1/31/2023 0 Comments Wait... A Gondola!!After our sessions today we were walking around Istanbul and Dr. Baian asked if we wanted to take a shortcut back. We all said sure! Little did I know we walk up to GONDOLAS!!!!! I was like oooooooooh crap no no no noooooooooo. But it was too late and would take way too long for me to get across the park it covered to meet them on the other side. So I cramped into the gondola and freaked out during our ride! Luckily it was only about 5 minutes, but I was still terrified. Heights are not my thing. While yes I did survive, I do not foresee myself on another gondola any time soon. I’ve been gooped
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1/29/2023 0 Comments Alaçatı & Çeşme VisitToday was a ton of fun!! Dr. Baian took me on a trip with one of our tour guides and his wife to some of the coastal towns in Turkey. We set off in a van early in the morning and drove for about 2 hours through Izmir and out to the rural areas of the coast. It was so beautiful getting to see the countryside and different towns across the coast. We stopped in Alacati first around 1pm to try and grab some food. We got a little turned around and walked for awhile, and then finally came up on the main town area. We sat for some tea and treats to warm up, then walked around the town. Alacati is a very popular coastal town in Turkey, the streets filling with tourists over the summer. It was even very busy while we were there. There were these beautiful windmills overlooking the town which was a cool site to see. We then got back on the road and headed to Cesme. Cesme is another coastal town in Turkey, where you can see one of the Greek islands in the distance. While walking around the town during the day it felt very posh, fancy restaurants, and beautiful homes. Unfortunately at night it turns into an escape route for refugees smuggling themselves across to the Greek island in very poor conditions. Sometimes refugees will wait in the tree lines for days waiting for a signal from one of the smugglers, where they have a short amount of time to run across and get in an extremely unsafe boat to try and make it across unnoticed. It felt very strange walking around the beautiful (and kinda boujee) knowing the despair that comes out at night for refugees trying to flee for the chance at a new life. I wish we had more time to visit Cesme again to meet with some of the NGOs to learn more about what happens here and how they are helping. 1/27/2023 1 Comment Disability CenterYesterday during one of our field visits, we stopped by an municipality office that had a huge office with three connecting buildings. One of them was given to a women's empowerment NGO for free for them to use as office space and for trainings for women. They do great trainings for women focused on capacity building and employability for women, as well as offering free child care while the women are in session. This is a major facet for many women focused NGO's that childcare is offered during sessions as many women cannot leave their children at home alone. All throughout their offices were feminist cartoon artwork which was so awesome. It reminded me of the West Wing episode where Josh goes to the NOW office and the feminist artwork scares him haha.
What was sooo cool, was in the building next door, was a disability center. This office runs trainings for abled bodied persons to learn about the struggles of those with disabilities. There was a track (photographed below) where they have people get into wheel chairs and try to navigate the ups and downs of moving around in a wheel chair. There was also a hallway and large room which they leave in the dark, where 'paintings' are 3D with descriptions in braille, for people to go into the room dark and have to rely on their touch to see the paintings. This program is the first I have ever heard of where trainings are run for abled bodied persons to gain greater understandings of what it is like living with differing abilities. It was so cool and I hope that more organizations like this one are started! 1/26/2023 0 Comments Not all fun & GamEsWhile we are in Turkey, we are focusing on one course: Safety and Well-Being Challenges in Emergency Contexts with a focus on psychosocial support. I thought this would be a good time to talk about some of our classes and the program. Social media, and even this blog from time to time, do not show the whole picture of what we have been doing. While we have had amazing travel experiences, our program is humanitarian based and we discuss heavy topics daily and meet with those in often despairing situations. The NGO workers we meet with discuss with us the secondary trauma they face from constantly working in situations where you know you can only help so many people. Almost everyone’s advice had been to ‘get a good therapist’. Sometimes I feel like I've become less fun, but we've been dealing with so many difficult issues and seeing very sad things that it's hard for it not to affect you a little bit.
The other day was sobering as we met with a child protection organization that travels to African refugee settlements in rural Turkey, settlements being a loose term as really they're just groups of families spread out in tents. They said one of their programs is going out to work with the kids to get them prepared to go to school. We asked them what subjects they help the kids with. They said oh no, we're teaching them how to hold a pencil/pen because they've never had one before and showing them how to draw lines to be able to learn the alphabet. This was very sobering. Unfortunately they said many of these kids don't end up ever going to school as African refugees in Turkey are often undocumented so they kids cannot attend school, or they get pulled out of school early to work the fields and never end up going back. All this to say, that this work takes a lot out of all of us, so when we get to have fun we really capitalize on it. 1/24/2023 0 Comments iud's for refugeesWhat I haven't thought of before our visit to one of the NGO's in Turkey, was how revolutionary the IUD is for women refugees. That they could get one of the IUD's that last 3, 5, or 7 years could make a significant impact for so many women. That they wouldn't have to worry about keeping up with a pill or running out of them while they are on the move, in settlements, or just lack basic access to healthcare as many unfortunately do. This could help so many women prevent having unplanned births while they are dealing with the trials of being a refugee or asylum seeker. It also has the added benefit of giving women control over their bodies, and not having men dictate their birth control or stopping them from taking the pill. As it is an in and out procedure, women could even go secretly get them without their husbands knowing (though I don't know on whether this is truly happening in secret, but it's a possibility for women whose husbands may not favor family planning). It is a major advancement for women refugees, especially for the younger girls who are 18-20 who may be forced into marriage or child rearing at an early age. A clinic we visited said that more and more women are asking for either the birth control shots, which last generally 3 months, or an IUD as their form of family planning. This is just so cool and I can't stop thinking about how this could help so many women around the world and how we need to expand the access of them!!
And so it begins again!! Friday night I said goodbye to my family and America for the next 7 months!! I will be going straight through my spring and summer semester, and won't be coming back to the States until my graduation in August, which is crazy!! My flights were so much shorter this time, with only an 8 hour flight to Paris, 3 hour layover, and 4 hour flight to Istanbul. I was so mad during my Air France flight to Istanbul, they asked me if I wanted anything to eat in French, and I was like "yes this is my moment to use my French".... and I responded in Arabic!! ahahaha I was so mad at myself, I was like waitttt no I speak French my brain is just all confused!! This semester we are starting with one class in Turkey for about 3 weeks on Safety and Wellbeing in Emergency Contexts with our director Dr. Baian, before we head to Serbia in February for the rest of the spring. I'm so excited to be back in Istanbul, having my lentil soup and loads of tea. I forgot that tea has caffeine, and as we have about 5 cups a day here each night I have slept about only 3-5 hours. I'm excited to get into this semester and continue sharing my journey with you all!! |