September 19-25

Well its my first week back to Turkey from the states. I am staying in a new house with another one of my Worker friends. I currently live right outside of Kızılay and I love it. I dont have to deal with transit anymore and I am right in the heart of basically everything. One day this week I was able to go out with my roomate to a place called the sevgi (love) cafe. He goes down there apparently every so often to hang out and pray for the employees. He has made some great relationships there and most everyone there can't wait for his next return. The employees see this act as a true blessing and welcome him with open arms. The day that I joined him was a great day as well. They embraced me as well with a very warm welcome. They were continuingly handing us free çay (chai) and prayer requests. They also told me that I would be welcomed as such the next time that I come in, even without my friend. After we prayed and had our tea we continued to meet and get acquainted with more people, it was great. We basically went on a circuit. We picked up spices and went to the post office and all sorts of stuff. Everywere that we went my friend knew someone. It was pretty exciting to meet so many people in such a short period of time, I really enjoyed every minute of it. We also had quite a lot of time to just talk amongst ourselves. I had no idea how my friend had such a plethora of knowledge. This week was one of the best weeks that I have had in Ankara since July.