogspot.com/

Off to a Turkish Wedding

6/5/10 Blue Mosque in Istanbul

Mary and I off to Istanbul, Turkey tonight to join up with our Venezuelan exchange student, Adriana Hernadez-Moron to move on to Antalya, Turkey and the wedding of Gulden Alp, our common exchange student friend.

Mary, Gulden, and I in Turkey (2001)Adriana and Gulden at our house in Edina (December 2006)

Samoa Wins World Series

6/4/10

There is the American World Series in which a game little known by the rest of world, but is a big deal here. Then there is a World Series for a game more commonly played played in other parts of the world, but hardly known here. It is called rugby and Samoa just won the Sevens World Series Championship in Scotland. For a country with about 170,000 people, it is as big deal.

My village of Iva's under 21 years of age Rugby Team

Almost every boy in Samoa dreams of making the national team. After school you see barefooted children playing rugby with and without an actual rugby ball. Rugby is a tough and serious sport. For those who have never seen a rugby match before, it is a Olympic sport for 2012. It may be a chance for Samoa's ;ight to shine even brighter.

The Saga of Certicates of Service, Continued

3/6/10

Upon cleaning house, Mary discovered she had received a Certificate of Service along with a nice letter from President George W. Bush.

Meanwhile I got the following email:

"Dear Nick,

Pardon my delay in responding, I have been out of the office several times on leave and am catching up with several weeks worth of emails. Please note that I will be mailing the Certificates of Service at the end of June. Your certificate should arrive around the first week of July with consideration of the July 4th holiday.

Due to the temporary closure of a couple of Peace Corps countries in 2009 from civil unrest, we had to issue more Director Tschetter/President Bush COS certificates then we anticipated to those who choose to COS early as oppose to reassignment. As a result, we ran out of these certificates to fulfill the December 2008 quarter mailings. In anticipation of a new President and politically appointed director of the Peace Corps, our Director’s Office made the decision to wait for our new appointed director under the Obama administration to order the new certificates in bulk. Moreover, we were waiting for clearance from the White House to get approval for the new certificates with President Obama’s signature.

This long process for approval was finally granted two months ago. We have received two complaints of the 4,050 RPCVs we will send the certificates to who COSed from December 1, 2008 until May 31, 2010. Please rest assured that we take great pride in the service of our Volunteers. We made the decision to delay the certificate mailings so that they are consistent with past certificates with both the Peace Corps Director’s and the President’s signatures. We hope you understand and will enjoy your certificate when it arrives in July.

If you have further questions Nick, please feel free to call me at 202-692-1462.

All the best,Vivian Vivian Nguyên • Program Specialist • Third Goal & Peace Corps WeekPeace Corps 1111 20th St. NW Washington, DC 20526 202.692.1462 Peace Corps Volunteer, Niger, 2003-2005 "