Hakan came back to Ankara after a road trip to Artvin in the northeast of Turkey. Anne seemed to come alive. She jumped up to serve him and his friend. They ate. She hovered. Hakan was showing her a video of their Artvin home.
I have heard enough from them all talking about Artvin as if it were the good ole' days. Baba talks about going back, he talks about the water being better - how good the cay is there. Anne talks about the funiture, or kitchen utensils, or a tent - random things abandoned in Artvin. And, they were together, and maybe this is what they are hanging onto - those moments within their hardest days when they found laughter in simple things, in spite of their condition.
Anne had been excited to see pictures, and for Hakan to bring back remnants, but now looking at the video she seemed a bit baffled, if not horrified.
I said if we ever go to Artvin, I’m staying in a hotel. I could easily imagine the condition of a home lived in during hard times, then abandoned - and seeing the video confirmed it. The camera started with the bathroom, the shower basin with no curtain, the toilet whose lid Hakan lifted to look inside and see the rot. Over to the kitchen and living room and bedroom, and second living room. They had left Artvin 10 years ago to come to Kusadasi - and they left the place in shambles. There was no packing up the house. Dishes were out in the kitchen: empty tea glasses on the table, a yogurt bucket on the counter, garbage and scraps of paper. Hallway with a shoe on the floor, paper, garbage, books, a shirt, a bucket. None of the furniture was covered.
I've seen Hakan leave a disastrous mess when he started and didn't finish projects in Kusadasi. And, I've seen Baba do the same in the kitchen, depot, around wherever he is sitting. But, I couldn't imagine Tolga leaving his home in such a state. When I asked him why their house looked like the ran out in the middle of the night - Tolga said,
"Those were really hard days and we were really tired. We hadn't planned on moving (especially for so long) but when they had come to visit, I bought the place in Kusadasi and it was like an escape for us - as escape from lots or hard times."
I have heard enough from them all talking about Artvin as if it were the good ole' days. Baba talks about going back, he talks about the water being better - how good the cay is there. Anne talks about the funiture, or kitchen utensils, or a tent - random things abandoned in Artvin. And, they were together, and maybe this is what they are hanging onto - those moments within their hardest days when they found laughter in simple things, in spite of their condition.
Anne had been excited to see pictures, and for Hakan to bring back remnants, but now looking at the video she seemed a bit baffled, if not horrified.
I said if we ever go to Artvin, I’m staying in a hotel. I could easily imagine the condition of a home lived in during hard times, then abandoned - and seeing the video confirmed it. The camera started with the bathroom, the shower basin with no curtain, the toilet whose lid Hakan lifted to look inside and see the rot. Over to the kitchen and living room and bedroom, and second living room. They had left Artvin 10 years ago to come to Kusadasi - and they left the place in shambles. There was no packing up the house. Dishes were out in the kitchen: empty tea glasses on the table, a yogurt bucket on the counter, garbage and scraps of paper. Hallway with a shoe on the floor, paper, garbage, books, a shirt, a bucket. None of the furniture was covered.
I've seen Hakan leave a disastrous mess when he started and didn't finish projects in Kusadasi. And, I've seen Baba do the same in the kitchen, depot, around wherever he is sitting. But, I couldn't imagine Tolga leaving his home in such a state. When I asked him why their house looked like the ran out in the middle of the night - Tolga said,
"Those were really hard days and we were really tired. We hadn't planned on moving (especially for so long) but when they had come to visit, I bought the place in Kusadasi and it was like an escape for us - as escape from lots or hard times."
Tolga and Hakan talk about renting a bull dozer and a guy for 10k to fix the road to their house. A seemingly random item the has to be fixed in Artvin. I could tell from one picture of the outside of the house - of the crumbling balcony, that more than that needed to be fixed. And yet, Hakan ended his video with a view from that balcony. (He didn’t dare step out on the balcony as it surely would have collapsed). He panned over the town, through the valley, to the distant mountains - the best land in Arvin they all claim.
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