well-wishers

Teoman woke up through the night, grunting and groaning with pain - like the spasms before the surgery, but not as bad.  It’s hard not to keep questioning myself, to not wonder about the doctors, the medical service, what would have happened in America, and so on.  

The surgeon recommended we find a place for another ultrasound, but because it was a holiday - no place had one available.  (It’s a new holiday - I’m not sure what it’s called, but it’s commemorating the failed coup attempt one year ago today…).  The doctor prescribed medicines over the phone anyhow - antibiotic, another to help the stomach, a suppository to help him poop if he needed and pain medicine.  

Teoman went back and forth from playing to laying down.  Tolga’s Izmir friends came for a visit.  It wasn’t good timing - Teoman wasn’t well, and I changed my assessment of their kid from obnoxious to awful.  He constantly demanded attention and created a lot of stress.  I took him and his mom to the beach with Tomris and Tuana - mostly to get them out of the house.  

When we got back our beach friends stopped by as well.  They had been at the beach almost everyday with us - their youngest the same age as Tuana, their older one was 3 years old, their mom Russian, and their father a doctor.  They brought ice cream which the little hellion child couldn’t eat because of recently discovered egg allergy.  He screamed and cried and they eventually left.  

The mother and I stayed on the quiet street chasing down our 1 1/2 year olds, while the father sat and talked with Tolga and Baba.  Tolga laughs and enjoys all the friends I make in Kusadasi - but as kind and likable as Tolga is, there are very few people he likes so much in return.  He’s a good judge of character and has this amazing ability to be social, accepting and generous while preserving himself if he finds something off about the person.  These new beach friends I made I was excited for Tolga to meet because I was sure he’d like them.  

I don’t know how they do it - how Turks identify one another easily, and even their regions.  I guess I didn’t carefully look or consider Americans because it is such a mixture - Irish to African to Peruvian immigrants to Canadian, all having come to America it isn’t an important part of our culture to identify somebody’s roots upon meeting him or her.  (That said, me-and-everybody-else can spot an American anywhere outside of America).   

When the husband joined us on the balcony, the first thing Tolga said was, “Where are you from?”  It's actually pretty typical question after introductions, but this man I had told Tolga was from the same area as Tolga’s parents - just how close I hadn’t known.  They came from the same people - the same descendants - a very specific strain of Turks, Ahiska, and which they had suspected from looking at each other.  

The men immediately bonded in their excited conversation of history while the women chased the children and the children chased the cats.