Deutschland?
After our regular morning routine at the beach, we packed up and head out to charge our phones. At this point, you might be saying, “guys get an external battery.” We started to say the same thing. We saw a guyscafé and decided to stop. No kahve but there was tea (çay var). Not all small cafés have coffee, in fact most don’t. We enjoyed a cup of tea and chatted with the guys. One man asked us if we were German. Selim’s turn to speak German! Turns out this guy, like so many Turkish people, summers in Turkey but lives in Germany. We showed him our bikes and he showed us photos of his motorcycle. He said he’s seventy-something but his motorcycle makes him feel like he’s in his twenties. In case you were wondering, I have made enormous progress in German. I can count to three: einz, vay, dri (spelling incorrect) and say “meine auntie lebt in Lubeck” because Selim always says that sentence. I have an incorrect impression that I can understand German. I’m not sure if that’s because I just read people’s body language, if Selim throws in a lot of English words, or if I have memorized the conversation Selim tends to have with people when he meets German-speaking Turkish people. I think all three.
My Favorite Thing About Turkey: The Çeşme (fountain)
As we ride, we are constantly stopping at fountains to fill up our bottles. We each have one that fits in our bike’s bottle cage and I have a second 1-liter Nalgene bottle. It’s not a lot of capacity at all and something I’d definitely do differently in the future. Here in Turkey and on the types of paths we were taking, it’s no problem because there are frequent public fountains. Usually, they have been built privately to commemorate the death of a loved one. They have signs on top to indicate this usually saying the name of the deceased and asking those who drink the water to read the Fatiha for that person. Sometimes, they also have a cup either on top or attached with a chain for folks to use and share. We have our water bottles so no need to use those. In the US, I’ve never seen a water fountain dedicated to someone. It’s usually a park bench or perhaps a stone with an engraving that is part of the path to a public park.
Giving Water is the Best Charity
So here, why so many commemorative fountains? From what I could gather from Selim and the internet, Allah speaks highly of giving water to the thirsty in the Quoran. It is supposed to be one of the best, if not the best form of charity for Muslims. If someone gives to charity or if money is given to charity on their behalf (for example, building a fountain after they die), each good deed that results from that charity counts towards the “points” that person has. As I understand it, Islam is like Christianity and there are good deeds and bad deeds. The more good deeds or “points” as Selim explains it, the better. There are 7 layers or levels of Paradise/Heaven in Islam so the more points, the better your afterlife will be. I was a bit surprised to learn this as I believe for Catholics, we only have one heaven and one hell. There aren’t levels. So it’s a bit different. How else might you get points? Picking up stones so that no one falls on them and gets hurt is one way. One time, we saw a man carrying heavy stones on the beach for a good 15 minutes. I thought maybe he was constructing a small wall to protect his towel from getting wet but Selim explained he might be collecting points. Interesting!
Reading Al-Fatiha
Back to the fountains. So people construct fountains for loved ones because even after you die, you can still collect more points in specific ways. I’m not so clear on what happens in the afterlife in regards to additional points and couldn’t find an answer online, so please explain if you know. Selim thinks its probable that you get promoted to the next layer/level in Paradise. One more thing about commemorative fountains from a religious perspective, it often has an engraving that tells the recipient to read Al-Fatiha in the deceased person’s name. Al-Fatiha is the first chapter of the Quoran. The family who writes this believes that reading the Quoran for the deceased can give them more points. This is disputed in Islam, some believe you should do it and some disagree.
Wudu
Aside from the water fountains available for the public, there are also fountains outside of mosques but within the fenced-off mosque grounds. The fountains are used for wudu. The equivalent of wudu in Christianity is ablution. But it is much more regular and involved than I’ve seen in Catholic practices at least. Wudu has 10+ steps and requires rinsing or washing many different parts of your body. Folks do this before they make close contact with Allah. It’s fairly acceptable for Selim to use the wudu fountain (medha in Tunisan) to wash but ideally, he should be wearing pants that cover his knees. I rarely see women using these to wash. Selim says that usually women wash at home in Tunisia. It’s not so acceptable for me to use it especially if I don’t have my body and head covered. Though the most sacred part is inside the mosque where folks are praying, that is a definite no without the proper covering. I actually have still never been in a mosque. Sometimes there are showers in the courtyard part of the mosque. In Islam, there are different kinds of wudu…big and small. You have to take a shower/ do the big wudu for certain reasons which is why you might see showers at mosques. Again, these are mostly used by men. Along with the fountains, there are often restrooms for both bayan (women) and bay (men).
Play time
Aside from the fountains, we have also come to really appreciate public parks here. On this day in particular, we spent time in two different parks. In the first, we made a cat friend who enjoyed sleeping on our bellies. In this second, we made friends with two-year old twins. Well, they made us their friends. We were lounging when the braver of the two approached us out of curiosity. We waved and made faces and that’s when he got a genius idea. To bring us all of his toys. All seven of his transformer action figures. He piled them up in his arms, ran towards us, and flung them at me. It wasn’t subtle. It was play time and he had picked the game. I immediately recognized that he wanted me to play “fight” with the actions. This is when I learned how Selim played as a child. He took the action figure and started to pretend tickle the boy and make his action figure skip or something that was definitely not fighting. He would later explain that the boys reminded him of his cousins who were so loud and busy. So much so that he would ask his aunt when they were leaving when they came to visit. It was actually really nice for me playing with two-year-olds because they weren’t speaking yet anyway so there was no language barrier.
Is it nice to laugh when someone falls?
After our day of cycling, we stopped in town. Of note, we bought an external battery which we quickly learned did not work so well. We met some folks who worked at a doner shop. As we were talking with them, one guy was leaning back in his chair and fell. I was distraught, serious, and asked him if he was okay. Everyone else was laughing hysterically. Later that night, a bit disturbed, I asked Selim why he was laughing because he didn’t know if the guy had gotten hurt. He said that in Tunisia and maybe the same in Turkey, he was taught to laugh if someone does something embarrassing so that it’s understood that it’s no big deal and it happens to everyone. I feel like I learned the exact opposite in school. If someone fell and kids laughed, they got scolded. So anyway, seems to be a bit of a cultural difference. I don’t think it will be easy for me to start laughing if someone falls but now I understand the thought behind his behavior.
These guys work at the doner shop as delivery drivers and cashiers. The man who shaves the doner isn’t in the picture as he is just on the other side of the window working hard in the heat of the kitchen. He is from Hatay region and speaks Arabic so him and Selim had an easy chat. The guy in the dark green shirt spoke English super well so acted as a translator for the other guys.
Time for Sleep
We got a late start on finding a campsite because we were chatting. It was dark and we pulled up to a busy public park with lots of families grilling and picnicking. Selim agreed to stay there. I asked the man selling corn in a cup from a stand (think icecream man just corn) if we could camp there. He looked like he spent a lot of time just sitting there, watching people and happenings. He said the beach was fine but probably not the area with all the picnic tables which was more convenient. I found a dark section of the park overlooking the sea as the beach was down a very steep set of cement stairs and not easily accessible with bikes. Selim cooked us dinner and I set up the tent. Dinner, wash, sleep. Until tomorrow!
