Goodbye Van...

Saturday October 31st was the day when we moved westwards again – back to Istanbul. I won’t tell you about the delay of our plane nor about how hungry we were when we finally reached the Cheers hotel late in the afternoon. I will rather focus on what we are bringing back from Van in our minds and hearts.

I talked to couple of my fellow-students about their impressions from our 4 day long stay in the Kurdish - obviously less developed – part of Turkey. Some of them were reminded of other places that they have seen before in another part of the globe. Like Kia – „Van looks like a provincial town in the Phillipines, only that people stare much more at us here“ or Karla „visit of the primary school reminded me of my work and studies in Mexico“. For Mathilde, on the other hand, Van and its surroundings was very unique „I have never seen such a place before, so untouristic“. Most of the girls were surprised about the number of men in the public space. Zsuzsi pointed out „not only on the streets, also in the bar, in the shops – lot’s of men everywhere. The women are probably at home, cooking“. Ida N. further comments: „this experience was very good, but people were staring at us and didn’t know how to act, very few spoke English, but they were very nice to us“. On the last day, Anemone saw two young boys figting on the street and realized „that there is a certain hierachy in this society“.
I also talked to a few boys from our group. They didn’t get as much attention outside as the girls and Morten even liked walking on the streets of Van more than walking in Istanbul: „I enjoy the fact that there is not a hundred shop owners who are offering you something to buy all the time“. For Daniel, the visit of the primary school in the village was the most interesting experience. This visit made him wonder: „The kids in the school were so excited about our arrival, they were smiling and talking to us – they behaved the same way as any other small kids in Europe. But how does their future gonna look like? Will they become smugglers? Guerilla fighters or activists? Will they maybe leave to Istanbul to make a better living and never come back?“.
My impression is that we all appreciated very much the unique opportunity we got by visiting Van. It might not stand on the Top 10 places to see in Turkey list, but it is definietely worth seeing. It showed us another face of the country, the contrast between Van and Istanbul made us think and look for answers to questions we wouldn’t come up with earlier. Being guided by a local, visiting the home of an ordinary family and experiencing the traditional Kurdish wedding celebrations made our experience even more unique.
When someone will ask me one day with a suspicious tone „So, how was Kurdistan?“, I have plenty of stories to tell. For me, it is not an unknown territory with a bad reputation any more. It is concrete places, concrete pictures, concrete smells and concrete faces. I am very thankful to all the people who opened their homes to us, who answered our curious questions and were so kind and welcoming.
-Eva