Reddit AMA

3/302013
Doing and AMA on Reddit, talking about teaching English and living in the Middle East

A lesson in Turkish

Turkish is what they call a gleutonus language.  What that means is that there are all sorts of attachments to words in order to make a sentence.  In English we have -ly or -tion that we can attach to a word, usually its just one suffix that is used but the Turkish language knows no bounds to how long they can make a word.  It is not uncommon at all to see six syllable words in childrens books.

I don't have time to read that first one give me War and Peace

                                     
To really give you a lesson in the ridiculous lengths that a Turkish word can go to, the longest word in Turkish is

 Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine.   




What that pants soiling length of a word means is "Like you would be from those we cannot easily make a maker of unsuccessful ones"

Here is how the break down happens.

Turkish	English
Muvaffak	Successful
Muvaffakiyet	Success
Muvaffakiyetsiz	Unsuccessful ('without success')
Muvaffakiyetsizleş(-mek)	(To) become unsuccessful
Muvaffakiyetsizleştir(-mek)	(To) make one unsuccessful
Muvaffakiyetsizleştirici	Maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileş(-mek)	(To) become a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştir(-mek)	(To) make one a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriver(-mek)	(To) easily/quickly make one a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriverebil(-mek)	(To) be able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebil(-mek)	Not (to) be able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebilecek	One who is not able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebilecekler	Those who are not able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimiz	Those who we cannot make easily/quickly a maker unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizden	From those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmiş	(Would be) from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsiniz	You would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine	Like you would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones

                                                  Commence crapping your pants now!


See, pretty rediculous.   There have been plenty of times when I am saying a word and have to take a water break half way through.   So many ways to attach things to words that it really makes me wonder how Scrabble works here.

Let's see that danimarkalalistiramadiklarimizdanmisiniz
 on a triple word score...that adds up to 14,654 points

   

The Sun is Rising in My Heart

  Last week, the week before a week long vacation was crazy. I think that is how it always is for everybody. The week before vacation almost wipes us out so much that our vacation time is spent in a coma. Well, thankfully, mine wasn't that bad. There were no physical problems, delays, or packing troubles. For me, the Holy Spirit decided it was time to check my heart and reveal to me more of what's lying in the corners, hiding from me. I've been through this before and will go through it again, maybe next week. Anywho, it goes a little like this...
  Team, leading a team, and getting what you asked for is a doozy. Months ago, I asked God to get me to a place where I have more room in my heart to reach out to people, more capacity to serve them especially when I feel like I can't anymore. I asked this knowing I would be leading a team of 8 to a foreign place and also knowing that I haven't led anything more than a small group. I asked this knowing what's come out of my heart in the past, knowing what I'm capable of.
  Quick side note, years ago, I went through a time where God showed me what I'm capable of in a not so awesome way, the way of sin. Mind you, I'm a good girl, I don't have big sins that I've overcome to tell you about. My parents were awesome so I don't have major hangups that God has had to heal for me to truly live. Yet, the matter of the heart, inside the heart, deep and dark places no one knows about except yourself and God is a totally different matter. 1 John 3:15 gives us an example of the heart. I thank Him for revealing these things and showing me what I'm capable of without actually committing these sins. I can tell you more about that another time. 
 Back to it, I get extremely frustrated when I don't know what I'm doing. Even more, when I feel a certain way and have no concrete reason for it, it makes me feel foolish. No likes to feel frustrated and foolish. I admit feeling foolish and frustrated often results in anger, unforgiveness, irritations and all of that often projectiles onto others (poor Craig). When that happens I often get more angry, frustrated, irritated, and yuck yuck yuck. Welp, I realized what was happening and I told Craig. We prayed and I confessed and received forgiveness. I gave forgiveness and prayed blessings. The next day, we listened to an awesome sermon called the Un-Offendable Heart. SHEESH! After that, guess what? We prayed and confessed and received forgiveness. We gave forgiveness and prayed blessings. It seems so easy to type this all up and I realized I'm failling at describing it to you. I only hope you have experienced matters of the heart because only then do you know. Anyway, Friday rolls around and we are having simple church. During worship, I felt God was saying, "Lisa, everyday is a new day with me. No matter what you've done, what contents of your heart has splattered onto the ground. Don't you know that every MOMENT is a new moment in me. This next moment is new!!!" Wow! There truly are no words to describe that! I shared that with our team. I just had to they were burning me. THEN, God told me, "Lisa, the sun is rising IN YOUR HEART." He didn't say through or on but IN, WITHIN. This is funny but my first response was "oh no, something in my throat is blocking it." Weird, huh? I shared this with the team and we prayed over me. I again felt God was saying,  "Something is coming, this is the beginning of what I am doing here, in your heart, in this team, in this town." We also felt that what wants to block it is fear. For me, it is fear of the unknown.
  Which I know, some of you might snicker and think good grief, she's scared, look at what she has done. Well, I have to say, I have fear. I also have had naivite and youth and strength of the Lord. I also think that those who have no fear have no courage either. I mean why do they need courage. Courage and bravery are what results in the face of fear. 
  We prayed against fear, fear of the unknown. We prayed the truth. God wants the sun to rise in my heart and pour out of me. He gave me that picture and He will make it happen. Nothing can stop Him! So now, we wait!! We wait for what's next. I'm waiting with anticipation and dream about what will that look like! I'm sure what will come next will be full of more cleaning out the heart but maybe it will be a little easier as the sun shines on dark places.

  "And, God, I welcome what's to come and welcome the sun rising, and welcome the new moments!!"  

  That was my week and this week is rest! Rest for the heart and soul. Time for the beach, Mediterranean Sea, movies, ice cream and time with my husband and team!

There are two things in this world that scare me. Nuclear wepons...and carnies!

So, every night during the month of Ramazan there is a carnevale that goes on here. For those people reading this from Pagosa, it is just about as awesome as the 4th of July carn that comes to town. Let me tell you guys somethin' if you haven't experienced a Turkish carnevale you are missing out in life.

First things first, the rides. The flagship ride was one called the frisbee which was a giant wheel that swung you back and forth and around. It took me all of twenty seconds to get sick on this ride.


There were also bumper cars. In case you are wondering, yes, it is a great idea to bring your infant on the bumper cars with your other child driving.



Also, there was a concert for the kids going on which consisted of creepy imatation Mickey and Minnie Mouse dancing around and singing songs. I don't have any pics of this but believe me it was a bit creepy.

On to the games. There were really only two carnevale games that you could play, one was a ring throw game and the other a shooting game, but instead of winning stuffed animals, posters, goldfish, or sick rabbits (if you are from Pagosa) you win packs of cigerettes...totally awesome fun for the whole family.



Get a ring around a pack and it's yours!!!



Look closely and you can see that this kid won some cigs for his dad...nice!


I, unfortunately, was not able to win Lisa a pack of cigarettes.

Ramadan in Turkey

Ramadan is is full swing here in Turkey. First thing I notice is how different it is here compared to Jordan. In Jordan, every restaurant was closed during the day for the month. It was illegal to eat or drink on the streets (even if you didn't get fined by the police, I think the dirty looks and comments from peers would be bad enough). Here, being a secular government, life and work goes on as usual. I would say that more people keep the fast than don't, but as one person told me "I don't do Ramadan in the summer", which I can completely understand. To go without water in 100+ heat sounds almost demonic to me. Our poor friend Ali, who is our language tutor, rides his bike to our house in the heat and can't drink a cool glass of water when he gets here. We have offered to have classes at his house but he declines saying "It's more enjoyable here, my mother isn't around always watching" Oh to be a teenager.
The thing I am always surprised by is how blatant some people are with not keeping the fast. I see people just munching on some food and drinking sodas right on the sidewalk, or in buses. Its crazy.
Fasting or not, Ramadan (its actually called Ramazan in Turkey, no idea why) is a special month of purifying yourself with God. Please keep the Turks in your prayers this month, the our Father would reveal Himself to those who seek.

closet

Gettin' our Picnic on

So as we are here in Turkey, a few cultural observations I have made.
1. Turks have a much higher tolerance for heat than I do.
2. They love them some picnics

Picnics are the thing to do here during the summer. Whether its grabbing a snack on a blanket in the park or spending the day out in the woods, the Turks are serious about picnics. Its so popular that I have met many people who speak zero English but somehow know the word picnic.
Lisa and I were invited by a friend of ours to go to his parents village and spend the days out in the woods having a picnic. What a great time we had! It didn't really matter that we don't speak much Turkish or that they didn't speak much English we all spoke the international language of the picnic. That is enjoy some food, relax and enjoy the fresh air.


Oh yeah, Turkish couples love to take cheesy pictures of themselves.