Visit of Bengü in Turkey

[Marianne Kieffer]

When it became obvious that the ning sites were in decline and the "paradise" of being able to meet lots of people here was closed and most people gave up their sites, I saw that I had not used the time to make a lot of friends, but there were just very few.

No matter how few, I considered this as a result and decided to visit those three who had got somewhat involved, Bengü, Toni and Farida. So I asked Bengü whether I could visit her, and she agreed. By chance, a friend of her mother, who had passed away one year ago, came also to visit from Germany at the same time.

Bengü's mother was German, but lived in Turkey with her Turkish husband, who descends partly from Eastern Europeans, partly from the famous Sufi Rumi, more precisely from Rumi's preferred son.

Bengü lives at the border of Istanbul in an agricultural area, where a park with holiday homes was given up and the uncompleted holiday houses were being offered for sale, so that Bengü and her husband bought one of these houses. Bengü worked with her own hands to finish the interior of the house, they also made a nice garden for themselves and their children, and their cats and dogs. A swimming-pool belongs to this holiday park.

Bengü is such a nice person! She picked us from the airport with her car and offered us then a daily holiday program, showing us places in and around Istanbul, taking us on ferry boats, because the area around the Bosphorus has many waters, and also taking us to the house of her family where she grew up as a child, in Gelibolu directly at the Marmara sea, and from there we visited Troy, which gave me the feeling that my ancestors must have lived in this area. In fact, my father used to love seeing ships at the seaside.

Seeing the home of Bengü's parents with view on the Marmara sea, I understood why her mother preferred to live there rather than staying in Germany. Nowadays the big house with many levels and balconies is also used by other relatives as a holiday house. Her father still lives there, and he had engaged their former housekeeper to cook for us delicious meals.

Bengü and her father gave me such a happy and inspiring time, and after the hard social work in Germany, permitted me to recover fully so that in the end, I looked visibly refreshed. I am so thankful for this wonderful time!

I contacted Toni and Farida for visits too, but the time was not yet right. It is going to be!