Whew! I’ve had a long albeit good and fulfilling day.
In the morning I went to my neighbor, Isel who lives in Daire 9 to ask about the cake for my customer who wanted it. On my way home I stopped to say hi to Anne Guler who’s a mother in every sense of the word. Lol I say that because she pushes me to eat, socialize, clean my house, and pretty much all the things that mothers do. Don’t worry I’m not mad at it, she does it to her son Mahmut and his wife Naz too. She literally makes him eat his salads.
Anne Guler in her usual fashion made me follow her back to Isel’s and I’m glad she did, because I found the opportunity to serve I had been looking for, and also found the content for this blog too.
Turkish women are usually housewives and stay at home mums from what I’ve seen, and Isel is no different. However she has a business and she makes pegs. Anne Guler either helps her out or is a co-owner of the business. Together we spent the next few hours making pegs and assembling them by hand into packs for sale.
The process was pretty easy. First Isel took the pegs and a spring and put them into the device that turned them from useless plastic to a functional fastening device.
Then Anne Guler and I took the pegs and added them to thick cardboard paper cut into small rectangles. We used 3 pieces of paper for each set, and made sure to color code them too.
While we were busy with the pegs, Isel had the marble cake she was making me in the oven so the smell of delicious cake wafted through the air, and I worked in peaceful bliss.
I don’t know how she achieved this design, but she’s promised to teach me her recipe, so I’ll find out soon enough. Also Turkish people call this pound cake type cake, kek and call dessert/iced cakes Pasta.
After a couple hours, Isel made us lunch and we sat in her kitchen, and even though I’m still learning Turkish, we had a conversation accompanied with enough hand gestures for me to understand what she meant.
Lunch was homemade pasta in a sauce made with yoghurt and pepper in an oil sauce(?) and instant coffee. I’m not certain what the sauce was, but the dish was called Erişte Makarna. Makarna is Türkçe for Pasta. I also found that Turkish people don’t consider Nescafé coffee. Coffee is Kahve, and Nescafé is Nescafé.
I also tried out this cookie like snack made with peanuts. I was certain I wrote down the name, but I apparently didn’t.
I went home after lunch and went straight to bed, because I was proper exhausted.
Anne Guler and Isel later visited while I was struggling to do some of my laundry by hand and creating a right mess while at it, as they were downstairs, (my apartment is on the ground floor) and were astounded at the starkness of my house, as well as the curtains and blanket piled up in a corner, and my full bag of laundry, also the not so clean glass door leading to the balcony. 🤣🤣
They both packed the blanket and as many curtains as they could and took them to their houses to help me wash them with their washing machines, then asked me to bring the rest of my laundry later in the evening, and instructed me to clean. 😂
I ended my day with dinner at Mahmut & Naz’s, with Anne Guler, Rabiyah her daughter and Doruk her grandson.
I would tell you everything we ate in detail, but this post is long enough now, so maybe another time.
You know something I just realized? My days are usually long and full, and yet it feels like I’m not doing much, because I’m not doing the traditional work (9-5) I’m used to. I think that’s interesting, because it goes to show that it takes quite some time for some things to leave you.
When you’ve put your self worth in your achievements, behavior, accomplishments and people’s opinions or ideas of what you should do and be, it takes a while to adjust to just living a life that feels fulfilling and that you enjoy.
As we all sat there on the floor/couch making pegs, and packing them for sale, I realized that I was truly full of joy and content in that moment. The dance to no music playing type of joy. There was nowhere else I would rather have been. My soul was singing, and the songs were happy songs.
I hope you find your joy, no matter how long it takes, who you have to let go of, what you have to move on from and live a life that‘s full of purpose and gives you a sense of safety and peace. I hope you get to safe. It’s been a long long journey, but God helped me get here, and I’ve never felt better or been happier in my entire life.
PS: the only reason I was looking for an opportunity to serve was because God told me to serve, and I was eager to obey Him even though I didn’t know how.
Love, Yoma.
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