My Surf ‘n Turf is Turkish

I am deep into the rural bosom of turkey. We jettisoned Istanbul in search of two hydro plants nestled high up in the craggy mountains located towards the eastern edge of the country. After a relaxing flight we landed in a dry and dusty valley, surrounded by snow peaked mountains. Our client here is quite accommodating and good natured, while completely lacking in the language known as English. That’s fine, the only Turkish word I have learned is tamam, which is utterly useless because it means OK. No matter what language you speak, you know what OK means. Sigh, oh well. OK, let us continue. One of the only English words our kind host knows is “mulatto”. DO NOT ASK ME how he came up with this word, who taught him this word or LORD KNOWS WHY he would need to use it. No comment. Ok , so with these few sentences I have blogged so far, you must understand that most of our conversations consist of the words, in varying combos and languages, of “ok” and “mulatto”. Mulatto is actually quite a diverse word and quite applicable to many many scenarios, not just what kind of hookers you prefer.

Just sayin’

Invariably our client’s definition of mulatto has a wide range of meanings: mixed, mixed bag, two parts, a combo, a group, sharing, my beard and not to be left out, wireless internet. Tamam, Tamam. Most recently, el foto loco asked what was for dinner, kebab, chicken or fish to which our client retorted “mulatto!!” which I can only take to mean that we will be eating some variety of Turkish surf n turf for dinner. I hope.

I digress.

We flew to a small city by the name of Erzincan (Air Zen John), pop. 200,000. I could not help but notice the flack jackets, m-16’s and razor wire that lined the two (teeny tiny) hydro plants we are visiting. The plants produce a total of 10 MW. Very small. Most plants we have visited usually produce upwards of 500-1000 MW. These plants are located outside of town about half an hour, accessible only by jeep on crooked little rocky roads that switchback their way up the steep mountains surrounding this valley.

Why so much security for such small outputs? Well, I learned the answer to that question as we hopped back into the jeeps to climb to the top of the peak and have a look see at the source water for these hydro plants.

A small, well armed battalion of pimple faced soldiers for hire set out in front of us to make the way was clear. This side of the mountain? Yeah, it’s safe. Tamam, tamam. That other side? Just over the peak? Nah, not so safe. If you have been following the news, then you know all about Turkey chomping at the bit to bomb the hell out of a small Kurdish “terrorist” group known as the PKK, which has taken refuge over the border, in northern Iraq. On our bumpy, jumpy ride up to the peak I discovered that we are a scant 300 miles from the Iraqi border. Amazing! Granted, it is all rugged mountainous land, with virtually no roads, but still. There have been no PKK attacks in the area where I am working, but they have been known to take refuge just on the other side of that peak, over there.

“You have the zoom lens?” “Uh, yeh.”

Now, I am certainly no Susan Meisales. My trip last year to El Salvador was so ridiculously different than hers, even in intention. Hell, I am no Sebastian Junger either, who is currently embedded with an Afghani military patrol. None the less, when you travel enough you begin to encounter dissent. And often enough, that dissent goes hand in hand with violence and unrest which begets military action, war, what have you.

I, in a small way, continue to encounter these situations: Northern Ireland, going for a run after work, and I happen to run across a bridge that puts me smack dab in the middle of the worst violence N. Ireland had seen in 10-15 years; Sri Lanka; Colombia, Venezuela and now the PKK. In all of my experiences, I have never felt in danger or at risk but when I learned how “close” to the Iraqi border, it gave me pause.

Next time: (on a more light hearted note) I love you Turkish bazaar and your freshly squeezed pomegranate juices.