Bayram, cheese fights and moving

We have just finished experiencing Ramadan here.  Our time experiencing Ramadan was full of drummer man beating drums outside our apartment at 3am in the morning and trying not to eat in front of people during daylight hours.  But the last few days were the Bayram (called şekerli bayram).  This is where nothing happens in this country, people eat a lot of sugar and spend time with their entire family.  Before this holiday started we were wanting to find a new apartment and move.  Amazingly we did accomplish that.  The Lord provided for us a beautiful new apartment with loads of space for visitors and future teams here in this city.  We are also in walking distance to all main modes of transportation, the Eaves, and anything else we need.  Our apartment also doesn't flood from bad kitchen pipes.  We're so happy! 


We also wanted to purchase a few things before Bayram started as well.  We went to Carrefour (which is like a Target, but still doesn't have everything in one place) and we saw something I'd never thought I'd see here.  There were two families waiting in the check out line and it appeared the first family had budged.  They were saying to the second family that it was a sin for them not to let them go first because they had so few things in their cart.  The woman of the second family began yelling back that it was wrong that they budged.  Then a bystander came by and told them to be happy because it was the holiday but they pushed him out of the way and began arguing again.  So now, its the two wives of these families and one woman takes cheese from her cart, raises it above her head and begins to hit the other woman over the head with the cheese for budging.  Needless to say they both got kicked out of the store, it was quite shocking to see behavior like this at all let alone during the holiday which most resembles our christmas!


We are just finishing settling in and are happy to meet with students soon.  University begins on Monday and we've been so happy that we've been able to connect with a few students from last year that were in the city this summer but can't wait until others come back and we can begin to meet contacts made over the summer trips here!