Turkish people ~ from a Malay's sight

#I wrote this post about a year ago, but just now having opportunity to publish it #

Based on my experiences living in Turkey for almost a year, I could see that  Turkish people are  kind towards foreigners, yeah as people called “misafirperver” ,welcoming people etc . Maybe in Malaysia also people are saying the same, but im saying it generally. I could see clearly their sincerety when helping me especially when I first reached  Turkey with zero Turkish language. 

How difficult the condition was because I wasn’t be able to interact with them because some of them with zero English J  so we just communicate with bahasa “ayam n itik “ :D Just today its clearly proved by a cute Turkish girl.My Malaysian friend just arrived Ankara from Malaysia and since she is still new here she didn’t know much about the place. We were planning to meet somewhere but because of the place is quite far from hers it was bit difficult. Then the girl who can communicate in English little  helped her to get in the bus until the 30 minutes journey ended. I was surprised because she was not going to the same direction as my friend did but just sent my friend to meet me in that place and return back to her place which took 30 minutes.May Allah bless her for her kindness. 

There was also one time when I went to a kind of rural area in Ankara to look around the place and I stopped by a roadside because there was a man selling a flock of shoes which attracted me much. I expressed my desires to my friend, how pretty the shoes was but without having any intentions to buy it since I already had one.then there was a woman with her girls passed by and approached us.She asked me which one did I want because she will buy it for me.i was shocked because I didn’t even know her.maybe because she saw that im a foreign student and she struggled to help me as much as she can.at the end, I refused and she was just ok.

                                  Baba n me,  ISTANBUL - 2013

There was also one time when I was in Istanbul. I took a box of cargo sent by my family from a Turkish friend who just came back from Malaysia.it was almost 10 kilogram and I must carry it for about 40 kilometres journey to my friend’s house by changing several transportations. My hands was getting purple-reddish due to carry that box. Until I reached the residential area, I stopped for a short rest because it was tiring. 20 minutes left for walking. When I continued my journey, suddenly 16 year old a high school boy appeared and offered to carry the box until my friend’s house. I was like wow! Released Alhamdulillah! :D he didn’t talked much just asking where Im from and continued the journey. This time I could feel he helped me not because im a foreigner, but because had taught by his family to help people whoever he/she is.

My friends and I also even have Turkish family here in Ankara. We got to know each other when we attended Arabic class in a diyanet centre in Kizilay. They always invite us to have dinner or lunch in their house about once a month. I was dreaming to have a Turkish family here since im going to stay in this foreign land for almost 7 years insallah. We do feel need of a family when we  being far from our own beloved family.its not an easy decision to leave our beloved family in homeland because it needs a very big sacrifice.even when I was in boarding school, SM Sains Muar which is located about  2 hours from my house in Bangi, I kept  feeling homesick :# Thanks allah for giving me such strengths to struggle for jihad in this foreign land,which took about 10 hours by plane! 

 

Back to our Turkish family, the family consisted of a parents, 2 daughters and a son. The daughters are Merve Nur,17 and Elif 13 year old while the son, Yusuf is 8 year old.im happy to be accompanied by them. Surely I will never ever forget my beloved family in Malaysia since I miss them a lot allah knows but sometimes the sadness of being lonely disappeared when replaced by the happiness from this bless family.the Turkish mother always reminding us not to feel isolate here because we are muslim brothers,sisters are like muslim family without borders.alhamdulillah cok sukur :D