Lost in Translation

Well our luck with the reservoir ran out today, but all of Ankara is supposed to have water sometime tonight. As of 10:50 pm though, still no water, we did prepare last night to not have water today, so things are okay.

Thought I'd share a funny story from Turkish class. We've been learning possessive phrases and we have to give examples in class. So a student gave this example: Mehmet's car needed tires and gas. I didn't know the last two words of the sentence and I was looking them up I saw they had an "lik" ending. That ending basically translates a word from salt to salty. So as I'm looking up the words, I'm trying to figure out why Mehmet is gassy. I ask Jenna about this who bursts out laughing explaining it's gasoline and tires; not that Mehmet is tired and gassy. We both start laughing hysterically and then our teacher wants to know what is so funny. I tried to explain in Turkish that I had got meaning of the word mixed up. When she still couldn't understand what I meant by gassy, I have to use sounds and facial expressions. Jenna is still laughing about the incident.

On a more serious note today at the end of the class we had to chose a piece of paper with a question then stand in the front of the class and answer the question in Turkish. This is pretty much my biggest nightmare. Jenna had to tell what her hometown was like geographically. Another student had to tell what qualities he looks for in a friend. My question is what do I see myself doing in the future.

As I stood up another student wanted me to explain my shirt first. The shirt I wore today has four pictures on the front. It says "4 Step Program: God, Pray, Transform, Worship God". This was an amazing opportunity to share the truth. However, please keep in mind my limited Turkish. With some help I explained that knowing God changed my life and I then wanted to worship and thank him for the change he did in my life. I kept using the word "Tanri" and "Isa" (God and Jesus) rather than "Allah". My teacher was saying they were the same.

When I started to answer the question I was assigned, I said I hoped to get married. The class asked would I marry a Turk? I said I don't know, but that the man I marry had to be a Christian. Netbul (our teacher) said oh, then you won't marry a Turk, they are all Muslims. They then wanted to know what would I do if I feel in love with a Turk. I tried to explain I would only marry a Christian, but they kept talking about love. I explained I was a Protestant and then I finally told them my dad would be upset. They told me it's my life. There were a lot of opportunities today but, they were tough questions to answer even in my native language, much less with my limited Turkish.