cats

Whilst the first half of 2024 has generally been quite cheap (Vietnam and Laos mostly £3-4 a night for hostels), I have a few organised tours booked for the second half and the costs are going to really mount up, so I responded to an advert I saw looking for a volunteer in a Turkish cat sanctuary – seven weeks with no accommodation costs, just food to pay for … with what turns out to be something like 16 cats (many are feral, so they come and go), some with disabilities, in a small home down the bottom of a lane in a nameless village with just one shop that doesn’t even sell any fresh produce.

I also felt that it would give me the ‘down time’ I’ve been needing – to reflect on where I’ve been, plan for where I’m going next, and maybe even take time out to read, listen to music and watch videos.

Well there has been less time out than I’d expected, not so much because of the time spent putting out bowls, cleaning litter trays (and the house generally) and watering the garden, but because I am also supposed to be here to give attention and affection to the cats when required – and some of them are really demanding.  Something about the way I behave when I’m trying to concentrate on reading something, or trying to draft an email, or a response on WhatsApp to one of the many questions sent me each day by the owner of the sanctuary, seems to provoke them into wanting a stroke.  Which means that they walk onto my laptop keyboard, or push the hand that’s trying to answer a message on my phone … something about my going into the bathroom attracts their attention too, so whether it’s rubbing against my arm when I’m cleaning my teeth, or trying to climb onto my lap when I’m sitting on the loo, everything I try to do here is a challenge!

Not to mention the difficulties that have come from their being no wifi here.  The owner needs me to be contactable and so left me her unlimited data sim card; I only have one phone, so reluctantly took out my own sim card and put in the one provided (tried it in the portable router I’d bought in Vietnam, but that didn’t work).  After a visit to the Vodafone shop in the nearest town (a walk and then a long bus trip – thankfully I already had an Istanbul-region transport card) and a payment which the owner reimbursed, that now works, and the wifi here is not too bad.  However, some things still require my phone number, including the use of my credit card since the provider sometimes sends me an SMS code for security when I use it.  So a phone call to my Mum was cut off suddenly when the credit ran out (the automatic subscription failed when my card holder sent me a code I couldn’t access – for an update that required me to be online as well as seeing my SMS messages), and then when I tried to book a night in a cheap hotel that payment also failed – not because I didn’t get a code but because my card-holder declined it, so clearly I now have a problem with my credit card.  I also tried to update my phone subscription to a different (debit) card, but to do that I have to log in and they send a code to my email address – turns out they have the email address I used when I signed up in 2008, my work email which of course no longer functions.  A couple of other, related, issues too.  I daren’t take out the sim card and check my SMS messages, as I think putting the local sim card back in will require another visit to the Vodafone store and another payment – and I have no credit left on the transport card as I couldn’t find anywhere to add it.

Is this a sign of age that I’m struggling with such things?  I’ve never felt the need for a local sim card whilst travelling, have been happy to rely on wifi at my accommodation, but this has been stressful!  Thankfully the owner will be here for my last two weeks, so whilst it will be difficult not to be online, I can at least have my phone number working again and maybe sort out the issues with my credit card.


Apart from that, and caring for the cats?  Well, I’ve been able to wander down the lane a few times (at weekends I have to deliver cat food to another place) and seen the local bulls, many of which will probably be slaughtered for Eid tomorrow, apparently.  & I did manage to find out where there is a grocery store, just a 30-minute walk away, although as I left the store with my shopping the bus pulled up opposite and although I said I had no money on my card, he brought me back to the end of my lane anyway – a very nice gesture!  I’ve got partway through a book I brought here with me as well as reading one from the owner’s small collection, and have read a small number of those documents I’d downloaded but no longer have space to store on my hard drive.  & of course I’m saving money … the objective of being here!

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