Just Another Sunny Day in Turkey…

…is what we say every morning at 6AM. And it has been so far, without exception.

A far cry from Paris, where it was usually overcast until midday when the sun appeared. I’ve always said I didn’t care how early I had to get up as long as it was light out. Well, geography is calling my bluff and I’m walking my talk. It’s sunny here when the alarm goes off at 6AM, and for the most part, I get up, with far less difficulty than I did in Paris at 7:30AM. By 8:30 the sun is blazing, making sunglasses a necessity as I drive the kids to school. The day continues with 90-95 degree temperatures, surprisingly comfortable in the shade, but instantly wilting in the sun. An occasional single cloud will wander by lazily, its purpose visual interest against the vast blue sky rather than any sun relief. Just another sunny day in Ankara.

The downside to a thousand sunny days is that Ankara is in the throes of a severe water shortage, with no rain in sight. The city had begun water rationing a couple of weeks ago, alternating the water supply by district. Water would be shut off to the northern half of the city for two days, and then the south side of the city (save a small district that housed the President of Turkey) took its two-day turn. This transpired for a week or two, until the interruption of water flow and change of pressure caused the city pipes to break, thus shutting off water to EVERYONE. The city eventually repaired the pipes, restored water to all the residents, ceased water rationing, begged for water conservation, and offered prayers for rain at the mosques on Fridays. They said we have six weeks of water left, and when that’s gone…? We may get some rain but the bulk of the water is supplied by winter snowfall (certainly not forecast for the next two months), so stay tuned for the unfolding hydrosaga.

And how did we fare during the water stoppage? Well, fine, thanks to our building’s large reserve water tank. When we had looked at this apartment on a brief trip to Turkey last February I remembered the previous tenant saying, “Oh, and a bonus of this building is that they have a reserve water tank.” Well, in my mind I imagined a small second tank in the apartment that would allow us to take consecutive showers without running out of water. She seemed so proud of the fact, and not wanting to be rude, I said to her, “Is that important?” She opened her mouth in surprise, stared at me a moment and then finally said, “YES,” very firmly. This was the same YES I gave to a college classmate of mine from Miami, who by mid-October of our freshman year in Vermont was wearing a down parka and sleeping in a sleeping bag. Sometime around Halloween, he looked at all of us native New Englanders and pleaded, “It doesn’t get any colder here than this, does it?” YES. It’s the answer of a weary veteran toward the woefully uninformed, skipping the unwelcome details and condensing years of experience into a three-letter answer. YES can be equally kind, incredulous, and condescending. So YES, the tank was important. We have water. For now.