Contrast

Shot up buildings next to brand new builds is a common sight here and is representative of the place as a whole - full of stark contrasts.

Remnants of war torn buildings are common place

If you like gritty urban grunge, contradictory messages, or just plain old interesting-face portraits, you can have a photographic field day and I am still loving it here!

The oldest Church in town with the youngest and largest mosque right behind it

In the week that I have been here I have tried to dig as much as I can to get a grasp of different elements of the culture. I feel like I am beginning to understand some of the nuances (by which I mean contradictions) that still make absolutely no sense at all.

Delicious local food being prepared (no its not pizza)

Image culture: This place takes the notion of 'first impressions matter' to a whole new level. Fitted clothing, overly groomed hair, flashy watches and smart shoes, all with designer labels, seem to be essential for young people. Not to mention the surprisingly high number of pristine Porches, Ferraris and Mercedes cruising the pothole-ridden roads. Here, image is everything. The level of respect that you command is pretty much entirely down to the way you look. It is not uncommon when meeting someone for them to look you in the eye, then down at your shoes, then across to your wrist, before talking to you in whatever way they see fit. To me this is usually in broken English trying to sell me something.

An old house which has actually been converted into a boutique cosmetic surgery complete with valet parking

At the same time this is also very much a relationship culture: 'It's not what you know it’s who you know.'  It takes time to build relationships with people that are anything more than surface level. But once trust is built you’re in possession of one of the most valuable commodities; everything becomes cheaper, faster and easier when you have 'wasta' with the people you are dealing with.

Very strong, very nice coffee

Mix all this in with an honour-shame culture and you have something that is comparable to driving here; a culture that is fantastically exciting, confusing and dangerous all at the same time. Don't ask me what the cultural equivalent of crashing would be, suffice to say that I don't think I've done it yet... That or I did it on arrival and have since died and gone to cultural heaven?

In case you were wandering this is an 'interesting-face portrait' ... taken in landscape

Well, seeing as this post is very quickly headed to a realm of incomprehensibility I think it's time to wrap things up and oh yes, maybe actually mention some of the things I have done ...

• Conducted my first interview and written my first story from it (yay!)
•  Been published
• Blown a chunk of my spending money on an amazing photo book
• Served some field workers by painting their apartment
• Made some new friends (unfortunately not locals but friends all the same)
• Been on an enjoyable and informative 4 hour walking tour of the city with my new found friends
• Visited a convent
• Watched the sun set every night
• Learned to play a new board game
• Taken a bunch more photos
• Gotten a hair cut (kind of a big deal here with the whole image culture thing)
• Tried local food (its delicious)
• Learned how to say 'How are you?' and to respond appropriately in Arabic
•  Met more field workers and heard snippets and tasters of great stories that I am hoping to hear in all their glory over the coming weeks

Title font used: 'Scorched Earth'

Arrival

Welcome to the Near East! After a few flights and rather a lot of queuing (which contrary to popular opinion Brits do not enjoy any more than any other nationality) I arrived last night to this beautiful land, something I have been anticipating for nearly a year and I am finally here! In less than 24 hrs I have already been a bit blown away with culture shock... I was greeted by a sea of head-scarves shouting very loudly in the baggage hall. The ride to the apartment where I am staying was also a bit of an adventure with no street lighting combined with the sport of dodging pot holes in the road. The driver told me that having lived here 6 years he's learned the basic rule of the road is not to 'mind the gap' but to fill the gap, which explained three lanes of traffic on a two lane carriageway.

Queuing to change planes in Turkey

Having been given no complimentary food on the flight over (grumpy face) we swung through the golden arches of familiarity enroute and I stuffed my face with delicious greasy junk food. I did actually want to experience the local food but nothing else was open at 10.30pm. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for this later.

Man modifying his boat

The first day was full. I tagged along on a trip attempting to source some local products for a business venture to employ marginalised women to produce local style jewellery that can be exported, thus empowering them as well as raising awareness of the social injustices that they face.

 Local glass/pottery store

An interesting interlude: Despite not being able to speak Arabic I managed to explain to the kind man in the shop that I was not interested in buying any of his bongs and that in fact I do not smoke at all because I like to be able to breathe. At least that's what I tried to communicate... For all I know he could be under the impression that I already own several and occasionally I hot box my room.

Middle eastern smoking devices

After the shopping trip ended we visited a nearby town for the purpose of cultural orientation and as an ease into work. Over the course of the day my supervisor filled in some of the blanks about what my work will look like over the next 6 weeks. It sounds exciting, challenging and fun all at the same time and I am tentatively looking forward to being stretched and comprehensively shoved out of my comfort zone.

Tea -  How did they know?!

There is an eclectic and sometimes incongruous mix of culture in this place. It is not uncommon to see a woman in a black robe and head covering walking down a street that has a 30ft billboard advertising wedding lingerie. I am hoping to come away with a better understanding of how culture and belief interact here and I will go about picking the brains of people who can answer me and observing as much as I can.

Typical building

I am picking up a few bits of Arabic already. I can now recognise the numbers 1-10 written down and can say hello and thank you. The body language is a whole other ball game but it's easier to pick up than words and you can get a surprisingly long way simply with hand motions and head movements.

End of another long day. Watch this space, plenty more to come!

Does this need a caption?

Title font used: 'urban jungle'

Seasons Changing

Old things going,

New things coming,

Seasons changing.

Old life passing,

New life budding,

Seasons changing.

Old darkness fading,

New light dawning,

Seasons changing.

Old tears drying,

New laughter sounding,

Seasons changing.

Old habits dying,

New resolve growing,

Seasons changing.

Old pains soothing,

New smiles emerging,

Seasons changing.

Old wounds dissolving,

New healing starting,

Seasons changing.

Old bitterness melting,

New forgiveness bearing,

Seasons changing.

Old doubts resolving,

New faith maturing,

Seasons Changing.

Old sadness waning,

New joy rising,

Seasons changing.

Old despair lifting,

New hope stirring,

Seasons changing.

Old things going,

New things coming,

Seasons changing.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. - 2 Corinthians 5:17

Title font used: 'Eternal Call'

101

This is my 101'st blog post. It seems funny now looking back at the very first time that I posted here (though the web address was actually different then) the original purpose of the blog was to keep record of my photos and track my learning curve and to have an immortalised diary of my progress. looking at my first post now it is somewhat embarrassing in terms of how low the quality is. (I would not advise going and taking a look - it would be the biggest waste of your time ever) even if you do go back now and look you won't be able to see the original layout and design of the page which was on a par with the standard of pictures.

On this training base and particularly within the last week we have been given a large amount of reflection time where we can take stock of the days events and process them as the days are very full and we are dealing with pretty heavy stuff. These reflection times have been a joy for me, at first they were great for catching up on sleep but I now find it incredibly useful in decision making to stop and think for an elongated period of time. Looking back on my life as a whole and specifically on my walk with God I feel that this blog is somewhat of a condensed representation of that. It started out shoddy and stayed that way for some time but there is no questioning the continual improvement, step by step that might not be noticed between individual posts but if you skip from first to last you would barely recognise them as being authored by the same person. This gives me great hope for the future - in the same way that there is always a certain level of dissatisfaction in every post that I make, the technique could be better - the editing could use a touch up or the wording could be more witty or engaging so I know that as I live I do not do so as an end product - I am a work in progress. If I were to stop growing today but lived to 80 then I would look back at my life and be bitterly disappointed that I wasted so much of it.

(yes this is a picture of a gecko the size of my fingernail licking its own eye!)

Fortunately I know that this will not be the case as my growth is not solely dependant on me (if it was then I would have to say I have no idea what will happen in the rest of my life) My friends and family will constantly be encouraging me to stretch myself to be all that I can be but more than this God is actively working in me and won't stop till he decides to bring me home - be that tomorrow or when I am old enough to forget my age. I know this because I know that God is jealous for his glory and my good and he is not satisfied with second best.

What does 'growing look like?' the bible describes the life of a christian like a tree that bears many different kinds of fruit - the fruit of a Christan being that which God supplies - Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Self Control, Faithfulness and Gentleness. If these are all words used to genuinely describe who I am when I die then I know I will have run well.

Title font used 'Crash Numbering Gothic'

Home

If you know me then you know I have recently moved out of my parents and in with Dave (the living legend) Hewer. This transition has been just about as much fun as I had anticipated and also just the amount of effort I had been expecting but it all comes with the territory.

One of this weeks discoveries: the bright side to dampness. The flat we are in is prone to some pretty bad damp as it's in an old building, we knew this before we moved in so no big deal but one thing I had not foreseen was the view of sunset from the bay window in it's overly condensed state.

The above is looking down our street from the window at sunset with the drops of water setting off the bokeh.

Oh and as promised :- the pumpkin scones turned out beautifully ... Well done Helen

Early Autumn

Autumn has made an unseasonally early appearance this year and I must admit I am not at all adverse to this. Yes the weather will get colder but this is England, it's always cold and the days are getting shorter but this does mean that you get to see both sunrise and sunset - or failing that then at least sunset at a reasonable hour meaning capturing it is far less of  a mission.

 Take for example this evening... our garden is home to a sycamore tree which is deep red/orange this time of year mix that in with a golden setting sun and you have yourself a thing of beauty. So obviously I attempted to capture it as best I could in the 'golden hour' that is sunset.

Now you may or may not have noticed but I prefer to take pictures of the smaller details, the tiny intricacies of creation that are so often skipped over, trodden on and generally ignored. Partially because I find them easier to capture than big things  (generally you can hold them in your hand and therefore manipulate composition to your hearts content) and partially because I like the idea of showing something that is so easily overlooked, yet has had so much attention and detail put into it, like the veins on leaves.

and also the true colour of an autumnal leaf - if these weren't back light by the sun they would be quite boring to look at. Oh and as is becoming tradition, my favourite last:

You may also have noticed another thing or two about this little space
1) I have taken to cropping some landscape images to a panoramic 8X2 or 8X4 ratio because I find it more appealing to the eye (what do you think of it?)
2) I love flare!

Welcome to Autumn, appreciate the spectacular deaths of leaves everywhere.