Daily Moments.

This is Anine or as we call her in English- Grandma Fatma. She is 70 Years old. She has survived Ovarian Cancer and is a very quiet lady. She has had no education. She has given birth to 7 children. She worked as a Janitor and is now retired. Her one dream is to have a nice home with nice furniture before she dies. She has never had that before.

This is Dede- or More commonly known as Grandpa Mustafa. He is 81 years old. Incredibly flexible from getting on the floor to eat (See previous post), and from kneeling in prayer 5 times a day. He has a very belly deriving laugh. It is very contagious. He was a road worker his whole life. He is now retired.  The hat on his head is to remind him that he is not higher than God. He was born with a birth defect on his right hand/ arm. It looks very much larger than his left hand which is normal looking. It is also purple. I don't believe he has any pain from it. He bought me an ice cream cone last night. Just he and I and $.35. He was very happy to do this for me.

Ayse being "Wild"... haha She looked at herself in the mirror an hour later with this scarf on her head and exclaimed, "Why didn't anyone tell me!?" and we all laughed because we ALL told her but she would say, "Whatever!" haha

Benyamin and Nebahat. Brother and Sister Orphans. They are being raised by Ayse's sister Hatice (ha-tig-a) who is their grandmother. Their father shot their mom- she is dead and he is in prison for life. They are simply adorable. She is my favorite. Very sweet. They LOVE when Ayse-teze (Aunt Ayse) comes to town. They get Ice cream!!

Dede and Benyamin cooking dinner in their BBQ. We had Kebab's for dinner. Sheep meat with Veggies. Not bad.

Right outside Anine and Dede's house. Look closely...

The front of their House. They share half of it with another family. Notice the Ivy looking plant on top?

The Ivy Looking plant is on most of the entry ways to the houses. I thought it was really beautiful looking.....

Then I looked closer and realized it was a Grape vine! Are you kidding me??!?! a Grape VINE??? It was awesome!

The sun was setting and there was a moment where it seemed that all stopped... it was very surreal. This is what you see when you walk through the gate to their house. It looks really nice in this photo but sadly it is fairly poor in this area.

While we were waiting for dinner, Ayse (On the left), her sister Hatice (Middle) came back from getting groceries. Check this out though, see the guy walking with a grocery cart on the right? Yeah, he was personally bringing the groceries home with them. We don't know him, he was just asked by his elders to bring the groceries home and since he respects his elders he did it. He literally dropped the groceries off at the door. It was awesome! Could you imagine that kind of service??

Oh by the way, would you like some freshly dried apricots?...

Sometimes I want to live here for a long time and learn all their cool secrets and tricks. It all seems so simple. Like last night, Ayse was telling me all these natural herb remedies that they use. Not store bought stuff, like actual bushes and herb stuff. Pretty cool.