Fast Cars and Freedom

So I love Cavit. Not in the way you flippantly love people, but I really have a lot a love in my heart for that man.

On my day off last week, I was walking down the huge hill in the heat carrying my overnight bag and A drove right by me in her car, didn't stop or anything, even though we were going the same way. For whatever reason though, it didn't bother me.

However, later, after I had made it down to the main street and was chugging a long, out of nowhere, Cavit pulls up on the sidewalk infront of me and almost runs me over! He had dropped A and came back to find me, God bless him. He's done it before. He says, (in Turkish) "When we were driving, we saw you walking and I asked A if we could get you and she said 'no, keep going'". I just smiled and said "iep" (Shame) and he said, "cok (pronounced choke) cok iep!" (meaning a lot and lot of shame). He was furious. "She's crazy!" He said, waving his hand emphatically in the Turkish sign for "crazy".

I laughed and said, (as best I could), "Yes, she is crazy, but God loves her so I love her too. It's very difficult, but we have to try." He just said I was crazy too, but he smiled.

Anyway, yesterday, he was kind enough to come pick me up from Laura's house and as we were coming up the big, windy hill, in silence (as is our way) he suddenly said, "Do you have a car in the US?"
"Yes"
"Do you want to drive?"
"This car! I can't! And it's been four months!"
He just flicked his hand. "Come on, get out." And gets out of the car in the middle of the road on a huge hill.

So I got out and jumped in the drivers side of their BMW and drove the rest of the way up. It wasn't far and it wasn't much, but for a few minutes I was in control of something. And yeah, it was something small, but it was one of the many normal things at home that signified my own independence and my own identity that I no longer have and took for granted.

He told me I was the new chauffer and was a "supa driver". He laughed about it the whole way up. Anyway, that's all. I just wanted to share. I know it's really silly, but it touched me a lot.
He has a nickname for me now as well- Caitlin Aki (Aki means some kind of dancer).

He has kindness etched in his face. He's one of the things I will miss quite a bit.