sinop turkey

This small peninsular town off the Black Sea coast is where I want to live for the rest of my days. It juts off into the sea, trailed by rolling countryside and full of nice people and happy stray dogs.

It has been rainy here, and while I was walking around I stumbled upon an outdoor fish market that had crabs for sale. I stupidly gestured to ask if there was a restuarant anywhere where I could eat them. They told me there was using their own gestures. When I found the place I was told by the waiter that they in fact did not have any. But there was an old man inside eating and he told me I could buy some from that market I was just at, bring them back to him, and he would cook them for me (he spoke English). He actually decided to walk there with me, bought them for me, and then once they were cooked invited me to eat them on his boat with him. So I did. It was my own ´old man and the sea´ .....he told me all about his career as a fisherman, his travels, his family. Now 83 years old, he just kicks around this town jovially being kind to strangers like me. That is him at the top, 35 years ago. King of the sea.

trabzon turkey

there are lots of people and great food in trabzon turkey. i am headed down to the coast right now to check out the carnival rides by the water. swinging boats and ferris wheels. it feels great to be in this country.

georgia

I'm in Batumi, Georgia for the day and the night....and the Black Sea is wonderful. It is hard not to compare Armenia and Georgia, but for their proximity to each other, size, and history, the cultures are remarkably different. The train ride to Tbilisi, and the bus ride to Batumi were both memorable experiences. I didn't think we would get to Batumi alive last night....our driver drove 5 hours straight, like a maniac. Passing 5 cars at a time, even the police. If it wasn't for the little bottle of apple juice and vodka I mixed for myself, I might have cried. And the train....lingering odors of sweat and urine, mean border patrol officers that practically kicked us to wake us up at 4 am, but beautiful sunsets and sunrises on both occassions. I just wanted to post a few pictures from these first few days...

the baller

There are about 6 kids that live across and next door to me. I am usually attacked in the evenings, held hostage to play with them. This particular day there was a contest to see who could bounce the ball on their foot the longest. It wasn't me, I could only manage 5 times. But this girl kicked it up 51 times. We were all amazed....51 times.

tatik gabweet ov

Trying to get the scarf just right, for the perfect picture. I liked how this looked instead.

balloons

I walked down to the school this morning to catch the graduation ceremony. There were these little girls that appeared to be responsible for displaying balloons. In the morning light, with their perfect white dresses and flashy balloons I couldn't resist taking their picture. They weren't having it though, gave no shadow of a smile. But the ceremony went on, and I clapped and cheered for the kids who I have worked with over this past year feeling the speed of time in myself.

beachside

Running to the water.....breathing in sunshine. Tuni Palooza, Lake Sevan, Armeniastan.

snakes?

My neighbor and her daughter, taken in my garden. They recently informed me that there will be snakes in my garden this summer as apparently there are every year. Big, ugly, dangerous ones. But they only live in my garden, not in theirs. Best news I've heard in a long time.

here and there

Nothing photographically special or creative.....just a moment of happiness to be here rather than any other "there."

a message

A new group of volunteers are coming at the end of this month, and we are all pretty anxious. I just wanted to tell them this.

day trip

I took a trip today to a tiny village about an hour off the main road with my neighbor, Hranush, by taxi so we could pick up bread. A $10 taxi ride for bread, which is the cheapest thing you can buy here. But I couldn't refuse a trip to a village that far off the road. Hranush was practically jumping up and down by the time we got out of the car, showing me the house she was born in and saying hello to all her old friends. It was a dry and cold place far up the mountain road. In general, people don't travel too often here, and anyplace that a public bus doesn't go gets even less traffic. The tiny cemetary in the village made me think about the reality of place and time. That there really are people who spend their whole lives living in remote villages like Bartsruni.

kyiv

Russian architecture and scandalous fashion make Kyiv, Ukraine a very eccentric city to see. I only wished I could've stayed longer.

dirt diggers

An early picture I took of my second host family, working in their green house. I live right down the street from them now and even bring my food scraps to their chickens almost every other day, but I will never hear the end of "why haven't you come to see us sooner?"

myths of a mountain

Two young men I met while shooting farm workers last weekend, taking a break from their endless questions they proposed to me. It was a bright sunny day and Mt. Ararat, which can be seen but just slightly, was yawning in the background in full clear view. I never can tell, I'm sure that I am way off, but from the road it appears that that mountain would be a piece of cake not only to climb but to walk to as well (beside the fact that it's in Turkey). Legend has it that Noah's Ark is parked somewhere inside the mountain. Yup, inside the mountain. So outlandish you've gotta love it.

best for last

I planned on taking pictures of roadside farmers. So I spent about 4 hours trying to, and at the end of the day while I waited for a bus to come pick me up this family came out of their house, crossed the road, wondered what I was doing by the road, and eventually invited me to their house. I don't have one good picture of those farmers, but these three pictures turned out to be the best I took all day.