Kucukcekmece Lake Festival and More

I'm with the Kucukcekmece Lake Festival now. There are folk dance groups from a good many countries here including Palestine, Hungary, Poland, Taiwan, Canada, Brazil, Italy, Turkey, and Columbia. We are in a luxury hotel by the airport, a very dull neighborhood. It doesn't matter because the is little time for any outside travel. We go to the big bridal hall for luncheons, sometimes with speakers, then off to whatever is on the agenda. I took part in the dragon boat practice and rowed my poor arms off. Then the boat race got cancelled due to wind and choppy water. Leave it to youth and dancers to turn the event into a sidewalk party. We had a parade in downtown Istanbul in almost 100 degree heat. The two non-dancers were assigned to carry the flag and USA sign. That's me. The onlookers were very enthusiastic, mixing with us, taking photos with us, telling us about their experience in our country, or just wanting to connect. No sense of order there but lots of fun.

Last night was our opening performance. Mark, the flag carrier, and I had to go onstage for the flag ceremony. The girls carrying the signs had to memorize a line in Turkish, not an easy language to our tongue. I had to say Tesekular Kucukcekmece and practiced it over and over for two days. There was literally a sea of faces out there and it was terrifying. The Polish girl, suffering severe stage fright, bungled hers and they didn't give me the chance to do the same so I got away with saying the easy word. Then there were huge sparklers erupting from stage fron, colored lights and silvery confetti raining down on us but not before we stood through a few speeches, always the speeches. I thought I'd fall over before it ended, or maybe just pass out. Then the dancers performed and we got to watch. We left to the sound of a follow-up rock band. 

There is a bus for each country and we get police escorts that other drivers don't pay any attention to. From the bus I observe life in Istanbul. People crowd into the parks with their rugs, whole families. They bring their little cookers and barbecue meat while the women are preparing what I assume is the rest of the meal. It isn't unusual to see big tea kettles, though kettle isn't quite the right word. Vendors are out en masse. I noticed a couple men with wide shallow pans of what smells like roasted chestnuts balanced on their heads. People, even kids, are out in the traffic, even very heavy traffic, selling bottles of water and sometimes flowers. Drivers are very tolerant of them.

Speaking of drivers, this is a friendly sort of chaos. I am reminded of the old days in Manhattan when nobody paid attention to lines. They grab whatever spaces they can very aggressively. I like to sit behind the driver and watch him vie for space with other cars, each trying to keep the other from moving into the tiny space created when the vehicle ahead moves up. Surprisingly, the bus doesn't always win. So much for tonnage rights. Horn blowing doesn't even seem unfriendly but is more saying "I'm here". I can imagine driving here would be a lot of fun.

Lining up for the parade.

First performance but not our group.

Our high-steppin' dancers.