Experiencing Turkey - Iraq Project II
This is a reposting of my Iraq Project II. I will post a dispatch-entry Monday thru Friday until the original project is recreated. The real-time journey was posted by The Janesville Gazette in February and March, 2008.
Experiencing Turkey
posted February 22, 2008
I was able to talk to my wife on a free Web cam site. We got it running despite the unpredictable Internet availability here. I could see and hear her. She could only hear me. Considering the electricity only marginally works in this region, we called it a victory.
We also know my international cell phone works in this region as well. Having grown up before cell phones, computers, abundant Third World commuter flights, and TV satellite feeds I understand how it used to be to put together a trip like this. I have it easy compared to only just a few years ago.
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- This little sandwich shop is attached to an Internet shop in Mardin, Turkey. He insisted I
have the chicken sandwich and the banana shake. Elvis would do fine here. Photo by Bob
Keith, February, 2008 -
There are statues of Ataturk all over Turkey. He is their George Washington. He is on all the money. I do not want to speak for the Turks, but in a nut shell he lifted up the Turks after World War I and their Ottoman Empire collapse. He stressed secularism in a 99 percent Muslim country. He wanted to bring Turkey closer to the Western world. He died in 1938. His picture is everywhere here. I hope historians are not too offended by my quick note of Ataturk.
Television here has an American flare. The news people are dressed to the nines in modern cloths. The women anchors look very Westernized. In the right location, you can get TV channels from all over Europe and Asia. This also speaks to this region being a cross roads. From now on every tenth person on the street will have a European look. There are and will continue to be a smattering of red headed people here and east. I am speaking to stereotypes we have of this region. Remember, that is the kind of thing I try to note.
Bob Keith
Mardin, Turkey
Experiencing Turkey
posted February 22, 2008
I was able to talk to my wife on a free Web cam site. We got it running despite the unpredictable Internet availability here. I could see and hear her. She could only hear me. Considering the electricity only marginally works in this region, we called it a victory.
We also know my international cell phone works in this region as well. Having grown up before cell phones, computers, abundant Third World commuter flights, and TV satellite feeds I understand how it used to be to put together a trip like this. I have it easy compared to only just a few years ago.
- This little sandwich shop is attached to an Internet shop in Mardin, Turkey. He insisted I
have the chicken sandwich and the banana shake. Elvis would do fine here. Photo by Bob
Keith, February, 2008 -
There are statues of Ataturk all over Turkey. He is their George Washington. He is on all the money. I do not want to speak for the Turks, but in a nut shell he lifted up the Turks after World War I and their Ottoman Empire collapse. He stressed secularism in a 99 percent Muslim country. He wanted to bring Turkey closer to the Western world. He died in 1938. His picture is everywhere here. I hope historians are not too offended by my quick note of Ataturk.
Television here has an American flare. The news people are dressed to the nines in modern cloths. The women anchors look very Westernized. In the right location, you can get TV channels from all over Europe and Asia. This also speaks to this region being a cross roads. From now on every tenth person on the street will have a European look. There are and will continue to be a smattering of red headed people here and east. I am speaking to stereotypes we have of this region. Remember, that is the kind of thing I try to note.
Bob Keith
Mardin, Turkey
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