Coronavirus Stories - Reaching Out From Isolation

  Edited BY G P Kennedy   Gul - and her man - Istanbul, Turkey FINAL WEEKS OF SUMMER  Life continues as usual here. August is over, we have come almost to the end of summer, and we all have the same sadness. I wish we could freeze this moment and go to a year later. An uncertain autumn and winter are so scary.    The daily number of new cases in the country is reported as over 1500 every day but we assume it’s x 10. Insufficient testing in this busy summer months increased the cases and asymptomatic carriers are still spreading the virus. We hear news that there are not enough beds in the hospitals at the moment. Also idiot people hide that they are sick; there was not enough work to isolate people before its spread by the authorities. They’ve failed (again). Sadly, five doctors died this week; hundreds of healthcare workers have been infected with the virus. Last strawberries of the summer SCHOOL OR NOT  School year began with distance education but this i...

Edited BY G P Kennedy  For this week most of our storytellers will be casting their minds forward to late-August 2021. The idea is to give us all a little relief and release from the relentlessness of the Coronavirus Pandemic. In so doing we will venture into the minds of our storytellers as they share their hopes, dreams and aspirations. Perhaps you will be inspired to look beyond the confines of the pandemic... Gul - Istanbul, Turkey  This time next year, I’ll be working on a summer art project plus I’ll be putting the finishing touches to my autumn program Food at Cunda Island . I wish it were true! My freelance projects were cancelled one by one by last year due to economic recession. As if this was not enough, COVID-19 came over. So this - my early retirement status - was not my choice.  So, ins tead of working, I’ll be on holiday in this coast again and that time I’ll be with my friend from the UK. Forgive me if I appear as a travel agency or a travel blogger. I tol...

Edited BY G P Kennedy   Gul - Istanbul, Turkey   GOOD OLD DAYS  We all yearn for the past and often say 'oh, good old holidays'. In old times, the Bayram – that’s what we call for religious festivals- meant visiting family elderly relatives & neighbors, then recent years, going on holidays, and now, is neither family visits nor holidays. Thanks to the COVID-19.    We’re on the second day of the Feast of the Sacrifice. There are more people at this Aegean Coast as people came to their parent’s summerhouses instead of going to holiday. You see the smile on older people’s face and gardens full of laughter and fun.    This time last year, we were at the same coast but everything changed in this one year. The fun part has gone completely and we entered in a very quiet summer period. Last year we enjoyed the summer sun with friends and family. We had many BBQs at our garden and invited lots of people. This year, everyone kept themselves a respectful dist...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Gul - Istanbul, Turkey TIME GOING TOO FAST  We ' re already halfway through  the summer and I don't want it  to  end! How can we stop that feeling of things going too fast? Usually Mike and I are torn between like doing nothing on holiday or doing everything but this summer absolutely we’re doing nothing apart from swimming, listening music, chatting and walking a lot. Everything sounds perfect isn’t it? Wait until I check the news on my social media.    They say there are important health benefits connected with temporarily switching off, to help you to de- stress and unwind but I can’t switch off what’s going on in this country.    I don’t watch any manipulated news on the telly but why can not quit social media? Yesterday, Hagia Sophia Museum reopened as a mosque with a new name The Grand Mosque of Hagia Sophia - the precious 1500 years old mosaics covered by some ugly white curtains. Amazing marble flooring covered b...

Edited BY G P Kennedy To the sea Gul - Ayvalık, The Aegean Coast of Turkey 9am  In Turkey, we start the day with a glass of newly brewed Turkish tea. If there is no tea at breakfast, it lacks the main thing. We have our breakfast around 9am. Mike is an early bird so he has the responsibility to brew our traditional tea; we say ‘çay’ pronounced as chai, black tea. We drink it in the morning, afternoon and evening. For the traditional brew, we use çaydanlık, which is basically two stacked kettles - a big one at the bottom (for hot water) and the smaller one (for tea leaves) on top of it.   Typical Turkish breakfast includes olives, cheese, jams, and eggs. My sister has been making some cherry, rose, plum, fig and strawberry jams since we arrived here. The local farmers bring fresh fruit everyday that we usually do our homemade jams. We take some of them to Istanbul for the winter times too. Fresh strawberries - yum! 10am-11.30am After washing dishes (there’s no dishwasher h...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Hagia Sofia, Istanbul Gul - Istanbul, Turkey    I love my country but I am embarrassed by and deeply ashamed of its institutions. The worst feeling, I have had for a long time is that; the magnificent and precious Hagia Sophia, the symbol is Istanbul is a victim of today’s dirty politics.  Yesterday, a Turkish court has annulled the museum status of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, which enables it to be used as mosque instead of a museum. Built 1,500 years ago as a Christian Byzantium Cathedral, now a UNESCO heritage site; it should’ve remain a museum out of respect for the country’s Christian minority and world history.    Many academics from Friends of Hagia Sophia have written an open letter expressing their concerns: “ Historical and archaeological evidence could be damaged, and works of art concealed. Hagia Sophia is too beautiful a monument and too precious a historical document to serve as a pawn in regional politics. Successive Byzantine,...

Edited BY  G P Kennedy   GEOGRAPHY IS DESTINY  In Turkey we often say: “Geography is destiny’.  Here is the place where everything and anything is possible. Between economic crisis and corrupt politics our destiny hasn’t changed a bit.  In Turkey, the virus is still here but our domestic political conditions shape our daily life and seems more important than a pandemic.   Mabel Matiz Turkey’s gay community fights homophobia alongside COVID-19 for example. Recently, the director of the state run religious affairs claimed homosexuals are spreading the virus.  And now, a question of last weekend’s university entrance exam is being called ‘scandalous’. A question involving lyrics of a singer Mabel Matiz has caused a lot of problems and now an official investigation has been started. The authorities and supporters said the question was set a bad example for young people as the singer is known for his open support of LGBT and some immoral institutions. ...