Gel-git: Comings and goings

One of the first techniques beginning Turkish marbling students learn is called gel-git, or in English "come and go." This involves pushing and pulling pigments on water in a back and forth motion to create streaks. The more times the artist drags the water using the gel-git pattern, the more finely intertwined are the streaks of pigment, until the pattern is too complex to have been created by simply painting on paper.



This week has been characterized by comings and goings as well. On Friday Natan Vigna arrived from the University to photograph our adventures. His arrival was met with a lot of enthusiasm by the group, and we have enjoyed showing him around, taking him to classes, and helping him find places for photos. We’ve only seen a small proportion of his work so far, but I, at least, am thoroughly impressed. I think he will have a lot of excellent photos to contribute to various projects and articles on honors and general PR for the University. He went to work straight off the plane, and seems to be throwing himself into the job.

Kelli’s mom and dad and her friend Steven arrived yesterday (Saturday) morning. Kelli will be traveling with them for a few days after the end of the trip, so they arranged to meet her here. Ali, our art teacher looked a little surprised that Kelli had a male friend joining her here with her parents, but I assured him that Kelli’s father was escorting Steven and was staying with him here. In this society having the father’s approval makes a lot of difference, but I think this arrangement mixes up some of the cultural conceptions a bit. Those who adopt more Western standards here would not be surprised to see an unmarried woman and man here together (particularly if the couple were American), and for those who are more traditional it would be common for a chaste woman to be under the supervision of her father, but this combination of an unmarried man and woman traveling under the supervision of the girl’s parents (father is the relevant point here) seems decidedly odd to them. There is no clear category to put them into. Our consistent refusal of alcohol (as individuals and also as a whole) also has been a bit confusing to people here, because it violates some of the cultural perceptions of Americans.

The early morning hours today saw the departure of two of the students. Both of them are residential assistants in the dorms, and needed to return to campus early for their training. We went to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner for our last night here as a group, and we are all feeling the loss of their presence here. I found myself waking frequently in the night and checking the time to see what they were doing and whether they would have departed yet. From emails and Facebook posts I’ve seen, it looks like most of their peers stayed up with them to wait for their 3 am departure from the apartment building.

Jon and Ashlee’s departure has only made more real to us the recognition that soon we will all be going our separate ways, and that although most of the travelers are going back to campus, we will sorely miss the friends we have made here. Increasingly I am hearing the sentiment that Turkey and the people we have come to know here have become integrated into our lives in ways that have changed us all and will continue to be carried with us as we move back into our old lives and on to new things. Hew commented earlier that Ali had told him that if he is homesick now, once he gets home it will be worse because he will also be homesick for Turkey. This has repeatedly been my experience here. While the changes in ourselves may be dimly seen here, when we go home we realize that in some way we have incorporated a little bit of the values and lifestyle of our Turkish friends into who we are, and in that way we can never be monocultural again, if we were to begin with. We can’t just leave Turkey behind or shed it like a coat we tried on for size. We’ve allowed our hearts to be touched by people here, and our hearts won’t ever be entirely the same again. Like the gel-git marbling, once the water has been stirred the patterns created can’t be undone.

We ask for the patience of all of you we are coming home to. I suspect the adjustment for many of us will be more difficult than we expect. We sense that we have been in some way suspended in time and space and have been richly blessed for the experience. It has been rewarding for me to watch students grow and change so rapidly and open themselves to new ways of seeing the world. We could never have replicated this in a classroom. Thank you to all the families who made it possible for us to do this, to the University for dedicating the resources and expertise, and for all those who covered for us in our absence by watering our plants, caring for our pets, taking in the mail, and most of all praying for us. Thank you also in advance for bearing with us for just one more story about what happened while we were here.