The Ultimate Weekend

I had a dream come true this past weekend. There were little, round pieces of plastic flying through the air above the local university for two solid days. No, we weren't invaded by UFOs (still waiting for that dream to come true), we had an ultimate frisbee clinic here in town.

It all started way back last August when I met a couple of people from Istanbul that played ultimate up there. They had been playing pick up games with some other foreigners and some Turks and had organized themselves into a team. They had already made one trip to Europe for a small 5 on 5 beach ultimate tournament and were hoping to go to a larger, full 7 on 7 tournament that fall. I kept in touch and sure enough, I made the trip with them to Germany where we placed 4th (out of 8 teams) and had a blast doing it. It was then that I learned that they actually had enough interest to have a small, 4 team league in Istanbul last fall. It was also about that time when the idea of them coming down here to play got tossed around.

After meeting with these people last August, I figured, "If they can get ultimate going in Istanbul, why can't I get it going here?" Through the fall, I learned why. First of all, I don't speak the language well enough. The leader of the group in Istanbul is an American, but he was born and raised in Istanbul, so he speaks Turkish as well as a native. Secondly, I didn't have a lot of connections at the university. I hadn't spent much time out there and my job had put me in contact with mostly working professionals, not students. But I tried anyways.

It was up and down through the fall and winter. One week we had 17 people show up. The very next week we had 6. That's the way it went all winter and into this spring. And just when I was about to lose hope and give up, I get a call from our frisbee friends in Istanbul.

They had applied for and won an "Innovators Grant" from the Ultimate Players Association in America. They received a small amount of money to develop ultimate within Turkey. Since I was here and had exposed a few people to the sport already, they chose Adana as one of their sites. You can get an idea of how that went by looking back at this post and at this one. It was frustrating, but eventually we found a professor that was excited about the idea and willing to put things together for us. He really came through.

The guys from Istanbul had so much fun doing one of these clinics in another city two weekends ago that they had a lot of people volunteer to come down here. It was a good thing they did. Even though there were 12 Turk Kasi players and myself at the fields, it was hard to deal with the 40-50 people we had show up on Saturday. It was even harder when we had close to 70 show up on Sunday. To say it was a success is an understatement. It was a small miracle.

Saturday we started with some breakfast at a cafe on campus. We discussed what we'd do for the day, some translation issues, and fate, among other things. We made the long walk across campus and got ourselves stretched out, warmed up, and organized. To start the day, we taught the simple backhand and forehand throws. After a little practice with that, we tried the basic offensive and defensive strategies, the stack and force. We let them play a good bit and everyone had a blast. The day ended with a couple talks about the history of ultimate, the spirit of the game, and the role of women in the sport. Everyone went home and we felt great about the day. Turk Kasi played an intrasquad match before heading to the house for showers and a kebap. After throwing down some great Adana cooking, it was off to a cafe for cay, nargile, and lots of laughs. You couldn't have asked for a better day.

Sunday started pretty much the same way. Everyone was pretty beat from the day before, so we slept in and had breakfast at my place. After some long and draining conversations about the place of women in society, the interaction between Islam and culture, the differences in Islam and Christianity, and, finally, politics, we got ready for round 2 at the university. We decided to start the day with some talks on fouls and spirit of the game to stay out of the sun during the hottest part of the day. We were amazed to find that not only had almost everyone come back from the day before, but there were at least a dozen new people there. We divided into four teams and had a quick two game tournament. I have to brag a little and say that my team won both our games, 7-1 and 7-2, to take home the championship. We also had the best team name and celebration. We were the Pink Panthers (due to the pink jerseys we had to wear) and would sing the Pink Panther theme song after a point.

Again, it was a blast, a small miracle, and for me, a dream come true. The professor that sponsored us is the perfect kind of guy (sporty and hippie) to keep ultimate going here. I hate that I am leaving so soon because I would love to be a part of this budding ultimate community. But at least I got to see it's beginnings. Maybe one day in the future I'll be able to see where it goes.

And since some blog buddies of mine have been doing "picture blogs" recently, and I love to one up anyone whenever I can, this is going to be a VIDEO blog. Here are a handful of short clips from the weekend. Enjoy.

My roommates and I trying to figure out how to translate some ultimate language into Turkish.
Breakfast Saturday - Getting our plan for the day together.
It wasn't all serious.
Making our way across campus.
Teaching the stack and force.
Handing out certificates.
And that's a wrap guys.

Night and Day

It's amazing how much of a roller coaster my life has been in this country. I complain about how dramatic the Turkish people are, and yet, at the same time, I understand how they feel. It seems that every other week I'm ready to get on that big plane home. And every other week I'm ready to trade my passport in for a Turkish ID card.

Two weeks ago was one of those that makes me wonder what the heck I'm doing here. I had just said goodbye to all my marathon running friends. It's always a bit depressing to see a bunch of friends leave town. It's even harder when the next afternoon you come home to a note on the door asking you to clean up the living room. They had just left at 10 the night before and I had been busy that day. Give a guy a chance. Then, the next day was an impromptu theological round table discussion. Due to my busy weekend and the need to clean the house Monday, I did not come fully prepared. Not only that, but the topic is one that I have not studied much to begin with. So it wasn't surprising that I didn't have much to add to the conversation. It was a bit surprising that the tone of the meeting wasn't what I had hoped for and it added to my already melancholy mood. Then I showed up to play some ultimate on Wednesday afternoon only to find a big DO NOT ENTER sign on our field. Pooper. Then, on Thursday afternoon, after not talking for a week or so, I had a difficult conversation with Lane. It was a terrible way to cap a pretty crappy week.

Does it have to fit the story to be included? I didn't have any pictures of a crappy week. I hope the arch picture will suffice.
But the last week was the total opposite. I had a great time seeing an old friend on Wednesday. We sat around and chatted for hours about life here and I came away very encouraged. Then on Friday, we had a great Bible study followed by some good fellowship and a delicious kebap with friends. It doesn't get much better than that, but it did. Friday night at my barber shop I got to speak truth into the life of a good friend here. He's newly married and is dealing with all kinds of junk that I can't even imagine. But he got to hear the message again, in it's entirety, in English, and for that I am very grateful. As soon as he left, I got to share the full Gospel with another man. This time, it was entirely in Turkish. It's the first time I can remember sharing with someone and answering their questions without there being some major language barrier in the conversation. I felt like I explained everything just how I wanted and was able to answer his questions without much problem at all. Then my roommate came down to sit with us. He was on a special TV series this past week entitled "Being a Missionary in Anatolia." I watched the episode he was interviewed on with my barber, so I knew they had seen it. Just as I had hoped, they were full of questions for my roommate when he came down. He got to share his testimony, story of his beating, and answer a ton of questions about being a Christian and church life. It was absolutely wonderful. The conversation was full of laughter and deep spiritual truths. It doesn't get much better than that.

Random picture of our church. I know you like pictures.
I have ticket to go home now. I fly out early on May 31st and will be in the States that same day. It's done. There's no going back now. And some days that's exactly what I want. Other times, I still don't like to think about leaving this place and these people.

Right now I feel like I could stay forever. Then again, who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Running Where Paul Walked

A week ago a bunch of us headed to Tarsus to participate in the 5th Annual Tarsus Half Marathon.

Well, that was my original intent at least.

Not long after I started training for the half marathon, my frisbee friends in Istanbul told me that they had obtained some grant money from the Ultimate Players Association in the US for the purpose of putting on instructive clinics in Turkey. I was super excited. Then I found out that they wanted to do one in Adana the same weekend as the half marathon. It meant that I had to choose one or the other and when faced with the choice of putting myself through the agony of three months worth of training and then running 21.1 kilometers for no apparent reason or doing nothing for three months and showing up to play ultimate for two days with good friends, I chose what was behind door number 2.

So I quit training. But then as the weeks went on, it became obvious that we were not going to be playing ultimate that weekend. This is Turkey and things just don't happen as fast as you'd like sometime. So it freed me up to run in the race. But by that time, it was too late. There was no way I was going to be ready for a full half marathon. So I decided that I would rather run a good 5k than a horrible and painful half marathon. And that's what I did.

The race itself was short (5k really isn't that far and there's no guarantee that it was actually 5k anyways) and it passed quickly (I asked a guy I was running with for the time just before the finish and he said 18 minutes. When I crossed the finish line, my clock said 20 minutes. I finished somewhere in between.). So I took up position, with all the women who did the 5k, near the finish line to watch the men, and some women, finish their half marathon.

It was a ton of fun and I have to say that I am still interested in running a half marathon some day, just not today. Enjoy some pictures from the weekend.

The Start/Finish Line - I'm not sure who designates what year it is.
I could've sworn this was the "Year of Chris."
Everyone came out to cheer on the runners, even the old ladies.
This dude did the 5k on crutches. His arms were as big as my waist.
And this dude did the whole half marathon.

Easter Fun

I'd like to start by saying that I had a BLAST on Easter Sunday. It was a long, full day that literally lasted from sunrise to sunset (and after). It was jammed pack with worship, prayer, and lots of laughs. We started with a city-wide sunrise service out by the lake. It was very peaceful and quiet at that time of morning and the sun rising over the lake cast the perfect glow on the scene. There are very few things that I will wake up that early for, and this was certainly worth the effort. From there we headed to the international church for a little breakfast and fellowship time. I don't get over to the international church much and have to say that I really enjoyed the chance to spend time with the people who are there. Of course, that could just be the breakfast talking.

But don't think I'm thinking of switching churches. I love the 2 PM start time too much! I got to go home after breakfast and sleep for another hour or two before getting up and getting dressed for our service. We had a full program for our Easter guests and a full sanctuary for our Easter program. There were so many people that about 10 of us had to stand in the back. They all seemed to enjoy the worship to start things. Cobbler John gave us a good explanation of how the death and resurrection of Jesus was foretold in the Old Testament. We had a dramatic poem reading, an interactive reading from the New Testament, a choir that couldn't quite get on the same note, a theatre production that had everyone laughing (though it wasn't meant to be funny), and a great message delivered by our faithful leader. We enjoyed lots of cake and conversation afterwards before the party moved elsewhere.

After church it was back to the international church for a "youth group" party. It's really funny to me that "youth" is the word they use for practically anyone in the church that is still single, with no regard for age. There was a lot of food, good conversation, and a small worship service. One of the Turkish believers gave his testimony and explained why Easter was important to us. Later one of the guys who came pulled this believer off to the side and supposedly gave his life to Christ. I'm skeptical by nature and being here has only made it worse, but it was still an exciting time and I think we should all pray that this was a genuine decision made with the head and heart. We all had a blast as well, sharing a special day with all our special friends.

So, that's the serious side of Easter in Turkey. Here are some light hearted happenings from the day...

At the sunrise service I was talking with a young Turkish believer from the international church. We had met a few times before and we were just catching up on what's been going on in life. In a lull in the conversation he shows me his pants. They have a big brown mark that surrounds a hole in the leg. He says that he was ironing them, but the iron wasn't hot enough. So he left it on the board and went to look up something on the internet while it heated up. He must've waited a little too long because he smelled something burning. He ran back in to see the iron laying down and burning through his pants. Funny enough in it's own right. It was even funnier that night at the "youth group" party when he had changed into some "nicer" pants. The "nice" ones he put on had intentionally had holes cut in them to look "fashionable." You can't make this stuff up.

I humbly admit that the best parts of our Easter program did not involve me. But as you can see here, some of the funnier parts did.

You should've heard us when we first started practicing.


Yes, I said the right words. Apparently, though, I didn't say them the right way.


And lastly, at the international church that night, I was a minor celebrity. I had worn my suit to church because we always try to look nice on the major holidays. When I showed up at the international youth group party, however, I was way over dressed. But it was a big hit with the ladies. I kid you not, I probably had close to 10 or 12 requests for a photo that night. I was slightly embarrassed by the attention. It's a good thing I'm so humble about my stunning good looks.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter as well and yes, I know, I'm about two weeks late, but I promise I'll catch up in the next few days. Hopefully I'll have some pictures from the Tarsus Half Marathon to post tomorrow and some stories from a crappy week.

My Portfolio Debut

I have given a few private viewings over the last week or so, but this is the official debut of my long awaited (and once unsuccessful) photographic debut. After coming up blank on my last attempt, I spent a couple weeks learning how to read a light meter, adjust aperture and shutter speed, fine tuning the focus, and seeing if I had an eye for what makes a decent photograph. The first few things I could learn, but the last one is something you either have or you don't. I present my first 36 shots and I will let you be the judge. Here is a sampling, and to see the rest, go to my Flickr page.

Enjoy.

Two things I'll miss when I leave here, şalgam and kebap.
I love the old man in the back row there. Classic.
Maybe a little gross, but it has that National Geographic feel to it.
The Barber says, "You should go see the rest on Chris' Flickr page!"