One Saturday we were in the grocery store. We had a young man bag our groceries and he had a very unusual name. Much to my kids embarrassment I asked him his name and where he was from. Believe it or not, he was from Turkey! He has been in the United States for about 2 years. Well, let the friendship begin!
As he took our groceries out to the car I told him how we were homeschoolers and we happened to be studying Turkey. I then asked him if he would mind if we asked him questions about Turkey and the language as we went through our book. He was more than willing. So, for the next couple of months we would seek him out as our bagger and on the way to the car we would ask him all kinds of questions. One time I brought a book we were reading and asked him to pronounce some of the Turkish words for things in the book. He was more than accommodating.
I asked him how he came to be in the United States. It turned out his wife is from here and he met her while she was an exchange student in Spain visiting Turkey. (She actually works in the same office as my sister!) So, they got married and he decided to go to school here.
About a month ago he told us he was going back to Turkey for a visit during summer break. He hadn't been home in quite awhile. He asked us if there was anything we would like for him to bring back! I thought that was so sweet. I couldn't really think of anything specific at the time but just said anything that would represent Turkey would be great.
Well, he got back last week and we saw him at the grocery store this past Saturday. EG recognized him from across the store. Both she and Boop were excited to see him. He ended up being our grocery bagger so we asked him all about his trip. He had brought back some gifts for us so we invited him over for dinner on Monday, along with some other friends we were having over.
He couldn't come to dinner, but he did say he and his wife would stop by. We were thrilled. So, on Monday are Turkish grocery store bagger and his lovely wife came to our house to give us our gifts. It was so sweet and we enjoyed visiting with both of them. He brought us Turkish Delight which is a Turkish dessert (Boop secretly hoped that would be one of the gifts.) Also, he brought us a beautiful wall hanging that has 7 silver elephants hanging down with white and blue beads in the center of each one and a large cobalt blue stone on the bottom. It their culture it is meant to keep evil spirits away. He also brought us a figurine of Nasreddin Hoca, a very popular folklore character from their culture. The kids recognized it right away.
We enjoyed the gifts and were very grateful for them. We enjoyed getting to know him and his wife a little bit better. We look forward to seeing him on Saturday . . .
The elephants and amulet sold at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.
Nasreddin Hoca.
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