Tuesday, June 3, 2008 Sufis and Trains

This day we met at the Kadikoy ferry station (in Asia) and took a bus to Bostanci where we met with Cemalnur Sargut, the leader of an NGO (non-governmental organization) and also a Sufi. A very nice lady who spoke to us about many things, ranging from Sufis to why women pray in the back in mosques to when her NGO was founded to what the NGO does and how it gets the money for what it does and many other different questions like that. Here’s a picture of her and her translator…

After speaking with Ms. Sargut, we took the ferry back to Europe to Sirkeci train station where Emily and Kristina did their presentation on the train station and specifically concentrated on the Orient Express. Here’s a picture of them answering our questions after their presentation…

Nicely done presentation. After their presentation, Amanda, Edward and I went to a hamam to check out prices because they were going to do their presentation on a hamam. They asked me to come because most of the time I can get a better deal than foreign people can, and we did get a pretty good deal. 30 YTL for 11 people and 15 YTL for me; so for a total of 345 YTL we would be getting a nice bath and a massage and soap and towels and everything. After checking out the hamam and negotiating a nice price for all 12 of us, we went back to Sultanahmet and found the place of Tumata, the place that deals with the science of music therapy and also the preservation of old Turkic musics and instruments. I only stayed for about half an hour, if that, and left really early because I’d already gone there before and the person who actually leads the group wasn’t there anyways. Here's a picture of the place...

It's actually a two-story office type thing, the part shown in the picture is the museum. I think I've already talked about Tumata, but just incase I haven't, it's an organization that works to preserve and find old instruments. They have their own workshop where they make the instruments, and the photo you see up there is of the museum where they display the instruments they've made. They also do musical therapy, and they start off with old Turkic songs and then move on to Sufi rhythmic chants and whatnot to induce a healthier state in the mind. They also practice with the instruments that they've made, and the museum part of the office is where this happens. Good stuff.