Hello to all the incoming honors students. You'll be happy to know that the students who are with us this year are already helping us plan for your trip next year to make it even better than it is now. We hope you are excited about traveling with us next year, but if you aren't, don't worry. Many of the students from this year weren't too enthusiastic about Turkey until they took the UNHR 121 class in winter quarter.

Reading our blogs may not give you a good understanding of some of the underlyng themes and conflicts in Turkish society right now, particularly if you don't have a good background understanding of modern Turkey. Very briefly, one of the big discussions in Turkey right now is how to be a secular republic when the vast majority of the population is Muslim in some form (whether nominal or devout). Secularism in the Turkish sense is very different from American secularism. Turkish secularism insists that any expression of religiosity be private, and thus barred from any public sphere under the aegis of the government. For example, women wearing headscarves are banned from the universities, and sermons in mosques are written by a government ministry. In practice this leads to friction between Muslims seeking a greater voice for Islam in the public sphere and secularists seeking to uphold Ataturk's vision for the Republic and avoid the potential for Turkey to become like Iran. The practicalities of this delicate balancing act often seem counterintuitive to the minds of those educated in American schools and universities.

Our visit to the tomb of the Mevlana (Rumi to many people who are not Turks) in Konya yesterday demonstrated some of these oddities. The tomb and mosque complex were built by one of the Ottoman sultans. This functioned as a religious pilgrimage site and a working mosque and tekke (like a Sufi monastery where the brotherhood lived and worked). With the birth of the officially secular Turkish Republic in 1923, Sufi orders were banned, and the site was converted to a museum (as was the case with the Haghia Sophia in Istanbul). Thus this is officially a secular site, and we were discouraged by our guide (who is a strong advocate of secularism) from covering our heads inside the former mosque, as this appeared to him as an alliance with the islamists. At the same time, however there were many people in the museum-mosque engaged in prayer and devotional practices. Some of the students expressed discomfort about not knowing the appropriate etiquette in this situation, and indeed the issue is more than "etiquette" or even respect. It reflects a deep political divide, and wearing or not wearing a scarf is in part a reflection of one's political position. We can always fall back into the role of "tourist" as a defense, but our goal is to be students rather than tourists.

This issue of the "tourist" role has been a difficult one, particularly for the last part of our trip. Because we are now traveling in a bus with a guide and because we are traveling long distances with a regimented schedule, it is easy for the students to fall into a passive role. This was a concern for me about this portion of the trip, and I think it will be useful to make some changes for next year. The difference in their behavior and engagement stands out to me, but I do understand it. I think being in a different city each day for the past five days has been a bit hard on all of us. The students were very active learners for the first week, so I know they are quite capable of sustaining the excitement of discovery and active learning, but the fatigue of long bus trips coupled with reduced freedom to explore on their own seems to have sapped some of their enthusiasm. Last night and tonight we will be in the same hotel, and I think that is a good arrangement for us. The students are definitely aware of the tendency to be more fatigued and passive with the guide, and have been working to counter it. They tend to do best when they have the opportunity to roam a bit. In the evenings and during their free time many of the students have gone to the hamam (Turkish bath - an experience in itself, even when it's affiliated with a hotel) or to folklore shows. They are also taking advantage of their fre time to meet people. Now that they have gained an understanding of how much the Turkish people tend to value relationships, they are taking advantage of every opportunity they find to talk with people about their lives, what they value, how they experience the changes taking place locally and nationally, and what they dream for the future. We have many discussions over meals about what they are learning from the people they meet. Neither I nor our guide can always answer their questions satisfactorily, but often what they need most is an opportunity to frame or elaborate on those questions in ways that encourage them to go out and ask more.

Yesterday morning we stopped at the Sultanhani Caravanseray, a waystation for traders in camel caravans in the 13th century. Christina gave us some background information on it and then we all had a chance to explore the rooms and climb around a bit. Julian bypassed the sign (in Turkish) saying it was forbidden to climb on top of the caravanseray and went up to take some pictures. Paul says Julian is in training to become a National Geographic photographer. Several of the group also climbed to the top of the walls of the masjid (small mosque for travelers). Often there are no caretakers or guards keeping people off the ruins, so our students have more of a chance to explore and pose their own questions. They seem to learn more this way. Alex has pointed out, though, that the full accessibility of these monuments (especially in comparison with the overzealous guarding of the Zeus Temple we observed in Berlin) only strengthens his argument that architectural artifacts should belong to the finder rather than to the nation on whose land they were discovered. These arguments are only more complex in situations like Turkey, where the artifacts are uncovered on land that is now governed by the Turkish Republic, by German archaeologists, during a time when the Otttoman Empire was in power (and allowed the Germans to remove them), and where the original people who created these objects and buildings were Hellenistic, and thus to great extent the ancestors of the modern nation of Greece. We have been focusing on this problem of perceptions of identity and history, often anachronistic. The term "Anatolian" seems to be used here in cases when the Turks want to claim a non-Turkic past as part of their own history (e.g. the Hittites, Hellenistc period, etc.) For example, Homer was officially an Anatolian here.

Watching the Sufi dancers (whirling dervishes) last night also seems to have impacted the group. The environment was quiet and medtative, and I have heard a lot of comments and questions from group members and expressions of a desire to understand more. In general, I think the students have been impressed by their opportunities to observe Muslims in worship and prayer. They have been respectful and curious and have gained a greater sense that there are people here sincerely seeking God.

Because we are here during Ramadan, the month of fasting, we've been told many times by people here how many hours and minutes they have left until they can eat and drink when the sun goes down. We have also observed the great generousity of people who continually offer us tea, even when their own throats are parched. I think these relationships and observations will be very valuable to these students as they continue in their search to understand their place in the world and the diversity of people in it.

Again, I must mention how impressed I have been with our students. They have been tremendous about allowing themselves to be challenged in new ways and about reaching out to get to know people and trying to undertand situations that seem foreign to them. I have heard very little complaining even when they are tired or inconvenienced or don't feel well. Each one of them has demonstrated strengths that I never knew they had. I am also thankful to the families who have given their blessings to these students to go with us across the world and experience something life changing. They are all returning with many stories and thoughts and ideas, and I think many of them will see their own lives differently for the experience.

Suzanne Mallery

P.S. This may be our last post before we return. I'm posting from a truckstop on our way to Ankara. If our hotel tonight has wireless I will post again, but since we have to leave the hotel at 3 am for our flight home I won't search out an internet cafe in Ankara