Much to my delight, it snowed here in Reyhanli on Wednesday. It was beautiful, and although the snow in the streets melted quickly, the surrounding hills remained dusted with white. And of course, as beautiful as it is, it also makes life incredibly difficult for all the families who are living here without heat, not…
Tag: art therapy
Reyhanli
Our posts on the blog will most likely be fewer and far between for the next couple of weeks due to unpredictable internet service. In particular, it can be hard to upload photos, so I may stick to writing short updates with fewer photos for the time being. We are now in the town of…
Bye bye Istanbul, Hello Hatay
At long last, we are leaving Istanbul tomorrow for Antakya, in Hatay Province. Don’t get me wrong, Istanbul is an amazing city. In many ways, I feel lucky that we ended up staying here as long as we did. But I’m looking forward to arriving in Hatay province. We have a number of potential options…
Red Tape
As I discussed in an earlier post, we’ve run into more logistical hoops in doing this project than we had hoped. In fact, part of the challenge so far has been figuring out which permissions we actually need to get, and from whom. Bureaucratic details make for a lousy blog entry, so let me just…
First Taste
We visited two Syrian schools in Istanbul today. There is much to say — not everything is how we expected! — but for now, we are exhausted, so we will just post this short entry. (David says, “If I’m writing oddly, it’s because my language skills are all twisted up. I’ve been speaking pidgin Turkish all…
Along the Golden Horn
Exciting news! Through one of David’s acquaintances, we met a German journalist based here in Istanbul. She has been covering the Syrian schools opening both along the border and here in Istanbul. She’s connected us with the director of one of those schools, and we’re meeting with him tomorrow. He is enthusiastic about the project,…
Two steps forward, one step back
Istanbul at night, David Gross (techie info: 17mm (35mm equivalent) lens, 1/30 sec @ f/3.5 @ 8000 ASA, Olympus OM-D. Prefocused at 15 feet walking through Istanbul at night, shooting from the waist. Processed as FujiColor Press 800 film in Lightroom.) Actually, a better title for this post would be “One Step Back, Two Steps Forward”; things…
One week in Istanbul
It is my belief that if you stay in any foreign country long enough, you will eventually have to face a series of bureaucratic hurdles. For us, that day was today. I will spare you the full story, because such details, like those of elaborate dreams or delayed air travel, are really only of interest…
Eminönü
Although our day started this morning with emails and phone calls, we did manage to step out this afternoon with our cameras. We were lucky that Ferdi Limani was available to come with us. Ferdi speaks fluent Turkish (one of his 5 languages!), so he was able to chat with local Turks on the street. David…
Istanbul – Days 1 & 2
(photographs of the minarets of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, taken from outside the gate – left by David, right by Mieke) The past couple of days have been a jet-lagged whirlwind, but the project is starting to take definite shape. We met yesterday with the art therapy group, Arkabahçe, and we are very excited…
