KilimWomen Day to Day Diary - Oct 2000

[BarbaraSher]

coming up

[BarbaraSher]

Oh boy, 1.5 hours until the car picks me up, and I\'m transferring stuff about Success Teams from one computer to another for Andrea to take care of while I\"m gone. Yesterday (Oct 3) went with Tor and Emilia, the 2 volunteers who will be staying for 3 months (bless them) and the car broke down. I didn\'t have time for that. But the good news was, I said to Emilia, I want to come up with a sewing project for the American Coffee Bar (and language-practice social club) so the more old-fashioned women will come. Otherwise they\'ll think it\'s for someone else. They get left out of too much as it is, in my opinion. So I had thought, how about soft sculpture? How about doing a model of a cave house with furniture and people from sewing and stuffing? Barnes and Noble had nothing. While talking to Emilia I said, you don\'t happen to know anything about soft sculpture do you? And she smiled and nodded a great big yes. I\'m going to pack this computer now. I\'ll try to get online on the 6th. Wish me and the little dog luck.

[KKG]

Good luck, Barbara! Can\'t wait to hear how everything develops. Kimberly

[BarbaraSher]

Thanks for the good wýshes, Kým. Except for the boardýng hassle ýn NY (there\'s always some offýcýal wýth a výle attýtude about the dog somewhere on the trýp, no matter how carefully you follow the rules) everythýng was great. Still it was about 24 hours or more,door to door. Next sprýng I\'ll fly direct to Ýstanbul and thence to the new aýrport that\'s much nearer to the výllage. Once here, however, all memory faded of the trip and Ý was back ýn this entirely lovable world. (Incýdentally, there are new photos up ýn the www.kilimwomen.com site;check out \'Red Valley.\') Two days of jetlag caught up wýth me so I slept when I should have been arrangýng thýngs, and couldn,t sleep at nýght,and busy sýgnals on the ýnternet slowed progress down, and the schoolrooms hadn\'t been fýnýshed as hoped but all thýs wýll soon be set straýght. Nýght before last we were ýnvýted to a neýghbor,s house for tea or Nescafe (whých ýs very expensýve and lýke offerýng a guest your best Courvousýer) There was just enough Englýsh by some Turks, and my pathetýc Turkýsh to make the evenýng uproarýous and warm. The výsýtors who came wýth me saýd they understood completely how one could be happy here. Next nýght after dýnner wýth other neýghbors at my house I whýpped out the scabble setç We had to stretch the rules a být --- for example you could put ýn Turkýsh words and Englýsh words ýf you wanted to -- but ýt was a great game wýth some real talent by the neýghbor\'s daughter\'s husband (a trucker who goes to places lýke Iran and Uzbekýstan every week or two.) The Teagarden ýs open and I\'ve been eatýng there every chance Ý get, shaded by trees, smýled at by old men playýng what looks lýke mah jongg (but ýsnt) Sara the Good Lawyer (who set up the Hands On Hips, Ýnc. non-profit that allows all donations and-or kýlým purchases to be tax-deductýble)came for a whýrlwýnd 2 days ýn whých she clýmbed the fearsome and dauntýng Hýsar-Castle (a 200-300 foot hýgh plug stýckýng up ýnto the sky ýn the center of the výllage) as well as the \'challengýng! terraýn ýn the Red Valley and gasped that she had fallen ýn love wýth the place too. She slept at Crazy Ali\'s b&b. It\' always been my favorýte house ýn the výllage -- the oddest spaces ýn ýt because ýt,s half carved out of a mountaýn, one room has a many-colored carved and paýnted ceýlýng -- staýrs clýmb up ýnsýde the rock -- I could go on but I\'m makýng so many typýng errors that Ý,m sufferýng a být here You mýght see by the weýrd letters that I\'m typýng on a Turkýsh keyboard. I\'m ýn Urgup,a cute nearby town wýth about 20 carpet stores on the maýn street, and more around every corner -- also lots of cute tshotshkes for tourýsts -- and an ýnternet cafe. I hope to be wrýtýng from my own keyboard tomorrow or the next day --and to report on the progress of the school and kýlým weavýng sýte. Is thýs typýng a paýn to read? I\'m fýxýng as much as I can but ýt,s slowýng thýngs down.How much can Ý get away wýth not fýxýng here? (It just took me about 10 seconds to fýnd the questýon mark) Over and out for now.

[KKG]

Oh, Barbara -- it sounds glorious! I\'m jealous. Kimberly

[lindsay stevens]

Wow-Barbara-what a great idea-I wish you continued success on your trip- reminds me of my traveling days-I lived in the Middle East for nearly a decade and loved to travel around- And I do think there are ways to blend commerce and culture effectively. I went to Bali over 25 years ago-and I heard stories from my friends about how badly commercialization was going to be for the culture-I returned to Bali 5 years ago and found the island prospering economically-with old rituals and culture still intact! Also I \'m glad to see a person with ethics doing this sort of thing. I once bought a weaving in Egypt done with child labor-it was said that the children did it to earn a half day at school-anyway I\'m not sure it was really done in the interest of the children! Anyway all the best to you in your adventures-and thank you for you personal words of encouragement to me via the board!

[mbmc3377]

Hi Barbara! What an incredible journey! I am looking so forward to your next diary post! I have a sister that is always trying to get me involved in something, and when I see how you have made a difference in the world, I am inspired! Let us know what\'s new in the Turkish world, and I look forward to speaking to you or meeting you someday. P.S. I sent my $ to become a Success Team Leader in Santa Barbara, CA. That\'s how I hope to contribute. If I think of other ways, I will let you know. Best Regards, and Godspeed, mbmc3377

[BarbaraSher]

I\'m on the Internet at home! Finally! No weird letters and a bit of normal speed. What was wrong? A friend drove into the nearby town and shanghaied the local internet wiz and hauled him to my house. Apparently my house is the only one in the village with pulse dialing instead of tone dialing, and they had changed all the access numbers since the last time I was here. So the good news is that the infrastructure is fine (except for my house, which has mysteriously been accomodated on the dialing side). I take the little dog and go up the hill into the main street each morning (adults still turn their heads in shock at the size of a Yorkie, and he takes on every big dog in the town. They (the dogs) think he\'s not right in the head, so they run away which increases his delusions of grandeur.) And I sit and watch the early morning action. The men are mostly in suits (although some have tweed jackets over baggy men\'s pants, small at the ankles and oddly elegant), some of them are young and important looking (schoolteachers or government officials perhaps) and some are a bit dustier, slightly more bent over. The walk down the middle of the village street. This morning one of the older ones bent over, picked up something, maybe a piece of broken glass, and after searching a moment for a likely spot, threw it out of the way of tires and horses or donkey\'s feet. The the children show up, walking fast to school, wearing some kind of blue top with a white round collar, often carrying a backpack. Some stop in the store where I buy bread, and I\'m not sure what they buy although today I saw two 10-year-old girls leave with a large, flat package of gift-wrapping paper. Then the donkeys go by, often ridden by people larger than they are, with baskets or kilim-woven saddlebags on each side. Day before yesterday my neighbor was the donkey-rider. She\'s a generous-sized woman and was wearing her shalwars (baggy pants) and her wrapped scarf, and over the scarf a large square of white cloth which attaches itself to the crown of her head and falls back over her shoulders. Only friction seems to hold it on. Behind her, her two teen-age daughters, coming to help her bring in a part of the harvest -- so they couldn\'t come to English-Computer class this week. They smile and wave, and come over to speak more English than I have Turkish: Merhaba, Hello. Gel benim evde bugun, okule? (are you coming to my house today for school?) Yok, yok, Anneh bahci yardim (No, no we have to help our mother with her garden.) Well never use that Turkish anywhere you want to make a good impression...I talk like a 4 year old, or Tarzan: Me Tarzan. You Jane. The two volunteers, on the other hand, are total wizards at the language. I often ask them what someone has said -- and they\'ve only been here a week! Everyone loves them (and should!)Emilia\'s name has been changed to Aylin (moonlight) and Tor\'s to Temel (a manly name meaning \'solid foundation\' but also unfortunately, the local name for Popeye the Sailor Man. After some hesitation, I think he\'s decided to hang onto it, and brave it out. Tor has blond rasta hair, Emilia stands like a dancer or a queen, and both are eager to help, hard-working and extremely smart. I think the kilimwomen project got really lucky when they decided to take a semester off college and join me here. They\'ve turned out to be the only volunteers, but I think given the size of the program, that\'s okay. I\'ve had a wicked flu, aching all over yesterday, and fingers crossed about today, so this is the only internet response I\'m sending. Hopefully tomorrow I\'ll be able to catch up. I am warmed by your responses Kim, Lindsay and mbnc. If you saw me smile while I read them (which I caught myself doing) you\'d be glad you wrote. I\'ll try to answer more specifically later.

[JanetLB]

Hi Barbara! I just caught up with your project and viewed the web-site. This is FABULOUS!!! You are an example/inspiration of how to get off one\'s rear-end and get to work on whatever it is that one is passionate about! Thank you also for being honest about the people you have had to deal with and how the process of accomplishing one\'s goals is not always easy and smooth. I know the project is still very fresh but in the back of your mind put a thought that someday the school may want to open it\'s doors to weavers from around the world interested in learning this special weaving style -- maybe week or 2 week workshops. Handwoven, an Interview Press publication, always has a section devoted to weaving and travel. Continued best wishes with the project and I will definitely keep checking out the site. . . Janet

[Arsinoe]

Yes, a beautiful post. Sorry about the \'flu, though. That\'s horrid. Hope that you are soon on the mend.

[Arsinoe]

Barbara, I forgot to post the simple solution to how to use your modem when you have pulse dialing and/or a different dial-tone (like the beep-beep in Italy). Look at the modem set-up for the telecommunications program that you are using. You will find a dialing-string command that is usually \"ATDT\". Change that line to \"ATX1DP\", and your modem will dial-up most anywhere. This is what the command change tells your modem: AT Attention! Wake up, we are going to do something now. X1 Ignore the weird dial-tone that you hear--or lack of dial-tone--and dial the phone anyway. DP Dial using pulse, instead of tones. If ATX1DP doesn\'t work well, try adding a few commas to the string ATX1DP,,, The commas tell the computer to wait a few seconds for the local dialing signal. The dialing string should be followed by the number that you are calling. On some set-up programs that information is entered in another location. Otherwise, I may look something like ATX1DP,,,1234567 (or whatever the local access number). Hope that helps.

[BarbaraSher]

Janet, thanks for your great response. In fact, having weavers come here to learn is one of my most sought-after goals, but I haven\'t been exactly sure where to start. Ran into a few deadends. Any advice would be very useful. I swear I\'d love to learn how to make them myself. It looks so soothing and the results can be breathtaking. Right now I\'m working on finding only naturally dyed wool, hopefully hand-spun wool. If I\'m successful, we might be the only makers of such kilims for that last 60-80 years! Kilims have gotten popular and I think they\'ve got underpaid people knocking them out like crazy. I\'ve seen those kilims and they\'re often copies, not local symbols -- I don\'t know, everything is wrong with them somehow. I hope to see some created from a better part of the heart. You should see the nomad women from this area who have just come to live here for the winter. They can spot cheap goods a mile away. They spin their wool on spindles right in front of me and show me the plants they\'ll use to dye them. And their designs are complex and touching. You can feel the difference.

[BarbaraSher]

Thanks Arsinoe I\'d better keep that good advice handwritten on a piece of paper in case I can\'t get online to find it again. For the nonce, I\'ve got it set up and about 10 \"Superonline\" telephone numbers to work with, so the computer kid must have fixed it. Great day today. Brief bouts with the flu but mostly fine. The weather is smashing, day after day: bright skies, hot in the sun, cold in the shade.The sunset from my back yard is beautiful. The sun actually sets behind you as you look, and the whole valley turns rosy with Mt. Erciyes the rosiest of all and the last to lose the light. I got my photos of \"pekmes making\" and will make a children\'s storybook of them I think, to sell on the www.kilimwomen.com. site. I will also post them on the site for youse grownups. Yemek tonight (dinner to you) was Manta. The volunteers got a dinner somewhere else -- and ate manta. 3 of the visitors to The Turkish American Culture Club had manta. (pasta bows drenched in garlic and yogurt, a sauce of ground beef, homegrown peppers, tomatoes, um what else. It\'s very late here.) I want to do a cookbook too. Maybe with photos. I\'ve put up about 8 photos from the beautiful Red Valley near here on the kilimwomen.com site. I think you\'ll enjoy a look. Nodding out. Good stuff happened. I want to write more. Heard from an employee at Seattle Microsoft: it\'s their time to make donations and many of them want to give us money (matched by Microsoft) but because my 501 (c)3 is still pending I\'m not on their list. I\'m so crushed. We could use the help, oh boy could we. Again, any suggestions? (Thanks, team.) [This message has been edited by BarbaraSher (edited October 19, 2000).]

[Arsinoe]

Perhaps you could find another not-for-profit that would be willing to act as an administrative umbrella for your project, until you receive the 501 (c)3. Even if you have to pay some administrative fees, it would be nice to be able to take advantage of end-of-the-year giving. The cookbook idea is great. Another traditional fund raiser. Keep the format simple, and price it as a contribution to the Kilim weavers of Ortahisar. [Another tiny suggestion, fix the typo in your last post so that the link to your site is not broken. It should read www.kilimwomen.com site.]

[Violin]

re Microsoft corporate matching. I am familiar with their annual fund-raising push. Each year they try to top themselves. There is a suggested list of charities, and it\'s set up to be easy to donate to them via online forms and such. My memory of all the details may not be 100% accurate to how this is done presently. Obviously that list couldn\'t include every charity out there - but it is quite long as I recall. Microsoft does match 501c charities, whether they are on the list you speak of or not. Perhaps your contact isn\'t aware of this or for whatever reasons (I recall various paperwork hassles involved in donating to some charities) isn\'t leaning toward the more complicated donating process. I offer this info in hope some detail was overlooked. Charities compete for those Microsoft donations; I used to have some practically hounding me. All this to say, you might persist a little, because it could be your contact is simply bogged down by paperwork hassles or is dealing with so much e-mail they need a bit of prodding to get around to processing yours.