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Denizili

District 6060-Missouri with District 2440-Southwestern Turkey

Denizli - May 13 thru 16 It’s not easy leaving Tukey’s coastal cities.  One can get accustomed to the gentle breezes of the Aegean pretty easily.  Nonetheless, we waved farewell to our new seaside friends in Kusadashi and headed south, back into the mountains to the industrial city of Denizli. At Denizli we met our new hosts at the Rotarian main office.  After some sorting the team was split up and assigned to host families.  Ted and Keith were assigned to Omar, his wife Sudakah and 13 year old son MuhammedJan.  Omar is a IT specialist and author of at least 12 “how to” books on various Microsoft products.  His family lives in a three-bedroom flat in downtown Denizli.  We quickly surmised that communicating would be a challenge.  True to routine, we unpacked the dictionaries to begin the arduous task of cobbling a few sentences together. Moments later Alex appeared.  17 years old from Pennsylvania, Alex is spending the year in Turkey as part of a Rotarian exchange for secondary students.  He is fluent in Turkish.  As a result, he was adopted immediately.  It turns out our host had the foresight to invite Alex to stay with us to help with translating.  Alex not only tutored us on the finer points of basic Turkish but allowed us to ask intricate questions about the various vocational visits we made.  One of the vocational visits was a visit to a textile factoy where they made clothing, Levi's especially.  It was very informative, and warm!!!!!!!   We visited a glass factory and watched craftsmen blow glass.  We also visited Pammaluke, the ancient calcium springs that date back to roman times.  Interesingly enough, Keith and Nikki each had cuts on their face that healed within hours of visiting the ancient calcium springs.  They are known for their healing powers.....  Where else can you lay in the springs on ancient roman ruins? We also visited Laodikye, an ancient roman city that has recently been excavated.  Much like Ephesus, it was fascinating.  A lot of information in a small time..we have so much reading to do.... As a side note, dinners are different here.  Women serve the dinner and clean while everyone (including the guests) eat.   Omar arranged for a Turkish Hamam for the guys.  Ted and Keith made Alex go first so he could figure out what they needed to be aware of and translate accordingly.   If you've never had 10 pounds of dead skin scraped from your body, you might consider a Turkish Hamam.