As I recently said, I continue to do well. We just had a couple of days of rainy weather with heavy clouds. But today dawned clear again. There is now snow on the mountains for the first time this season.
Friday, 15 Nov, some industrious people in the marina hired a small bus for 16 of us to go to Antalya for the day. These are the most common form of public transportation. The name in Turkish is pronounced something like, “dolmush.”
We had kind of a late start (10AM) and an early return (back by 1800). The drive takes almost 2 hours, even when you are not stopping at the various bus stations that the normal bus would do. So we had around four hours in Antalya, but all of us got a lot of shopping done in the big city. And got to yak yak en route.
Today, Sunday, is one of the socially busy days. At 0900, every day, there is a radio net, where we share information and ask questions, etc. Then, about 930 I help the charity sale set up for their weekly sale of miscellaneous items donated to raise money to pay the veterinarian to help animals here in Finike.
I am told that when they started doing this, (was it seven years ago?) that they saw many crippled and diseased animals wandering around town. There was no neutering program and the feral animals were really rampant. Since very few people cared about them, they had a tough and often short life.
In Marmaris, a Turk told us that 25 years ago, very few Turks had gotten into the idea of having pets. They just had never learn to think that way. There were dogs to guard the sheep or guard your property, but not many Turks owned an animal just for the joy of owning an animal. However, many of the tourists brought their pets, and the idea of the pleasure that often comes with having an animal around caught on. Slowly at first, of course. And it is still somewhat of a novel idea.
But, now you see many Turks owning animals and helping strays. And there seem to be a lot of tortoises around in this part of Turkey. It is not common, but by no means rare for people to have pet tortoises. In fact the veterinarian, here in town, has assigned that shows the silhouettes of a dog, a cat, and a tortoise.
I think the very worst place we’ve been for animal abuse was Spain. There, many people we met had firsthand accounts of Spaniards cruelly killing strays and getting dogs for the hunting season to help them hunt, but then just killing them rather than keep them through the rest of the year. There were many stories of animal torture and cruelty.
My apologies to the large number of wonderful Spaniards that we know. I do not mean to imply that even a large percentage of them are cruel to animals. I’m only saying that when we were in that area, we heard many terrible stories.
I sincerely hope that the bad news was greatly exaggerated. It seems to be the way the telephone game works. The telephone game was something that we played when I was very young. We would sit in a circle, and whisper a message to the person next to us. They would whisper it to the person next to them. And by the time it’d made it all the way around the circle, it was usually almost unrecognizable, but often quite sensational. Any aspect of the message that made your eyes get big, or was juicy gossip, got at the minimum maintained, and more commonly, embellished shamelessly.
Gossip in the Marina is no different. After all, people that live in travel on boats are clearly the exceptional ones, but they are still human. At least a little bit. (Attempt at humor.)
But back to the setting up for the charity sale. That takes quite a while as there is a lot of stuff to drag out of storage and put on display. Then, today at about noon, I will help set up the tables and light the barbecue for the Sunday potluck. This is my first time at helping with that. Since I never barbecue anything, I thought it more logical for me to help in some other capacity, and let the people that know just how they want the barbecue, to get it done the way they wanted it. But today they are auditioning a newbie. Me.
The Marina pays for the charcoal for the weekly barbecue. They also recently purchased 2 new barbecues, as many years of extreme heat had taken their toll on the existing one. Also, with so many people, there was quite a lineup waiting to use it. Which cause people to hurry and not do a good job. This led to people either eating things that were burnt on one side and undercooked on the other, or some kind of problem due to trying to rush and make room for your neighbors.
Then I partake of the weekly potluck which is mostly visiting with other boaters while trying whatever taste treats they have brought to share. Today I’m making tabouli.
It is not uncommon for the social aspect of it, the visiting, to last till after dark. There are still a large number of inhabited boats are in the Marina, even though many have already flown home.
The Marina recently bought some additional tables and chairs for the barbecue, as even before there were so many people you could not get a seat unless you came very early. Which meant that the people that came anywhere near that the appointed hour of 1300, were out of luck unless they brought their own chairs to sit on, and tables to eat off of. The solution to that, probably temporarily, is to have another barbecue on Saturday at 1500. And, for the people that didn’t really want to have the main meal of the day at 1300, to come drifting in later in the day when some of the 1300 group have already left and empty chairs have appeared.
I wish you all a nice Sunday also.
Dave
Alegria1976's Blog 