Tuesday, October 25, 2011

contrasts

Tolga has been away this week.  He is in the western Turkey.  The earthquake and terrorists are in eastern Turkey, and I'm kind of in the middle.

Our school is collecting things for the earthquake victims in eastern Turkey: blankets, towels, children's clothes and toys, and so on.  The cargo companies will ship relief items for free.  Eastern Turkey is a poor area - villages filled with crumbling houses, I'm sure - and so the devastation may be more so than a wealthier town.

Crumbling houses are all over Turkey - even here in modern Ankara - without the added natural disaster.  In Ankara, they call these houses gecekondu, or slums.  The word literally translates to overnight houses because people/families would move into an area and put up a home overnight, without claim to the land.  Some eventually were given claim, and others it is hard to displace because of their poverty.  So throughout Turkey you will see these crumbling village homes clogging up the valleys, under the shadows of modern apartment buildings.






This is more of a shanty - there is usually cement walls at least.  I came across this and several homes when I was walking through a fancy park in a wealthy neighborhood.  The park ended - and a valley of trash, crumbling rock, and tin started.  

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