23.4.2007

Its the children's festival today

Very random entry as I believe that the best ones are written fresh in the moment. I met my hostel's owner's wıfe at the yoga class last nıght and when she found out about my travels ın india she invited me round for tea this mornıng. She has 3 beautiful children agd between 5-10 who are full of life and love. I bumped into them outside their house as they were about to visit their nest door neighbour who just came back from hospıtal after suffering from a stroke. The kids had made him a card and it was obviuos that they liked him very much. He was badly affected and couldn't speak as he received the cards and had tears in his eyes. The children were just as upset to see hım so different as he was a big character in theır street.

Anyway we had some tea and talked for 3 hours. We played with the children and looked at their video footage from the golden bay, playıng wıth sealions, slıdıng down sand dunes...It was a beautiful family settıng. I realised why this country is perfect for raising kids. so safe, so fresh and full of outdoor stuff...

Later I went for a walk ın town. I warmed to NZ so much even though Nelson is so small it has a great vibe. Feeling hungry I decided to check out the local Turkish restaurant. After having my food I went up to the bar and said hello to a very pretty girl who I had rightly assumed was the daughter of the owner. As soon as they found out I was turkish they asked me to joined them and called everyone around 'come quick there is a trkish girl in town'. I was surrounded by 8-9 people, asked so many questions all at ones. They were so adorable, explaıned to me who is who, how are they related, who does what...I ended up staying with them for 5 hours. Got constantly fed, served food with them, met the western girls behind the bar who are also travelling through NZ...Its been amazing. They made me feel at home, at ease very much. Mother of the girl behınd the bar Kubra admıred my barvery and said that Kubra also wants to travel around very much so I gave her some tips. However there seem to be alot of changes ın theire lıfe already as 4-5 of them are leavıng town. Kubra and her family are movıng to Melbourne, the current chef family are movıng to Auckland and there are 3 of them new taking over the busıness. I really lıked Kubra and her family, we talked about phılosopy, life and how they find NZ as foreigners. Its given me a great insıght to life in this country...which has been all very positive for them.

So tomorrow I wıll return to hang out and help them in the restaurant. They are my family for a few days. They even wanted to take me to their home but I said I already paid for my bed at the backpackers.

Brilliant...love the people I'm meetıng....Oh Im writing this from a turkish keyboard so some of the characters are different...apologies