I Used to JUST be a Secretary

I feel the need to share with you the conversations I've had over the past 30 minutes.  Yes, all of these things can transpire in only 30 minutes.  It really is possible.

A half an hour or so ago my neighbor's left my apartment.  They had come up to see if I could help with English.  It's complicated.  I'm considering it.  She is my oldest friend in Ankara.  Our first conversations were very deep and involved.  We used kids picture books about animals.  When I say kids, I mean her 1 1/2 year old daughter.  Now, thankfully, we can talk about a teeny bit more than just animals from the zoo.  (Just in case you were wondering, I have been to the Ankara zoo and it does indeed include sled dogs.  I never thought they would be considered exotic.)  She is working to complete her doctorate in architecture here in Ankara.  Her husband recently completed his doctorate in chemistry at a university out east.  In 7 years of marriage, they've lived together 8 months.  He's in town for the next two weeks and needs seriously help with his conversational English.  So they asked their nearest and dearest friendly English teacher if I would mind coming down for conversational English lessons a few times a week (of course, only when my friend is also home...along with her now 5 year old daughter).  Like I said, I'm considering it.

They left.  Then my old language helper called in response to a message I had just sent her.  The message wasn't that complex - a couple of things popped up and I can't hang out this weekend, can we do something next week instead.  Her end of the conversation included the fact that she thinks its freezing outside.  She's an interesting one, and I don't say that just because she thinks that 66 F is freezing.  She's an actress.  And there you have it.

Then I decided that it would be good to call my friend who had just come home from Brazil.  Short conversation due to her current rate of consumption.  I wonder if she'll remember that I called.

As soon as we hung up, my phone rang.  I have a friend from Ankara who is studying both in Konya and in Bozeman (you may now start up a chorus of "It's a Small World).  She arrived in Bozeman sometime last weekend, I think.  No, it wasn't she who called.  It was her dad.  Catherine's phone service.  In order to the States you need to put two zeros before the 1.  I thought we had it all worked out and then he called again.  Unfortunately his plan doesn't allow for international phone calls.  Mine does (and they're CHEAP!).  So of course, being the dutiful pseudo-daughter, I made the call.  Got her voice mail and left a message.  Then there was the return call to explain the voice mail, a phone feature that is not widely used in Turkey.  By not widely used I mean almost never.  I'm not sure if he's now sure what happened.  Oh, well.  What can you do.

I think I might turn my phone off before I go to bed.  You never know who might call at 10:30 at night.  Like the guy responding to an add for a language helper. (If you are wondering, I don't speak the best Turkish when I've been woken up out of a deep sleep, I don't understand everything that is said to me, and I can be inadvertently rude.  Fortunately for the couple who needed a language helper, the guy did call back and he just might work out.)  Fourteen years ago when I started working in the clerical field, I never thought it would lead to all of this.  My life is nothing if not interesting.

Thankful for Ramazan and Iftar

Last night I went out to friends' for supper.  I've known this family for quite some time.  I think I met them when I'd been here about nine months.  They've welcomed me into their home and into their lives.  And...well...even that gets a bit complicated.

This is a religious family.  Yes, making the distinction is important, even here.  Not everyone here is religious in the same way that America is not truly 76% Christian.  Oh, some make the yearly trek to church at Christmas and Easter.  Here there are those who take part in this or that aspect of their religion.  Some even consider them both Mm and atheist at the same time.  Their Mm-ness has more to do with their national identity than with true faith of any kind.

This family is not of that ilk.  They are in pursuit of righteousness as spelled out by their book.  It is a righteousness of good works, of scales that weigh out good and bad deeds.  It is a righteousness that hopes that one day the good that they've done will be taken into account rather than the bad that they've done.

Last night we sat at the table until the call to prayer was heard.  Then, and only then, could the meal be started.  First personal prayers were offered.  Then the water.  Then the food.  I attempted to make conversation over the meal like we have done in times past.  Oh, I forgot.  This is a meal to break a 17 hour complete fast.  No water, no food, if you take it to it's extreme then there is also no saliva (a junior high boy's dream - spit all you want!).  Food is the main point of the meal.

Just before the call to prayer was heard, my friend's husband asked me if we had a fast like this.  Like this?  No.  We have nothing like it.  We do fast, but not to earn favor with God.  We fast in combination with prayer, but it is free.  We are not commanded to fast for a certain time and in a certain way.

But how long must you fast?  There is not a prescribed time.  Oh that more had come to my mind at that moment.  More about who the God is that we are serving, that we are loving when we fast.  More about what it takes to please Him.  More about how our works do not please Him without the sacrificial blood of His Son split on our behalf.

The words come now.  They've been said in other ways, in other conversations.  I think about them today.  Is it because I am actually chasing after my own self righteousness that I didn't say them again to my friend?  Yes, I am covered by the blood.  My works are nothing.  But I so easily forget.

So in a way I am thankful for these thirty days of fasting.  I'm thankful for the daily reminder that it is finished, that there is no need to chase after my own righteousness any longer, that I am now counted righteous because of Someone Else's perfect righteousness.

Another reason to give thanks that I live and serve in this country.