Mardin

Hello again,

Yesterday we arrived in Mardin - a very ancient city in the Southeast corner of Turkey. Here we will be filming the "Ipek Yolu" or "Silk Road" Women's Cooperative.

Although we are still in Turkey, it is very clear that the Mardin province has it's own blend of cultures and history. Since we are between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, we are actually in Mesopotamia - a region that we normally associate with Iraq, but which extends into Turkey, Syria, and Iran as well.

Although Turkish is the official language here, we have learned that most people speak another native language at home - either Arabic or Kurdish. Our guidebooks emphasize the peaceful and fruitful coexistence of the three major groups, Turks, Kurds, and Arabs. Through daily conversations we have found that the situation is more complex, especially for minority groups who worry about the loss of their cultures and mother-tongues.

The other striking feature of Mardin is the terrain. Below you can see the expanses of dry, flat land that stretches to the horizon where it dissapears into the haze. Mardin is a city on a hill, surrounded by tiny villages; from where we are staying it looks as if we are on the edge of the ocean, except instead of water surrounding us there is only land.

We'll be here until Sunday, and will keep posting to the blog about our filming. We hope to film the cooperative's women and children's center as well as their soap-making workshop.

Thanks to our faithful readers!

Gule Gule!
Fernando and Jill