The Screaming Man

My sister and her husband came to visit for the holidays this year. Their first morning here, my brother-in-law comes into the living room, with a cup of coffee in hand. He is still pretty beat from the long flight over, but the first thing that comes out of his mouth is “Why was that man screaming this morning?! It was so loud!”.  We all busted out laughing because the first call to prayer is very early in the morning. I would guess about 5:30am or 6:00am. It struck me even funnier that he didn’t know what it was. I guess I hear it so often now, that I’m used to it. It doesn’t wake me up and in fact, unless I’m standing right next to a mosque, it hardly even phases me anymore.

A few days later, my brother-in-law was out on the balcony because he hears the screaming man again. But this time, it wasn’t the mosque. It was the man who sells simits, or Simitci, making his morning rounds, yelling at the top of his lungs that he has bread for sale. I do have to admit, the Simitci has some lungs on him. A lot of volume comes out of men that walk around with trays of stacks of bread on their head every morning. 

It was fun to see Turkey through new eyes and to hear the observations of first timers in Turkey. You forget the things that once bewildered and surprised you at the beginning of life overseas after a few years.