Trip to the Anatolian Civilizations Museum

We are on a hill looking at the ruins of an old castle from the Byzantine era. You can see below the city of Ankara. We caught Du with a little tongue action (licking the lips before the pic) It was a very hot day, but what a beautiful view.

If you look closely at the wall, those are all earrings that she has made and now selling. The little girl is selling bracelets. The other missionary is our one of our Country leaders from Istanbul.

This gal was selling the most beautiful hand work items. I bought a few things and went back a few days later to pick up a few more things and she was gone. she was so delightful and I hope I find her again sometime.

These pots are from times several thousand years before Christ.

We found these wonderful marble statues out on the grounds and of all things our heads were on them.

And they said these kinds of plates did not exist during the time period this is from in the Americas. You can see the tiny writing on it. We felt this was a highlight for us.

Trip to mosque

This is one of the spice markets I think is so charming. They have so many spices I have never even heard of and lots of the same ones I use. Very cool place.

Just a pretty park we found while walking around.

We came across this ceremony at a mosque we were visiting and it looked like a ceremony. Since Du loves talking to anyone he was right in the middle of the soldiers talking to them (or should I say gesturing) and found out it was a change of command. He was very excited to see this and so we sat in the hot day for about an hour to watch this.

The prayer thing went off and several men came out of the mosque and then to our amazement out came to coffins. We had misunderstood and what we were witnessing was a military funeral of a Colonel and a General. We had looked in our Turkey/English books for the word for congratulations. We were very releived we had not said that to anyone yet.

There were hundreds of these very intricate stained glass windows in this mosque.

You can see be comparison of the tiny people on the floor how massive this amazing mosque is. They say it is one of the largest in the world. The globe chandelier is the focal point and if you look closely there is a cirle around it of smaller globe chandeliers. You can also see the stained glass windows around the sides.

This is a closer view of the chandelier.

Outside in the day of this beautiful mosque. We had gone on a 5 mile hike to find this mosque, as we don't have a car here, and when we found it realized that if we had gone a different direction it was actually only half a mile from where we lived. So we did visit it again.

This picture was taken at night. I had read somewhere that the Bountiful Temple was the worst at light polution. I don't think so.....This was lit up with huge beacons all the way around it and it is massive and beautiful.

Visit to a Primary School, Misket

Evaluation of a project to furnish a kindergarten classroom with tables and chairs, blackboards etc. in a poor area, Mamak, in Ankara. Their were two buildings here, the one on the right and one more. The average class size was sixty. The government provide the property and the contruction of a beautiful new building, it even has an elevator for the handicaped; however, they do not provide any furnishings. A couple of other NGO's are looking at some of the other classrooms. The Headmaster , to my right is a dynamic individual, and very concern with educating the poor

Visit to the Paralysis Center

Yıdırım Yılmazoğlu: dırector of Paralysıs Center. Plaque shows L.D.S. Charities as one of the donnors

The sewing machines were donated by L.D.S. Charirities, including an Interlock machine. After several months training the handicap workers are placed in jobs in private industry. Note all workers are in wheelchairs.

Sandy & Yıldırım: He became paralized as a result of a bad operation. Prior to that he had been a very sucessful businessman. His father owns a large insurance company. After the operation he has devoted his life to helping the handicaped.

Three of the proud students showing off their work.

We are going to deliver thirty new wheelchairs to the Center in the near furture for new students and others they have found in need.

After this we visited the Ministry of Health to talk to them about other problems. They told us that the last program that the LDS Charities had done with them had completely eradicated the problem which was a very high mortality rate for babies because of lack of knowledge of how to resusitate a baby. They said because of the training the church did with the Doctors there, the training had spread through the whole country. It was call "The Neonatal Resuscitation Initiative". We trained 1000 of their doctors with the commitment from them that they would each train more. It worked well from both sides.

Our First Week

This is the sidewalk from the street leading to the door and entrance to our apartment building. The pile of black stuff is our luggage.

Du just got the door open and is looking at the luggage as if to say, "Do I really get to carry this all to the third floor. Yippee!!!"

This is looking from our front door down the entry hall. It is beautiful. You can see shoes off to the side. The Turkish custom is to take your shoes off when entering a home. I love it!! It is also Turkish to great new people in the building and welcome. We have had several come to our door. One awesome lady, in complete Turkish regalia came to welcome and of course we couldn't understand a word. She gave me a big hug and kiss on each cheek. I miss fired and got her right on the mouth. I have since learned you kiss left and then right. Or is it right and then left?

This is looking towards the entry and the big double doors leading from this frontroom to the entry. We are so lucky to have this nice open area.

This is looking from those double doors to the table. We left the door open so you could see we have a nice patio out this door.

Our Kitchen.

Our Office

Our bath and washroom. We have an on demand water heater in the kitchen that lights up whenever the hot water is turned on. So we always have a great supply of hot water.

These are our two interpreters and drivers. I think these girls are totally awesome. We will be great friends. I can't wait to tell you about them.

We have decks on both sides of the apartment. Very awesome. We hang our wash on one of them. This is the view from each of them. No dryers or dishwashers. They also have a thing against air-conditioning and with 104* weather I have lost about 10
pounds. I love that part!

This is our cute little apartment guard. I wish we could have caught his smile on this shot, but we will try again later. He talks and talks and talks and never can I understand a word he is saying. He really is adorable. He brought us bread.

In the evenings everyone comes out to the streets and walks around. Old, young, stylish, traditional- everyone. I love this tradition. Everyone greets each other and it is lots of fun.

I have been amazed with the great styles here. I tried to get a picture of the gowns in the window but it doesn't show very well. We went into a mall and I just love the clothes here. The styles for the most part are sylish, modest, reasonably priced and the designs of the clothes are awesome. Love em.

Our next post will have pics of some of the sightseeing we have done and some of the very important meetings we had.