Upon My Last Visit to Arikan Ranch

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I went to the Ranch twice more, both times as a chaperone for a free day for the middle schoolers who chose that activity. During the last week of classes at MEF, there are no classes. Students choose activities and field trips. So on Tuesday, I was among the teachers overseeing a football tournament in the morning, and a swimming tournament in the afternoon. The football tournament consisted of mixed-gender teams that played in a gym on a basketball court. Each team had five players. There were no off-sides, and balls could be played off of the walls. It is much more exhausting than regular soccer, because there is seldom a time when the ball is not close to one of the four forwards. Tired players would switch off at goalie. Games lasted 15 minutes. The level of play was intense; the sixth-grade boys made it into the semi-finals, losing to the eventual winners. The swimming tournament was just a bunch of silly games.
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Next day I was back at the Ranch. I decided to really explore the facility, so I started walking around the perimeter next to the high stone walls. Here’s what I saw (in order of appearance):

• A concrete basketball court
• A rose garden with many different varieties
• A double tennis court
• A man-sized chess board
• Staff apartments -- the building looked like a two-storey motel
• Flowering shrubs along all paths -- all paths featured large, flat pieces of marble embedded in the ground
• Chickens, ducks, geese and peafowl wandering free
• 16 sheep and lambs in a pasture with 8 miniature deer (4 each by gender)
• 4 fruit orchards
• Several large horse stalls, no horses in sight
• A duck pond
• The concrete lake mentioned earlier, with a fake waterfall that flowed under a stone bridge
• 2 black swans swimming in the fake lake
• 2 large greenhouses. The first featured short, broad-leafed palms, various herb gardens, and potted trees. Two covered women were working in the room, one hoeing around the palms, the other planting herbs. The second green house was dedicated solely to tomatoes. Arikan sells these to his schools.
• A field of grapes
• A cherry orchard
• A crowed artichoke patch -- they grow up on long stems, reminding me of Brussel sprouts
• 2 smaller green houses dedicated to herbs
• A mint patch with brilliant blue flowering tops
• A helipad -- I surmised that this must have been the spot from which I had seen Saturn during my first visit
• A large arboretum dedicated mainly to evergreen trees
• The Arikan Palace, a huge dwelling with a central tower emblazoned with a bold IA for Ibrahim Arikan. Another huge rose garden
• Another guard house, the guards sipping tea and watching me closely in case I decide to storm the Palace
• A man with a weed-eater, buzzing out grass and weeds from between the bricks in the parking lot in front of the Palace. It is clear these people live here year-round maintaining the grounds for a family that lives there only during the summer months.

Meanwhile, the kids were running around, playing basketball, football and cricket in the tennis courts, swimming in a square pool in the middle of an open, square entry building. Lunch featured barbecued meats, various salads, and lots of soft drinks. We were there for about four hours. Each of the kids paid 20 Turkish Lira. Arikan made money.
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Upon My First Visit to Arikan Ranch

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Ibrahim Arikan is the founder of MEF Schools. He made a small fortune selling supplies to schools, then started building schools so that they would buy only his supplies. Smart cookie. The reason he his so fond of schools, other than as a source of income, is that he attributes his success to a former teacher. Little Ibrahim was a stutterer. He was told that he had very little future of success because of this problem. But one teacher had faith in him and coached him and he overcame his disability. I can look out the window from the room in which I am writing and see a double statue -- little Ibrahim dressed in suit and tie and carrying a briefcase, and curly-haired, professionally dressed teacher lady holding a large book in her left hand while her right hand rests on the boy’s shoulder. Kind of creepy-looking at night.
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The Arikan Ranch is a huge estate west-south-west of Istanbul in a place called Silivri. It is a fortress surrounded by huge brick walls, and protected by armed guards and dogs. This was my third visit, and I am astonished by the opulence. The reason for the first visit in September, 2009, was a huge party thrown for all the teachers and staff at both the National and International Schools. Hundreds of employees sat with spouses at rows of long tables that lined a large artificial lake, at the end of which arose a small, covered island that featured a band stand. (This looked ominous for the future of the evening -- my apprehensions were proven to be well-founded.) It had been a long teaching day and the drive to the Ranch had taken over an hour. I was hot, thirsty and hungry.
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Soon after being seated each person was served a ceramic plate of meze (appetizers: olives, cheeses, tomatoes, cucumbers, different diced vegetables in sauces, with bread, of course -- Turks cannot conceive of any meal without bread, the staff of life and all that). I didn’t know that what lay in front of was just an appetizer, so I ate everything, even the stuff I didn’t particularly like. Since I knew barely anyone at my table, I decided to take a walk and check out the nearby area (I will describe what I saw in another Istanbullet). When I got back, there was another ceramic plate at my seat, and people were lining for the main course. Unfair! I was too full to eat anymore. Wine and beer was served, and after dessert out came the raki (pronounced “rock-uh”). This is Turkey’s national alcoholic beverage. It is identical to the Greek national drink, ouzo, as far as I can tell. Both are strong, aniseed-flavored spirits that are clear until mixed with water, then they become cloudy.*
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Almost everybody got drunk in a hurry. Most Turks don’t drink much, not because they’re Muslims but because the stuff is so expensive. So they get tipsy quickly.** The band started playing traditional music and soon there was a huge line of people holding hands above their heads and undulating around the pool in a counter-clockwise motion. This was amusing to watch until Arikan decided to take the mic and sing cheesy Dean Martin songs, like “When the moon hits your eye like a large pizza pie, that’s amore.” I soon had enough of that and got up for another walk. I found some steps that led up to a path. There were several people moving on up the path so I followed, wondering what the draw was. Soon we reached a flat concrete area where Arikan had placed a large, portable telescope. The skies were perfectly clear and when I got my turn I was delighted to see that it was pointed at Saturn. The rings were clearly visible; I could even detect some color, but maybe that was from my tears. It was a truly awesome sight.
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* I took one sniff and was confirmed in my decision to decline. I had tasted ouzo once when I was a kid, aboard a Greek freighter in the Port of Longview, where I was begging for some Greek coins to add to my growing collection of foreign money. (See, I was already thinking internationally!) I would ride my bike about a mile down to the docks, ask permission to come aboard and then politely ask for spare change. I knew when foreign ships were arriving because it was listed in advance in the Longview Daily News. When the Japanese ships came in, I would sell them carp that I would catch fresh in the nearby sloughs on the way to the docks.
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** On the way home, well after 1:00 AM, one Turkish teacher was so intoxicated that when traffic slowed to a crawl, which it always does when trying to get into the city, that she got out of the van and walked in the four-lane road, talking to fellow stalled travelers. I never saw her again, so I think her antics were punished.
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Istantidbitx VI

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Turkish Men
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In Istanbul, they never wear shorts except when exercising, hats and backpacks are rare, and they rarely walk fast. They sit for hours drinking many hour-glass-shaped cups of sweet, hot tea, no matter what the temperature is, smoking, talking, arguing, gesturing, playing backgammon, and another board game featuring bronze dice. They walk or sit with their arms linked or around one another, like lovers. They greet one another with a stylized kiss: press right cheek to the other’s right cheek, then repeat left. (Women do the same, but they make a kissing, “smooch” sound with their lips.) Men generally do not shave for about two weeks, whereupon they have a barber do it. I have adopted this practice. It is a most pleasurable Turkish custom that I will miss very much.
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MEF International School
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Turkish pencils have no erasers. Students must provide their own rubbers (unlike in America, where they are handed out by the school nurse. This is a pun.). Classrooms have no pencil sharpeners. Students must sharpen their pencils with little plastic hand-held sharpeners that they carry in a bag shaped like a burrito, which is full of pens, pencils and, other school related paraphernalia.
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Students in the Turkish National School can pass with a 50% average. In the International School, if a student is at 58%, teachers are "encouraged" to find ways to bring the score up to 60%. These kids are worth a lot of money -- we can’t let laziness and stupidity get in then way of them passing. That would obstruct profits!
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Bus Duty
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Breakfast and lunch are provided for student and faculty every day. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, there are snacks at the bus tables. All Primary School students are required to be assembled and led to their 16 passenger bus by a faculty member. I am in charge of Bus 62. I am responsible for the largest group of PS bus riders in the school (kids from China, Korea, Pakistan, Russia, USA). Luckily, Bus 62 is the last in line, placing it right next to a MEF playground with swings, slides, etc., so I let my kids scamper around until the "get on board" whistle sounded. All the other Bus Duty staff had to try and keep their charges corralled in or around their bus.
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This spring, the rules changed, and all Primary School students were to get on the bus, take their seats and fasten their seat belts, then wait for 15 minutes before the buses left. That worked fine as long as the weather was bad. But when it started getting warm, I said "No way," and I let my kids stand or sit outside close to the bus. The other Bus Duty staff resented my action, but my kids were happy, and all the other kids wanted to go home on Bus 62.
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Upon Finally Being De-Greased
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The Middle School production of Grease is now just over three months behind me, and I have finally recovered from Post Traumatic Distress Syndrome. The shows went well, there were few embarrassing moments or pauses, and the students felt good about their performances. The cast consisted mostly of 6th graders.
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I had hoped that the karaoke CD I had ordered the previous spring would serve for the accompaniments of the well-known songs, freeing me up be the vocal coach and prompter. However, the CD worked only for the solos; in the large ensemble numbers, the singers couldn’t feel the beat, so I had to play (i.e., pound on) the piano much more than I had anticipated. In addition, we only had enough boys to fill out the roles of the Burger Palace Boys and the nerd, Eugene. So I became Johnny Casino, sitting at the piano onstage with my back turned to the audience, shouting a few lines and singing “Hand Jive” at the top of my lungs. The music wasn’t difficult, but the playing of it was -- pounding '50s rock. My arms ached after each rehearsal. Meanwhile, "Beauty School Drop-Out" was done in pantomime because our Teen Angel’s voice broke in January and he could no longer sing the climactic falsetto passages.
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Check out the names and nationalities:
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Leads: Sandy – Aylin (‘eye-lin’, Russia), Danny – Jimmy (USA)
Burger Palace Boys: Kenickie – Anar (‘ah-nar’, Russia), Roger – Danny (Korea), Doody – Kayhan (‘kye-hahn’, Turkey), Sunny – Fuzuli (‘foo-zoo-lee’,Uzbekistan)
Pink Ladies: Rizzo – Suzan (pronounced ‘Suzanne’, USA), Marty – Abisheree (‘ah-bee-shree’, Pakistan), Jan – Erin (USA), Frenchy – Ana (Spain)
Others: Patty – Joanna (France), Eugene – Atif (‘ah-teef’, India), Miss Lynch – Antonia (Germany), Vince Fontaine – Rashad (Turkey), Teen Angel – Allejandro (Spain)
Chorus : Leoni (‘lay-oh-nee’, Holland), Natia (‘nah-ti-ah’, Georgia), Melina (‘me-lee-na’, Italy), Olga (pronounced ‘Olya’, Russia), Lara (USA)
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