About goreme1990
It’s a long way from Sydney to the provincial capital of central Anatolia, but that’s where I ended up living and working for two years in the middle of the American invasion of Iraq and the entry of an Islamic party into the political scene in Turkey.
My completed manuscript, Place of My Heart, is a travel novel detailing my experiences as a blue-eyed foreigner at a large regional university in Kayseri, the second most conservative town in the country. I was teaching students from mainly small, undeveloped villages how to speak English and understand Western culture. Along the way, my students and colleagues taught me about Turkish politics, the health system, football, marriage and divorce, funerals, religious celebrations, Turkish bath etiquette and how to shop. I have combined my love of the country with an insatiable need to know, using my sociology training and ability to speak Turkish to ferret out answers to all those vital questions such as what does the AK party stand for, what goes into a girl’s dowry box, the correct order of undress in a Turkish bath, and more importantly, just how do you refuse more food without offending your host?
Everyday life in Turkey is chaotic and confusing, as the changes wrought by Ataturk are in direct conflict with the religious requirements of Islam. Modernity and tradition collide so the only way to live without going insane from the contradictions is to trust in fate, along with everyone else. The English department I worked in was a microcosm of the larger population, where religious nationalists fought modernist nationalists, good Muslim girls sided with feminists and I just tried to make sense of it all.
My knowledge is based on nearly twenty years of traveling and living in Turkey. I first went there in 1990 during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and have lived there as well as travelled extensively on and off the tourist track. Most recently I was living in Istanbul, from where I was interviewed on ABC Radio National by Geraldine Doogue, broadcast on her program Travellers’ Tales, Saturday Extra, February 9th 2008.
I am actually hoping to have my completed book published, so if anyone out there can help, I'd be most grateful. You can contact me at pipkim@hotmail.com
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