1 Mart / March (Ankara)


Hello friends,

Today, March 1st we had a date with Bülent who introduced us to a woman poet Aydan Yalçin, who has received prizes for her books and has many contacts in various cities.

At 17h we arrived at our usual café, Ardiç café and while we were going up on the elevator, Bülent calls saying that he would be 10 minutes late. We went into the café and we saw a beautiful woman looking at us with an open and smiling face and there is an immediate connection, although we didn’t know yet it was Aydan. But she gets up and asks us if we came for Bulent and introduces herself as Aydan. So we say hello to her as well as to the three women who were with her. Her daughter Bengi who speaks English and two friends. One of them works for an advertising company and introduces herself as Zerrin. Right when we sat down, Bulent and Olçaytug come in and introduce us to the 4 women and we sit. At the same time, Altug arrives who wanted to see us before  doing an interpreting work in a conference a few dayas away and a while later Mustafa comes, the editor of the Book and Yuksel who is arranging the whole publishing, divulging circuit.

So there we were suddenly with 3 different issues: on one hand Bulent wants us to talk to Aydan about Silo’s Message so she can help us, on the other Mustafa who finished editing and wants to comment some things about needed changes, and Yuksel who came to continue with the issue of publishing. A wonderful chaos built but nobody seemed to mind and everybody happy. In the meantime Aydan shows us 2 of her signed book as a present and her daughter says she must translate the dedication to English, so the two of them do that before giving us the 2 books. We are very thankful. While this happens, Altug is translating to Eduardo what Mustafa shows and says about the corrections. He (Mustafa) is totally composed and calm in the middle of the sound chaos of different languages. The atmosphere is warm and happy. Yuksel says to Eduardo we better concentrate with him later on and he leaves because there is too much confusion for him.

It seems the energies are circulating freely under the apparent chaos and everything goes very well.

Aylin arrives and also joins the table.

So after a while the conversation is a little bit erratic and interrupted by other things, we enter the theme and Aydan and her friend Zerrin start asking questions which are the questions we know well and give us the opportunity to explain who we are, how we work, from where the Book comes from and other things. They expalin they have an association for Peace and Fraternity. The conversation continues with more things and chai and salep and after two hours and a half Aydan (which means moon girl) and her daughter Bengi (which means eternal) and Zerrin say good-bye very happy and we feel that  a good reciprocal contact was created. At a certain moment during our conversation Aylin comes with little wool objects made by the people from Van, the city where the earthquuake took place and where people are still living in tents. The idea is buying these object to support economically the people in Van. So we happily did so, thinking of the very bad situation they live in.

After Altug also says good-bye, Eduardo and Peter stay a little bit longer with Olçaytug and Bulent (Aylin also leaves) and we call Yuksel to meet in the house where we arrive at 21h.

Yuksel makes a simple but very tasty meal and we try to talk with him in more detail about the printing and distribution. After trying various times and trying to call Altug, we understand we have nothing to worry about, that he doesn't want to gain, neither the editor, nor the distributor and that the price give includes everything for the printing. And this with a totally firm posture. So we happily leave everything in his hands and we'll see.

This is everything for now. We stil don't know if there will be any report tomorrow because they day is empty and we'll see if it will fill with unexpected things.

Un fuerte abrazo para todos,

Eduardo y Peter