One of our favorite activities while in Turkey is to go out for a day's swimming off a gulet, one of the boats that are to be seen everywhere along the Mediterranean coast. The entertainment provided by the crew is one of the day's major pleasures. Photographed in 2001 in the last picture at Alanya are Hassan on the left with his crew. The third photo shows a very amusing dance performed by a crew member. Hassan was a very nice man. He asked me many questions about Canada, explaining that he wanted to emigrate. I remember thinking, "How very sad. Lacking the skills that Canada would recognize, he most likely would be unable to achieve his goal, and, even if he did succeed, he would find the differences in culture very difficult to adjust to, and would probably be terribly homesick for his life in Turkey." He was unhappy because he was unemployed all winter - he did not own the gulet - and had a seven-year-old son whose future he worried about.
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