Will Stone and I are on the way back to the US after a fantastic 9 days in Turkey. It has been such an honor representing the State of Mississippi and meet many new friends and see many new things. The people have been wonderful, Fatih Ozcan was a wonderful host and guide for the entire trip who went above and beyond to make our trip the experience of a lifetime. All of the families were very welcoming hosts, especially Mustafa Aktaş and Özlem Adırnazlı Aktaş who allowed us to spend the night in their beautiful home. I learned that when people truly want to communicate, language is not a barrier (especially when you have Google Translate to bail you out when you get stuck). Our tour guide in Istanbul, Songul Aksu, was very knowledgable and helpful, not to mention a lot of fun. We got to see some fantastic sites, from the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul to Kütahya Castle, the ancient City of Ephesus, the last home of the Virgin Mary, Mount Erciyes, the underground city near Neveshir and much, much more. We learned a lot about Turkish culture and lifestyle and how similar we really are. I have a greater understanding of history and the Muslim world and religion and, most importantly, that Islam is not defined by the minority of terrorist extremists that we see on TV. Again and again, I felt a genuine admiration for the US and a sincere desire to improve relations between our two countries and our two cultures. We made new friends, that I hope to see again and have the chance to help them learn more about the US. It was a truly amazing trip that we will never forget! A big THANK YOU to the Dialogue Institute, Mississippi for organizing this trip and allowing us to be a part of it. I have over 4,300 pictures, have posted some and will be posting more after I get a chance to go through them.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:15:51 +0000
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