two months

i hit the two month mark yesterday of my time in diyarbakir. i'm enjoying my time here much more now that i've met some friends. we had a conference in diyarbakir a couple weeks ago put on by the hrant dink foundation. in addition to hearing sweet presentations about minorities in turkey, i met some nice mountain turks and the four other foreigners apparently living here.

in other news, i ate an absolutely fantastic breakfast at mustafanın kahvaltı dünyası at hasanpaşa.

so much beyaz peynir, delicious white village butter, warm bread, and most important of all, honey with kaymak (clotted cream). the kaymak was dusted with pistachios and pomegranate seeds. yum.

later that day i bought knitted slipper socks at a women's microcredit store. they are pretty awesome, but i had to try on several before i found any that fit my massive feet. but now i have colorful socks and i supported women's handiwork.

Another earthquacke! Yikes! I'm glad I delayed my trip to Van. In the aftermath of the two earthquackes, some people have expressed hope for greater solidarity between Turks and Kurds. Elif Şafak just wrote a column to that effect, mentioning that Turks and other minorities died as well in the first earthquacke. That all sounds good, but I'm not convinced. Given the protest held the other day, and the violent police reaction, tensions are clearly high. Also, this is not just an ethnic issue, but also an issue of regional neglect. Those issues have to be dealt with as well, empty words of solidarity are not enough.

In light of events such as earthquackes and violence, some of my friends and family have expressed concern for my safety. The real threat, however, is far less menacing yet much more pervasivc: food. First it was the microbe invasion. Now I'm dealing with the aftermath of Kurban Bayramı. Heavy food and sweets every day finally came to a head, I was so sick the other night I thought I was going to throw up. Sadice said that she used to make some dish that was so heavy it made everyone sick. If there's a food that can make these people sick, I don't even want to be in the same room as that dish!

1 month

So I´ve been in Diyarbakır for about a month, and it seemed appropriate to write a blog post. The month has gone by both quickly and slowly. Before I arrived in late September, I had noticed increasing violence in the SE, and this has only escalated since my arrival. Diyarbakır has so far been pretty isolated from these events, besides a few protests here and there. People however, are obviously concerned about the growing violence.
It will be really interesting to see what impact the earthquacke has on this conflict. I sense a growing discontent with the state due to state response, and the poor construction which caused many of the buildings to collapse. Granted, poor construction is probably everywhere in Turkey, but in an area that already feels neglected, this earthquacke is bound to heighten regional tension.
But enough about politics. Things that are pleasant in Diyarbakır: the fact that there´s a bakery on every street. Going to the butcher and actually getting meat off of a whole animal. The extremely unnerving generosity of the people here. If I could just find some decent espresso....