Siir - Bogazin Kiyisinda

Boğazın Kıyısında
Güverteden atılacak
bir parça simidi yiyebilmek için,
durmadan uçar martılar
sefer yapan vapurların peşinde.

Cami avlusundaki güvercinler ise
doyurulmayı bekler
yemci adamın gişesinde.

Ödenince parası bir kap buğdayın
kalkar açlığın önündeki çelik çubuk,
bilet ücreti alınınca verilen
boğaz köprüsünden geçiş izni gibi.

Vapurdan atılan simit parçasını
bir kez olsun ağzına almamış
prensip sahibi bir martı,
tüm bunları
Galata Kulesi’nden izler.
Ve kaçmaz gözlerinden
sırtını iskeleye vermiş yaşlı lastikler.

Onlar ki şehirlerarası yollarda geçen
eski günlerini yadederek
yüreklerini titreten klakson sesleri arasında
seyrederler suya düşen akislerini.

Ve örtünce anılarını
yaklaşan bir vapur gölgesi,
elele tutuşup göğüs gererler
ezilmemek için hayata.

Ve o anda
bayrak yarışı misali
bir vapur açılır sulara,
bir martı kanadında
selam götürebilmek için
iskelenin çiçekçi kızından
karşı kıyıdaki simitçi çocuğa.

Hasan Saim Özturhan

Bogazin Kiyisinda

Farkindayim. Son yazilar hep Ingilizce. Blog ismi Turkce. Nasil bir varolusa imza atiyorum belirsiz:) O Ingilizce yazilari yazarken bu blogun ismini de degistireyim, olmaz boyle dedigimi hatirliyorum. Ve fakat, 3 dakika once neden bu ismi koydugumu farkettim, degistirmeyecegim. Pek cok insan icin boyle midir bilmem ama ben okudugum okullarin kisiligimde soz sahibi olduklarinin farkindayim. Sikayetim yok. Sahip oldugum bir elin parmaklarini gecmeyecek sayidaki dostlarim bana hep okudugum okullarin armagani. Dogru bildigin yolda inatla yurumek ve bir seyleri degistirebilmek icin caba sarfetmek (tesekkurler Ibrahim Yucel), gurur, basariyi tasima, basarisizliga katlanma, bagira bagira yanlis yapmaktan korkmadan sarki soyleyebilme, ulkeyi sevmenin farkli yollari oldugunu ogrenerek kendi yolunda ilerleme, Turkce’yi dogru kullanmak, kendi diline ozen gostermek, okul hayatinin ders calismaktan ayri bambaska bir hayat oldugunu anlamak ve secimler yapmak. Fakultemin icine girildiginde tam karsiniza bir duvar buyuklugunde pano cikar. Uzerindeki kabartma cok akilda kalici degildir ama altinda yazan soz benim aklimda kaldigi gibi su gunlerde herkesin aklina kazinmalidir: “Gercekleri soylemekten korkmayiniz.” Neyse… Dedim ya, yaklasik 3 dakika once (simdi tabii 5 dakikaya cikti ben satirlari yazarken) farkettim Bogazin Kiyisinda’nin ne demek oldugunu. Buyumenin verdigi sancilarla huzursuz, okul bahcesinde sisli bir sabahta ayaklari suya sallandirdigimiz, ses verdigimizde sanki bizden baska kimse yokmuscasina kendi sesimizin bize geri dondugu, karsi kiyiyi goremedigimiz ve kendimizi her seyden korunakli oldugumuzu hissettigimiz zamanlar. Bogazin kiyisinda oldugumuz sacma sohbetlerimize kimbilir neleri konu ettigimiz, hatirladikca hala guldugumuz anlar.

Madrid - The Best Stopover

After our decision about honeymoon destination was made up, I went to a travel agent. In the end, I didn’t work with them but she gave me a great idea. “Havana is long way away, it might me a good idea to stopover somewhere on the way there, like Madrid.” Now, that is new but I am sure we enjoy the break after wedding.” So we did, for 2 days. Madrid was hot, interesting and so much fun. We stayed in a hotel that my brother stayed before and liked it. It was a nice hotel indeed, a city hotel.. Central, clean and fit-to-purpose but no one mentioned 2 double separate bed in the room for honeymoon couple. We just couldn’t make up our minds in between get annoyed or laugh!! We pushed the beds together and slept just like that after we asked for another room and got a response as “your room is much better than the other one that we can give to you” When we arrived to Madrid, we were feeling very tired. The wedding drained us. We had fun, we helped people to have fun and a good time in Istanbul. All those came back to us “being tired” So we walked around the streets first day, explored places, went to Museo de Jamon, ate delicious ham and drank the tastiest Fanta ever. Please don’t ask me how or why. It was cold, it was orangey, it was served in a nice glass and it was simple. Once we were back in the game, we sat near a hotel on one of the busiest streets of Madrid. Of course to drink Sangria. I -couldn’t kill the tourist bug in me- was determined to walk around more and more, came to myself when Chris told me that we are on our honeymoon and don’t need to rush into anything. We didn’t have to go anywhere; we just have a chance to be just wherever we want to be. There was one more thing about going to Cuba (Spain too) on our honeymoon. I was decisive that I wouldn’t leave Cuba without smoking cigars. Now, people who know me, they also know that I hate smoking. So, it was maybe strange why I was so keen on smoking cigars. I just was.. I thought cigar is a symbol for Cuba and you have to try it. Actually, I tried a lot. I started to try!!! in Madrid when Chris got Cohiba cigarillos. They were thin and small but was a good start for a non-smoker. Later on Cohiba became my favourite. We have got several sizes and brands from Cuba. When we were ready to leave the country, it was exciting. Because we were going to go through US and didn’t know if they would care about us having Cuban cigars in our bags or not. We spreaded them out in our luggages and hoped for not losing them on US Customs. We did not!! I smoked Cubans long after our honeymoon and stopped when I got pregnant. I didn’t go back to them. Madrid was a fantastic start for our honeymoon.

A Long Break

It has been a bit less than 3 years that I didn’t work. At the beginning, I was OK with it. I went to Turkey, waited for my niece’s arrival to our world, spent 8 months of her life with her and prepared our wedding. Wedding preparation was a challenge. I didn’t have Chris with me. We were going to get married in Istanbul and needed lots of paperwork to be made, translated into English and submitted. Also, we had more than 50 guests invited from overseas. (30 of them ended up coming to the wedding) I had to arrange list of hotels from different price range, negotiate their prices with their marketing managers, passing the info to our guests and once they decided where they want to stay, make their bookings. It turned out pretty well. Most of them wanted to stay in the same hotel (guess what? A hotel that I didn’t find!!!) and others found their own hotel. Himm, thanks for the effort Zeynep!! I still think that it was a fantastic idea for them to stay in the same hotel or in the same region as they partied all the way and enjoyed Istanbul, shopping etc. I was so happy when peopled liked to be in my city! Ok, I admit. It was a challenge but I liked to be challenged and I (with help of parents and fiancé) managed it pretty well. I might have skipped one thing though, seat booking for our honeymoon flights) I need to tell you about that in another post. Really!! Our wedding was great. At least for me. Most people think that weddings are time and money consuming rituals which doesn’t contain entertainment for the couple themselves but for the quests. (I had so much fun and Chris maybe wouldn’t admit but he had too.) I don’t think so. I believe a wedding is not just a dinner or dance in one night but it is a process. In order to prepare and organize a wedding, there are several steps. Those steps make you closer with your family, with your fiancé and make you understand the limits of your relationships. I believe the discussions, arguments or agreements between fiancés, families keep you stronger. How many times in your life that you go out with your mother and pick a special dress with special meaning and go through fittings and have fun? After that, to see the happiness when you want to have a piece of her bridal lace to fulfill “something old” at your wedding? or you go and pick the groom outfit with him, see him incredibly handsome and think “he is doing this for me.” I like traditions. They help me to feel connected. As a person, if you have that feeling you cannot be lost in this big world. Our wedding was fun, modern in many ways but also it was part of a tradition. We shared our happiness with our families and friends. Thanks to everyone who helped us to do that.

Métisse

It is a restaurant in Lagos. Fusion!! That’s what its name means in French as well, “mixture”. We had been there for lunch and loved the food. Well we’ve never been there with Joey.

This weekend, we were invited by our manager and his wife for lunch. They like it, we like it. So great choice! You’d think. However who would know that they don’t accept kids under the age of 13!!! We told them Joey is 13:), and that they shouldn’t be fooled by the pram she was travelling in. They didn’t seem to believe us so they put us outside to the terrace and we ate our lunch with the company of flies, bugs, spiders and the rain!! Even though the restaurant was empty when we got there, the manager told us there is a group of 20 people coming at 1pm. Well that is OK then. Ha ha, after our lunch we asked to our waiter, he told us the group is delayed till 3pm and the restaurant was empty during our lunch.

September 2012

EDIT: I've changed my initial article about Métisse. I wrote a bit with my emotions at the beginning but now I think that people need to respect some rules. There are places that you cannot go with your children and there are people who want to be away from children, eat their meals in peace and have their holidays in peace. I understand that. That is my non-mother times talk. Now as a mother, I experience such thing for the first time, I apparently didn't think it would happen. There has been nowhere that I couldn't enter in my life. I guess everything has a first time.

Honeymoon in Cuba

It was fantastic. Great time of our lives, great way of starting to married life… When people decide to get married, there are few things that they need to think about: Wedding, where to live and honeymoon destination. Well, we spent 10 minutes to think about our honeymoon destination! We were working in Indonesia, so had been to Bali and other islands several times. We didn’t want to be in Turkey or in Australia or in Europe and didn’t want to go on a hectic tourist routes, walking into museums, visiting “tourist-must-be-places”. We wanted to lay back, enjoy our drinks and swim!!! I said “I always wanted to go to Cuba before Fidel goes away” and Chris said “OK then.” That was it. I started to look into flights, places and dates. As you might know it is not that easy to go to Cuba. Lucky, we were going to be in Turkey, lucky Istanbul is close to Europe (himmm, it is Europe) and lucky Chris had “One World” frequent flyer program membership. Because one of my managers once mentioned that they have “Round the World” tickets. You don’t have to get return tickets, you start from one point make a round the world and come to the starting point. That sounded well. Another challenge, no one wanted to book our tickets. Every airline told me to go to another one for their sensible!!! reasons. Till British Airlines… The guy booked our flights for us starting from Jakarta. Then Hong Kong, London, Istanbul, Madrid, Havana. On the way back Havana, Cancun, LA, Hong Kong and Jakarta. We understood that I had to tell that guy to book our seats as well when we went to the lounge in Madrid and officer there told us that we cannot sit together on the plane. As you can imagine someone got grumpy!! The officer told me “Lady, I cannot do what you want. So, please stop asking me” First kindly, then sharply and then angrily. I had to stop. Thanks to the kind man on plane he went back and Chris came next to me. I called the BA guy and told him to arrange our seats for the remaining flights and make us sit together. He “generously” “for only one time, against their policy in BA” didn’t make me pay that service and arranged the seats. Then we arrived HAVANA.

Ayda Josephine

When we got offers to work in Lagos I was pregnant. My first reaction was “No, we cannot work there, what about our baby?” Well, obviously my opinion changed a lot afterwards so we are here… Working. However, I kept myself strong minded on one thing: Breastfeeding Jo... I wanted to breastfeed her for at least 6 months and Chris supported that wish all along as well as our company. It was decided I would start working in September. In the meantime, Jo can grow up older than 6 months and gets stronger, she can get used to the bottle and we can find a nanny in Lagos. I went to Turkey with Joey while Chris came to Lagos for his first rotation. It was so good for many people. I was enjoying Jo, Jo was enjoying summer in Turkey and her grandparents were enjoying Jo (or should I say Ayda from Turkish point of view?) After having 2 teeth in Turkey, cutting her from breast milk and going to bottle (with a lot of resistance) we came to Lagos. She has her nanny, Rose and is happy. If you think that we are talking about a baby who slept in 5 different houses in 5 months then you would understand how much I could be nervous. Luckily, we have a lovely girl who doesn’t give us hard time to cope with travelling and growing up at the same time (Bite your tongues!!)

Simdi Biliyorum.

Bir blog yazmaya karar verip basladigimda ne yazmak istedigimi ya da neden yazmak istedigimi bilmedigimi soylemstim. Yazabilecegim cok sey olmasina ragmen, kendimi bir blogger gibi hissetmiyordum. Simdi ne yazacagimi biliyorum. Lagos, Nijerya’daki hayatimiz, bulundugumuz tum diger yerler, insanlar ve bizi etkileyen seyler.. Bu dusunceler ve istekle hemen yazmaya basladim. Ne var ki benim hem Ingilizce hem Turkce yazmam kolay olmayacak. Once bir dilde yazip, yazdiklarimi sekle semale sokunca diger dilde yazacaklarim ister istemez ceviri haline geliyor. Halbuki hepimiz biliyoruz ki dillerin kendi ritimleri, notalari var ve bir dilde ifade etme hali oteki dile aynen cevrilemiyor. Gelgelim ilk hangi dilde yazmissam onu unutup ikinci dilde kendinden bagimsiz bir metin yazmak da zor. Bir anda kendimi tutuk tutuk hecelerken buluyorum. Turkceyle bir seyler anlatabilme yetim Ingilizceyle memkun olmuyor. Kafam karisik, bu konuda kendimi ozgur birakmaya karar verdim. Bu noktada Bedri Rahmi Eyuboglu imdadima yetissin madem oyle. ÜÇ DİL En azından üç dil bileceksin En azından üç dilde Ana avrat dümdüz gideceksin En azından üç dil bileceksin En azından üç dilde düşünüp rüya göreceksin En azından üç dil Birisi ana dilin Elin ayağın kadar senin Ana sütü gibi tatlı Ana sütü gibi bedava Nenniler, masallar, küfürler de caba Ötekiler yedi kat yabancı Her kelime arslan ağzında Her kelimeyi bir bir dişinle tırnağınla Kök sökercesine söküp çıkartacaksın Her kelimede bir tuğla boyu yükselecek Her kelime bir kat daha artacaksın En azından üç dil bileceksin En azından üç dilde Canımın içi demesini Canım ağzıma geldi demesini Kırmızı gülün alı var demesini Nerden ince ise ordan kopsun demesini Atın ölümü arpadan olsun demesini Keçiyi yardan uçuran bir tutam ottur demesini İnsanın insanı sömürmesi Rezilliğin dik alası demesini Ne demesi be Gümbür gümbür gümbürdemesini becereceksin En azından üç dil bileceksin En azından üç dilde Ana avrat dümdüz gideceksin En azından üç dil Çünkü sen ne tarih ne coğrafya Ne şu ne busun Oğlum Mernuş Sen otobüsü kaçırmış bir milletin çocuğusun.

Now, I know.

When I started my blog with one entry, I wrote that I didn’t know why I want to write a blog or what I’d write on it. Although, I had lots to write about, I didn’t feel like a blogger. Now, I know… Our life in Lagos, Nigeria and all other places, people, things touched our life. We arrived to Lagos on 21 August 2012. It was a very long journey from Melbourne, Australia. Our plane was Qatar Airways and we were on business class. Wasn’t that nice?! Josephine enjoyed the seats more than anyone else on the plane. She slept nicely on one of them as if she is in her own bed and when she didn’t sleep we played on it. There was one thing that I feel regretful for not having a photo of: The menu on the plane. It was written as below; Traditional Arabic Mezze – Hummus etc. etc. and GREEK salad?!?! Himm since when Greeks are Arabic? We’ve played who want to be a millionaire with Chris while Jo is sleeping. Chris became a millionaire! I was nervous. Especially, when we got on the plane in Doha, I said to myself “There is no going back now” Sweet husband had to encourage me a bit and I was all OK again. Well almost 8 hours later we were there (here). It was not bad at all. I actually felt suddenly that all was good and I was going to enjoy living here. I found myself again; I found “the construction chick” in me. Joey was hung in front of me for almost an hour while we were waiting for our luggages and her pram. She was luckily (I don’t know how I can thank her for that) very quiet and didn’t make a fuss. I believe she was hammered and she didn’t know how to react. Obviously, it was all new to her as well: People around her, the smells, the heat and everything you can think of. When I was in Turkey, Chris has already started to work in Lagos. So he prepared everything for me and Jo. He even found a lovely nanny. Because I work here too and someone needs to look after Jo. Her name is Rose and Jo seems to like her a lot. I hope she will continue doing that, will continue being a sweet smiling girl and also will remain healthy. We arrived to our apartment where families also work for our company as well in it. It is a new apartment with 3 br. and furnished. It took couple of days to settle, empty the luggages and go to supermarket shopping. I was feeling good till we went to the shop. I was disappointed. Because everyone I talked to told me that you can find everything you want in Lagos. Even though you have to go to a few shops and pay the price, still you can get fresh vegetables, fruits (even organic!!) Well, maybe not that shop! To raise my spirit up, I had to try other shops on the weekend. Now, it is all better. We finally know what to get where from.