Turks

I think I'll devote this to just some of odd characters I've met here. Most people i interact with daily will be left out. This is for those people i'll probably never see again. (unless I need another hookah...)

I'll start backwards again. I was in the grand bazaar today and met a guy named Cengiz. That's...Gengis transliterated. Like...Gengis Khan. I wanted to buy a hookah from him just because he was fuckin Gengis Khan. But he was asking for too much. He did explain hookah to me though, which was nice, but as pointless as it gets. I liked him though, he seemed earnest and despite trying to rip me off, like a nice guy.

Second, there's the three guys all working at one shop selling a bunch of stuff, hookah included. I'll see them again probably cause I actually know where the shop is and it's right next to the Beyazit exit. Anyhoo, the main seller is a kid maybe 17 or 18 and he speaks english well enough to sell things but that's about it. The main attraction was his friend, whose heart I broke when I didn't buy a hookah the first time i was there. (he said, "you break my heart!" so im not exaggerating haha). Seriously though, his guy was so friendly and hugging me and stuff, it was fun. It was definitely pressure to buy ANYTHING (like a random scarf for 5 lira? no thanks) but i didn't feel bad not buying. Come to think of it, this may end up being all about buying things in Istanbul. Anyhoo. what i assume was the owner of the shop was most interesting. I bought Sana's hookah from him today and he asked me where im from and I said im a MUSLIM (key) from Bosnia. His family was apparently from Bitola, Macedonia and moved to Turkey in '56. He said they went back after 50 years and hated to see that Bitola was now a village and not really a nice city. He asked me where in Bosnia is nice t visit but refused to go anywhere with Serbs. It was wierd but he REALLY didn'tlike Serbs. I think he said that his blood doesn't like Serbs...but i could be mistaken. I just told him to stay away from Banja Luka.

Next, Said and Dr. Mahmut. They were two guys who helped me look for Zadeh's manuscript in the Sulaymaniyye library. I really like both of these guys. Said spoke Turkish and Arabic fluently (as far as I could tell) but I assumed he was an Arab because Said isn't that common a Turkish name and he seemed to resort to Arabic by mistake (he asked me kayf al-haal but stopped mid-sentence and spoke english). I dunno though. if they got turkish passports they're turks. Dr. Mahmut was a Syrian (now Turkish...) guy who was friends with Mustafa Ceric efendi. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?! well. it is. Mustafa Ceric is the "grand mufti" (i think) of Bosnia and the most liberal grand mufti in the world. but yeah, dr. mahmut looked for the manuscript, told me it's not in turkey (sorry zadeh) and we parted ways. but the man just looked smart as hell. he must be hot shit i don't know though. The library was really nice it just felt very peaceful and full of knowledge like a library in narnia would feel like. yes. narnia.

that's it actually. all men. all from this week. it's funny, pretty much everyone in amnesty is a women and pretty much everyone else i've dealt ith here in Istanbul has been a man. there are sooo few female bazaar sellers and waiters and a bunch of other jobs. the only place where i see a lot of women as in the mosques...that makes me kinda upset. maybe an update on that later!

-peace