turkish BBQ

we were invited to a BBQ at the school at which ishaq
will teach conversational english
welcoming us to kayseri.

the school is very impressive building-wise
– i need to get my camera fixed –
modern
– except for the squatter toilets –
with awards and trophies displayed.

there’s grass
– middle eastern travelers know why i note this –
a soccer field,
basketball court,
archery field,
dorms
– apparently children from all over turkey come there.

this is how the turkish BBQ got down:
we arrived to fabulous, sunny, fall weather.
female and males congregated separately
and greeted each other.
somebody brought a container of ground meat,
apparently already seasoned.
the women mixed it with their hands
and started making hundreds,
it seemed,
of palm-sized patties,
while the men fired up the grill
which looked like something from an m.c. escher drawing.

they put the patties in this contraption
that holds the meat in place
so all you have to do is flip it one time
and you end up flipping 15 patties at once.
while that was cooking,
the women were slicing
tomatoes, lettuce, onion and cucumbers.
when the meat arrived
– a delicious brown with dark grill marks
like you see in TV ads –
they took some italian-looking loaves,
sliced a bit off,
tore it open
and in went 4 or 5 patties,
and the veggies of your choice.
DEElicious!

they grilled some chicken
and did the same with the that
as they did with patties.

we washed it all down with
some kind of fizzy orange drink
and turk cola.
i don’t think turks do water.

while all of this is going on,
folks are socializing,
and kids are playing
in the comfortable, familiar way they do at BBQs.

a stray dog lolled nearby with its belly upturned
waiting for bones.
he ended up full
and sleeping lazily in the sun.

some men doing construction nearby on the new dorm
entertained us with boisterous songs.

i will never complain of not having hamburger buns again.