Culture of Time

Your Author and His Tools

A month or so ago we were interviewed by Lonely Planet on our nomadic adventures (LP Interview), one of the interviewer’s questions asked what was the single most valuable piece of travel advice that I had received? Remembering my role model, a nomadic adventurer (CPO now long dead) who had stirred our passions to wander Asia…I quoted his favorite phrase—The Flexible shall not break.
This month I have been stretched to live that out. While we have never experienced culture shock as some do, we have occasionally been put to the test to adapt to local culture, or break paths and be the “foreigner” living among the locals-- something that is not an option for our crew. We've been able to meld into Central Asian ways without too much discomfort and have embraced the confusion of being a third culture family.
Learning the language is key to understanding culture, but often just making time for people can speak more clearly than linguistic fluency.
With many of the locals taking advantage of the weather and making for the islands or coastal resorts this month I had looked forward to a few weeks of uninterrupted work, language study, and a list of projects, planning and research that I needed to finish.
As most adventurers can attest to, if you are going to wander the backwoods of the planet you have to have some ingenuity to fall back on in order to survive. I remember the blistering hot asphalt of Missouri’s back roads as I replaced the worn out springs on an old trailer we were towing as we roamed the states, and sucking mouthfuls of gasoline out of our tank after a station attendant had accidentally filled our diesel vehicle with the wrong fuel in a border town near Iran.
I have changed out flat tires by the score; lain under 50 year old houses cutting through cast iron pipes with a hacksaw, and (being the cheapskate that I am) have now learned how to survive while tampering with the 220V electric system in Asia.

You’re right; it takes no great intellect to accomplish these chores, just a stubbornness to forge ahead without having to rely on anyone else and the willingness to make mistakes or burn the tip of your finger off by touching the wrong wire.
Those meager skills haven’t gone unnoticed to our neighbors, and while I usually enjoy spending a day or two a month doing some odd handyman jobs as a gift for the locals, this week the orders came in fast and hard. I have spent every day this week dealing with one small crisis or another. Bad electrical switches, installing new outlets, tidying up electrical lines, re-caulking kitchen counter tops and trying to find “where that bad odor is coming from”...etc..
All that to say that today I finally made it over the hump and past my frustrations. One of my elderly neighbors has wanted me to go with them to a new produce store they wanted me to see. For weeks I had heard about the quality and convenience of this new shop, and for weeks I have had to decline due to the lack of time. Finally today, after repairing an outlet and a broken light fixture, he looked at me and said “S-tan, when will you go with me to see the new market?” Realizing I was beat I gave in and agreed to go at once.
With the promise that it would take only a “few minutes” we took off walking south towards the Sea of Marmara and then west towards Kadikoy. As we walked along our friend continued to stress how close and easy it was to shop at this market, “the produce is so fresh and it is so easy to get to.” After 20 minutes or so we veered off the street and took a flight of stairs down and underneath the railroad tracks, traversed another block via the underground walkway and then two flights of stairs to come back up to street level.
We dodged thru gridlocked traffic and around a corner, down two more flights of stairs to find a delightful little market, full of the same produce we purchase each week at the Pazar just outside our front door.
After politely browsing and commenting on how fresh and bright all the goods were, we purchased a few things for the sake of our friend and left. Our guide, now content that we had finally seen his gem of a find was happily leading us back home. His eyes sparkling with satisfaction he continued to praise the convenience and quality of the little market.
As we approached the apartment block we both live in I asked him how often he visited the little market that he was so taken with…his reply stressed the flexibility needed to live in another culture. “Oh no, we never shop there…it is simply too long a journey to make when we can shop at the weekly Pazar just outside our door.”
I waited for the “snap”…but felt the gentle stretch of a flexibility learned through years of living abroad. Anxious to get back to the books his next words hit home and caused me to laugh, “now S-tan, can you come in and see what is wrong with my bathroom light, it will only take a minute.”