Anna's birthday, and an escape to the Karpas

Last Sunday we celebrated Anna's 4th birthday.  The event was much anticipated by Anna, and she dutifully counted down sleeps for the weeks leading up to the day.  She had a party with some friends on Saturday, and then we celebrated the actual day with a trip to the mountains.  Birthday presents this year included a guitar and also a bike, so she did very well.  When she went to choose the bike, there was a choice between a nice girls bike with butterflies and pink ribbons, or a bmx style boys bike called 'the Aggressor'.  Suffice to say 'the Aggressor' won hands down!  Hmm, I wonder what this tells us about Anna?  She loves all things active, and spends her days at the moment constantly bouncing a basketball around the house (sorry Menaka who lives downstairs!).  

A happy 4th birthday Anna!

The party

A day in the Troodos mountains last Sunday.  Our church
has a parish in the mountains that only operates in summer.  

Angus testing out the ski slopes on his bike

We had a public holiday for May Day last Wednesday, followed by Orthodox Easter this weekend, so at the moment we're in the midst of a 6 day break.  We've just returned from spending some time up in the north east of Cyprus, in a region called the Karpas Peninsula.  This is by far the remotest part of the island, and sits within the occupied north.  It's a region of spectacular beaches and coastline that is largely undeveloped, although in some ways is as dysfunctional as it is beautiful.  Infrastructure for visitors is fairly basic, and it's hard to get around without atleast some basic Turkish language. 

Ruins at Agios Filion, Oasis Beach.  Karpas Peninsula

We stayed in couple of places on the Karpas, both of which were on the beach and comprised of basic wooden shacks with beds.  Meals were taken restaurants overlooking spectacular bays, although the standard menu selection of shish, fish or chips started to wear a little thin towards the end of our visit.  Whilst on the Karpas we spent time at an old Greek Orthodox monastery and church called Apostolos Andreas, which is is a pilgrimage site for Greeks from the south on a few significant occasions each year.  The monastery is reputed to be the sight of numerous miracles throughout history, but is now quite run down.  The Apostle Paul spent time there on one of his seagoing voyages, along with various other saints.  Fresh water flows from a spring beneath the monastery, which is located on the coast very close to the north east tip of Cyprus.  

Probably the best known location in the north is Golden Beach, which is a spectacular stretch of sand used by turtles for nesting at various times of the year.  We also spent time in a small village called Dipkarpas, noteworthy due to the fact that it's one of the very few places in the north where Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots continue to co-exist.  Dipkarpas is also quite run down, and on one side of the main street there is a Greek cafe, and on the other a Turkish cafe.  Likewise a large mosque and an old Orthodox church lie in close proximity.  

The future of the Karpas Peninsula is uncertain.  There is growing pressure on development along the peninsula, with significant related concerns about the environmental impacts of unregulated development and a general lack of planning.  It's certainly a part of the world that would have huge potential if it was developed well, but in many ways its isolation may also help to protect it.

We have really enjoyed a change of scenery this weekend, and it's been great to get in the water again.  Also with the kids currently on school holidays, it was good to get away.  A long summer awaits!

Old mosaics among the ruins

View from the restaurant

Taking in the sunset from our rooms

Poppies around the ruins of Agios Filion church

The local fishing fleet

Apostolos Andreas monastery, near the
north east tip of Cyprus

Golden Beach

Anna hard at work

The north-east tip of Cyprus

Wild donkeys on the Karpas

Basic accommodation, but a great view and natural 'pool'
for an ocean swim each morning.

Golden Beach sand dunes

A fast moving train

If you travel on a fast speed train; the scenery is a blur.  If you travel a bit slower, perhaps even stopping at the stations, you get to enjoy every aspect of all that is going on around you.  The beauty of the season, the rural landscape, the various crops and that old farmer whom you enjoyed wondering what his life might be like.  You might not get as far in a cruising train, but you'll be able to tell a better story about your trip because you would have taken in more.  And so it is with the past 5 weeks for us.  Somehow we accidently stepped onto the fast train, and now it's hard to recall anything.  Thank goodness for photos...but I'll be reading the signs more carefully at the main station terminal from now on.

After months of planning, Lyn Worsley and her husband Neil arrived in Cyprus.  Whilst it was part holiday for them, it was also a prime opportunity to add a human face to this Resilience Doughnut I'd been spruiking for the last 2yrs.  I arranged for Lyn to conduct two public seminars: one for parents of teenagers and a workshop for teachers and the like who wanted to understand more about resilience and the RD model.  They both went off a treat and I felt as though I'd managed to grow a small group of enthusiastic "dough-nutters"in  Cyprus whom I might work with.  It was also a timely message for Cyprus, especially with the current economic crisis and related pressures on community to dig deep and find alternate resources for support. It was encouraging to have some media interest in Lyn's visit also. The best part if the visit however, was having Lyn and Neil stay and be part of our family for the time that they were here.  Sam was asking after them a full fortnight later!

Sarah and Lyn taking a walk in the Old Town

Jessie tries her hand at making ravioli

Straight after we saw the Worsley's off on the plane to Malta, we dashed downstairs to the Arrivals gate to greet Ross' sister Susie and our niece Sally.  What a reunion that was for the 2 cousins!

Aside from the shock of how loud and busy it is living with our family; I think they had a wonderful time.  For Sally to be around her cousins, do some shopping with Jessie and experience a day at school and for Susie to explore a bit of the island and relax a long way from work.

Heading toward St Hilarion Castle in northern Cyprus

Watching a Turkish boxmaker at work

The girls at Kyrenia

They also got to see the children's International Day: by far the best celebration on the school's calendar.  We'll remember Angus in this "extra cute" lion costume (!) and Jessie dancing as a pirate and Anna enjoying the whole on-stage experience with her pre-school "Busy Bees" class.  Sam would have been more than memorable as an arm-plastered Prickly Pear if only he didn't come down with a nasty virus on the day of the show.  No problem for Sam though; he got to sit down the front and watch the whole show next to Sally.  

It's always great to have family and friends come to visit....and that's AS WELL AS the obligatory Tim Tam delivery.  Thanks for coming Susie and Sally!  

Sam has been a real trooper about his broken arm.  Hardly a complaint.....but longing for a real bath and an ocean swim.  His cast comes off tomorrow - fingers crossed.  In the meantime I've taken on a small on-line course through the Australian Psychological Society.  Good to get another part of the brain activated and to force myself to sit still.  Really enjoying it so far; just need to dedicate more time to it.  Another highlight for me was a much needed 4hrs at the Katafiyo Retreat House in a village in the Troodos foothills - oh how I love that house and surrounds in spring time.  Somehow the "fast train" managed to change pace that day.

Ross has just returned from Pakistan, and we're looking to some time away as a family on a beach later this week with Orthodox Easter.  Καλό Πάσχα, or Happy Easter!

Angus and his mate Rashid

Menaka, smiling and helpful as always

Angus tries on his lion costume for the show.  We had to be
quick to get this photo!

Legacy or folly: Saakashvili's glass police stations

Mother Georgia, who towers above Tbilisi.
A wine goblet in one hand, a sword in the
other.  An apt description for Georgia.

Last week I was in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.  One of the first things that strikes you when you travel in Georgia is the amount of glass.  The new airport terminal is all glass, despite the worn runway that makes for a rough landing, even in the smoothest of conditions.  As you drive into the capital Tbilisi, there are modern glass buildings everywhere.  The intriguing fact is that many of these buildings are actually police stations.  The story of how they came to be built from glass is an analogous to the broader journey of Georgia over the past 10 years.  

Georgia has a long history of organized crime activity dating back to the Soviet period and even earlier.  By the early 2000's, Georgia's mob bosses were among the leading crime figures in the entire former USSR.   Following the resignation of Georgia's president Eduard Shevardnadze after the so called 'Rose Revolution' in 2003, Mikheil Saakashvili became the new president.  He remained president until 2012, and was a generally popular, if not controversial pro-west leader who spearheaded a range of sweeping political and economic reforms.   

Upon coming to power, Saakashvili’s first and arguably most dramatic domestic actions consisted of a major crackdown on organised crime and Georgia’s corrupt law enforcement institutions. He used draconian measures to prosecute the organised crime bosses, imprisoning many and driving others into involuntary exile abroad. At the same time, top officials in many security ministries were fired, and in some cases forced to hand back millions of dollars worth of assets believed to have been obtained through illegal activities.

He also comprehensively reshaped the country’s police forces. Thousands of officers were fired on the spot, and the most corrupt police service, the highway police, was disbanded altogether. He also drastically increased police salaries and instituted stringent new hiring and promotion procedures, thereby recruiting into the force a new cohort of officers eager to earn an honest living as police.  As an indication, the average salary of a police officer in Georgia today, is 23 times higher than it was in 2004.

One of the most visible impacts of these reforms has been the reconstruction of many police stations across the country out of......glass.  This is intended to be a symbolic of Georgia's commitment to transparency and to eliminate corruption.  For some this is just theatre, and that the old ways of business still prevail (I heard it said that Saakashvili's relative owns the largest glass company in Georgia, although I suspect this may be more urban myth than fact)!  Whether it's theatre or not, the reform steps that Georgia has taken in the past 10 years would appear to be significant. 

I still remember my first visit to Georgia in 2001, and being stopped several times by police between the airport and the city with an expectation of a bribe payment.  Nowadays you are more likely to be stopped by a tourist coach as it disgorges tourists, stopping to photograph one of the many thousands of churches or new glass police stations!

Banks closed but hospitals open: Three x-rays in a week

Journalists camp outside the Cyprus parliament last week.
Nicosia was hit by a mini dust storm during the financial
crisis, which in many ways felt like a metaphor to the
broader events in Cyprus, and also in our own lives this
past week.

Life can surprise you sometimes.  Just when things seem to all be in place and going well, out of nowhere you can be hit by a series of events that you could never have predicted, but that all have the potential to knock you off-centre.  For us, the past week has been a bit like this.   Just as Cyprus has just weathered a financial storm, it feels like we've had a storm ourselves in which we've had to 'hook in and hold on'.  It all started last weekend, when Sarah and I went out for an early morning ride together.  The weather was quite cold, and Sarah, who was already feeling a little unwell, got some serious cold into her bones and promptly went down with fever and a racking cough.  A day or two passed with no improvement, and at two points throughout the week, the doctor thought it could have been pneumonia.  Thankfully the chest x-rays were clear, and so the most likely diagnosis was then a bad case of bronchitis.  Sarah was put onto an antibiotic, but after a few days the side effects were far worse than any illness the drugs were trying to cure, so she stopped taking it and resigned herself to resting and recovering naturally.  Needless to say, it threw her for six.

Ouch!  Sam's x-rays tell the story

Then to cap things off yesterday, while Sarah was home resting yesterday I was out with the kids at an Easter lunch in a village near Nicosia.  Whilst at the lunch poor Sam took a bad fall whilst on an easter egg hunt and broke his arm in two places.  A rapid drive to the hospital ensued.  Whilst travelling to the hospital a somewhat distressed and shocked Sam stoically said to me "Daddy, it's good that I didn't break both my arms, isn't it?"   Thankfully he was able to be seen promptly at the hospital by an excellent orthopaedic doctor who was able to fix the arm under a local anaesthetic, thereby saving a more detailed operation and a possible night in the hospital.   Sam was remarkably brave throughout, and there was a profound simplicity in how he processed the whole event.  Since getting home yesterday he's has been receiving lots of love and care, and one of his main concerns is how he is going to write at school on Tuesday, as well as how he'll be able to dance in some of his upcoming performances!  

Below is a clip of Sam telling us about his injury only hours afterward.

This confluence of events has reminded us of our frailty and need for God's grace.  There's a clarity in this thinking that can be both humbling and freeing when we realise we need to let go of any presumption that we are somehow in control.   

A couple of other milestones also passed recently: we had a first swim in the ocean for the year, Angus took his first communion in church on Sunday, and Anna finally ate some fruit! 

The family after Gus' first communion

A first swim: Jessie and her friend Iliana

Menaka and Gus

A breakthrough for Anna:)

Istanbul (not Constantinople)

Jenny and Sarah in front of Galata Tower

Some people may recall the song with the same title as this blog, covered by the band 'They Might be Giants' a few years back. Ah yes, the perennial question of historical ownership and identity of cities in this part of the world.  Istanbul has a long and fascinating history as a contested strategic capital for both the Ottoman and Byzantine empires, and the association for both Turks and Greeks to Istanbul remains strong to this day. So much so that the name 'Constantinople' is still used today by many members of the Eastern Orthodox church and Greeks in general.  

Istanbul is a remarkable city, both in terms of its geographic location and also the history contained within it.  Located right on the Bosphorus, which is a narrow stretch of water linking the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea, the city has always played a significant political, social and cultural role in the region.  The Bosphorus effectively divides the European continent from the Asian continent, and is one of the world's busiest waterways. Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, and currently has a population of more than 13 million people.   

Trying to cut the deal......actually, I wouldn't mind
working in a haberdashery

We travelled to Istanbul last weekend, where we were able to meet up with Ross' brother Bruce and his wife Jenny, who were also spending a few days there.  It was lovely to meet up with them, and despite the freezing weather (including some snow), we spent our time visiting various sites and attempting to negotiate some hard bargains in the many markets and shops.  Sarah almost had a canny Turkish shopkeeper in tears at one point as she continued to push an asking price down, and Jenny also showed suitable aplomb as she worked the markets to try and buy an elaborate kaftan (perhaps for Bruce to wear for special occasions at home??).  All great fun, and it was remarkable to watch the Turkish sellers at work.  We did succeed in buying a few items, but you're never quite sure whether that '100% guaranteed one-off original item', is not part of a much broader stock that will immediately be replaced after you've left the shop!

Foyer at the Pera Palace

We enjoyed staying at the Pera Palace, which is one of Istanbul's oldest hotels.  The hotel has hosted many famous guests over the last 100 years including Kemal Attaturk (the 'father' of modern Turkey), Agatha Christie and Ernest Hemmingway to name a few.   The hotel also used to accommodate guests travelling on the Orient Express, hence the link with Agatha Christie.  The hotel has been beautifully restored, and still boasts Istanbul's first elevator.  

From Istanbul Bruce and Jenny travelled on to Kosovo, and we returned to Cyprus, which is less than an hour's flying time away. It was great to have some time away for us together, and also to have spent some time with Bruce and Jenny.  Our kids were well cared for in our absence, so much so that upon our return Anna asked us when we were going away again!  Think it may have been all that chocolate that Menaka fed her??

The Blue Mosque, Sultanahmet

Bruce in action at the local markets

The Bosphorus

Topkapi Palace

The Cistern, beneath the old city

Istanbul's first elevator at the Pera
Palace Hotel.  It is still operating.