Pastoral Vadi: Part 2

On our second-to-last full day at Pastoral Vadi, we finally got to do some outdoor work. They have a large field of 4-year-old orange trees (currently with smallish green oranges which will be ripe in January); our task was to use a small pick to clear away the grass and roots in a 3 foot diameter circle around the tree. We worked in the morning and lounged by the pool in the afternoon. The last full day, we went back to the trees, this time equipped with some gloves to protect all the blisters on our hands. Rachel unfortunately found a tree with a small bee hive and was stung 3 times. As a remedy, the farmer Yakup cut an onion in half and held it on the stings, which seemed to be successful in drawing out some of the poison.

Despite not doing much besides washing the dishes (which did actually take awhile), we felt like we had already earned our keep by serving as publicity models: the Turkish state tv network was filming a feature while we were there, and our picture appeared in the local newspaper the next day. In the picture, we're shown seated on cushions in a thatch-covered platform (perfect for tea drinking), engaged in a posed conversation with the owner Ahmed. Unfortunately, we didn't get a copy of the paper.

It was fun to get to know people a little more in the time we were there. Feride the cook enjoyed calling Rachel 'Elma,' which means 'apple': 'Erik' is easy for people to pronounce here because it's the Turkish word for 'plum' (or 'small apple'), but no one can pronounce 'Rachel.' We appreciated Feride's and Nurgul's cooking, including a meat,onion,tomato and parsley stuffed eggplant whose Turkish name translates as 'split stomach,' and a delicious eggplant and pepper ratatui. One evening, Yakup the farmer played the saz, a traditional stringed instrument.

One of our favorite people to talk with at Pastoral was Gemal, a friend of Ahmed's who's an economics professor at Vanier College in Montreal. He was working on a publicity article for Pastoral Vadi, and we laughed about the English association of the word 'pastoral' being some sheep hopping through the grass while a shepherd plays his flute--not exactly the description of an eco-tourism place! From books to politics to religion to travel, we spent hours talking with Gemal and hope to keep in touch!