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

12th day- coffee reading

pretty good day today since we had the half day off yesterday.

(funny how, yesterday, our row in the movie theater was sleeping with our mouths open while watching the romani movie at the french cultural centre. we apologize for that ;)

so we had a sort-of-break and good sleep to begin our day.

we started of getting feedback from the presentation the morning before, from the professors and among the students. overall i think it was a good presentation, althought we have to refine and improve on certain areas of the presentation. we had alot of content, just need to reorganize and restructure it more coherently, before thursday. when we are gona be presenting to a huge audience, beyond the academia arena. and by the looks of it, we'll be presenting to an international platform. HIGH PRESSURE noh? ;) but i think it will great because we have an opportunity to make something real out of our project, it wouldnt be just an exercise and requirement of the Msc we're taking. hehehe.

after the feedback we had a brainstorming session to come out with possible context of our proposal. its really great having Eve Cabannes here with us, giving input and feedback on something he's passionate and experienced about. noh? heheh. lol. then the group separated into 3 : meeting with fener rehabilitation organization, workshop taskforce, proposal brainstorm. (such big jargons we use in development ;P)

so whats next? we go and eat. at the point where our brains weren't functioning anymore and fresh air was desparately needed. i think most of the money spent (mind you alot) has only been on food. sigh ... i really like the area where we are, its easy and convenient to get stuff and food, perhaps thats the reason for the hole in my wallet. lol. blame the place, yea uhuh.

and during the eating session, one of the turkish students joined us for lunch/dinner/supper. and we were discussing about coffee readings as a turkish women's trait. so what else, i got myself a turkish coffee and had this girl (Berne, how ever u would spell it in turkish?) read my emptied coffee cup. the things that she said was amazingly and scare-ly accurate. about someone at home being really ill and getting worst, just hit the spot, and for it to be the first thing she saw out of my coffee cup was just scary. other stuff in terms of dramatic events that has been happening within this short period of time, of me dealing with hardship, about me wanting to just get away from everyone at times, of me distaning myself with someone really close and just being hopeless about the situation. dude...scary.... but on other positive things, she said that i would get good projects (which elaborated to mean good grades, so perhaps this project will bring all of us a good grade! lol), and i would proly meet someone new, and i am a pretty lucky person (i feel that i am, getting the masterbedroom with the 4 poster bed all by myself for 2 weeks! ;p).

so yea. right. then we continued our work within the group just to discuss about the possible "guidelines and actions" for out proposal. as usual im still up at 1am, which would mean that we ended the discussion late again. sigh .... i wana go to sleeeeep. so ... until the next blogger, GO SULUKULE!

suzaini zaid

11th day .... Interim Presentation

After long night of preparation for the interim presentation I think each of us had his/her daily share of sleeping hours with little deduction. Heading the university equipped with new advisor: Yves Cabannes. I hope that you ( Yves) can scratch your head like Alladin’s Lamp, and get some magical idea to help us in our project!!!! Ah I forgot that you have to be one of the audiences for our presentation first before you enrolled as instructor.

10:00 am: the presentation has to start now everything classified in the this small Flash memory , its nice to see the whole effort that all the team member effort capsulated in 1 * 5cm Plastic Box. Anyways when Meghna started the presentation the encapsulated data expanded back to show information, pictures and maps about our finding and direct observation about Sulukule, Romani community and Istanbul. Every one took his / her part in the presentation including the instructors ( thank you for your help). The presentation was an attempt to open dialogue and discussion about how invited people see the development of Sulukule. This was done by proposing some idea that can help open the discussion.

I believe that books could help you understand any subject, but if you want to feel reality and understand society dynamics in Istanbul, you have to conduct a dialogue about this subject. The responds that we got from the different sources showed that dialogue inside society clearly, Academics (Prof. Albert) with nice coherent social , anthological explanation about Romani community, perception and identity and belonging to the place. Hacer (A.L.A Representative) highlighted the social dimension and what will happen for people who could not afford the new houses in development. Numbers were flying around: owners who already sold their houses and others who live as tenants and will be pushed away. It not only that their was gap in information but also official source of it the municipality officials was absent. Thank you Cassidy for organizing the dialogue and keep it on track.

Sorry Sulukule that we couldn’t present for you our work because of the funeral. Thus we have to rest now for a bit after the preparing and presenting, but it’s not for long time. It seems (at least for us) that all of Istanbul’ dynamics have been capsulated in Taksim Square area even the French activities. As part of a 40 days 40 nights activity, a film about Romany music has been screened. The Romany Music float around the world starting from India passing to Egypt, Turkey, through Europe ……. and finally landed in Spain. The talented film director made the link visible between these communities and music. But what was implicit there is the tension between Romani people and the place. Children, music and education appear but then vanish from site to site, one site you will find a child listening to music and try to imitate the play. Another location, the child is the main figure who sings. The film showed the authenticity of the music, a music which stems from their way of life. It has not been taught through an educational system, it’s the way they participate with life and express their feelings about it. Besides all of this, what is the relation between Romani and the city can be inferred!!!!

After this , it was the time to rest , watching another film at home and relaxing , sorry the film was nice but we were so tired to see the end of the King of Scotland.

Iyad Issa

10th day...natalia

9:00 a.m.: I have to wake up… it is almost the time of our meeting for work… “visioning”… yesterday we had a 15 minutes meeting in which each one of us (Renata, Lantana, Iyad and me) presented ideas… and then defined responsibilities… this is a good starting point even though we didn’t have the time to work on it… at least we could go to bed thinking about it…. Ok… there is no more time now to be lazy…. Time to take a shower… there are a lot of things to do today…. This will be such a long day… visioning group meeting, general meeting to review the presentation, modelling in Sulukule, finishing the mapping report, prepare the visioning advance for the presentation... so many things to do… time to start…. I have to go downstairs for the meeting… today will be at room 23. The phone rang… it was Iyad and he told: “Tony needs help to glue the map into the styrofoam…” Ok… change of plans… the material for the modelling should be ready… so the meeting group should wait… but everything is so important… 10:45 a.m.: it is almost the time for the general meeting for discussing the presentation… and I’m still in pyjamas… I have to go up stairs and take a shower… 11:00 a.m.: The meeting… Meghna started the presentation… and it is only the first slide and there are a lot of things to think about… now the framework… it is definitely not clear… it is necessary to change so many things… the discussion kept going on… and our group doesn’t have any slides… we will only speak about our ideas but I think there won’t be time to do that… it is actually 12:30 p.m. Tony already left the hotel to go to Sulukule… Ioannis and I have to be there at 2:00 pm… now I’m trying to fix the framework while the meeting is going on. 1:15 p.m.: It is really late… I couldn’t finish the framework, but it is already time to leave... we met Ipek and Asle at the hotel door, and went together to Sulukule… when we got off the taxi… the driver said something that of course I couldn’t understand… but Ipek told us… he said ‘be careful with your bags… kids here use to steel’… for me it is still hard to understand these people’s misconception… I have been here for a week and I think that this people are absolutely amazing… maybe because they are visibly different…. I don’t know but I feel they are more human beings than others… I know I don’t really know them but at least I feel myself more comfortable here than in other ‘good places’. Afternoon… making the model… the kids are amazing… they are really enjoying the activity… for us it is difficult to manage them… they don’t care about colours, heights, and all those organised stuff about models… but what can we do? Nothing!!… they are kids… so the best thing we can do is to leave them to enjoy the game… the drawing was manageable… but the Lego…. I don’t know if it was a good idea because it is such a great toy for them… but it is great to see them so happy… Now young guys are coming and since they already knew about Tony’s football skills, they asked him to go to play for a while… My friend Murat came … he is so cute…. I think he is 8… now he is asking for me and he finally found me… he is talking to me and I’m so sad I can’t understand him… I asked Gokce to translate it for me… she said my friend wanted to take me for a walk around Sulukule… ouuuuhhhhh!!!!! I’m so surprised! I really wanted to go but I don’t know if it is a good decision, because the workshop is still going on… I asked Tony and Gokce and they said it wasn’t a good time. So Gokce told him in Turkish that I couldn’t go at that moment but half an hour later. So it is time to work and it’s such a nice work!! Kids are all the time laughing, running and asking things… I went a little bit far to take some pictures and I noticed that the gender separation exists even between small kids. There are three tables: the first one has the organised kids, only boys… they draw the map putting different colours and adding buildings of different stories. They really did a good job! The second table has younger kids, boys as well… there were singing all the time… and drumming on the table… their draw was good as well. The last table was only girls… they were quieter but instead of the colour pencils they only have the markers, so they did the messy map… Personally, this has been the most exciting experience that I’ve ever had professionally: seeing these kids doing things, drawing, panting, singing, screaming, running, being happy, going home to take something to eat and then coming back to continue their job, the job we gave them for a while; seeing the people coming to ask us why we were there; seeing how they still believed there was something that can be done…. All this things make me believe that yes!!!! Something can be done… even though my experience says that who always wins the battle is the more powerful one… Sulukule community is telling me that something can be done… things can de changed… cities can be just… And now, I want to believe in this stuff… at least for a while… 4:15 p.m. almost time to go “home”… I mean to the hotel J… we have a meeting at 5 with Michael to discuss the “visioning” I think we don’t have anything yet… we have to go to the café where Iyad will pick me up… because I can’t go back by myself… ok, part of the game… actually even better… cause I never know where I am :p We are leaving Sulukule… Tony, Gokce and me… but my friend comes faster to tell me something… I couldn’t understand… again ask Gokce to translate it… (the language is such a huge obstacle!). My friend said again that he wants me to go with him for a walk… now I have time… I don’t know where I’m going… he is all the time talking to me… even if I don’t understand he doesn’t care… he is still talking to me… he took my hand to show me the way and finally I could understand something… he wants me to go to the park… he is such a cute boy! Now we are in the park playing in the slide… well, I know I said the same thing more than once… but everything is so amazing… after the park we went to the café… I was supposed to be there at 4:30. In our way to the café he wanted to go by one of the roads that Memduh told us to avoid because it was a private street. I was a little scared to go that way because I didn’t want to do something that makes them feel uncomfortable… I’m trying to explain to my friend that I can’t go there… but, it seems that everything is ok. An old man makes me understand that it will fine so we went down the street. In the middle of the street Murat showed me another way that goes to open space next to the café… And I finally got there… I said good bye to everyone and started to be ready to the following visioning discussion…. 7:00 p.m. such a long day!!… and there is still a lot of things to do… and I have a terrible headache… but it is fine because the meeting with Michael gave us clear ideas about the visioning… now we only need to have something ready for 10 pm, the time of our last meeting of this busy day! I have to go work… but I think I need to take a nap first… :p 8:00 p.m. I slept for one hour and I still have headache… but we are in panic because we have to produce something in less than two hours… 10:00 p.m. the last general meeting at least for today… I couldn’t believe that we would do something good… but it seemed that our work had coherence… at least… we already finished the meeting but there are still a lot of things to do for tomorrow’s presentation... noooooohhhhh!!!!!!! ncv

8th Day- meetings, meetings, meetings

Today was the day of meetings. We meet with everyone, professors, lawyers, a chief (of fatih municipality), ngos, and after all that we have to meet with ourselves. About 10hours of meetings today. Now we must organize ourselves enough to make sense of it all. Our project, as michael states, "takes place in a complex, controversial, and contested situation". We don't know who is telling the truth. The answers all contradict one another. It's going to be difficult to propose something, but I am definitely sure we can come up with something better than the municipality's masterplan. Although they claim their main objective is to conserve cultural heritage, should their aim not be to provide a place that would allow the most number of romani to stay? Why are they not focusing on ways in which they may sustain, but also develop their cultural heritage? We are questioning how much their heritage is valued since it seems that this masterplan is pushing most of them out of the area they have resided in for centuries...-meghna

9th Day, 8th of May

After a week of very intensive work we deserved an easy day! So we got it! (don't you dare to think it wasn't well deserved!)
Today everybody woke up between 9 and 1o. We slept 1 hour and a half longer than the other days and it made such a big difference!! It's increadible! Everybody woke up happy today! :)
It was a lovely day here in Istanbul. Blue skies and perfect weather! We worked in the morning until noon. After the meeting yesterday night we divided ourselves in groups to prepare for the presentation due on Thursday and for the workshops in Sulukule. It's only an interim presentation but we have to be very organised so we know what we have to do next week (Oh my God we only have 10 days to finish the project! ).
At 12 we met in the hall of the hotel to go to the 'French Sltreet' of Istanbul. Just like most of the streets in Istanbul, Cezayir Sokagi is on a very steep hill. It is just off Istiklal Caddesi (a very busy commercial st where many pedestrians, a small tram and cars devide the space).
This street used to have Roma people as residents but it was transformed into this French style st with a lot of restaurants on the ground floor and residential flats on upper floors. The area is very charming and I have to say that the hill makes it even more interesting.

It seems that a group of French developers decided to rehabilitate the area that was quite run down. So they refurbished the buildings and added a landscape design. It looks like a perfect place to go for drinks after work or for a quick lunch, especially when the weather is nice.

There was only a problem: the prices are very high what explains why the restaurants were empty....Maybe if there were some shops there it would attract more visitors.....well, I still liked it. Natalia, Iyad, Mi, Sara, Cassidy, Michael and me had some food in one of the restaurants of Cezayr (Mi had a huge ice cream!). Meghna, Su, Lantana and Ioannis went to have a pizza somewhere else.

After the meal, Tonito and Cassidy went to Sulukule. Cassidy met Hacer (from the ALA) there and they both visited some houses in the area to try to find out how many people live in each house/room and under what conditions. They found out that some people share a room of less than 20 m2 with 5 or more people. They hardly have any furniture.

Tony met Gokce and both of them went to talk to some people to decide what would be the best place to have the workshop (model making).

The rest of the group walked down on Istaklal back to the hotel. We were checking some shops without buying anything. We still have 2 weeks to go and the drinks at night are tightening the budget for our 3,5 days holidays before we go back to London :)

Back in the hotel, we had to get back to work. It wasn't an easy task...the city and the weather were teasing us to stay outside. There is so much of Istanbul to see!! There's so much of Turkey yet to be discovered.....why can't we work for 3,5 and travel for the remaining 18 days?? Well, I guess we can't have everything....-renata