Merhaba!
Yesterday was an important day for Muslims. It is the day that they believe that Allah accepts everyone's prayers and forgives everyone for their sins. Also, because Ramadan is only a few weeks away, it is also a day when Muslims go to a graveyard to pray over their family members.

Two nights ago, some of Semra's and Fettah's friends came to visit. Iram, who just graduated from college in Ankara this past June, and her parents and her aunt. Iram speaks some English, so through her I was able to talk to the others. They also invited me to go with them yesterday to the graveyard to pray over Iram's grandparents. I did and it was a really interesting experience. They had little prayer books with them that reminded me of the ones that Jews have for saying prayers for the dead, only instead of being printed in English and Hebrew, they were printed in Turkish and Arabic.

Afterwards, Iram and her aunt took me to this really old Ottoman house from the early 1900's that has been renovated into an Afyon Culture and History Museum. It was really beautiful. It was filled with traditional Afyon and Turkish artifacts and it had dummies wearing traditional Turkish clothing. They also took me out to lunch and we ate pide, which is a soft bread that can have a variety of toppings. It is a little bit like pizza and it is delicious.

Last night, Bora and his parents came to visit. One thing that I really like about being here is that people are always visiting. Our neighbors, Ece (who is 9) and her five year old brother Yilmaz are always coming in and out of our aparment. Their grandmother (who also lives with them) comes over everyday and helps Semra cook. They have been making something that I think is some sort of bread for 4 days now. Bora and Fatma come to visit all the time and so do a bunch of other neighbors and friends.

When people come to visit, the first thing you do is serve them Turkish kahve (coffee). It is this very bitter, very strong coffee served in tiny cups without any milk or sugar. If the guests stay for a while, then they get fed. It's usually pasta (cake) or some type of pastry. They also get served çay, which is tea. Everyone drinks çay, even Yilmaz likes it.

When Kaya (who is the Afyon Rotary Club President) came to visit with his wife, Nevin and their 16 month old son, we served them food and çay and the little boy liked to drink some of the çay. I have never seen someone that little like çay before. I guess everyone in Turkey likes çay because they all start drinking it from a very young age. My host brother Can told me that his grandmother drinks 20 or 30 cups of çay a day and that this is normal for older Turkish people.
Well, that's it for now. Güle güle (good bye).