Day 44: A Wedding in the Village, A Graduation in the City

Village Valley

On Friday, Jack and I went to one of the villages nearby to Gümüşhane with one of our students, Sema, for her uncle’s wedding. There was going to be a ceremony in the village and then the following day they would also have one in the city. The wedding invitation said it was at 1:00 PM but she and her father didn’t even pick us up until 1:00 so…Turkish time, I guess.

I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the village, but it’s about 30km outside of Gümüşhane. The village itself is perched above one of the numerous mountain valleys. Sema explained that her family lived there during the summers and then they returned to Gümüşhane during the winters. There were many apple orchards dotting the valley, donkeys stubbornly standing in the middle of the road and an interesting sort of poverty that in some ways reminded me of Africa except not as impoverished?

Of course whenever we arrived the first thing to do was eat. We had food heaped upon us! Sema’s uncle and cousin from Germany were visiting, and her cousin spoke exceptional English. Between her and Sema, we were able to talk to Sema’s parents and the few people that had gathered early for the wedding. After finishing our tea, Sema and her cousin led us on a little walk of the valley, which was spectacularly beautiful and peaceful.

Jack gets into the spirit of things

When we got back to the house, it was time for dancing and firing guns. Yes, firing guns. Before I knew it, everyone had a handgun out. They were waving them wildly in the air and indiscriminately shooting here and there. You can’t even imagine how nervous this made me. I thought only Berbers and Saddam Hussein just wildly fired guns into the air, but apparently it’s also quite common in village weddings in Turkey. At one point one of the guns jammed, so the guy was trying to fix it all the while POINTING IT DIRECTLY AT ME. I don’t know anything about guns but what if it unjammed? How humiliating of a death would that have been?

Apparently a lover of weapons, Jack decided to shoot a few rounds. I politely declined both for my own safety and the safety of others. After the live weapons fire, the men started to dance at the house with the groom. Eat, shoot guns and dance a jig…if there had been moonshine involved I could have sworn I was in east Tennessee.

Horon dancing

Eventually we were herded back into the living room for coffee, which was absolutely delicious (the best I’ve had in Turkey). Then the ladies arrived. They were all dressed in their Sunday (or Friday) finest and full of smiles and giggles for the foreigners. After a bit of awkward translated conversation, we all moved up the hill to a prepared space where the real dancing began. There was a drummer and a kemenche player (like a fiddle) who got everyone whipped into a frenzy. Soon people were doing the horon dance, which is the local dance in the Black Sea region. You shake your upper body really fast and you fling your feet around whilst moving in a circle and holding hands with the other people. It’s a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be.

When we finally departed, people were very kind and gracious in telling us goodbye. In fact, compared to the cold shoulder you get in Gümüşhane being in the village was like being family. Our student was so happy and excited that we came, and I was, too. It was easily one of the more amazing things I’ve done here!

=-=

Back in the city, we had the graduation ceremony for our summer school. The kids all got dressed up, and they all clean up very nicely! I felt like some kind of homeless guy in my polo shirt and khakis, fresh from the dirt of the village. Dinner was in the cafeteria, although it was slightly better than it usually is. I had to sit at the high table, which was asinine. There’s nothing more fun than sitting with a bunch of grumpy businessmen and the pompous governor!

Upstairs the kids had put together a little slideshow of pictures from throughout the summer, including one of me with my mouth hanging open and another of me sleeping on the bus. Jack and I had to give a speech, which was a little awkward, and he had to play a song. Then with all due pomp and circumstance certificates were distributed to sponsors of the school, including the owner of the local gold mine, and then the top five students from each class were given their certificates. The ranking worked out pretty well with the hardest working students being duly awarded.

We moved outside to distribute the rest of the certificates and then the dancing began again. And picture taking. And writing special little notes to practically each and every student inside their certificate folder. Saying goodbye to the students was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. Even though a lot of them drove me mad, even the bad ones grew on me!