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Friday, September 9 - Urfa, Aziz and Farida, Abraham's Story
We arrived to Urfa a 2:00 am. Nignt. It was dark. The bus stopped, the door opened, our backpacks down. Where are we? The bus dropped us in the middle of highway. City lights around. We were going toward some lights, somebody said: Kabab? No thanks, we were not hungry. Please not another liver dish. We sat on a bench next to a mosque and WC. Two policemen were looking at us. I read, Benny asleep. It was getting cold. The night was long. Benny got sun poisoning from our hike to lake Karagol and his face was flaring. I think that he has fever. He is pretty miserable. Has very sensitive skin.
I went to the WC. During the night there was no attendant, so there was nobody to collect the 250,000 or 500,000 fee to use the toilet. The toilet is a hole in the ground with floor lever faucet and pitcher. No paper towel. I already learn my lesson: in Turkey, don’t leave home without toilet paper. It took some adjustment and learning new techniques and figuring out what to do with the water and the pitcher, but the end result is that you are clean and the bathroom is clean and actually, I now prefer the Turkish toilet and think that it is the correct and natural position for the body.
By now it is getting cold. A young couple approached us. They were Turks who live in Germany. They invited us to follow them. We did not know that there was a building inside.
Inside the station it was warm, many benches and people slept everywhere. The German/Turk pointed to an old lady sound asleep - “mama”. Later on, when Mama woke up, she tried to talk to me, woman to woman talk. She said “Turkey no good, Germania very good”. They live in Germany now for ten years. We meet more Turks who can speak German than English.
Sunrise, the beautiful city of Urfa is ahead of us. At 7:00 we borrowed the telephone from our new friend and called Aziz at the Hospitality Pension. He will come to pick us up in 5 minutes. When Aziz heard that we arrived at 2:00 am and waited all night at the station, he said, “why you not call me. I come get you any time. I have my cell phone. People call me all time”. Well, Aziz, I am not used to calling people at 2:00 am to pick me up.
Aziz’s home is in the center of old Urfa. He parked his car and we started climbing the narrow road toward his house. We kept climbing and climbing and climbing up the ally, paved with stones. We climbed few more steps and Aziz opened a green iron gate. There is a center courtyard with vine, few plants, table and chairs and few rooms around. Steps are leading up to the roof. Our room is OK. The mattress and pillow are too hard for Benny.
The place is not very clean, but what can you do? We all share the same bathroom. Farida and I had an instant connection. Tea? Sure. For breakfast we are joined by Thomas from Belgium, who is hitchhiking Turkey and Dror from Nes Tziyona. Dror is adorable. He studies theatre at the university. He travels by himself. Very intelligent and a good source of information. We share traveling information. Thomas was here for four days already and was working at the family farm with Aziz and Farida. Farida spends most of her days preparing food for winter, cleaning the house and taking care of the guests. Aziz goes to the bus station, trying to find more customers. Aziz and Farida are not married. She was married before and has seven children and “many many” grandchildren. They have one boy together. Aziz said, “Farida no good. Farida too strong. Turkish women soft, but Farida is wo wo all day. Sometimes me and Farida no together.” Aziz is definitely a womanizer and I would not like to be alone in his company. He shows us album of his guests and few of them are his “girlfriends”, he tells us that he stayed with one of them in Prague for one month. Farida is very proud of her industry and invited me to the roof to watch her and her daughter. They open red peppers. Let it dry, later put it in large plastic bags and crush it into something that resembles paprika. They also dry eggplants put it on a string with a needle and hang it to dry. They also dry okura. In the “kitchen”, there is an old refrigerator and a small gas stove. Not much bigger than the one that Shani and Rafi had in the mountains. No water. Just cement floor. Our room also has cement floor. She sits on the floor and cut the veggies on a small piece of wood. Aziz and Farida sleep in the floor next to the kitchen. They are renting three rooms. Where do they keep their belonging, cloths etc?
I told Benny: Nobody locks his house in Urfa. Benny replies: there is nothing to steel, they do not have anything in their homes.
Both Aziz and Farida did not attend school. She does not read or write, but picked up enough English from her guests to carry a conversation. Aziz taught himself to read and write. They are both Kurds. Farida has tattoos on her forehead, chin and hands. She said that her mother did it when she was eight. Also said that her grandmother was very angry when her mother did that. Farida is only 55, but like all women in Turkey, looks much older.
Aziz bought his home a year ago. He used to rent a place before. He paid 10,000 liras for his place. About $7000.00. Recently he installed a western toilet for his guests, but it does not work well. It was not installed properly. Benny takes it apart, he goes with Aziz to buy some parts and now it works ok. Benny is a hero at Aziz’s home. Anyway, I prefer to use the old traditional Turkish toilet, It works better for me.
Breakfast is ok, Farida holds the bread in a plastic bag, and whenever you finish your bread she will break another piece for you.
Dinner is really bad and only one dish. Very oily.
Aziz has a large family in Syria. They are Kurds and after the war they got separated.
Aziz returns home with a new guest: Pat from Wisconsin. Pat is about my age. She travels by herself. Her fourth time in Turkey. She likes Turkey, it is cheap. Pat works at a chicken factory. The one that makes the chicken nuggets for McDonald. She has a second job, she cleans offices. She has bad knees, but she likes to travel. In Wisconsin, beside her home, she owns a piece of land where she raises animals and grows vegetables. She has a lama, a sheep and more. I enjoy meeting women like Pat. Aziz takes us for a walk in Urfa. The fish pool rose garden and the Bazaar. Endless bazaar. We see small kids working as blacksmiths, shoemakers, copper artisana, coppers, knives sharpeners. We see many people with sewing machines, sewing cloths. Many workshops, shoe stores, cloths, fabric and food.
We climb up to Abraham Cave. Great view of the city that sits on the hill. There is a celebration in the neighborhood. Some boys are going to be circumcised.
“At what age?” We asked. Whenever the family decides. Can be at any age.
We also see fireworks. Grand opening for a new hotel, El Ruha Hotel.
Urfa is in the south east of Turkey and very authentic city. It is considered to be the city of the prophets. They claimed that Abraham lived in Urfa, Jetro, Job and more. The reason we came here was my corresponding with Yusuf who told me that it was the birthplace of Abraham and a very interesting city. He was right. I am glad that we had the chance to experience east Turkey. The west is very different.
It is Friday night, and I want to light the Shabbat candles and celebrate Shabbat. Dror is here too. Benny does not think that it is a good idea. So I asked my host to tell me about Abraham, and here is what he told me on Friday night in the city of Urfa.
There is a photos of me writing it down as he tell me the story:
Abraham parents lived in Urfa, under the rule of king Nimrut. The king’s magicians told him that a baby would be born who will be a threat to the king and his throne. The king ordered to kill all the babies for two years. Abraham’s mother went to a cave to have her baby. She tried to feed her baby, but the baby will not take her milk. She left the baby and returned home. The next day, when she came to check on the baby, there was a gizzel next to him and the gizzel was feeding the baby. During the night the mother had a dream and the angel Gabriel told her not to worry about the baby and to call him Ibrahim Halil. The boy stayed in the cave for ten years. One day the boy looked east and saw a big star. He said: “is this God?” and later he sow that the star went down and he said, this could not be the star. He saw the moon, is this God? No. He saw the sun, could this be God? And he said no. He went back to the cave and God spoke to him. He said to God, where are you?
Gabriel comes and said to Abraham, “Abraham, you are God’s friend, you will be prophet, you will be great”.
Now his mother takes him back home. He asked his mother: “who is God?”
His mother said, King Nimrut is God.
Abraham said, “why do you lie. Nimrut cannot be God, he is a man like us. Nimrut is no God.
His mother said, shshsh…., Nimrut will kill you if you say that.
Abraham said, no king Nimrut will not kill me.
Abraham asked his father: what is your job?
His father said: I make statues for King Nimrut, I make God.
Abraham is very angry and at night, while his father is asleep, Ibrahim takes the key and go into statues room. He takes an ax and fight, fight “you are not god, you are not god, you lie, my father lies.” He broke all the statues except the big one. He put the ax in the big statue’s neck.
He closes the door and went back to sleep.
In the morning his father wakes up, open the door, and see the broken statues. The father goes to King Nimrut and said “we have a big problem”. King Nimrut said “your son Abrahim broke the statues, bring your son to me”
The king said to Abraham “why did you do it?”
Abraham said “I did not do it, the big statue broke all the other statues”
The King said “you are a bad boy, this is stone, cannot fight”
Abraham, “you are right, it is stone, why you believe it. God, only one, not many. Why do you say you are god, you are only person.
Nimrut arrested Abraham and order him thrown from the castle into a fire. The soldiers throw Abraham down to the big fire. There is a big boom and the fire goes outside, and make rose garden and water and fish. Abraham falls into the water. The fire turned into water and the wood into fish and roses.
Nimrut fighting Ibrahim. God send mosquitos to bit Nimrut soldiers. Ibramim kills Nemrut, clean the city from statues. No more war.
From Urfa, Abraham goes to Haran. There he married Sara, has two sons, Ismail and Isaac and after 15 years he goes to Canaan.
He also told me that Jetro lived in Urfa and when Moses ran away from Pharoe he came to Jetro who lived in Urfa and married his daughter Zippora.
Also Job was living in Urfa and god took away everything from him.
Aziz has a bible. The old and new Testament, left for him by one of his guests. I read verses about Abraham, Yitro and and Job. How does Midyan moves to Urfa and Uz, Job’s city?.
We later met some Korean Journalists who were making a documentary and they told me that three cities claimed to be the birthplace or Abraham. Most Archeologists think that Ur is a city in Iraq on the bank of the Tigris River. But don’t tell it to the people of Urfa. Their city gets thousands of pilgrims everyday, who come to visit the prophets’ city.
Dror later added that there is a similar story in Christian tradition: King Harrod had a dream that a baby who will be a threat to him is going to be born in Bethlehem. So he ordered his army to kill all the baby boys under the age of three. Jesus parents lived at Nazareth, but were hiding in a cave in Bethlehem, and that is how Jesus was saved.
Today in Urfa, you can visit Abraham’s cave and the rose garden and fishpond.
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