Neighborhood Life, Part 3

Hello Friends, and welcome back for the continued tour around my Göztepe neighborhood. I’ll dig right in to talk about animals–both our pets and the street animals for which Turkey is well known.

I remember while I was going through contract negotiations with ACI that I had to verify I could bring Ziggy with me when I moved. The Head of School at the time said of course I could, but also that there were plenty of cats in Turkey. At the time I had no real idea of what he was talking about. But it only took a few hours on my first day in country to understand as cats were everywhere!

In fact, I learned that there had even been a full length documentary, titled Kedi (which is Turkish for cat), that follows some of the street cats of Istanbul. There are a lot of street animals in Turkey, both cats and dogs. While there are a number of problems as a result of this–high incidence of disease amongst the cat population, for example, I also observe that many citizens are kind to the animals, feeding them, petting and pausing to spend time with them. More should be done to control the population (spay/neuter), but that’s a topic for another day. A few of my foreign colleagues choose to spend their free time looking after the street cats in their neighborhoods. 

Beyond the street animals, keeping a pet is also a common lifestyle choice in Turkey. To support both the street animals, and all of the pets living amongst us, neighborhoods are well stocked with both pet supply stores and veterinarians. The feature photo on this post is of Mustafa, the proprietor of my preferred pet store, Pettown. Mustafa speaks some English and as you can see, loves animals. We chat sometimes about various locations in the U.S. and what life there is like, or not. He has been a great support for me and my fellow foreigners here that have pets. As you can see, the street cats in his area can often be found napping on his merchandise both inside and outside of the shop, and he makes food and water always available (and I know visits on Sundays to feed them, even though the shop is closed). In the picture at the top of this post, can you find the sleeping feline?

What I have appreciated the most about working with Pettown is that Mustafa will have your order delivered. For colleagues who have three, YES, I said THREE, cats in their homes, it can be difficult to keep up with the litter and food needs (in my apartment building there are 3 three-cat homes!). Litter is heavy. Therefore, it’s nice to have a delivery option (and at no added cost). I’m sharing a picture of another shop, on the same street as Pettown, but down a block or two. Notice that the owner feeds and waters cats there as well as allowing them to sleep wherever they feel comfortable.

Along with pet stores for supplies, Turkey is also populated with a great many veterinary clinics. You can find them in every neighborhood and often more than one. Just yesterday while on campus a colleague discovered an injured cat. We called my vet, Murat, but he was heading into surgery. She called her vet which is a couple of neighborhoods away. They happened to be free and came to collect the sick/injured animal. Unfortunately that cat passed on; however, we hope she suffered less than she might have otherwise.

I neglected to take a picture of my vet when I took Ziggy in for her current round of vaccinations. But I do have a picture of the outside of his clinic. I took her in two times over the course of a month. She received her rabies vaccination and a few others as well as had a general checkup. She weighed in at just 3.6 kilos or 8 lbs. She’s a fit little feline despite having free food available. Honestly I appreciate her small size since she often sleeps curled up against my back or even on my hip. Between the four injections, the flea treatment (which is overkill because she is always in my apartment), and a bag of high protein dry food, I paid a total of 1,100 TL or about $80. Murat’s clinic is a 10 minute walk from my apartment and he has Saturday hours which makes it convenient. I do my best to keep her “pet passport” current. Ziggy will be turning five years old next month and to my knowledge has never been sick a day in her life–at least since I took her in on October 1, 2017.

The third neighborhood stop I have for you in this post is my hairstylist, known in Turkey as the KUAFÖR, and is pronounced pretty much just how it looks. While vets in Turkey, just like human doctors, may be male or female, kuaför is a predominately masculine profession. That took some getting used to! Not because I had any problem with it, but rather because these men are usually bearded, almost always tattooed, and often burly. Such is the case with my current hairstylist, Fatih. I was in for a haircut just a couple of weeks ago and caught him in action, as well as snapping this fun picture as he prepared to trim my hair. He doesn’t speak much English so we use google translate to work out any details. 

I’ll never forget about a year ago when he typed something into my phone that translated into English to say: “you have some sparkles in your hair.” What a nice way to tell me that I have some grays! 😂 I think he might have wanted to offer to color my hair. It’s a common service for women in Turkey. I replied by saying, “I know,” but also what my age was, and that I wanted to stay natural for now (maybe forever?? Still to be determined on that one). He claimed to be shocked by my age, thinking I was a number of years younger. I’ll take the compliment! He’s not mentioned my sparkle again. 😉

Fatih is not my first hairstylist. I first went to a man named Serkan, but he changed salons often, and so I switched to Fatih who has a shop with his wife, Nihan, whom I used to see for waxing services (have since done laser hair removal and no longer need this service). Their shop is a five minute walk from my apartment and I consider Fatih a magician! Every single time I leave his salon I feel like a million bucks–as well as sad because I know I can never recreate his work. This last visit I paid 100 TL for my cut (I did not have him style it after as I was going home for the evening). That translates to about $7 and of course I always tip. The price has doubled in TL across my four years in Turkey; however, the value of the TL has also dropped significantly, so the conversion may actually be less than it was originally. 

It still mystifies me that these men, who do not keep long hair themselves (not that I have seen anyway), can do so very much with a woman’s hair. Yes, I guess that is a sexist remark–but what can I say, I was raised in a country where hairstyling is/was predominately a feminine profession. I get to thank Turkey, once again, for broadening my experience and knowledge. I have had my hair shampooed by a woman before being cut by Serkan or Fatih, and I am told that there are female kuaförs in Eastern Turkey where it isn’t appropriate for women who come from more conservative or religious backgrounds to have a man touch/cut/style her hair. 

P.S. I do continue to get my body wave perms while I am home in the U.S. visiting family. I have not been brave enough to do that here yet. 

That wraps up this mini-tour in my neighborhood. There are a few more people and places I will highlight, but I have a travel post or two to do first. Until then, I hope you are enjoying your spring, wherever you are on the planet. And to all my educator friends around the world–our school year is nearly finished–I’m wishing you a lovely summer break/vacation.