Phillip and Rebecca Mefford

Nikah Wedding A few days ago our antsy legs walked off a plane onto the soil of Colorado as we took a deep, dry (thanks to the altitude) breath of home. We are back for a short time to witness the beautiful threshold ceremony that two days ago deemed Mark Whitehead and Phillip's sister, Ashley, a married couple. Turkish culture, like our own, hosts such ceremonies to commemorate the significant events in our lives. While modern Turks enjoy the white princess dress, they have not forgotten the complex string of traditions that comprise a wedding—an engagement ceremony for the whole family to enjoy, a bridal party during which the bride and her friends press reddish-brown henna into their palms, a brief civil ceremony known as a nikah, and finally a big party called a düğün. A few months ago we attended our first düğün, an evening that dances by to the sound of a traditional pipe and drum. Guests hold pinkies and tap their feet in unison, circling around the room in folk dance. A br

Türkiye’de kaç zaman kalmak istiyorsunuz? How long do you want to stay in Turkey? “Leyleği havada gördü,” one of our neighbors said of us with a smile on her face. This colloquialism conveys the meaning that, like a majestic stork in migration, we are constantly on the move. Whether that means from one city to the next or merely from our apartment to our neighbor’s home, our comings and goings within Turkey have been flavored by the black tea simply known as çay. Turkish tea, primarily grown in the moist Black Sea region, is universally drunk throughout the country at any and every time of the day, offered in small tulip shaped glasses with one or two cubes of sugar on the side. (Phillip takes one and half cubes of sugar, but Rebecca has worked her way to sugarless tea). Like kahve, sharing a pot of çay is an act of friendship. When a host offers some it usually means they hope you will stay and visit for awhile. While acquiring our tastes to Turkey over the course of 2009 we have had