living in a ghost town - en

hello there, hope everything is fine with you all.

it has been a while, when i came for mandatory service to ceylanpınar, i was planning to write a few posts here, to have some kind of diary-series at the end but i didn’t stop by to write much. here i am though now, having a shift tomorrow, an istanbul trip and kasabian concert at the weekend. i will leave urfa soon, one or two months i suppose, hope not any longer. here is way hotter than mersin, desert-like sun, believe me. i am happy that i installed the air conditioner before it’s too late.

when the rolling stones published their song, living in a ghost town, in pandemic, it made a lot sense but i think this song does not get the credit it deserves years after covid. i find it quite pretty and relevant to my current state of mind. this mandatory service i mentioned above made me see this little uncivilized corner of turkey full of ignorance, dirt, weird traditions and more.

ceylanpınar is not particularly a ghost town, it is more like a ghoul-town. a synthesis of arabic-kurdish and a slightly turkish town here is. lots of kids everywhere, human life does not have a value much, people just reproduce. emergency service is always full. people here does not know anything about hygiene at all, i have examined at least five hundred people with rotten teeth i am sure.

old kurdish ladies with tattoed faces come often, asking “hoca, kurmanci zane?” and i reply “hayır teyze, tınne kurmanci.” you should see the disappointment in their faces, luckily they always have a children to translate.

i hate being a doctor in emergency service, especially in turkey where being a healthcare worker is some kind of torture no matter your profession. in shifts, examining and listening more than two hundred patient really tires me, consumes me to my every cell. dramatic young men with flu, endless pregnant women, kids who breaks their limbs constantly, losing a patient no matter how hard you try to rescue, doing an orthopedic reduction to a small kid with the consultant, tiring cardiopulmonary resuscitations, sutures, crying babies, vomiting kids, shouting men, people who try to cut the line and want to get examined quickly, people who are addiction to iv or im treatment for the smallest things, hospital security who gets paid to drink tea and watch reels and ask for a favour from you constantly while people shout at you…

while you may think, “oh it’s urfa, at least you may have some good food there”, i would say “nah dude, not at all.” most of them are not even worth paying a single lira. majority of them are the worst i have seen in whole turkey. kebabs are not kebab but a weird looking shish full of fat. yikes.

there are attractions nearby to visit, sure. mardin, diyarbakır, göbeklitepe and more yet it’s painful to travel alone for me now. i did it much in past and now i really need to have a good excuse for it, kinda feeling tired, you know. i have my cat next to me, played a bit hearthstone and team fortress 2 unnecessarily in the recent days. nice nostalgia, yet alone again. i like my colleagues but could not get into a deeper state of connection with any of them.

nba finals are about to end, rooting for knicks against the alien and luckily tomorrow world cup begins as well. the only positive side of nowadays probably. i want turkey to reach quarter finals, it would be hella cool.

in a few months, you will be able to find me in ankara, dear reader. i will start a new journey, being a brand new pathology resident. we will see how it will go all together. ankara. capital. city without any sea, city full of grayness they say. in the other hand, some like it a lot. they think of their first kiss in ankara, their university memories, walking in tunalı and bahçeli. i am more in the neutral side but i think i will enjoy the city more by the time passes.

see you there then, take care.