A team from National Geographic Magazine came to Istanbul with ideas for stories, but being on the ground, those ideas can unfold freely. With their Turkish-speaking guy leading the way, the team spends the time wandering, talking, documenting, watching, experiencing and listening for songs and voices that could tell a story. Slowly, the city began to reveal itself.
Yesterday when we were in the rug, with a rug merchant, a carpet, a carpet will speak to you or doesn't speak to you. There are some places I go. There are just some that don't speak to me. And this one, from the instant I saw it, spoke to me.
The group wandered into Armutlu, a gecekondu community. Gecekondu means built overnight in Turkish, and refers to the small houses hastily built from bricks and cardboard. The shoddy construction in most of these communities won't survive an earthquake, and one is likely in the next few decades. The houses are built on state-owned land without the appropriate permits. The women at this village feel the effects of the economic crisis. From their front doors, they gaze at the technology corridor of Istanbul, and dream of working there one day. The group stayed for over an hour outside, talking about those visions, discussing their jobless husbands, playing with their children, comparing pictures, and of course, having tea.
