Far Far Away Muslim Community

Well.. First of all as I am the dumbest girl that exist in the world as I lost my journal that I have been keeping for 6 months in Peru and Miami.. Now in order to be more careful about it decided to use technology more frequently.
There is one definite thing about Turks ; we are in everywhere. Wherever you go you would definitely come across with a Turkish people. But Peru.. Guess we haven”t conquered here yet. Though I searched for ages I only have two Turkish friends in here right now.
So today we had to deliver a package to a Egyptian man who is a schawarma seller on the street and gains much more then restaurant as his food is totally delicious. His name is Muhammed. (Obviously) So i had. the honour of meeting with him today. So appereantly he lived in Turkey for 10 years. Then at one point he started telling stories about being a Muslim which gave lessons about how we should look after each other in this foreign country. And he made us watch a video of a kid praying in Arabic in Indonesia and people crying. Seriously.. Yusuf and I hardly stopped ourselves from laughing I mean we didn’t even understand a single word! But according to him this video supposed to show us being a good Muslim.
Anyway, there was also another Muslim guy from some African country and from the first moment he came all his purpose was convincing us to go to the mosque tomorrow as it is Friday. And he didn’t shake my hand when he said good bye !! I hate that dumb, stoneage man who doesn’t touch any woman. I wanted to shout like WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?! WE ARE BOTH HUMAN! But then again this is something that I am used to from some creepy people that I know from my country. Which is something really sad (I mean being used to this kind of things) when you think about it.
At the end of the day I was happy to meet people with a good heart. Because they are the people who would be there to help me as I sincerely believe that Peruvians had already lost their humanity.
One more thing as I mentioned about being a Muslim. Today I asked my students what is typically Turkish. And one guy returned to me and said BOMBS !! I felt the anger in my whole body. So I said “ If you don’t know anything about something don’t talk about it. And go home, read some books as obviously you need to learn something about the world that you live in.” I mean I like teaching and everythin but the level of the ignorance is sometimes totally intolerable in here!

Muslim or an Alien ?!

I was used to prejeduces and misapprehensions of the Muslim world. But at the same time i knew that most of the world could differenciate Turkey from any other Muslim country. Of course i have came across with many dumb questions from some Americans like ‘Oh you are going to school with camel,right?’ But i was fine with it cuz you know they were just.. Americans (I have many many smart American friends too though)

But Peru! Peruvians are keep pushing the limits of the ignorance. They shut themselves to other religions, cultures, ideas or new lifestyles. They just live in ther own bubble basically.

Majority of Peruvians are Catholics and I can say that religion is REALLY important for these guys. And i totally respect that. But i, at this point, started to get sick of level of sacrilge and lack of knowladge in here. So if you are a Muslim, Gay or Atheist.. you basically become the other. I mean it s not like forbidden or anything you can obviously be whoever you want, support whatever you want but the thing is that they are really good at making you feel unwelcomed when you do not act according to the norms of this Catholic society.

I want to start with my students. My students are university students which is not an acceptable age for unawareness of the world. I always start my lessons by asking ‘Hey guys do you know where Turkey is?’. Thank God they mostly say Asia or Europe though there are some who shouts like AFRICAAA. But you know, whatever.. Then i make them watch some videos about Turkey as i feel like i am the one who will shape their opinions about Turquia.

But i can not get rid of them getting suprised when they see me with a short or a skirt. But who am i to blame my students when their Peruvian teachers are not knowledged enough. I remember the time that one day that i was talking with my mom on the phone and one of my collegues asked me what was that language that i was using when i was talking on the phone and then i said that its Turkish…’ah are you a Muslim?’…’Yes,i am.’…’OMG HOW DID THEY LET YOU GET OUT OF THE COUNTRY AS A WOMAN?!?!’..Well, as you can see, here i am senorita.. In order not to punch her on the face i just left the room.

So basically converstions in here starts with
1-Hey whats your name?
2-Where are you from again? (you come across with a poker face for one min when u say Turkey)
3- Where is your boyfriend?( Or any other thing about relationships and every time i just wanna shout like that is something private!)
4- Are you a Muslim ? (OMG A MUSLIM!!!)

I also remember that one day at my Spanish course my Chineese classmate was super suprised that Turkey has it is language. And our teacher said OF COURSE TURKEY HAS IT S OWN LANGUAGE! I was impressed to tell the truth. But obviously i shouldnt have been impressed that quick as the second thing she said was. ‘ But Sibel it s really impressive that you learn so quick it must be so hard to learn a new alphabeth’ A big big dissapointment once again. Hellooo we dont use the Arabic Alphabeth.

Then the other day i (again) found myself in this conversation about different cultures. It was just like this;

‘You know in some cultures you can have many wives. Right Sibel? how many wives can man have in Turkey?’

or any other sentences like…

-OMG DONT YOU HAVE CHRISTMAS WHAT DO YOU DO WITHOUT CHRISTMAS !
-Where is Turkey? Is it somewhere in Peru?
-What do you eat if you dont eat pork??? (well it s not the only edible animal in the world)
.
.
.

It is such a ridiculouslesness that it is hard for people to accept the realities ( you know that we are not aliens ) but on the other hand so easy to accept the drool, awry information.

So right now. I ve embraced the mission of straightening the misunderstandings about my culture, my religion, basically everything about Turkey.

“Living is Easy with Eyes Closed.”
― John Lennon