Day 4

Lessons of the day: gardening shears are your frıend.
- Shears work better when you hold them the right way.
- Don't put your fingers in between the handles unless finger bruises are the only way to get your nails painted.
- Sharp shears are better than dull ones.

Other highlights:
- Saw a newly hatched baby bird in a nest still amongst eggs. Wowzers life!
- Enlisted 2 cows to help weed whack
- Figured out how to turn on the water pump all by myself!
- Picked sweet, ripe blackberries. YUM.

Challenges: Me vs. Charlotte's Web
I forgot to mention in my farming resume of an intense aversion to spiders. That's putting it mildly. Really Charlotte's Web is an unfortunate fictional construct whose reality should only extend as far as the confines of bookend to bookend. Beyond that, arachnids might have a shot if they figure out where Charlotte picked up her elegant vernacular. It was only after I tortured a spider in the back of the mint leaves that the shaman farmer noted, when pruning the pomegranates, 'Don't hurt the spiders. They're good for the trees.' That night, when the horns blared for evening prayer, I asked Allah for forgiveness.

Prayer Time
In Turkey, where there is a sizable Muslim population, loudspeakers signal the time for prayer, which happens five times a day. The Mosque is right behind my window and within earshot of this awful, crackling prayer singer who was rejected from gospel choir and didn't make the wedding singer cut. The secular villagers have pleaded with him to either turn down the amp or lower hıs karaoke volume, no to avail. I suggested that we argue that the commotion distracts us from our morning prayers, especially for agnostics, where sleep may be as close to god as we'll get.

Perhaps he got the hint because today, the prayer singer was rather innovative. First, the singing was barely audible at 4AM. Thank Allah! Even the cows had an opportunity to chime in at bass. At 4PM, there was a cameo appearance by a young adult, who wasn't nearly as entertaining as your regular male pop star, but sufficed to snazz it up (the original prayer star was whispering lines ın between, which was enough hysterics to cackle me out of a nap). Unfortunately, by evening prayer, the village karaoke star returned, doubling hıs baritone to compensate for missed stage appearances. Note to self, before I leave, I'd really like hıs autograph.