School Time Again

A Private School in Ankara - claimed to have a high rate of students getting high scores on the university entrance exam.



School here has been in session for a while now. Of course, school in America has been in session for even longer. The past two years the start of school has been delayed by the three day holiday following Ramazan. Maybe next year school will start at its normal time and I'll find out when the normal time actually is!
Everyday I see students in their uniforms heading from home to school, waiting for the school service (we don't have school buses here - if the school is a long ways away students either are driven by their parents, take a bus, or their family pays for a service vehicle to transport them to and from school), or possibly even playing hooky. In the evenings students often head from school to their after school school. No, that was not a typo. After school many students head straight back to school where they sit through classes to help them score high points on...The Test. Oh yes, The Test. We have a test for everything. The Test in one form or another determines where you will go to high school, where you will go to university, what subject you will study in university and whether or not you will be able to work for the government. "Everything wants a test," my friends are often heard to be said.
To ensure that their children succeed on The Test and thus in life, parents will sometimes send them to private schools where the normal day school and the night school are combined into one package.
Kids are still kids. They play football on the street, they wander around downtown together, they laugh on the bus. But they feel the pressure. They know that their lives are determined by The Test. Part of this is fed by the fatalism and the works mentality of the local belief system. Oh the joy we can have, knowing that we do not need to pass a test, that one has already gone before us and passed the most important test on our behalf!

Sağlıklı Olsun

Recently I've had the chance to learn what it's like to be ill in a country that values health, possibly higher than my home country views health. Sağlıklı olsun - may it be healthy. I've heard this statement time and time again when asking friends about babies and children. It'll all be fine so long as everyone is healthy. Earlier today I think my neighbor told me sağlıklı kal - stay healthy. A very interesting comment as I was calling her to tell her about the results of some recent labs that came out not exactly healthy!
This same neighbor worries about my health probably more than my parents do. When I first started having symptoms of an old disease, she wanted to know why I was going to the hospital, what tests I was getting done, if I was happy with my doctor, etc. I explained to her briefly that I didn't want to be on a certain pill any longer because my mom had cancer and this pill increases the risk of cancer. Her response was to tell me that she didn't like all this negative talk coming out of my mouth. In her mind, and in many of the minds surrounding me, if you talk about ill health in this way you're tempting fate. If you just think positively...
It all comes down to one thing. My neighbor (and almost every other person around me) has no real hope in the life to come. This particular neighbor happens to believe that there is no afterlife. The rest of my friends believe in an after-life, but they have no assurance as to whether or not theirs will be pleasant or torturous. So health at all costs. I'm back to square one again - bad test results and not a whole lot of answers but a whole lot of possible labs in my near future (for those who are wondering, I'm not dying but my endocrine system is once again not functioning properly). The difference between my neighbor and I is simple. My hope is not in my health, but truly in the life to come and in the One Who has promised me this life. So next week when my neighbor comes back to town I want to try again to explain why I'm not afraid of being ill. All prayers welcome.