First Time Out on the Town

Last weekend, we finally made it off base! The base is very small with everything within walking distance, so we were getting a little stir-crazy already. Friday night, we called up a Daniel's co-worker to see if she wanted to join us for dinner. Instead, she suggested doing a "carpet party" where they would order dinner for us! I was too embarrassed to take a picture of the feast that was laid out before us, but it was a colorful and delicious first experience of Turkish food. Nuri, the owner of the shop, was thrilled to allow Elijah to run around the room and climb over all the rugs. He even put Ezekiel to sleep while we all ate and watched as the rugs were unrolled in front of us! The rugs were too beautiful to describe! The pictures below don't do them justice at all. We now have a friend in Nuri, so we will be going back frequently. And if you visit, we can promise you a carpet party as well!

Elijah testing out the rugs. Aren't they beautiful?!

He was actually rolling across the floor! We all secretly wished we could have joined him.

On Saturday, we took the Dolmus (DOHL-moosh: Turkish taxi) into Adana, with our gardener's boss' nephew as our guide. It was nice to have someone who spoke the language to show us around a foreign city of 1.6 million people. I confess that the pictures taken that day were not on my camera, but I know we'll have plenty to share with you in the future. We visited the covered market in old Adana where there is a clock tower that dates back to the 1800's. We were offered chai in every shop we stopped at and Elijah got several kisses and pats on the head from men and women. They love babies!

Slowly but surely, we are doing our best to get involved in the community here on base and make friends. There is a children's story-time at the library every week and the community center has a room filled with bounce houses a couple times a week. We've also just started attending the Sunday night service at the base chapel, so we're looking forward to meeting people there.

Doesn't Z look so tiny in the big stroller?!

Elijah didn't know what to do with himself when he saw all the children jumping around!