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I'm reminded by a
photo of the rubber plant that served as
the Christmas tree the first year I was there. Volunteers were gathered -
Ann Ringland, June Beale, Rick Ash (our rep), Lynda Wycoff - for a meeting,
I guess. Maybe it was a gathering to stave off the Christmas blues away from
home. A copper tray served for the coffee table.
The messages made me think about my Peace Corps Christmases
and especially about the last one. We sent an invitation to Jeanine Tonetti
and made it fancy with burned edges and big crosses and God knows what
else. I remember her talking about opening this piece of art at school.
Then we planned a pageant - not to really do it. I think Karin Bergmann
was supposed to be Baby Jesus - and Jeannine Mary - or maybe Jacob. It's
been so long ago I forget - but I remember we had lots of fun with that
invitation and our fake Christmas pageant. In terms of cross cultural
celebration I remember Armenian girls bringing us eggs and a yogurt dish - I
think it was at Easter - but it was very hush hush.
Our first Christmas in Adiyaman John and I
spent the whole day in Kahta teaching. I think maybe it was also Ramazan.
Maybe we went off to Gaziantep for the weekend, I don't remember for sure.
The second year Steve Clark showed up with a scrawny turkey, but maybe that
was Thanksgiving. I also recall an inebriated New Year's celebration in
Antep. Maybe others can sort out what was when. Jeannine might remember for
which holiday Steve brought the turkey. John will be here tomorrow and I'm
sure he will remember all the details and we'll send an update. I don't
think we ever even thought about a tree. Since nothing Christmassy was
happening around us I didn't miss it.
What I remember about Christmases in both
Turkey, and later in Iran, is that the holiday centered completely around
people, food, and that one day...there was, of course, no commercialism since
it wasn't a Muslim holiday, so the day was especially precious. In Kozan,
as volunteers, we wanted to have a Christmas tree, but it was against the
law to cut down a tree, since they were scarce in that area. Some Turkish
friends, knowing that we wanted to decorate a tree, cut down a big branch
from a pine tree (also illegal, I am sure) and brought it to us. We invited
all the children in the neighborhood to help us make decorations and
decorate the tree.
To answer Colleen's question - the Antep party was Dec
1965. My daughter has lost her passport and can't find it at her place, so
in ripping apart ours I ran into my journal:
I mentioned Christmas trees to my kids (in an
area where tree cutting was forbidden due to reforesting), I discovered a
tree at my door when I got up one morning. I went to a neighboring village
(I was in Sultandagi and this village was in those mountains) and thanked
them for the tree. I was served Dag tea (mountain tea) made from branches of
what looked like a tumbleweed almost and found it delightful and said so to
my hosts. The next day a year's supply of the branches to make the tea were
outside by door.
It seems that a lot of trees and branches
were cut while we were there. Our first Christmas in Turkey also included a
large pine branch decorated with colorful ribbons and cloth, given to us by
our very dear Turkish friends. They brought gifts and food, and said they
knew we were missing our families and feeling homesick. They had gotten
permission to cut the branch, and their generosity made us feel that we were
no longer
ŠArkadaslar |
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