Ortak dillerimiz – Common languages

                       6-7.9.2014

… TCDD ile anlaşma sürecimizi başladığına rağmen, yoksa ondan dolayı mı? Beklentilerim azdı, tek görevim Tamera‘ya giden Suriyeli bir su mühendisi vizesini beklerken Güneşköy’ü gezdirmek.

One of the best visits, despite having taken key steps in the agreement for transferring the land – centre strip, first building, main entrance, our Sun Hill, etc… – to the Turkish Railways for the construction of the Ankara-Sivas-Erzincan High Speed Railway.  With few expectations, my main task was to guide round Güneşköy a Syrian water engineer waiting for his visa to Portugal where he will develop his expertise in Water Landscape Management at Tamera.

Suriye’de çölde kendi kasabasına yakın 500 dönümlükte atık sulardan ağıçlık oluşturduğu için, Güneşköy’de yapılabileceklerin hep gösterdi.  Having transformed 50 hectares of desert into orchard, he had a sharp eye for what could be done on our Güneşköy land.

Arazide Celal’le ortak dil tam yoktu, fakat aramızda anlaşılan çok fazla kelimeler çıktı.  İncir’in Rusçası… inçir imiş, ve ‘kuru üzüm’ için çok benzeyen bir ifade varmış.  Common languages? None entirely, but so many parts overlapping that communication found its way, like rain water seeking the best slope.

Hava kapalı. Kararınca büyük bir yarasa yavaşca uyup böcek avlıyordu.  Slow enough that we could see the bat’s wings…  The wind stirred, strong gusts … and the electricity cut out (so the water did too).  The next day, Fayez and I went West to the fountain to fill all the containers (cars are useful!): an opportunity to talk with others – the owners of the newly developed land plots.  And the old woman digging the irrigation channel so that it would flow into her land for a while.  “In Syria women do not do this work”… and the conversation veered eventually to the water sanitation needs of Hisarköy.  On our way back Fayez was able to identify the problem, and came up with possible solutions, based on his previous work in Syria (transforming 50 hectares of desert into fruit orchard, using treated waste water)

Fruit: delicious strawberries, between the highest rows of trees below Mandala – will these go under the railway construction?  Yummy watermelon.  A few grapes, on the surviving vines: not looked after for several years now.  In the bushes near the Balaban stream (now being rerouted for the construction of the large bridge, to take the railway construction traffic) the blackberries are juicy.

Fayez gathered much information.  High soil salinity over the years results in lower plant productivity as the soil quality decreases.

• Which plants indicate high soil salinity, because of inappropriate watering.  Also white traces around drip irrigation points.
• When to use drip irrigation: only at the end of the day, to avoid evaporation.  Even early morning is not a good time.
• Treated wast water from washing: washing machine powder has Boron (B) which is useful for tomato growth
• Reduce soil salinity: Plant barley in winter, to absorb the salinity.  Then crop early as green manure.

• Plant trees where their wild versions grow: lots of wild almonds.  Plant almond trees near them.
• Tree planting: no need for irrigation if you put many rocks around them, to prevent evaporation.

• Test soil quality, content, structure: hydro and geological engineers.
• Göletin üstündeki yamacı çok dik.  Arada bir kaç küçük duvar olsaydı, suyu daha verimli tutardı. Artifical lakes to collect sedimented soil, so smaller dams upstream minimise this effect. In ancient times, the Yemeni irrigation system used multiple damming.
• Natural vegetation, however thin and insignificant looking, reduces erosion.  The short water cycle: the sudden damage when rainfall water brings no benefit to the soil, only removing the top layer without sinking in.  THe long water cycle: whene the water can filter into the soil and feed natural springs.
• The 12x15m hole, dug as a lake in December 2008, is too small to be useful.  Though it never directly received any channeled water, it did accumulate some quality soil that would be good for agriculture.

Fayez talked with Saadet Teyze, working alone as Ekrem is not strong these days:

• several questions he asks to older villagers who know the old traditional ways of working the land.  What plants used to grow that you don’t see so often?
• What plants did you not see that are now frequent/ dominant – Pıtırak!!
• Hırk (Genel Türkçesi nedir?  bu herhalde yerel ismi):tarlalar eskiden 2 yılda bir boş bırakılırdı
• Tarla sürmek: eskiden camız, sonra öküz, sonra atla.  Şimdi motorlar sürülüyor.
• Neler ekilirdi: Kış için Ağustos’ta turp, ıspanak, havuç.  Ekim’de arpa, buğda ekilirdi Ağustos’ta biçilir.

At night: sleeping in the Sera was still too hot, so I slept under the vanishing clouds as the stars appeared; Cassiopea and the Pleiades, but I can’t remember others.

Çiçekler – Flowers:(without acces to my flower records ((main computer being repaired)), this is a raw list, for revision later… this winter).  Notice how the names have been noted in any language that they are best remembered in…

Verbascum, White and yellow spiny cow parsley, Convolvulus arvensis, Daucus carrota (Wild carrot.  for years I thought this was Cow parsley.  Deceptively similar), Zerdali dikeni, Tribulus, Banbul otu, Çoban yastığı, Dianthus, Yabani hardal (bunu da belki yanlış biliyorum). iğnelik, A.tormentil like thin yellow ?, acı marul, echinops, sarı hindiba, large Salvia (solucan evi yanında), semiz otu, Consolida regalis, purple stalked thistle, mor bayraklı küçük Salvia, mine çiçeği, wild hibiscus/yabani okra, köpek üzümü, yonca, yellow A…(photo record) – yani nothing new.  Çarpıcı olan: yolun karşısında: mavi acı hindiba bol, nane, and ? a nightshade ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanum_dulcamara