It was nice to wake up to just our house again. Except I hurt my back picking up Tuana. I'm usually pretty careful, and it's not that I was careless - I just moved a bit too fast at a slightly off angle - and I just didn't have the muscle to save myself. My back didn't pop - so that was good, so I didn't think it was too bad, but the effect was immediate in my inability to bend over. I didn't try either - I have many things I would like to do and most of it requires my complete health. So if it meant I would have to take the day "off" or two - I could take it easy, do what I could.
I still planned on taking the kids to the sea. It didn't hurt to walk. Just sitting and carrying anything that weighed 11 kilos. (That would be Tuana). While I was getting the kids ready, Hakan called and invited us to the hotel he works at.
It was a surprise call. He he works at a five star hotel - its all inclusive with its own huge waterpark and lots of amenities. Hakan operates a Catamaran school. It was his own invention - he procures the business by talking to different universities, and they bring the students who stay at the hotel, and he provides the courses.
For the first time, I heard the security gate guard call him hocam, which is the old fashioned word for teacher.
Hakan is usually working 7 days a week, all day long from May through September, even longer. We rarely see him every summer, and every summer he says how tired he is, how busy he is, how stressed he is ... He had promised to take Teoman out on the boat, and while it was on my mind, and I know what Hakan promise is ... I had just been debating whether to call him on it or not. He really is busy in the summer. But it turned out Hakan had a break of three days between the schools, and so he invited us out and the kids were jumping for joy. Literally. All three of them.
Tuana fell asleep in the car - and Hakan took us to the kids water park and left us there. They played with such excitement and joy. Tuana sensed it all and woke up too ready to jump right in. We met for lunch and then headed to the beach where Hakan has a set up of catamarans, wind surf boards, and I'm not sure what else. One of my homeroom students from this past year was coming out of the water with her cousins and spotted me. She recognized me first - I couldn't as she was in a bikini and not wearing her glasses - but I could actually recognize her walk. What a coincidence to see her here. Her mother - whom I had never met all year long was determined to learn windsurfing and she shook my hand, attempting English, then giving up and switching to Turkish.
Hakan has three workers with him - one I knew as he had worked with Hakan for several years now, and the others were new - I think. They were kind and each took a kid from me. Tuana was surprisingly willing to go with them - following Teoman and Tomris's excitement to go on the boat. She waited expectantly with them to get a lifejacket and the guys humored by putting one on her that came to feet and she turned and waddled after her siblings to the beach, arms in the air, and lifejacket skimming the sand.
Those were three happy kids.
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