the weight of unemployment

My brother-in-law has always been asocial.  Partly because he stutters.  My MIL thinks he stutters because when he was three years old he was scared so badly by a dog that it permanently disrupted his speech.  She brings it up occasionally.

My BIL asocial tendencies have gotten worse this past year as he has been jobless.  Unemployment is perpetually high in Turkey, and those that have jobs, are perpetually underpaid, or simply not paid.  It is a frustrating and hard life.  For my BIL, it has made it hard for him to even socialize with family because of the embarrassment of not having work.

My husband has endless faith in his brothers.  He is proud of them and is never too proud to defer to their expertise in different areas.  Sometimes, he'll even ask questions he already knows the answer too just to build their confidence.  We both identified with my BIL's frustration and low morale at being unemployed.

Though, Tolga was more gracious than I.  My BIL's asocial tendencies made conversation with him exhausting as his quirks seemed aggravated.  Within a five minute space of time, he may discuss the military, a job interview, mention that life is hard, Ankara is better, Kusadasi's sea is great, going to the mall on the weekend, life is hard, a project he was working on, and swimming in Kusadasi.  It was hard for me to even have a conversation with Tolga because he was so quick to interrupt with off-topic comments.  When I would complain to Tolga about this, Tolga would say,
"Part of it is because he doesn't have a job.  It's hard to focus on anything when you don't have work."

Tolga can be a lot more sympathetic than me, but I knew he was right when he said this.  We both experienced it.

My BIL came back to Ankara in the middle of May for more job interviews.  He's been out of work for a year, even more if you count the jobs that haven't been paying him.  Since coming to Ankara, he has been getting lots of interviews, but no offers worth taking.  I couldn't even keep up with his job interviews because he would swing so quickly from being excited, to nervous, to depressed.

The last week in May, while I was in Kusadasi, he returned to Ankara for another interview.  (And complained that he couldn't swim in the sea, life is hard, a project, Ankara is better for work, etc.)

But, in the end, he got the job.  He has a salary.  He is working.