Hello friends,
I hope you have arrived well in Ankara. Many thanks for this inspirational tour.
Here is a short report about the experience with Alevi women.
As we had agreed, Sultan came at 11:30 and brought us to the Alevi Center you all know.
There Sultan had to organize some things so she left me for a while with some friends of hers who only spoke Turkish. So, instead of talking to them I let the Message talk directly to them... of course I mean the pamphlet with the principles etc... observing the moment when they connected most especially with a specific sentence... which is so clear looking at their faces when suddenly they are illuminated.
Soon Sultan was back to take us to the place we supposed they did their activities, as well as, our presentation..
We arrived at an enormous conference hall, for 200.300 persons at leat, with a podium, a table for speakers, etc. that is a very big and bery formal space for the 25-30 women who were there. I explained that our work would be better in a more humble space, with the chairs set up in a circle, but it seemed it was not possible to change the format, so we adapted.
After Sultan's general presentation, there was a conference by a woman prsesenting a book on Alevi culture and soon it was my turn. Actually, I didn't say much because Sultan took the initiative of giving some context and, anyhow, whenver she said something (to introduce the ceremony of well being, we were about to do) she translated what she said but seemed to add her own things because she talked for 5 min. or more after each small sentence of about 5 words :-))... so we decided to cut and do the experience directly.
We did it with Sultan, standing up, I spoke in German and she in Turkish, paragraph by paragraph and she did it very well, I could feel how she connected more and moe.
At the end I proposed if anyone wanted to make testimonies. So the women of 40-60 started expressing themselves, who until them were quiet and listening to the speakers.
It seemed that they liked it very much, we could tell by their faces. They wanted to know how to get the book and Sultan distributed the pamphlets we had with the address of the bookstore.
They also wanted to know how I saw them, what impression I had of them. I said that I felt a lot of goodness and force in them, but that surely their internal joy could grow. They started laughing confirming I was right. So I proposed another small experience: thanking (when you find a big force... give thanks inside yourself...).
And then something quaint happened (because apparently it is unusual): some women got up on the podium to hug me (the group picture was with these women) and then they hugged each other and some of the women in the hall (not all of them, but many).
Soon they had to get back to their activities and I said good-by, but before leaving they took me to the president of chief (I don't know his title) to introduce me and tell him what we had done which they had liked very much.
It was very good for them and very good and inspiring for us...
A very big hug,
Ariane
I hope you have arrived well in Ankara. Many thanks for this inspirational tour.
Here is a short report about the experience with Alevi women.
As we had agreed, Sultan came at 11:30 and brought us to the Alevi Center you all know.
There Sultan had to organize some things so she left me for a while with some friends of hers who only spoke Turkish. So, instead of talking to them I let the Message talk directly to them... of course I mean the pamphlet with the principles etc... observing the moment when they connected most especially with a specific sentence... which is so clear looking at their faces when suddenly they are illuminated.
Soon Sultan was back to take us to the place we supposed they did their activities, as well as, our presentation..
We arrived at an enormous conference hall, for 200.300 persons at leat, with a podium, a table for speakers, etc. that is a very big and bery formal space for the 25-30 women who were there. I explained that our work would be better in a more humble space, with the chairs set up in a circle, but it seemed it was not possible to change the format, so we adapted.
After Sultan's general presentation, there was a conference by a woman prsesenting a book on Alevi culture and soon it was my turn. Actually, I didn't say much because Sultan took the initiative of giving some context and, anyhow, whenver she said something (to introduce the ceremony of well being, we were about to do) she translated what she said but seemed to add her own things because she talked for 5 min. or more after each small sentence of about 5 words :-))... so we decided to cut and do the experience directly.
We did it with Sultan, standing up, I spoke in German and she in Turkish, paragraph by paragraph and she did it very well, I could feel how she connected more and moe.
At the end I proposed if anyone wanted to make testimonies. So the women of 40-60 started expressing themselves, who until them were quiet and listening to the speakers.
It seemed that they liked it very much, we could tell by their faces. They wanted to know how to get the book and Sultan distributed the pamphlets we had with the address of the bookstore.
They also wanted to know how I saw them, what impression I had of them. I said that I felt a lot of goodness and force in them, but that surely their internal joy could grow. They started laughing confirming I was right. So I proposed another small experience: thanking (when you find a big force... give thanks inside yourself...).
And then something quaint happened (because apparently it is unusual): some women got up on the podium to hug me (the group picture was with these women) and then they hugged each other and some of the women in the hall (not all of them, but many).
Soon they had to get back to their activities and I said good-by, but before leaving they took me to the president of chief (I don't know his title) to introduce me and tell him what we had done which they had liked very much.
It was very good for them and very good and inspiring for us...
A very big hug,
Ariane
Lindo! Harika! Gracias, Arianne. Judit
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