#75 "Dog Bite, Ephesus, Sunday Dinner" (By Grandma

Dear Children,

I have been getting in the groove of walking every morning.  It has been hard to have the self-discipline, but I know I need to do it.  If I don’t go early in the morning, I don’t go at all.  Wednesday started out to be just an ordinary morning for walking.  I usually walk along the Kordon, which is a wide sidewalk along the sea wall.  There are a number of walkers, joggers and bikers in that area.  There are always stray dogs around, but most of them are sleeping off their nights of barking.  They are all tagged by the municipality, and neutered.  Once in a while they get up and wander about, or chase another dog, but mostly they just zone out on the grass.  So I pay them no heed.

But as I was walking along, minding my own business, I felt a big pain in the back of my calf.  I yelped and whirled around.  A dog had attacked me from behind.  I hadn’t seen it at all.  I stood still, dumbfounded.  Two men had observed the attack… one behind me and one in front of me.  They both came to offer assistance.  One spoke English.  I pulled up my pant leg, and blood was spouting out of my calf.  They both called someone…. I guess a 911…. I don’t know, asked me to sit down and we waited for an ambulance.  If the men hadn’t been there, I probably would have walked home. 

I asked them to point out the dog, they did.  I took a photo of the dog.  It was just lying on the grass beginning to doze again.  There were several other dogs close to it. 

I could hear the ambulance in the distance, and when it finally arrived, it overshot us.  We had to walk to get to it.  I had called Kent on my cell phone, and he was on his way.  But I knew if I was whisked off in an ambulance, I’d be who-knows-where.  As we were walking to the ambulance, I looked at the dog.  It was watching us, and its head followed our movements.  It was like “gotcha, lady!”

I was helped into the ambulance and asked all sorts of questions in Turkish.  I knew the word for dog, but that was about all.  The men helped to explain to the ambulance people what had happened. 

The Ambulance worker looked at my leg, and put some yellow stuff on it.  She also stuck my arm with a needle.  And we took off.  Where to?  I had no idea.  So I called the YVs and had them speak to the ambulance worker.  She told them where they were taking me.  I called Kent and told them to call the YVs to find out where I was going.

We drove forever, so I knew we were not returning to my neighborhood.  Later a taxi driver told the YVs that I had been taken to the ghetto hospital.  Nice! 

I was taken in to an ER and taken to a bed and left sitting there.  A couple of people looked at me.  I didn’t have any official ID with me.  But I had my I-phone which had a photo of my Turkish ID.  After some discussion they bandaged me and it was decided that I should go somewhere for a rabies shot.  I was given a tetanus shot in the ER and an IV.  They took the IV thing out, and sent me to another place and gave me an address of a clinic for a Rabies shot.  I didn’t know what else to do, so I walked out.

At the entrance Kent and the two YVs had arrived.  Also Ibrahim was on his way.  Ibrahim is the MP’s special assistant who does special stuff for him and he happened to be visiting Izmir.  He is Turkish and of course, knows all the “ropes”.  When Ibrahim arrived he and Kent went back into the ER to settle the bill.  It took quite a while because the computers were down.  Ibrahim’s taxi was waiting for us, but the YVs used that time to have a missionary discussion with the taxi driver.

We took a taxi to the clinic for the rabies shot.  The taxi driver had a very hard time finding the clinic.  The streets and roads here are very challenging.  We finally arrived.  The YVs had beat us in another taxi.  We all waited in the waiting room for my turn. (I had 4 men flanking me:  2 YVs, Ibrahim, and Kent)  Interestingly, or depressingly, the room was full of people getting rabies shots.  They had all had dog bites.  As I was sitting there in a stupor, I noticed the YVs in earnest discussion with two men, and then they passed one of them a Bof M.  It was starting to feel like I’d been used as a weapon for missionary work.  I’d be willing to do that without a dog bite.

Dad and I walked home from the clinic.  It turned out to be a couple of miles from our apartment.  We had to promise to have two more shots at a designated place and time.

So, I’m okay.  I posted on FB that I needed sympathy.  And I got that.  Someone said that they enjoyed my sense of humor.  What is funny about a dog bite?  I will now carry a stick when I go walking.  It interferes with the swinging of my arms, but I guess it is worth it.  I’ll also have to swivel my neck now and then to see if a dog is creeping up on me.  Lesson learned:  Watch your back!

So, if you are still reading.  We had a great outing at Ephesus one evening.  Ephesus is THE site around here and about one hour away from us.  We took the train for about $1.25 because we are seniors.  Because it was an evening performance we booked a hotel.  We didn’t think we could get home late at night.  Dad booked the hotel on-line.  It was about ½ hour walk from the train station, and we wondered if anyone had ever stayed in the hotel.  I’ll send a photo.  It wasn’t too bad though, and it included breakfast on its balcony.  We ate a quick breakfast and took a taxi back to the train.  The Ephesus program was wonderful…. 4 lecturers on Paul, some music.  A major tour group had booked the site for their tourists. Dad has met the owner and he invited us.

And today was church…  Duh!  We had 4 non-members, and possibly 4 baptisms coming up.  The whole church group came here for dinner… There were 12 of us.  (Those on Skype didn't come.  Ahem, that was funny).  I’d asked the YA to make something Turkish for us.  I didn’t know what else to provide.  So I cut up stuff, made hummus, bought stuff grape leaves, had olives, pita bread, bought baklava, and made a couple more desserts. I threw in a bag of potato chips just in case.  She made a coucous dish that was filled with spices.  She said 90% of the Turks enjoy it.  So we were good.  

The YVs left with two of the guests and got stuck in the elevator.  Never happened before.  The elevator went totally dark, and nothing worked.  Good think we all have cell phones.  Luckily we were able to find the building manager and he came and rescued them.  It isn’t like James Bond movies where you can climb out of the top of the elevator car if you get stuck.  You are really caged in.

Two people told the YVs this week that they believed the BofM to be true.  It was the first time they’d heard it from investigators.  Maybe things are looking up?  We’d love to have some more members. 

I hope you are all gearing up for an interesting summer.

I love you,

Mother