John
fixed the flat tyre. Our first in these tires - so 40,000km’s of no
issues. Lots of wire in the tires and he did not really get the rubber
in far enough. All good, we drove for 10 mins got out and checked all
good 3 mins later a problem tire flat again. We found a flat spot on the
side of the road and changed it thinking that his repair had failed.
But no, we found another screw in the tire.
I
emailed Mustafa just to let him know we’d be a bit late.
We
arrived at his house about 11:00hrs. His wife was at work and his
small daughter Elif was asleep.
He
took us to his old school to pick up his elder daughter to take home
to baby sit. Then onto the other school the one we visited lat year.
We had a chat to the children in Burcu’s classroom. This class was
a special English class and the children had 9 hours of English
lessons a week normally they would have 3 hours per week
She
took us for lunch then we headed back to school for another “lesson”.
In a class who had been learning English for 2 years. It was lots of
fun as usual.
Next
off to see some carpets.
We
had specifically asked for hand knotted carpets.
First
of all he took us to Cemel (Gemal) carpet shop. From here he followed
us to his warehouse/factory. He showed us a lot of carpets and we
picked out a few that appealed to us. US$300/m². He
then showed us around his business from the wool yarn (yes good NZ
wool) to the dying process and the spinning machines.
Last
of all he showed us his female workers sewing the silk edging to
machine made bamboo carpets. We liked the carpets.
We
said our good byes and went to another few shops. We visited the
factory of One of Mustafa's English students who specialises in Mosque
carpets. He travels to measure, then makes and when they arrive at
their destination he travels back to install. Some of these carpets
are 10,000m². Ziya offered to organise the transport of our
carpets to Australia as he does a lot of freighting.
We
went to friends of Mustafa’s mother’s place for dinner. Lots of
great food. The lady had paid for the house through carpet knotting.
Most women here have a history of carpet knotting but it is slowing
dying out. Machine carpets are half the price.
Next Mustafa took us to visit his old neighbour a family whose young lady was unable to walk. Her mother had taken her to school each day. She had graduated from an on line university degree and had some work, but once again her mother had to transport her there.
We had picked up Mustafa's neighbor "Hande" on the way, she plays and sings so she entertained us all.
108km Camp
site 918m alt.
