Nomads

We're spending the next two weeks in Antalya with our students. Some friends of ours live in a village just outside of the city where we get away for a couple weeks to focus on prayer, work, and study. Their place is right on the edge of a forest. They have a couple acres of land with two houses, two prayer huts, orchards, flowers... and a tree house.

As we pulled into their place the other day we noticed a group of tarp houses set up just outside their gate. A group of families live and work on the road travelling from region to region thinning forests for the government to prevent forest fires and to sell the wood. Our friends give the workers a place to set up their tarp houses and let them use the water and electricity. The workers' mules graze on the property when they aren't dragging logs.

Beginning early in the morning the men and the women take up axes and chain saws and cut down the trees they had already marked the day before. Then the grind off the bark with another handheld machine. It's obviously very hard work.

Today after lunch we brought over a big container of food for the families. I took Ruby and Jonah with me to meet them and we sat down in their camp area. The women quickly put a pot of tea on and the men woke up from their afternoon naps. They had built a platform off the ground to sleep and sit on during the day... far enough from the bugs and snakes to get rest. They carry their housing and kitchen supplies in a trailer pulled by an old car which was parked next to the camp. A wood stove and an outdoor kitchen were set up just off the the side of their houses. These are professional nomads.

They speak Turkish with a thick accent and all of them had some kind of gold jewelry on. Typically villagers prefer to carry their valuables on them as jewelry than to invest in a bank. A goat was tied to a tree and her kid (the baby goat) was wandering next to her. 5 or 6 chickens and a rooster wandered around the camp. Ruby and Jonah were instantly drawn to the animals. Jonah desperately wanted to pet the baby goat... "He's smiling at me," Jonah said. As we sat for tea and conversation Jonah had plenty of time to pet and feed the goats and to chase the chickens around the camp.

They were a very nice group, all extended family. There was even a 2 month old baby sleeping on the platform with them. We spent an hour chatting and drinking tea. One of the women recently had an operation on her neck, so she was wearing a brace. We assured them we would be praying for her. Jonah was very entertaining during the whole visit and he gave us plenty to talk about during what otherwise might have been awkward silence.

I think we'll go back again for tea tomorrow. Maybe we'll offer to pray in person for the woman with the neck brace.