Something else that is done. This blog. It's been a long time coming and, well frankly I'm more inclined to update facebook than I am this blog.

I may blog again, somewhere, someday. Might even resurrect yankinoz.robnamy.net but no sooner than sept/oct 2012 :-)

thanks for reading.

But that's not why I'm here.

Chemo and Radiation takes a lot out of a person. When I arrived, Dad was still fairly weak but(according to my mom) my arrival noticeably lifted his spirits. The focus was (still is) on getting Dad strong enough for his surgery. In the last 10 days he has noticeably improved. He's stronger, has more energy, seems happier, is laughing and won't stop talking. Yeah, that's the dad I remember. Tomorrow he's got an appointment for some preoperative tests to make sure he is ready for surgery on Thursday, Until then, I'm going to keep on hanging out with my family. Play dominoes, eat mom's cooking, watch Modern Family (they hadn't seen it!) and will probably hit the climbing gym one or two times for a little bit of 'me' time.

It sucks being away from home for so long (was really homesick for Sydney this morning) but I know that I am making a difference here. It's worth it.

Alas, I've been down all day. Not really sure why, just the emotional roller coaster I've been on. Can't focus on anything, easily distracted. Looking forward to getting on that plane Wednesday.

Hopefully a good workout tonight (spin class) will clear my head.

but first - tis th weekend t b dressin all pirate like!

Up until a few weeks ago this was all something happening, almost theoretically, some 7700 miles away. That all changed when his surgery was first scheduled. Some three weeks ago I booked flights to be with my family before and after the surgery. Suddenly. the whole thing became reality to me. I found myself quite depressed and anxious to get home. Then - last week 4 days before my scheduled departure we got news that Dad's surgery has been postponed (so he can get stronger) and I've in turn, postponed my trip. Then I was not so depressed any more... I had a good week, nice weekend, good friend, good climbing.

Now today, a little over a week before I head home, the emotional roller-coaster has me at the bottom again. Per the original schedule I should be, right now, on a Qantas A380 bound for LAX. Instead, I had the worst ever climbing gym session in ages - no focus, no energy. Even the beer sitting next to me now doesn't taste good. (James Squire Nine Tales Amber - usually a favorite.)

Long time reader will know that my father comes up in my blog and facebook posts rather often. The old "25 random things about me" meme of a few years ago was largely populated with references to Dad. I'll see him soon.

And I fully intend to keep blogging about this. It hasn't been easy to start but now that I broke the ice, it should come easily. It might be raw, it will be personal.

Oh, I really should upgrade this blog too. It might go up and down and change around but don't worry, she's not going anywhere.

PS - I think comments are on again.

(edit - comments not working... there's a to do item)

The evening started out innocently enough. I was meeting a climber (or climbers, I wasn't exactly sure) in the main city square. One of my colleagues here had asked earlier how I would know who I was meeting - I replied: "she will know who I am." (seeing as I would be the only non Turkish person in the square.)

Minutes after I arrived I was approached by two beautiful Turkish ladies. Nurhan (an English teacher) and her friend who's name I cannot remember (I'm honestly struggling with the Turkish language - I think Chinese is easier - but anyway...) They say "Rob?" and I say 'Merhaba' and we make our way to a local restaurant for dinner. Both are members of the University Hiking / Mountaineering / Rock Climbing club. They order food for me - I'm really not sure what I ate - some sort of kabab thing but it was beautiful. They have brought a laptop along and are eager to show me photos of all the climbing areas around Malatya - oh how i wish I knew sooner and not right before my last weekend here - I would have climbed every weekend! But honestly, even if I did, I really did not any free time for climbing and the weather for Sunday looks great so who cares. The University climbing club is taking a group of new climbers to a little top rope crag (maybe 7 or 8 meters high) and there might be some short trad climbs there too. They have heaps of gear (no cams) and I can borrow a helmet and bonus - sounds like there is some bourldering near by too so hey, sounds like a safe, pleasant day out. I'll bring a camera - really looking forward to it.

So, we are wrapping up, getting ready to leave when Nurhan's friend gets a text message and follows up with a phone call. There's much talk back and forth and I'm sure I hear 'Bee Positive' in there and Nurhan gives me a quick translation - there's a 'bone cancer' patient at the hospital in urgent need of blood. Um, I ask if she said B+ because I am B+ and haven't donated blood in well over a year and well, if I can help... They kinda seemed shocked that I was rather quickly offering my blood. I confirmed, um, it would be like at a hospital right? "Of course." OK - I'm fine with this but did make a quick call to my UNDP rep in Istanbul, just to make sure that there is no reason that I could not or should not donate blood in Turkey. Her reply - it's my personal decision and she knows of no reason I could or should not (and does provide some common sense thought about making sure it's a new needle and such) so, OK - let's go!

Taxi to a bus station. Waiting for the bus I start to hear a bit more about the blood donation culture in Turkey - or lack there of. It's actually a really big problem. Turks just don't want to donate blood. Organ donation is even worse. When we do get to the hospital (mini bus ride side bar: a passenger got on the bus - standing room only - and handed a large folder she was carrying to Nurhan's seated friend, then her laptop bag to another seated passenger. I asked Nurah if they knew each other. nope. they don't, the seated passengers are just happy to hold the packages of standing passenger. wtf?? try that in Chicago.)

So, when we do get to the hospital (it's the İnönü Üniversitesi Hospital - a very well respected Med School) we make a few calls and learn that the patient has just received a blood donation and I am no longer needed. I'm honestly a bit let down but they ask if I would like to meet the patient and I say yes - of course! So we meet a couple of volunteers who take us through the oh so typical maze that is a hospital. It frankly looks just like public hospitals in the USA or Australia - nothing seems unusual. I briefly meet the patient and her family - we are all wearing face masks and it's kinda odd but I sense that the family is really happy to know that not only have they had multiple people turn up to give blood one of them is from a far away land... On our way back down I learn that the volunteers are here to track down blood donors when there are urgent cases like this. I offer to give blood then and there but they indicate a storage issue. I'm not clear on this but on Wednesday they are having a blood drive and I'm invited back then - of course - I'll sort out the timing and will absolutely donate blood Wednesday! I'll try to learn more about the challenges faced here with blood donation.

This seems like the end of an interesting evening, eh? Then I go back to the hotel and write this right? nope... read on...

It's half way down a side street, through an unmarked doorway, up 4 (or 5) flights of stairs, we buz a metal gate, get let it - wait a second, this isn't a pub it's a speakeasy! I actually questioned the legality to one of our partners but he assured us it's perfectly legal. Inside a band is playing - sort of a mix of Turkish traditional sounds and Latina Mariachi band... with a rather obviously gay lead singer who is, well, fantastic! Honestly they are great. My climber friends enjoy themselves - they take no alcohol and are all smiles - if not maybe a little shy/embarrassed... I leaned over to Nurah and said 'you give me some adventure earlier, now I give you some!'

Nurhan and friend did not stay late. The rest of us closed the bar (midnight) and I got to see - what is apparently a tiny sliver of Istanbul hidden in an alley and 4 or 5 stories over Malatya.

Why oh why do I leave hotel rooms without my camera!

How surprised we all were when we pulled into the hotel car park where a sign proudly displays 5 shinny stars. Five Stars! OK, that's, um, BETTER then our usual business hotel experience. Nice new modern rooms, flat screen TVs with CNN (that's about the only English channel,) Wi-Fi, a really really comfortable bed (nice and firm like I like it!) OK, this isn't going to be to bad...

And to be honest it hasn't been that bad. What has been interesting is the consistency in the service (or rather lack of.) There's heaps of minor examples but - I don't want this to come off as a hotel review so I'm not going to name the hotel or go into detail. This is a new hotel and they are really trying hard - proper detailed feedback to the hotel is already being sent and more will follow but the 'saga of the socks' is worth posting.

The next morning I ignored the baskets of clean clothing (@Amy - yes just like at home) and headed out to work - when I got back to the room I started putting stuff away but the socks seemed wrong - I was pretty sure I gave them 12 pair but only had 8 back. The problem, I could not remember exactly what socks were missing. I have a lot of the same black business socks (wool Holeproof Computer Socks - they rock by the way) but couldn't remember how many - was it 7 or 9 in total? And the athletic socks - did I or did I not pack the green ones? I couldn't remember. Down at the front desk I asked about my missing socks and they pulled out the form I filled out - It showed that I wrote down 12 pair but the hotel's count was 8. Hmm, maybe my mistake... oh well I have enough socks and at least I wasn't charged to launder socks that I didn't get.

So nearly two weeks later I'm pretty much out of clean socks and underwear so it's time to try again. I double check my counts this time and leave it on the bed. We are working in the hotel so at lunch I check that the laundry has been picked up and put a do not disturb on my door so they don't drop off the laundry while I'm out. At the end of the work day I ask to have my laundry sent up and... the sock count is perfect but two pair are not mine! That leaves me with 5 pair of business socks. Not good! So I give back someone's socks and do my best to explain that I am now missing two pair. I show them what they look like and they tell me tomorrow they will have them...

Sidebar: I also received a 'bonus' pair of underpants. I, um, returned those as well.

Tomorrow is today by the way I was just down at the front desk asking about my socks. Someone brought out my socks, well 3/4 of them. Four socks in total but only three are my Holeproof! He takes the mismatched pair out the back for 5 minutes or so and comes back with them - shrugs his shoulders - maybe the person who has the matching pair of mismatched socks will notice and send them back... maybe not... we will see.

At least this time I know what is missing and why. I won't pay to launder the one pair and I'm considering if I should ask for 15TL discount as that's about what a pair of those socks cost...

My only prior experience rafting was the man-made course built for the Sydney 2000 Olympics - and being a competition venue, the Sydney course is rather intense. Darende is a lot calmer - a bit of lazy floating down a quick moving river with some rapids thrown in for good measure (and to get you really wet.) The rafting itself was overshadowed by the breathtaking canyon and natural caves. I didn't bring my camera - it can get wet but not submerged but more importantly we were all rather busy paddling and trying to remember if sol or sa means right or left - oh joy! our guide could give orders in English. yay!

Oh, my new best friend: After we got out of the rafts the local media was there again :-) and asked if any of us have rafted before. I raised my hand and answered a few questions (via our translator Hicran) about how the local rafting compared - of course natural is better, even if it was less challenging. The reported wanted to know my name, where I was from and how old I am (odd.) I told him but when I said 42 Hicran got all confused and asked if I meant I had rafter 42 times before or 4 or 2??? I said no, only rafted once - I am 42 years old. She didn't believe me - said I looked 33, 34 tops. My new best friend Hicran.

http://www.malatyahaber.com

Finally in Turkey! From the short shuttle bus ride from the Airport to the hotel - it's clear that Istanbul is just seeping history - the ancient rock walls (former city wall I believe) with modern restaurants and housing built next to and on top of.

I shared the shuttle bus with 3 of my teammates (Julie,Kristi and Pallavi) - all the pre-work and conference calls made it so easy to talk to them.

I'm going to blog something that I wasn't actually sure about blogging but it's an honest reflection and where I am mentally with this project. Last week we were sent a very detailed report on the apricot industry in Malatya. 60+ pages of excellent airplane reading. The report included a SWOT Analysis (Strengths Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) that was very detailed and to be honest, very well thought out. Some suggested actions from that SWOT Analysis were discussed and are up for consideration. It's a hugely valuable document to me right now and has given me so much clarification on where the agri-foods industry is in Malatya and where they want to go. But here's the thing. I couldn't help but think "Why do they need our help?"

My guess right now... they have great ideas - heaps of ideas but I suspect they want our perspective - validation based on our collective years of real world business experience to guide them. Or, maybe not. It's going to become clear as they days unfold but I must admit everything I thought CSC would be... well so far it's not been at all what I expected! And hey, the unexpected is what I was hoping for.

Time to go have a look around Istanbul....

As I write this, I'm in Dubai International Airport (I know, Hamburg > Dubai > Istanbul is an odd routing...) trying to keep a weak WiFi signal alive and looking around, trying to spot the two CSC teammates who share the same flight to Istanbul. I'm feeling like all the pre-work is coming together and I'm ready to go. Once I find Julie and/or Pallavi - I'll feel like the real work is starting. Where are they? *Rob looks around*

The team I'm working with is assigned to the agri-foods sector. The Malatya economy is largely based on the apricot industry and we are working with local government agencies to help develop strategies to further develop and grow agri-foods business in this region of Turkey.

Soon I'll be in Istanbul eating Turkish Delight on a moonlit night - tomorrow, as a team, the 14 of us will be flying to Malatya - our home away from home for the next 4 weeks. I'm so ready to go...