Pay It Forward

Istanbul, Turkey

One topic that has yet to be discussed on this Weblog is the various languages that I have come across thus far on the trip. I've been in 11 countries to date with just as many different languages. Admittedly, many of the countries that we have visited have had quite a few English speakers. But others -- like our most recent visit in Bulgaria -- have had very few English speakers.

This posed a major problem yesterday when we got ready to make our way to the bus station for our "6-8 hour" (this will be important later) ride to Istanbul. We had reservations for the 11:30 a.m. bus with a micro-bus company, but had no idea of the company name, location, etc. All we had was a small post-it note that the hotel manager gave us after making the reservation. The scratched note was in Cyrillic, so ultimately our fate on making the bus on time rested with the taxi driver's ability to decipher the script.

Funny. He understood the note, but we ended up at an apartment complex. It didn't seem like a probable place for an international bus departure, but the dude didn't speak any English! Finally, after we said "Istanbul" about 13 times (at different paces, intonations, etc.), he understood and proceeded to drive us to the front of the apartment complex, which was indeed the location of various businesses -- including our Nikkilen bus company!

We were a little delayed in departure because of a rather large skirmish in front of the bus that occurred just before departure. We're still not sure what happened; the only things we know are: 1) a guy hit another guy; 2) people keep yelling "mafia"; 3) the police interrogated a girl that looked like the oldest daughter in Mrs. Doubtfire.

Finally on the road, we settled in for a jostling ride to Istanbul. Sarah slept for much of the way, while I enjoyed the scenery. The past few days I have been taken back to my summer in Ethiopia. Finally another setting that is totally non-Western. Driving through Bulgaria was amazing, especially the small villages. It was funny; we were in this huge bus driving on barely navigable roads and the bus barely even fit. At one point, we were slowly cruising through a small village. I looked left and there was a crew of boys chopping wood. On the right I spotted a donkey pulling a cart full of "something." And all the while, the little town shops and houses were about two feet from the bus window. Yes, the roads were that narrow.

We went through customs, immigration, etc. and got cool little visa stickers for a bargain price of 20 USD. Here's where the 6-8 hour figure is important. We arrived to Corlu, Turkey around 9 PM -- almost ten hours after our departure -- and stopped for a bathroom break etc. We were hungry and had no Turkish lira, and there were no ATMs in sight. Despite this, I got the urge to ask one of the local vendors -- a young man -- how much for one of his pretzel, pastry thingies. He signaled "three" and then I just nodded, knowing all too well that I could get one of those treats for a small 300,000 lira (about 20 cents) that I didn't have. I boarded the bus emptyhanded, but the kid followed me. He gave me a longing look, like if I didn't buy the pretzel from him then I would hurt his feelings, or worse: his business would go under.

Then came the language challenge that I first brought up in this entry. I had to explain that I had no money. I made what I figured was a univeral "no money" signal, a kind of snapping/rubbing of my fingers with my thumb. It worked. The kid understood. But he pushed a bit further, stuttering out "only" and showing three fingers again. Again with my poor sign language. This repeated one or two more times.

Finally, the boy truly understood. He walked up the stairs to the bus and handed me the pretzel. He said something in Turkish that I didn't understand, and then smiled at me innocently. I told him again that I didn't have money, and then a lady next to me interrupted. She explained: he said that I could have the pretzel, pastry thingie for free.

This poor kid in small town Turkey gave me food because I had no money. What a humbling experience that was. And how kind of the boy to do that.

*And just to let you know, we made it okay to Istanbul (after a crazy van ride later in the night that I'll write about later). Now Sarah has the fever and I'm posted by the toilet. Gotta love the Turkey Trots.