{"id":597,"date":"2014-07-28T00:00:45","date_gmt":"2014-07-27T14:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/musaka.me\/?p=597"},"modified":"2016-01-04T15:13:20","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T04:13:20","slug":"28-jul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musaka.me\/?p=597","title":{"rendered":"28 JUL"},"content":{"rendered":"

BITOLA-KANATLAR<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

An early rise and off to the village of\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Kanatlar<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a030km away with Nevsat, Shermin and Firdes. It was very humid and hot morning in\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Bitola<\/span><\/span><\/a>. Nevsat\u00a0<\/span><\/span>drove<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0at approximately 150kmph in a his little boink boink. I had much anticipation of seeing mums (and the families) village for the first time. We were\u00a0<\/span><\/span>greeted<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/em>\u00a0warmly by my 3rd cousin\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Memet<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and his mother Mevlude. The humble mud brick\u00a0<\/span><\/span>abode<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0must of been 200yrs old. A slowly evolving and decaying structure constantly being adapted over time. I noticed a cow in the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>barn<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Chillies<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/a>drying, reminded my of Bukebaba’s house.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After a short time Memet, Nevsat and I were taken for a tour through a newly built\u00a0<\/span><\/span>house<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in the front of their property. Then\u00a0<\/span><\/span>walked<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/em>\u00a0through the main\u00a0<\/span><\/span>center<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0of the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>village<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Tekke<\/span><\/span><\/a> where Bukebaba practiced his faith. We walked past the newly built gleaming\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Gami<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>, which was a sign of the times as there seems to be a kind of battle for peoples faith ie. minds! The\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Tekke<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/em>\u00a0was\u00a0<\/span><\/span>humble<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in appearance comparatively, no frills whatsoever. There were many spirited <\/span><\/span>people<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong> preparing for Barjam.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After a short time a few local people, Baba’s, touring Turks come to warmly greet me. I was taken for a tour of the Tekke. I saw the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>cemetery<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>sacrificial<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0area and\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Selman<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Baba’s\u00a0<\/span><\/span>hut<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>. He was the Baba who gave blessings for Bukebaba (whose name is also Selman) to practice here in Australia. I met Selman’s granddaughter Melek (which happens to also be mums sisters name) who spoke English very well. We chatted much. I felt a deep connection to this place, all the stories as a child were made real, I just didn’t want to leave the place!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After exchanging numbers and taking a few photos we walked to the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>house<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0mum grew up in. It was occupied by the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Macedonian<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0people who purchased the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>house<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong> in the late 1950’s early 60’s. I had thought the house was destroyed by the ravages of time. I can now place memories to an actual place. We didn’t\u00a0<\/span><\/span>stay<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0long unfortunately as people did live their. It was a somewhat surreal experience.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We went back to Memet’s\u00a0<\/span><\/span>house<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0for a little while again. My Turkish wasn’t great at all but nonetheless I loved listening to the language and dialect, it felt like home in allot of ways.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The drive home to Bitola was very reflective. I was touring the depths of my memories. Finally closed another link.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After lunch Sebajdin, Erdzan, Hujlia, Gulshen and I\u00a0<\/span><\/span>drove<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>village<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Asamat<\/span><\/span><\/a>. We\u00a0<\/span><\/span>passed<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0through many\u00a0<\/span><\/span>old<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0villages to finally arrive at Xha Dure’s\u00a0<\/span><\/span>house<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0situated right on the Lake Prespa. The 25yrs of a receding water line pushed the shore far from its original place just behind his property. House was locked. We walked to the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>lake<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>, long\u00a0<\/span><\/span>grass<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0everywhere blocking the view of the lake. We\u00a0<\/span><\/span>drove<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on, stopped along the highway and walked down to the pebble beach and we all skipped rocks on the flat glassy water,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We headed back to Bitola, chilled out in the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>backyard<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0playing cards with Sebajdin, Adem, Gevdat, Edzan & Zinka before we had dinner. Fatime had made a delicious stew, I was famished. After dinner we sat around the PC with Erdzan whilst Sebajdin played some early Yugoslavian rock. Sebajdin introduced me to the legendary Yugoslav rock band\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Bijelo Dugme<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Again, exhausted from all the traveling, called it a night.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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BITOLA-KANATLAR An early rise and off to the village of\u00a0Kanatlar\u00a030km away with Nevsat, Shermin and Firdes. It was very humid…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7,228,231,204,229,211,208,254,250,214,232,222,8,230,227,223,224,209,210,226,207,225],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dear-diary","tag-adem","tag-asamat","tag-bijelo-dugme","tag-bitola","tag-dure","tag-erdzan","tag-fatime","tag-firdes","tag-gevdat","tag-gulshen","tag-hujlia","tag-kanatlar","tag-kimet","tag-lake-prespa","tag-melek","tag-memet","tag-mevlude","tag-nevsat","tag-sebajdin","tag-selman-baba","tag-shermin","tag-tekke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musaka.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musaka.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musaka.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musaka.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musaka.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/musaka.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1012,"href":"https:\/\/musaka.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions\/1012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musaka.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musaka.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musaka.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musaka.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}