How do you say goodbye to people from two continents away, whom you’ve met only twice in 13 months, whom you may never see again, and who have become more dear to you than many people you have known all your life? It isn’t just the fact of distance that makes the parting so hard. It is the deep and unexpected connections we made across the anticipated but un-materialized barriers of language and custom.
We said goodbye to our Turkish friends this evening after a beautiful closing ceremony they created for us. This day followed the remarkable events of yesterday, which included the final community celebration and performances by the children and teens of the two Gaziosmampasa District schools where our Cleveland/Istanbul arts education project has been working this past year.
The photos below will tell some of the story, and I previewed this inspiring project in earlier blogs this year and last year as well, but nothing I can say can convey the magic that happened here, with these children who had never seen a play, let alone written and performed in one…who never played an instrument, yet learned to use their own bodies as amazing percussion instruments, in rhythm and perfect synchronization with one another…who had never seen even fingerpaints, but learned the difficult, beautiful skill of paper marbling.
The American counsel general, the mayor of the district, the assistant minister of education, and other officials sat in the front row before the tiny elementary school stage. Mothers in head scarves, board members from Yoret (the sponsoring social service organization), and masses of schoolchildren filled the small room to overflowing.
“Goodbye, America,” they said as they hugged us and kissed our cheeks. “We want you to stay.” “Tell Obama we love him,” said some. I have a letter one child asked us to deliver to the White House “when you see him.”
The project continues for three more months, and we have a report to deliver to the State Department and a training manual for Turkish counselors and teachers still needs to be written. We helped make many connections between our project and several Turkish universities, which may help it continue. We hope so. But now, we must pack and get ready for the long, bittersweet trip home. We say “Tesekkur ederim”* to Turkey, to our dear friends, to the children, and for this amazing experience.
As always, click on a photo to view it full size.
*thank you
Kathy,
Bravo! i have been following the Turkish reports and appreciate the effort you have made to keep us all in the loop. the Turkish delegation visited The Music Settlement while they were here, so i felt a bit of a connection. I know they really liked our Early childhood program, so I’m glad you worked with younger students as well as older. thanks for representing us so well!
best,
Charlie lawrence
Sara and I taught in Istanbul last spring, first visiting the British International School then speaking at the Eastern European English Speaking Schools International Conference. (We logged close to 75,000 miles of international teaching last year – phew)I am so glad your crew got a chance to spread a little Cleveland around the globe.
I truly believe if folks just traveled a bit more so many of our misunderstandings and confrontations would melt away. Here’s a link to my posts from our visit.
http://michaelsalinger.blogspot.com/search/label/Istanbul
dear kathleen and all myfriends in Cleveland,
it was a pleasure to have you all in Istanbul. I think we had incredible connections between you, our team and kids…and whoever we encountered.
I would like to thank Nuket Atalay,YORET, and Lisa Purdy, CIPUSA, for dreaming such a project.
I would like to thank Cleveland Team, Ismail, Marsha, Tony, Raymond, Chris, Kathleen for co-creating.
I would like to thank the Turkish team,Işin Kucur, Serpil Shmutz Sevgen, Koray Tarhan, Timucin Gurer, Mine Gorgun,Deniz Hayat Han, Nazan Urkmez,Sevi Bayraktar, Mehmet Kaya & Nurgul Ozturk for their incredible work.
I would like to thank to the volunteers the team brought in to the field for their precious contributions.
I would like to thank to the schools to let us be a part of their team.
I would like to thank Kathleen for her beautiful pieces on our work.
But above all, I would like to thank to the kids and their families who allowed us to be a part of their lives.
TANK YOU