A Labor of Love: A Volunteer Teacher's Tale
The Turkish Language Olympics are held every year and thousands of students from around the world come to Turkey to recite Turkish songs and poems and perform dances and plays with enthusiasm and sincerity for the Turkish public.
The teachers responsible for the achievements of these competitors stand by the audience, encouraging the students on stage like compassionate and proud parents. Each has inspirational stories of teaching Turkish around the world marked by hard work, sacrifice and compassion.
Here is one amazing story from Papua New Guinea.
Imagine living alone in a country where no one speaks your language or understands your religion or traditions. Now add to this the risk of being robbed, stabbed or kidnapped while walking down the street. Yavuz's passion to teach and spread the Turkish language led him just this scenario in an incredible display of selflessness.
His journey began with a 10-hour non-stop flight from Turkey to Singapore, then a seven-hour flight to the capital of Papua New Guinea. There were barely any Papuans on the airplane. Instead, most travelers were missionaries and businessmen. After nearly a day on the road, Yavuz arrived in Port Morosbi.
He searched for a hotel for hours, eventually finding one with a vacant room. He then began to look for an opportunity to set up a school, but the people he met were wary of his intentions -- not believing that a young and single man could come to a country thousands of miles away from his homeland simply to teach. As weeks and months passed, Yavuz slowly began to lose hope and enthusiasm as he had not found a school.
His hopes for opening a school continued to dwindle. Life in the city was dangerous, residents constantly feared for their lives and property -- Yavuz even came face-to-face with murder and robbery several times. In this city Yavuz was alone and had no one to talk to. He became increasingly frustrated.
But on one long, dark and stressful night, a spiritual hand touched Yavuz's heart and filled his soul with hope. Yavuz prayed for hours until the break of dawn. The next morning, he walked the streets of Port Morosbi sleepless but full of optimism, only to find upon his return to the hotel that his room was given to another customer. There were no rooms left anywhere in the city.
Once again Yavuz decided to follow his heart. He hailed a taxi and introduced himself to the driver in English and heard the astonishing response, "Are you a Muslim?" It was the first time in months that he had heard anyone even say the word. The driver said he would take him to a place for Muslims. The cab pulled up to a small prayer home and a tall old man with blue eyes, blonde hair and a white beard opened the door. The old man introduced himself as a retired English military officer. He was a convert who had decided to spend the rest of his life helping local residents. His Muslim name was Sadik Sanberk and even at the age of 80 he still spoke of truth and reality. He asked a local named Samsun to show Yavuz around the city, warning that it was not safe to travel alone in Port Morosbi.
Life and mission friends
After that, as if he carried a secret passport, doors kept opening for Yavuz.
Samsun, the local who helped guide Yavuz through the city, had a friend who worked as a high level official in government. The official was very understanding and helpful and at last permission was granted to open a school. A short while later they found an available building, which they fixed up and renovated.
During a short visit back to Turkey, Yavuz met and married a girl named Elif. The couple returned to Papua New Guinea to continue the mission together. While construction work was being completed on the school building, they turned their home into a classroom. Their first chance spread the power of education through love and hope came with the arrival of a handful of female students. Elif taught the girls our wonderful Turkish language - although it was by no means an easy task.
There were times when it took Elif weeks to teach just one word or sentence. The accents made it difficult for the girls to pronounce the words, especially ones with the letters ö, ü, i, ğ, r. Teaching as well as learning tenses and suffixes required a lot of patience.
A near-death incident
Unfortunately the couple also had some terrifying experiences. While the couple was driving in the city one day, a group of people stopped the car. They held a gun to Yavuz's head and took his money and possessions. The criminals tried to escape in the car with Elif still inside. But for some miraculous reason, the car broke down a few meters down the road. The men escaped when they saw people from nearby running towards them. Elif and Yavuz were shaken up by the incident but continued their work without delay.
A while later Elif contracted a fly-borne disease common in the country. Despite her illness she continued to train her current student, Jack, for the Turkish Olympiad.
There are hundreds of similar stories of selfless Turkish educators who are making this world a better place to live through the power and love of education.
With these stories, we can better understand the songs, "If life was a holiday," recited by Papuan competitor Jack, "Oh these hands" by Ghanian Edna and "When chamomiles blossom" by Vietnamese Dieu and "To those ahead riding on horses," by Ukranian Elvira. (Orhan Keskin, Papau New Guenia)
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