recycling

I have decided to start recycling at our house. Unlike the states there doesn't seem to be a pick-up service. I have heard rumors of one inside Didim city center and I saw a truck once from çevko but there aren't any specifics on their website. Recycling is not yet a routine in Turkish culture. I must say they reuse alot though such as plastic grocery store bags in the garbage cans.

I found the above recycling bins in the Migros supermarket so i plan to save my recycling and load it up in my car to take to town. I guess start small. Maybe after I can get my in-laws interested and eventually our cafe. I think I would need a pick up service for the cafe though.

Does anyone have any information regarding this? Ideas?

Ohhh sweet pork...

Things I have missed from America???(besides the obvious and even more important family and friends)

-Pork- ohhh sweet pork, bacon, ham, sausage how ever you prepare it, it is tasty stuff! My husband can't get enough bacon or pork ribs with BBQ sauce every time he comes to visit the States.Turkey is predominantly Muslim country. Muslims and Jews think pork is dirty. Here is a description from Wikipedia, a "walking" animal is kosher only if it both chews its cud and has cloven hooves. However, the pig is the only animal to have cloven hooves but doesn't chew its cud: its external aspect makes it appear kosher, while it is not, making it a symbol of hypocrisy. I must say it is delicious though!

-Wine- good and inexpensive wine and lots of people who want to share it!

-Clothing dryers- they make for non-crunchy clothes, crunchy jeans and crunchy towels are the worst! It is not so bad if you live where there is lots of sunshine and ocean breeze(Didim vs. Eskişehir or Istanbul).

-The variety! Yes I love Turkish culture, people, food but I have missed being able to go to sushi one night and Thai the next mmmmmmm and don't forget Mexican. I love that America is such a melting pot of cultures that has brought with them their food!!! Istanbul and Izmir have everything of course but most of the other cities don't stray. They might have restaurants from different regions in Turkey but rarely other countries. I am not sure if it is because it is such a prideful country??? Or because many people don't travel because it is hard to take visas and don't realize other things are out there????Or they are just stuck in their ways???I think there are a good amount of Americans that are afraid of change but far more embrace differences I hope???Anyone have any thoughts???? Also I hate when Turks or people from other countries think that all Americans eat is fast food, blahhhh!!! I guess that is all we export and it is not making us look very good.

-Also the shopping has been pretty fabulous! Again...the variety! Things such as electronics, cars, converse shoes etc are soooo inexpensive in comparison. I guess because many things were invented by Americans or we have been the worlds consumers for so long but other countries are hungry for the goods now a days!

-City planning instead of just piling another house or apartment building on top of an ancient village. In Turkey there are tons of half completed building because people either ran out of money to finish the project or they started building without government approval and half way through the government made them stop. It is such a waste to see these beautiful beach side property covered in concrete shells.

-City wide recycling programs, Americans have really grown in awareness and most I know find it second nature to recycle but still have the rest of the world beat on the amounts we use and how overly packaged every single thing is. plastic

Artist Chris Jordan...

The above is titled Toothpicks, 2008
60x96"

Depicts one hundred million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees cut in the U.S. yearly to make the paper for junk mail.

This guy is making really interesting work. He repeats an objects in beautiful ways, showing how this one object enters a bigger picture.

"I hope to raise some questions about the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming."
-Chris Jordan-

Check out more here...

I love water...

Tequila, Caglar and I have been taking lots of long walks along the coast. Tequila follows us tripping on our heels, sniffing, swimming, tasting things. It is beautiful here. It is pretty remote where his parents house is with lots of air and space. We walk amongst low lying shrubs, olives trees and look at the expanse of blue sea. When the sun is setting the whole environment seems to take on pastel hues, pink, blues, purples, yellows. As we walk along the water though there is always trash, plastic bottles, broken glass, fishing nets, etc. I have been picking some of it up as we walk(even got Caglar into it sometimes). It seems ironic that I want a pair of plastic gloves to pick up all the plastic.

A previous post I talked about the floating plastic garbage dump in the middle of the Pacific. My sister wrote me that she is happy that I am thinking about these issues but what am I going to do about it? I have been thinking about this as well for a while. Especially since I am currently residing in Turkey, and it's different here. I saw recycle bins at the government building the other day but then looked inside and it was treated as a trash can, food etc. in there. Here there is alot of re purposing. Using plastic bags from the grocery store for the garbage bag. Using all the glass jars to hold other home made treats but no city recycling that I have seen. Another of the many reasons I need to learn Turkish better.


















Anyways what I have personally decided to do in my current situations is to always fill my nalgene bottle with water instead of buying plastic containers. For our new cafe I want to buy water pitchers for customers instead of the norm here of putting a liter plastic bottle on the table. I will continue to pick up the beach little by little every time tequila and I take a walk. Also to further investigate the state of Turkish trash removal, recycling, and dumping. Also it is so dry here I wonder where the water comes from? In our little community they re purpose shower/toilet water to water some grassy areas. So his mom tells us to not play in the grass. Also here, everyone in every city I've lived in (3 Istanbul, Eskisehir and didim) People always buy the big culligan water jugs...is the tap water safe to drink?

People are doing things, talking! there is this guy named Dave who decided to save all his trash for one year. It causes him to be extremely aware of how he is living.He write about it on his blog 365 days of trash Here's the kernel for his project...

The idea for this project came about six months ago as I was throwing something away in the garbage. It occurred to me that I was doing nothing more than that. I was making it go away, not dealing with it, not accounting for it, simply removing it from my sight. When you think of it in simple terms like that, it’s really quite insane. I came to the realization that if we were all accountable for our waste, if we couldn’t simply make it disappear, we’d have to deal with some pretty ugly truths about the way we live. And in so doing, it would cause us to start making better decisions about what we buy, where we buy, and what’s left over when we are done with that purchase.

Here's more specifically about plastic water bottles

Toxic garbage island...

VBS.TV. I stumbled upon this site which has tons of interesting videos about a trip to mind-trip communist North Korea, Manila in the Philippines garbage dump and the scavengers who live on the outskirts, interviews with artists and much more. One I found especially interesting and disturbing is Toxic garbage island. Three VBS.TV crew members travel with Charles Moore seven days sailing into the middle of the Pacific Ocean, so so far away from any people or land where the current circulate back around and keep things in, a vortex filling with plastic. You see the crew getting cabin fever for days and then they finally get to there destination, where millions of small particles of plastic(every part of the coke bottle) are floating in the ocean so very many miles from where any human is. The thing is that plastic never leaves it just keeps getting smaller, breaking down to tiny molecules. It doesn't go away ever; no biodegrading. Animals and fish are eating it and then it comes back to us. We unwrap the animals or fish from plastic and then eat the plastic inside them. great...

I remember the first time I traveled outside the USA. I went to Cozumel, Mexico with one of my best friends and her family. I was so young, 17 and so excited. We stayed on the sheltered side of the island facing the mainland at a beautiful villa. On day we took a trip to the other side of the island the open ocean facing side. It was picturesque the turquoise water, palm trees, the breeze was blowing but then all over the white sand beach was litter, plastic washing up from the sea. I started to pick it up but there was just so much. I tried to ask about it. I was told it was from the cruise ships but we are all to blame. That was over ten years ago and what am I doing differently? I can't claim ignorance anymore. Our system now is so set up for plastic we need to change our infrastructure. You use plastic for such a short amount of time but then it is around literally forever. The mind set is that it is disposble, no problem throw it. I think people are slowly becoming more aware but the garbage/recycle man comes every week to take it away from your house so you don't have to think about it so much. Also in America we have been recycling for years and is becoming the norm for so many. I think we are trying to change, there is alot of talk about being green and maybe one positive of this economic slump will help us rethink what we really need. Living in Turkey they use way less stuff, less wrapping, buy less stuff and reuse alot more but their consumption is on the way up , so many plastic bags and you can only drink bottled water in most cities. They want it and other countries want a consumer lifestyle. Some plastics can be great but others leach toxins into our bodies and the enviroment and never leave. Also it is petroleum based- same thing that gas is made from- that is strange.

here's a little more from the surfrider foundation

This video affected me hope you check it out...

seviyorum ve nefret ediyorum...

So I started taking Turkish language classes. Turkish and English sentence structure basically flips, the -um translates to 'I' etc. The above translates into I love and I hate. I love that I am learning Turkish so I can better communicate in and understand the culture which I am living in but it is tough. I love that I when I walk up the gigantic hill from the Marmara sea to my house I see at least ten fig trees getting ready to burst with plump delicious figs. I have visions of harvesting around my Istanbul neighborhood like I used to harvest lilacs and violets in Minnesota. I had the whole neighborhood scoped out different varieties and colors plotted in my head. The figs are coming...
















I love this stained glass work from the train station, Haydarpaşa, on the Asia side of Istanbul.
















I love that riding the ferry across the sea is a form of public transportation in this city and that there are seats outside.




















I hate that I have had so many electrical problems here, my new computer got zapped. Does anyone know a cheap way to ship to the U.S. and why shipping a broken computer might be a problem through customs?

Also I hate trash. The trash build up in Naples is amazing. What if everywhere the garbage men went on strike and we were unable to get rid of the trash, out of site out of mind? It just kept piling up and piling up. Would we change our consumption habits? Would we reuse more? Here in Turkey it seems to be culturally acceptable to litter. All the time throwing things out the windows and off the ferry into the sea. They reuse a good amount but their consumption levels are rising and there aren't recycling systems. The plastic water bottles around the world what do we do? So much water everywhere but none to drink. Also plastic bags, I try to say 'pakette yok'-no bag- because every little item is automatically put into a plastic bag. When I was young my reoccurring nightmare was that tons and tons of stuff was falling on me, suffocating me with stuff and I would wake up crying.(sounds funny but I am serious)

random rant for the day...
What do you love/hate?