Tuvalet Sorun

We have gotten to know our apartment manager very well the last couple of days. Our toilet was loose at the base and it actually came off its base while we had a guest. So Beth, who speaks very little Turkish, managed to find our apartment manager, the kapici (the c is pronounced as a j – sounds like capaja), and tell him tuvalet sorun. We actually had to call someone on the phone to help translate and found out we were going to get a new toilet. Well, they do things a little different in Turkey. Needless to say, the next morning when I got up sleepy eyed, headed for the bathroom to find an inch of water on the floor.

They didn’t put any sealer before putting the toilet in, so it was leaking. So we turned off the water and Beth found our kapici later that afternoon. They replaced a pipe and told us not to use it for 24 hours. So what do we use you might ask. Well every apartment, per government regulation, has a Turkish toilet, or as we like to call it, a squatty potty. Feel free to check out the pictures on my web page. http://photobucket.com/albums/y145/CDeLong/Turkey/

As of Sunday afternoon while I am typing this, our western style toilet is still leaking and not usable. But while the kapici was here he did fix the electricity in my room and the bathroom. And this morning I had a warm shower. My first since I got here (every other day has been cold).

On a positive note today was my first visit to my father’s house in Ankara. We have a multicultural and multilingual family. During open time, things were lifted up in English and Turkish. We also sang songs in Turkish and English. We had a good time.

Monday at school everyone should be here and all the new teachers are heading off together to take care of those essential things like getting a cell phone and getting our resident cards. I finished decorating my classroom. I posted those pictures as well. You may notice I only have 14 desks, which is the size of my largest class. And I couldn’t possibly fit another desk in there. It’s a tight squeeze as it is.