Today we traveled very far to Trabzon, which is on the black sea coast. It was a very long drive and we only visited one site, The Sumela Monastery. The history is pretty long..... basically it is a half hour trek up a mountain. At the top you can see what looks like a huge building carved into the mountain. There is also an old aqueduct at the entrance. as you walk into the building (or should i say the mountain) there is a host of buildings and remnants of the old monastery. There is beautiful artwork on the buildings however they have been vandalized over the years. I guess people thought it would be funny to carve their names into the artwork! Here are some pics and a video.






Yesterday was a bit of a let down. We finally went to go visit the medical facitility on campus and it was near falling apart. They didnt even have occupational therapy (only physical therapy). I asked our contact if we could see another hospital and he said that we might be able to on Friday. So i am crossing my fingers!

We also learned a lot about the economics of Turkey. We learned that Turkey is a growing country and its imports and exports have been increasing over the past 10 years. Turkey, as a country, is relatively new to the free market economy and is still adapting to its perks and fall backs. It has the 15th biggest economy going by the gross domestic product(GDP). However when looking at GDP per capita it is much smaller. Turkey also has a very young population. 64% are between the ages of 14-60.

Turkey is also trying very hard to get into the European Union. After all it is the gateway between the east and the west. The professor informed us that Turkey is a growing country and doing well for itself on its own. However there are economic and social incentives for joining. Our professor told us that being a part of the European union will allow for greater human rights in Turkey. I think what he meant was that upon joining the EU Turkey would have to focus more on pollution regulations, equality rights, consumer rights, etc... In general the joining will help to increase in the standard of living. It would also change the economy somewhat.For instance Turkey is still big into the agriculture industry (35% compared to America's 2%). A big portion of Turkey's citizens are farmers. If Turkey joined the union then they could import goods from other countries. Thereby decreasing their reliance on the national agricultural industry. Also Turkey could export their services to other countries more readily. For example Turkey has high quality private service industries like hotel management and tourism. They could export these services to countries in the EU that do not have comparable quality services. The ultimate dilemma is that if Turkey imports agricultural goods then farmers in Turkey lose their jobs. If Turkey exports services to another country (like France) that means the French lose jobs in the service industry.

Turkey also has very close ties with Russia. Russian tourists come to Turkey often and spend money! For example the ski resorts in Erzurum are all in Russian. Many Russians come to vacation and ski in Turkey causing a lot of business for the Turks. Their is also under way construction to build an oil pipeline from Russian through Turkey (instead of Europe). This would increase business for Turkey. But who knows how this will effect relations with the EU.

Anyway I am getting very sleepy and need to get some rest.

Take care everyone

Benjie