Phillip and Rebecca Mefford

Mart March March brings the Mef ford family up to the beautiful Pacific Northwest!         Rebecca is happy to be home! Phillip is happy to be surrounded by such great Asian cuisines as can be found in the Northwest. Lincoln got to introduce Hudson to his great grandmothers! And Hudson is a very cute smiley baby.   

Uu Uluslararası , Ulaş mak For many, when we say we live in a foreign country, images of impoverished street children and unclean water arise. This, in fact, is not the picture that describes Turkey. While life is different there, particularly in more rural areas, Turkey boasts a stable democracy, blossoming economy, all the modern conveniences, and structures within its own society to care for the underprivileged. A sense of national pride drives Turkey’s 79 million people to keep striving toward being the best. Amongst the uluslararas ı , international, community Turkey wants to be a major player; it is a promising regional influencer politically and economically. But has Turkey ula ştı -- reached, arrived at, attained its goals—of becoming the next world power? We’ll let the pundits analyze that. We steer clear of political commentary, simply wanting to clear some preconceptions—Turkey is not a third world country—and focus more on the anthropologic side of thing: Wh

Tt Türban, Türkü Folk music versus pop music, kebaps versus hamburgers, covered heads versus uncovered heads. Streams of controversies such as these continually flow throughout Turkish society, uniting and dividing young and old, city dwellers and country folk, religiously devout and secular, and so on. The head-covering, türban or ba şörtüsü , is one of the hottest topics, exploring perceptions on religious obligation, freedom of expression, and identity. Accurate statistics are hard to come by, but it is fairly safe to say that Turkish women are roughly divided 50-50 wearing or not wearing a covering on their head. Current constitutional rule dictates that women are not lawfully allowed to cover their heads if they hold a government position or even if they go to a public school or university—a law currently ignored and threatened to be overturned in the near future. Read Gallup World’s article on the issue for more insights: http://www.gallup.com/poll/104257/headsc

Şş Şöyle böyle , Şükür olsun Nas ılsınız ? or “how are you?” has a variety of different answers, doesn’t it? Of course, there is the generic İyim “I’m good,” or the rhetorical Sen de nas ılsınız ? “And how are you?” We have fun trying to say şöyle böyle “this way, t hat way,” in other words, “so-so,” although that dotted ‘o’ still gives us pronunciation trouble. Or if we are feeling particularly pious şükür olsun , “Thanks be to God!” acts as a vigorous response meaning “I’m good.” As you can see, Turkey is as multicolored in simple greetings as it is in culture, history, geography, and worldview. So…how are we doing? Just call or email and ask— we can tell you in Turkish or in English! What this means for us: - At times it is important for us to gauge the group that we are speaking with. Younger, more secular Turks might find şükür olsun to sound religious-y and antiquated, while an older or more devout person might appreciate the sentiment. - We love how pol