Will we be back on the road today?

16.9.21

Last night Naz’s side door handle broke. This morning John was very happy to find a brand new one in a garage nearby.

We still have no idea what our bill is going to be for Ömers work so John did the 12km walk and back from the ATM to ensure we have enough cash.

Meanwhile I bought fresh bread, had a nice chat with the baker, sorted a guy to look at the floorboard problem in the uk and remove the shed and got breakfast ready.

John appeared back with tahini çöreks which we had later.

A short while later, Ömer called John, I heard a loud No!!! Our crankshaft is cracked.

We chatted for a while whilst waiting, I asked if he had always wanted to work with cars. Yes always, he learnt to drive at 9 years, he only went to school for 5 years and cannot read. He just wanted to be with cars and loves his job. He is the only person on the sanay who can do VW and Mercedes so he is always busy. He has a queue once we’re finished.

The very shy lad that works with him is just 16 and left school as he shares Ömers passion. He is there every day doing the same 14 hour days and works so hard. I’m sure he will be very successful in the future.

We saw first hand what happens when kids drive when very young. This car came in this morning. The 11 year old driver hit a tree!!

At 7 pm our crank shaft arrived and at 10.30 pm Naz had an engine again.

The moment of truth.. She fired up on the 3rd attempt and sounds so different. 😍

Tomorrow the lights, grill, bumper etc go back on and we’ll be on the road.

Ömer showed us a video of one of his boys with his birthday cake. He is 7 today. We felt awful that he’s missed it but he will celebrate with him tomorrow evening.

The puppy spent all evening with us and got brave and decided to come up the steps into the van. We discovered he is a she, and she’s a nibbly monster that tried to eat everything just inside the door. Honey growled at her, she definitely isn’t sharing Naz with any more dogs.

It’s going to be really hard saying goodbye to our sanay family tomorrow. We honestly don’t think we’d have got through it all without being surrounded by such lovely people.

I’ve also learnt that many hours agonising over minute Turkish language details were wasted. I’ve not needed to use much of the finer details of things that made me want to give up on many occasions. I’ve identified my weak points and will brush up on those.

I’m just so happy that I’ve been able to chat confidently and been told many times how good my Turkish is. I’m proud to be blowing my own trumpet, but will stop now before my head gets any larger 😂