Today, the group flew from Ankara to Izmir (central western region to the far Aegean coastal region). Once we got back on the ground, we were chauffeured to the former bustling port city of Ephesus (Efes in Turkish) where we meandered through the city's ancient ruins, imagining what it would be like to be an Ephesian (see Kim Benefield's awesome mobile uploads to the blog here: www.artessayturkiye2010.blogspot.com).
After touring the ancient ruins from about 11 am to 1 pm, the group settled for lunch at a seaside hotel overlooking a sandy beach. Students and teachers were shown down a boardwalk to be able to step into the Aegean, a sea filled with the character of legendary battles, tales, and wonder.
Next up was the House of the Virgin Mary. It is widely accepted and believed that this small house is where St. John, a disciple of Jesus, took Mother Mary to live towards the end of her life. The presence of the Basilica of St. John as well as another small basilica devoted to Mother Mary help to corroborate other evidence used to designate the location as a place of pilgrimage. The presence of these two other places of worship are used as proof that St. John and Mary were indeed living in this area as places of worship in those days were only devoted and named after someone local.
Students and teachers got a bit of free time to absorb the site as there was also a section where people of all faiths could light candles for prayer or stick a piece of paper on the long stone wall symbolizing their prayer. The prayer wall that we saw here was populated densely by shreds of paper, plastic bags, string, and virtually anything someone might find to tie up representing the prayer. The thick layers upon layers of happenstance paper, plastic, string and other items were overwhelming to any viewer as the layers signify the many hearts that pour out here.
After visiting this historic site, our group was chauffeured back to the city of Izmir, where we’d flown in that morning. We had to check in to our hotel by the water very quickly as we had to meet our first ever host family for dinner!
Our host father was named Mustapha who fed us delicious Ottoman cuisine atop his rooftop apartment with his wife, 2 daughters, and 1 out of 2 sons. The family wholeheartedly enjoyed the presence of the group. One could see that the happiness of the students and teachers in their engagement of public diplomacy during the dinner heightened the importance of visceral learning between people of different cultures and backgrounds.
Many stated to our hosts that this evening was their finest yet! It is no doubt to me that this is true for many, if not all, because of the warmness with which we were greeted, seated, and served. We ate green beans cooked in a red, tomato-like sauce; yogurt, cucumber and dill mixed together in a kind of cold soup; stuffed green peppers with rice, basil and other herbs grown directly behind us on their rooftop; eggplant cooked with a type of meat (Was it chicken? Somebody comment on this.) that had been prepared with olive oil, seasoning and other arrangements so good that we didn’t waste any time in trying to figure out what was in it.
The group retired to the hotel after presenting gifts to the host mother of the family and saying heart-felt goodbyes with invitations to come back again :D
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
One of my personal favorite evenings! I ate so much at this family dinner I think I was still recovering at the family dinners and lunches that followed :-)
ReplyDeleteNot sure what type of meat the eggplant was stuffed with though - it didn't matter, however, because everything was delectable!!!