little adventures

after a semi-normal homeschool day,
we had lunch
and went outside.
it was beautiful.
not too hot,
nor too cool.
we decided to walk out to a swath of green in a nearby field.

we live on the outskirts of kayseri
and there are two fields on the southern and northern sides
of our apartment.
i’m talking about fields edged with caves in which kids hang out;
fields in which goats, sheep and cows graze;
fields in which diggers harvest dirt
and fill up oft-returning dump trucks.

a few days before
we had investigated a swath of bright yellow
– “was is yellow grass or flowers?”, i’d asked them –
which turned out to be a beautiful field of sun-yellow wild flowers.
“it’s the most beautiful thing i’ve ever seen,”
sanaa yelled at me
as aya and i approached the field at a slower pace.
the way they ran through it reminded me
of a scene from the color purple.
on the way,
we’d also seen a small lizard of some kind,
what we think may have been a fox off in the distance,
a chipmunk-like creature,
and some ants
– all worthy of attention during our journey to the yellow field.

so on this day,
we journeyed to the swath of green.
it looked like high grass from a distance.
we walked along the well-trod pathways
through the familiar sun-yellow wild flowers,
but these were interspersed with purple, red, and magenta ones.
we tripped over rocks,
slid down hills,
almost sunk into soft dirt,
watched bees collect nectar
and little beetles scurry around,
and finally made it to the green swath
which turned out to be
what we think is new field of wheat,
as tall as a 4 year old child,
and not yet the golden color we expect wheat to be.
i showed them how to put of blade of grass
between their thumbs
to make a duck call.

then from the edges of the field,
some women called us.
from the distance we could recognize
neither face nor voice.
one approached us a little closer
and i recognized her as one of wives of the teachers
ishaq works with: kubra.
“what are you doing?” she asked
with an inflection that put a “in the world”
in between the “what” and the “are” of her question.
she invited us to the park
– the proper place to play –
with her, her friends and their kids.
we obliged,
and got barraged with attention.
it was a baby park for kids around 2 - 6.
there were two swings and two slides
and about 25 kids.
rahmah got thirsty,
aya fell down,
and we decided to head home.

on the way up the road
with aya on my shoulders,
sanaa sucking the salt off of and spitting out sunflower seeds
(while not actually eating the stuff inside the shell),
and rahmah nursing a hurt knee
(she’d been admiring the clouds
rather than the uneven field
we were walking back home through),
we saw a turtle at the edge of a road
that cut through the field,
connecting the apartment buildings together.
after a car came by,
we started fearing for its life.

i was too scared to touch it,
and asked sanaa if she’d gently pick it up and move it off the road.
she’s been courageous since she was 2
and didn’t disappoint.
she picked it up and deposited it at the side of the road.
we all watched it with excitement for a few moments,
waiting for to get comfortable enough to come out of its shell.
“was it a sea turtle?,” they asked.
“no, sea turtles have flippers not feet.”
then the turtle started turning back toward the road.

i asked sanaa if she had it in her to pick it up again
to put it on the other side of the road.
she did, but she dropped it, yelling:
it touched me!
it looked OK.
we continued to watch it for a bit,
as men streamed out of the nearby masjid
after asr prayer.
a gray-haired man saw us watching the turtle,
came by and picked it up,
and show it to us
like he was saying,
“for goodness sakes, it’s a harmless turtle.”

we were just giving mr. turtle his space
after subjecting him to two consecutive, unauthorized,
but good-natured pick-ups
and an accidental dropping,
in order to, inshaAllah, secure his safety.
we gave mr. turtles salaams
and trudged on home
thirsty for water,
hungry for neapolitan ice cream,
and energized from our little adventure.