26.4.2008

The fishiness

I was writing about the situation at the restaurant when I ran out of credit on the internet earlier on today. My day with the family Sukru and Seher; Tulay and Serci was great yesterday. I helped peeled potatoes, talked with the women, learned to make rice pudding and so on. But I never warmed to the real owners Fatos and Engin; and the new managers Nil and her husband. I left last night feeling the tension of the whole contract exchange between them. So today I decided to stay a little away from them, knowing that there was much to be done on their last day.

I went to give my stool sample, blood test; and then did a yoga class and went to the local Saturday market with Lisa (someone I met through the yoga class). It was great hanging out with her as I met her boyfriend, friends in town. I particularly liked the crazy Maori who loved hugging me and cracking up jokes (he laughed with his whole heart, it was amazing watching him) and the Israeli artist friend of theirs who was happy to send her son and husband away to Christchurch for 2 weeks so she can concentrate on her art.

Later I came back to the hostel to drop my gear off and as the sun was shining bright I got changed into a short sleeve top and went for a very long walk to the beach. It was a great walk along the seafront, calm sea, seagulls flying, families fishing or kayaking. I realised once again how beautiful this country is for raising children.

It turned out to be 3 hour walk and I was feeling my legs ache from the running and yoga on the previous day. As I walked back I decided to take a break at the Anzac Park but bumped into my lovely Turkish family member Serci and Ercan. We talked about politics in Turkey, the corruption, lifestyle, our future, their future, my future….But I could tell Serci had taken Ercan (the new chef) out for another reason. So as Serci sent me back to the restaurant they continued their wonder around the town.

When I got to the restaurant I met yet another great family, Ferdi, a qualified doctor from Germany who had travelled to NZ 10years ago with his German wife Sandra, fell in love with the nature and decided to immigrate 3 years ago. They lived in a very small town 1 hour drive to Nelson where they led a very happy family life but due to Ferdi's father's sickness in Izmir they were moving back to Izmir where Ferdi was to run his father's firm.

We clicked very well as we both took the piss out of each other, he gave me tips about my tummy and I gave him tips about psychology. We laughed about my yoga and meditation, his future and my future. For some reason we both knew that we would meet again as it was a sad tight hug as we parted but a clear intent to meet again in Turkey. His wife was an amazing person who took his jokes about their marriage very lightly and gave him as good as she took. At the same time the kids were climbing on top of them, tumbling around and just being adorable. Their 3 year old daughter kept running in the kitchen of the restaurant and bringing us food, half of which ended up on the floor with her penguin like walk.

But I soon realised why Ferdi was there. He had become very good friends with the real owner, the managers who were leaving and the chefs who were leaving. There was a massive tension as the lease wasn't on paper, the managers owed money as they couldn't ear as much as they had promised and the chefs were leaving rather urgently. Everyone had their rights as they explained themselves, no one was ever in the wrong but it was pretty nasty how they talked to each other. Ferdi was the middle man trying to get sense into people. I don't think he managed that well as we heard the shouting next door with the owner and the old manager. It wasn't my place to be involved other than calming people as they opened up to me also. Issues weren't solved at the end of the night as half the gang left, and I decided to call it a night for myself as well.

As I always believe that I meet these people for a reason I walked back to the hostel thinking about my learning from it. I learnt about the family life and its importance in NZ, courage of some who moved around for the better of their family (let it be a better future for their kids or for their dieing father), how difficult running a business can be when people are involved, how hard things are back in Turkey, how one door closes for one but opens for another….and how in the chaos of this all I touched their lives as well as they touched my life.

I just hope Kubra gets to travel around the world as she wishes to one day%uF04A