Tuesday, August 30, 2011

First night

12:05 am.
Restless and unable to fall asleep for the past several hours....motorcycles and cars racing by in a steady stream...horns honking...truck engines roaring...children laughing and playing...popped an Advil PM..read some more... got out of bed to turn off overhead fluorescent light...awake...turned on light...read some more...
12:45 am approximately
Turned off light and fell asleep...
2:30 am
woke with a start to the sound of drums beating a loud irregular cadence...noise getting louder and closer....5 or 6 large drums beating at the apartment doorstep...keeps beating...noise getting softer as drums pass and head down the street....drift off to sleep...
2:45 am.
more drums following same pattern...remembering a passage I read in Turkish culture book that explained these drums signal people in houses to awaken and eat last meal before sunrise for Ramadan...turn on light...read some more...
3:00 am.
drums play one more time and then stop...turn of light...fall back asleep...

5:00 am ish
muezzin begins prayer call from Mosque...much softer than the drums...fall back asleep
7:30 am
sun beaming in room and getting hot in there...lay in bed for 20 minutes afraid to open the window to see Malatya for fear of disappointment...finally garner courage to open curtains...the mosque is directly in front of my bedroom window...green trees line the boulevard...people are up walking around...traffic picks up...time to get up...
Goals for the day: buy towels and minutes for my sim card.

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