November is coming!

About today, I don't have anything interesting to tell you about my days in here. Yesterday I just made a small movie night for myself. Yes, yes, when Ago was working, I watched her movies 'Finding the Neverland' and  'La vita è bella'. Especially the last one is really sad, but I still recommend it - totally worth watching! 

Meanwhile, our Youth Exchange what we are going to organise is starting this weekend. Participants should arrive on Saturday. We are all crossing our fingers that the weather would be nice. We had some very-very-very rainy days, but now we hope that this nice sunny weather (what we have here at the moment) continues. :) Also, some people are doing the last arrangements in the venue (cleaning up the places and doing everything else that it would be suitable for that YE). We are going to have participants from 6 countries and there are some Lithuanian participants, so I hope they will bring something gooooood for intercultural night. Nom-nom, it's almost the same as in Estonia.. the food and everything :D

The YE is about recycle-reuse-reduce. So many projects are here about ecology, like our children project and water saving project and now this. If you have some games/energizer ideas or any kind of comments, write them to my comment box (there can never be too much good ideas) :). 

 La vita è bella - that movieeee!

30.10

Last days have been very routine - as usual, we had activities with children, Turkish lessons and wifi in our home is still gone. For now, it seems very normal that we are playing games in the evening, and I must admit, it’s very addictive. I just spent 6h yesterday, to finish that Dracula game and start playing another one. 

Yesterday it was 29th of October, what means that it was The Republic Day of Turkey. I expected a celebration, but I didn’t see anything special on that day. I’m sure that in some cities i was celebrated more, but Diyarbakır is also a part on Kurdistan .. so, here people don’t celebrate this day so widely. Although, it would have been nice to see the parade or something (last week I wrote about those tanks what were practicing for that day..). I think they had some celebrations, but we also spent time with children yesterday, so we didn't walk around the city.

Actually, the whole Turkish – Kurdish issue is so sensitive here. Before I haven’t written about it, but last days one thing is more and more actual.  Today, most of the places are closed to support the hunger strike. Even schools are not working. Couple of days ago they had a big demonstration and time-to-time they are publishing news about it.

It’s their 49th day and they are still continuing it!! Can you believe it?!?, and it's not the first time when this kind of strikes are going on here. When I'm thinking about it, I'm totally speechless... I just don't have anything to say. Read an artickle (HERE) . What would you say about this?

It’s sad that they have to use such kind of measures. I was said that this kind of people don’t have anything else left and they are ready to ‘fight’ till the end. Sounds very bravely , but still I don’t get it (and maybe I don’t have to understand.. So, I’m just listening various people opinions). 

That’s the way it goes, it would be great if things change, but it's also obvious that it can't change overnight. 

IUSY meeting

As we all had our holidays, we used the chance to sleep long (what else can we do in our holiday?!? :)) Actually, it already started getting a bit boring, but then we joined with IUSY meeting (International Union of Socialist Youth). It was spontaneous decision, but it was better than just sitting at home. Also, our coordinator made there a short speech about Local Agenda21 and Youth and Change Association.

In the evening, it was raining again (Estonian autumn is here.. brrrr). We only have had heavy rain, nothing else. Nevertheless, we are already joking that WINTER IS COMING! Be prepared.... 

On the next day, we joined with them already at 9 am in the morning. We had some discussions about Palestine and Israel issue and we were shown a movie about the situation in Western Sahara. Movie was in Spanish, so I had a little chance to test myself about how much I can understand .. and actually, it wasn’t so bad, I understood a little bit, wohhhoo :D.
In the afternoon, the meeting got a bit more political, as the parties from different countries started to discuss about their future plans.. so, we left with Ago.

In the evening, we arrived home and it’s already 3rd day when we don’t have internet in here, but luckily we have electricity (ptüi-ptüi-ptüi). Probably it's because of that rain. Surprisingly, we found a game and we started playing it, without knowing that some parts of the game were missing (but we still finished it).. and after that we started playing a game about Dracula .... what can I say, nicely spent 5 hours. :D

                                                                  

PS! People were celebrating Bayram quite big. Children were playing with toy guns on the streets and  were spending their money what they got from their grandparents. For now, the celebration is already over, so it’s not so loud anymore. Some children were also dressed up in a suit (it’s traditional here to buy new clothes before Bayram and then wear them during it). 

Elu on siin endiselt nagu lill! 

It's a rainy day

The celebration started. Today, people had a half day off, but there were surprisingly few people on the streets. We all went to the Association again, worked a bit and went back home :D. 

Today's keywords are definitely rain, rain, more rain and candies! So, it was raining in the morning and in the evening too. You should have seen it!!! It wasn't the normal rain, it was totally abnormal. When I'm thinking what kind of rain I've seen then this was a lot worse. First of all, it was a heavy rain.. like standing under the shower, and  it lasted at least 1-2 hours + of course it was accompanied by thunder and lightening. 

Our balcony is full of water and I'm 'afraid' that in the morning there is a small lake in front of our house. At least, when it's not in front of our house, then it's in front of the other house. There is that drainpipe, but in the end the water is not going away :D. 

In the morning, we had hailstorm. Actually, it wasn't a storm (more like rain again), but Ago found hailstones from the ground, or more like pieces of ice.. Of course, I thought before that it was just a 'little' rain. 

This big celebration what starts tomorrow is special. I was already told how little children are 'celebrating' it.. basically playing with toy guns on the street, but they have one more 'tradition'. Children are knocking on  people's doors and people are giving candies and chocolates to them. It reminded me one of Estonia's celebration what has the similar tradition - St. Martin's Day (on 10th of Nov) and St. Catherine's Day (on 25th of Nov). Then children are also going from door to door, dancing and singing, to get candies. I don't know if children here are going to dance or sing, but Lise's friends told her that kids are coming early in the morning.
It's seen that people are really preparing for that. In the shop I saw how everybody bought a lot of candies and sweets. It was another WAAAOW effect .. maybe they don't give all the candies away, but 3 bags full of candies is a bit tooo much (or maybe not....) :)

I labeled all my things in my room.. now it's time to look those videos. :).

(when I learned Russian, I also watched similar videos, Маша и Медвед)

Normal Tuesday, 23.10

Today was strange and so was yesterday. Before going to sleep (in some strange reason I went to sleep at 3 am) I was sitting under 2 blankets and I was literally shaking all the time. 

Same story today - I got up, went to the association and I was wearing 2 cardigans and according to my clothes it may had seemed like it was already winter time. This was way too wierd, the whole day I was feeling cold and I think I complained that to everybody. In the evening, I went home again and surprise, surprise .. here I'm sitting with 2 blankets again. 

But it's not like this normal 'ou, I feel cold' feeling, I have chills. I just started to Google it and found some reasons (let's just hope it's doesn't mean that I'll be ill). 

Tomorrow, the big celebration starts and it lasts for 6 days. Normally, it's should be 5 days, but as 29th of October is The Republic Day of Turkey, then they have one more day off. Today, in the morning, I saw how 7-8 tanks were just driving on the road .. at first I was like 'WHAT, TANKS? .. but later when they kept passing by, I already tooked it easy.. 'SEEMS LIKE EVERYDAY THING in here. Ok, let it be!' Afterwards, I was just told that they were practicing for Monday. Nice practice, I must say! :D 

The other free days from 24th till 28th is because then they have The Sacrifice Feast Eve in Turkey. and it lasts for 4 days.

Also, I had a plan to visit Kayseri (9 hours by bus from  Diyarbakır) in this holiday, but now I already gave up. This time I'll stay in Diyarbakır - somehow I feel that I've to rest and just try to be well again!!!! 

 A pile of our blankets :)

 That's right, when I'm feeling cold and there is nothing else to do.. I can always make pictures. Actually, I just wanted you to see how colourful cardigan I have (bought it from Estonia and first time wearing it in Turkey, successs!)

 ..and we started labeling our things!!

Days full of fun!

What can I say, new week has already brought news for me. This post will be a bit longer (I hope you'll still read it :)).

So, on Saturday we had an activity with children again. What a nice afternoon activity it was - screaming children and we, who wanted to teach them something (actually, it wasn't so awful :D). Anyway, this time Lise's mother, brother and bf were also helping us to run the workshops and it turned out very nicely.

Our recycling project has a blog too, what you can read from here. I'm making posts there only once a week, after weekend.. so, now I don't have to retell everything in here. Just keep an eye on that blog and you know what happens in here :D.

On saturday, we had a nice evening with our coordinator's secondary school friends. They have this nice tradition that they are meeting every Saturday. Ofc there are only one group of people, but a lot of fun is always guaranteed. Even this time, we all sat together and I was just talking with Ago that it's so awesome how well they are getting along.. always laughing, joking and chatting. I just looked them and thought that maybe someday I've similar meetings with my secondary school friends (I can always hope that, although it seems a bit unreal).

Yesterday, I joined with one of my friend's English lesson (actually they just had a speaking club meeting). I just wanted to see how the lesson looks like, but eventually I ended up talking about Estonia's weather, historical places and estonians in general. When I arrived they talked about men and women (the qualities what you appreciate in them) and after my answer, most of them were like 'ee, teacher .. please explain what she just said ..'  and I was like 'oops' :D. There were students who had different English level, but I'm so glad that they are all studying English. Also, their teacher is good, I liked him. 

After the lesson, I went to a cafe with some students to speak more with them. It was so nice. Finally, I was sitting in the cafe again (as you know, I like cafes a lot! :D.. and we found a very nice cafe) and it was so good to sit there and just talk.

and here is the highlight of today ... parammparrmparaa .. I got my residence permit!!!! Although it's nothing sooo special, I'm still feeling good. I have it now :)

And finally, I'm finishing this post. Here is just a small story what happened today: 

Couple of days ago, my phone stopped working so today we went to repair it (that was the plan!). When we finally went to the place where they are repairing phones they firstly asked me to pay 20 TL. I was totally ok with that and about 5 minutes later they gave me my phone saying that it's fine now. Well, that wasn't! We gave it back.. and then, we sat there another 30 minutes just to find out that this phone is broken and they can't repair it! That went well ..... my phone is officially dead now!  

 That's how we do it! :) 

(lastele ülesanded kätte ja nii see käib..)

 Mhm, camera is in focus..

 time to speak about Estonia

 Lise's mother and brother left us a letter. So sweet! :) 

my residence permit (highfive to my phone camera ... such a 'good' quality)

Presenting Estonia

Time flies. It seems like it was yesterday when I came here. Now, when I'm looking the calender again, I see that 1,5 months has already past.

On Thursday we had our English lesson with Youth Council members. I was the first to present my country. At first, I planned to make a powerpoint, but eventually I didn't do it. I started with a short introduction and I showed them one video about Estonia. Soundtrack of the video was a song from Tanel Padar & The Sun - Welcome to Estonia.. so after seeing the video they all repeated that ref. :) Before that I made a lot of notes, what I should tell them (1h seemed a lot for presenting one country) but it turned out that I only had time to tell them the basic things about Estonia - facts, national symbols, food, holidays, Song Festivals. Also, I gave them some examples of good ideas what have born in Estonia ('Let's Do It!' campaign and Skype). 

I wanted to tell them more about my country, but suddenly the time was over. It went so quickly, but all the students were very good. They tried to ask questions and they got involved nicely. 

After my presentation, Ago was talking about her country. Also, she spoke about her hometown, university and Association where she used to work before. It was good! In the end, she gave students homework too :).

In two weeks we will have a Youth Exchange in Diyarbakır. Today we all went to see the venue where we should host and facilitate the event. It's a really nice place and there is plenty of room for everyone. We also made some plans about accomodation and I'm already looking forward when we finally have those participants with us. The project is about recycling, reusing and reducing and that venue is perfect place for this kind of Youth Exchange. 

We also discussed the Activity Program with our coordinator. It took a lot of time, but at least now it's finished.

Things what happen in Turkey:

*It quite normal that electricity just goes away. Last days it has happened a lot of times. One day we sat in the cafe, drank tea and Cihan played Backgammon (everybody know how to play it .. okay, maybe not everybody but most of the people) with Ago, when suddenly ..ta-da!.. electricity went away. About 5 minutes later the waitress came with a candle. Yes, those things happen here a lot. 
On the other day, we were home with Ago and surprise, surprise what happened - electricity went away .. and when electricity goes, then water and internet goes too. The whole street was so dark. After 1,5 hours, electricity finally came back. Ayeah! :)



When I searched information about Estonia, I found this.. seems to be quite true:

  Part 1

Part 2

16.10

There is nothing very  interesting to write about my days, but here it goes again:

Sunday: 
We had a day off. Try to guess how I spent it.. Yes, you're right, I just slept a lot and did nothing. In the afternoon, I went out just because I didn't want to spend the whole day in my room. So there I was, just walking around in the ofis, but thanks to that I discovered some really nice shops. I'll send you some things, my dear Estonians. Wait for it!  

Monday: 
Children again. Yes, this time they went to the glass studio. This activity lasted only 2h, so I spent time to prepare my presentation about Estonia and the rest of the time I was selecting pictures of that recycling project.
On sunday, Lise's mom and brother finally arrived (btw, they are really nice!) and so me and Ago will have one English lesson with Youth Council members. Usually it's Lise's work, but we all agreed that she will spend some more time with her family so we just talk about our countries in one lesson. :) Oh yeah, I still haven't figured out what exactly I'll do there, but I'll see what happens. 

Recycling project still continues!

Today, we had activities with children again. This time it was better, but it was still hard to keep their attention. 

Yesterday we were thinking games what to play with them and we decided that it has to be something where they can run a lot. It worked, children played games where they had to run! :) 

Today, they made some aquariums from boxes. It was good until they had to glue some papers (note: look what happened last weekend)..

Sometimes it was quite funny when children asked me about something and I just looked them without understanding anything. And they always told me 'Abla, abla ......??' Luckily they knew that I didn't understand them most of the time, so they just showed me what they wanted :D.

Afterwards, they also made some wallets from juice cartons. As we had limited time, they didn't finish it today.

Next week we have some Youth Council members with us. They will help us speak with children. It will be fun, I hope.

NB! Off-topic, but my parents got a camera and my mom just had to call me via Skype. It was fun, until I saw my room .. what is officially my brother's playing room now. When I left, it was clean ..  and now it is FULL OF TOYS! :D Unbelievable. 

One special day!

My little brother is now 2 years old. What a happy day for him :). My mother finally made a Skype account, so I had a chance to speak with my parents and my little brother. Yay!

Unfortunately they didn't have a camera so they only saw me, but my little brother thought that I see them too and there he was .. telling and showing things to me (what  I didn't see ofc). After, when I wished happy birthday to him, he was litteraly screaming AITÄH. He still seems to be so little but hopefully I see him next time when I'm skyping with my mom. 

It was also good to hear my parents voice. They just 'complained' that it's so cold in Estonia. Oh well, I'm still enjoying the last warm days in here :). 

 My birthday kid! 

Guests, ayeahh!

After the training we hosted some EVSers from Gaziantep. It was so nice. They had already done their EVS in their organisations and they were just traveling around. As they were friends of our friend who we met in our on-arrival training, then we were more than happy to host them. :)

EVSers stayed in our place for 2 nights. Yesterday we sent them away, as they went to another city near Diyarbakır. Actually they traveled through Turkey mostly by hitchhiking and before they stayed in couchsurfers place. As I have only heard that it's really dangerous to hitchhike in Turkey, I was very surprised when I listened their stories.  That time I was thinking that they are really lucky that nothing haven't happened with them, because some of their stories were quite scary. 

Meanwhile, we had some Turkish lessons and I'm still hopeless. We had to make up sentences and all my sentences had some words what needed correcting. Also, I'm still writing the words in the wrong order, when I'm making the sentences. It's really strange. It seems that maybe when my project is over then I know Turksih a bit, but heyyy, that's the another reason to stay in Turkey.

Also, I visited DISA organisation yesterday. It's an organisation what deals with researches. They gave me some books what I can read, to know more about the education system in here. It's just awesome, but on the other hand, I realised that things here are working way more differently than in Estonia. Well, yeah, Estonia is a little country while comparing it with Turkey but some things here have still that 'WOW' efect. 

NB! We are are going to have more guests in the end of this week. Lise's parents are coming here for a week, so our apartment will be again full of people. Just amazing!



So many things have happened .. so here are some pictures too:

 Youth Council meeting

Recycling project with children. 2nd activity day: 

btw, for that project, there is a blog too. It'll be both in English and Turkish (although, right now it's only in English)

 

 

 Probably my favourite picture. I'm laughing a lot in here :)

Training, day 2

Today’s training was a bit different – it was only in Turkish. Yeah, of course good for the real City Council people who had to benefit from this training the most. :)

When the training started, it didn’t disturb me to hear only Turkish but it was a bit sad that I didn’t get the full information. Lise translated the most important things for me but she also said that the language in this training was very official, so even she had some difficulties understanding it. Nevertheless, it worked out pretty nicely. 

The moderator (who lead our day yesterday) came to ask me if the training was too boring for me (because I didn’t understand any Turksih) but actually it wasn’t. I still enjoyed. Also, the 'real' translator asked me if I can understand Turkish .. and when he heard that I have been here only for a month he understood that I just need some more time to learn it. 

Training, day 1

There is a Participation Training in Diyarbakır and surprise, surprise .. we all (Lise, Ágo and me) were sent there by our coordinator Umut. Of course he was also there but I'm really glad that I had a chance to go there as well. 

The first training day is over and I must say, it was quite informative. Thank god that most of today's moderators were foreigners. So, for me it was easier to understand them. They had a translator who mostly translated moderators talk to Turkish or when somebody commented something it was the other way round, that he had to translate the comments from Turkish to English.

But when some of the moderators explained things in Turkish, then suddendly there wasn't translation anymore. Luckily, I had my 'own' personal translator sitting next to me. When there was something important to translate from Turkish to English then Lise was always there to say it.

It was still a bit funny when we had some tasks to do and I was the only one in the group who didn't understand Turkish at all and so I just observed the situation and tried to understand what the others were talking about. 

And I got a huge book full of really useful information but the catch is that it's in Turkish. Oh, well .. still better than nothing :). 

In the end, as we say in Estonian 'lõpp hea, kõik hea', everything was good. I liked my day. 

The training continues tomorrow. I'll see what that brings.

Children!

On friday, 5th of October, we officially started our recycling project with children. Firstly we took those children to the Solar house. As I didn't feel so well in the morning I went to the Sümerpark later, when the activity with children had already finished. I got a brief overview from Lise and Ágo and ooo, yes, I met with those children on the next day..

On Saturday we all prepared our paper workshop for children. At first we had a plan to play 3-4 games with them and after make our workshop. As normally... the so-called plan what we had, didn't work. Children who we had were at the age of 7  - 11 (at least it seemed that way) and playing something with them was a bit more difficult than we expected. In the end we managed somehow but they always tried to run away or tell something to us. So, it was kind of hard to keep their attention. Anyways, finally when we started our first paper workshop activity (what was 'make-something-of-the-wet-newspaper'), the situation got even better. Children had to use glue and eventually we saw glue everywhere .. cleaning up after them was also quite messy. 

After that major gluing we started our next activity what was a lot easier. They only had to make worms from egg trays/egg cartons (or however those things are named) and they didn't have to use glue. YEAA! :)

Although, we spent 3 hours with them, it felt like 6. We will see them again next week :) .. 

Pictures made by Lise in Solar house:

.. when children are playing ..