I may not like the bureaucratic blahblah that comes with my job, but there are some perks that sometimes make up for the rest of it. A couple of weeks ago my English Language Officer at the Embassy told me that Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and a couple of other aviation legends were going to be in Turkey visiting a military base just south of here in Adana. He said that a talk at the University was also going to be planned and that the Embassy wanted to invite students form our Access program that live nearby. The Embassy would pay for transport, a meal and an overnight for those students and kids traveling too far to make the round trip in one day. Because I work quite closely with Access teachers, I was asked to attend the event and help with logistics and organization of the student group.
I know they’re old, but I got excited. Neil Armstrong I of course knew. This is THE guy that first walked on the moon, only one, and I’d get to see him. Jim Lovell I had to look up, but quickly put Tom Hanks and Apollo 13 together to know why he was a significant character. This was going to be a very cool event.
The organizers of the event were the consulate in Adana plus the university where the event took place. The Americans had their invite list that included our students and teachers. We were given very strict instructions that every person attending needed their name on the invite list and to have a written invitation in hand. We were set. The university opened the doors to its own people, but because it was a campus event, was unable to have a set invite list. Basically, the door was open to anyone.
Before I proceed with the story, I think it’s useful to say that, when one purchases movie tickets in Turkey, they receive assigned seats in the theater. Whether the seats are sold out or they are the only people in the place, the moviegoer has a designated place to sit. I found this to be quirky and funny the first time I went and never really thought twice about it after that. With some people being invited with reserved seats for the astronaut event and a whole lot more that were there for general admission, it should have raised a red flag to at least on organizer that there might be problems. It occurred to me, but I wasn’t organizing the event, so I just sat back and watched.
One hour before the event was meant to start, the line at the door started to form. Seeing the crowds, we herded our Access kids in right away, allowing them to skip the line and go right through security, invitations in hand. No surprise that this did not sit well with the university crowd in line and got the whole thing off to a bad start. The auditorium sat 450 people and once those seats were filled, there was a reserve auditorium next door where people could watch the event live on a big screen. When a crowd of university students saw that a bunch of high school kids had reserved seats and that they would have to go to the overflow room, they were pissed off. Security - one middle-aged mustached university employee – put in an effort and closed the doors, but that didn’t last very long. If the door opened the slightest bit, five people would weasel their way in, until mustached-man simply gave up and allowed them all go in. The aisles and stairs and every piece of carpeting was covered within 3 minutes.
Since university security obviously didn’t have much control, some American Embassy officers stepped in and managed to close the doors and stop people from entering the auditorium that already held at least 300 people more than it was supposed to. One Embassy woman used an obvious reason of, “this is a terrible fire hazard. No more people can be allowed in,” to which a university student responded with seemingly clear logic, “Why would there be a fire?”
On this day I witnessed a textbook example of Turkish and American cultures clashing. All day long I was entertained and disgusted by what seemed to me an irrational reaction and lack of common sense. When seats are full, no more people can get in, period, right? That’s my American culture talking. Turkish culture comes back simply with, “more people can fit” and “Why would there be a fire?” Despite a minimum age of 12 allowed entrance, mothers argued to get their 5 year-old kid in the door saying, “Science doesn’t have an age.” A father proudly presented his chubby-faced 8 year-old son who had memorized a speech by Neil Armstrong in English hoping it would get his kid in the door. Their persistence and refusal to accept what we Americans would naturally accept – there are no more seats – baffled me. It was two cultures looking at the same situation from completely different perspectives at its finest. I now understand with complete clarity the need to assign seats at the movie and will never question it again.
Getting everyone in the door took an hour and a half. The astronauts were eventually shuffled from their armored van to the auditorium, told their stories, the audience loved it for an hour and then the astronauts were shuffled back out to their armored van and taken away. The auditorium was empty in 5 minutes. There was a plan to have a photograph taken of the astronauts with our Access students, but that was simply not possible. The crowds and lack of security would not allow it. The kids were disappointed, but I think they’ll appreciate the alternative we put together for them. An event that was amazing as it was absolutely insane.
No comments:
Post a Comment