13th Day - Discussing...

A whole day spent in the boys' living room on two things: feedback on the activities taking places yesterday and discussion on guidelines & actions for the next step.

Late as usual, our meeting began at almost 11:00 am... As there were 4 funerals in Sulukule today, it was inappropriate for our workshop to take place this afternoon, which was postponed to next Monday. Very sorry for Sulukule people. And instead, we stayed as the hotel discussing and preparing for the final busy week.

Starting with the three things yesterday, we shared with each other in experience and appreciation. The redoing of model building workshop came first. Plus the activities we took in last few days, Michael questioned the local involvement. Apparently, kids showed more interest than adults, and particularly less women, which is one of our main concerns about local engagement. Meanwhile, Yves recommended working with people, walking with a sense of distance, and planning with time.

The second one was last night's movies about the Roma in Sulukule and the general situation of eviction in Istanbul. From the movies, new issues were raised - market driven eviction under the control of the state, "unmolested occupancy", and "self-rehabilitation". By reclaiming the value and contribution made by occupants, the self-help approach can be considered and incorporated into our project.

Finally, feedback on Fener Balat rehabilitation programme. Different from what we are promoting now for Sulukule (participatory process), Fener and Balat programme was a top-down conservation process, in which the successful elements could also worth referring to.

Then it came the discussion on guidelines and actions. 8 guidelines and 7 actions were agreed on finally, though it was a really hard process. Emphasised by both Michael and Yves, a matrix illustrating the correlation and reinforcement of guidelines and actions was produced on one hand, and on the other, the articulation of two-phase boundaries helped keep concentration. The logical framework from UNDP System addressed by Yves was also helpful, from current situation to objectives both long-term and short-term, from inputs through actions to outputs, based on which we each chose one guideline and one action to focus on.

Lucky being with Michael and Yves, as well as Cassidy and Sara, and all of us :)

- mi