Dear Friends,
Many things have happened since I wrote here the last time, so I'll try to summarize them.
Many things have happened since I wrote here the last time, so I'll try to summarize them.
Last Tuesday Eduardo and I travelled to Ankara and we spent three days there. The "salita" was empty when we arrived (and cold :)), but very nice and clean, it is obviously taken care of. We
informed all our friends that we are arriving and got to know that
in the last few weeks there was no meeting of the message there.
Next morning Yüksel came to see us for a short while, and in the
the evening, as it was the day of the ceremony, he came back.
Zehra and her daughter, Fatosh joind us as well. The others could
not come. We did two very nice ceremonies a Service and a
Well-being, officiated by Zehra in Turkish. After that, in an
atmosphere inspired by the experiences which filled us with warm
joy we had dinner together in the salita.Next day Aylin came to
visit us. She can not come to the meetings on Wednesday because of
her work. We were trying to communicate with her, using the little
Turkish we know and with the help of google translator. We managed
somehow, and had fun. I wish we could have a better communication
though. In the evening we were invited to a dinner to the house of
Yüksel's friend. Altug and one of his friends (Mercedes) joined us
as well. Before the dinner Altug came over to the salita and had a
long chat with Eduardo. Finally the five of us went to visit
Yüksel's friends. We met two ladies, the little daugther of one of
them and their nephew. We had a wonderful kurdish dinner, with
traditional food from Urfa and had the chance to get a little
insight of the life of a tranditional a family, especially women,
living in a city environment.
We came back to Istanbul on Friday. By then Maribel, Alvaro and Nacho arrived from Spain. Gerardo and Dana were visiting Istanbul as well so we all had dinner together. Satuday we had the usual meeting but this time we asked some friend of ours if they could come and help us with translation. We wanted to have a little interchange about our themes and experiences with the Turkish friends, as this was a need experessed by them. We were many, the salita was full. Us foreigners (about 7) plus Ebru, Canan, Jöntürk, Yigit, Akgün (she translated for us), Pinar, Alp (he came for the first time and directly from the bookstore where he bought the Message!) and Gus (from France, Jöntürk's guest). Eduardo gave a little introduction and then said, it was a good moment for people to ask if they have questions about the Message or else share experiences. Jöntürk had several questions and very interesting ones. The participants answered based on their personal experiences, which made it very clear that the message allows free and divers interpretations, and that the experiences can be translated in different ways.The conversation was interesting and I think it helped us to get into theme before doing the ceremony. I guess it is always an important question how to create the necessary athomosphere and consonance among participants. After a little explanation (as there were several people who participated for the first time), we did a Service, officiated by Eduardo (in Spanish) and Yigit (in Turkish).It was a deep exerpience for many of us. After the service some people had to leave, but with ones who stayed we did a Well-being for Jöntürk's friend who the night before died in a car accident. For me it was very strong, and of course I can only guess that maybe others had similar feelings.
We came back to Istanbul on Friday. By then Maribel, Alvaro and Nacho arrived from Spain. Gerardo and Dana were visiting Istanbul as well so we all had dinner together. Satuday we had the usual meeting but this time we asked some friend of ours if they could come and help us with translation. We wanted to have a little interchange about our themes and experiences with the Turkish friends, as this was a need experessed by them. We were many, the salita was full. Us foreigners (about 7) plus Ebru, Canan, Jöntürk, Yigit, Akgün (she translated for us), Pinar, Alp (he came for the first time and directly from the bookstore where he bought the Message!) and Gus (from France, Jöntürk's guest). Eduardo gave a little introduction and then said, it was a good moment for people to ask if they have questions about the Message or else share experiences. Jöntürk had several questions and very interesting ones. The participants answered based on their personal experiences, which made it very clear that the message allows free and divers interpretations, and that the experiences can be translated in different ways.The conversation was interesting and I think it helped us to get into theme before doing the ceremony. I guess it is always an important question how to create the necessary athomosphere and consonance among participants. After a little explanation (as there were several people who participated for the first time), we did a Service, officiated by Eduardo (in Spanish) and Yigit (in Turkish).It was a deep exerpience for many of us. After the service some people had to leave, but with ones who stayed we did a Well-being for Jöntürk's friend who the night before died in a car accident. For me it was very strong, and of course I can only guess that maybe others had similar feelings.
Maribel, Nacho and Alvaro left to Ankara yesterday and we are looking for this week's encounters and happenings in Istanbul.
Hugs, Judit
I love the picture of Gerardo and Jonturk!
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