“My name is Debbie Reichmann and I am from, I currently live in Potomac, Maryland and I am from Georgetown University. As everyone has been speaking, I have become more and more nervous as to how I can add to this with any relevance not because just of ego or not because we all managed to speak a fair amount of such wonderful things and truly moving things. When you started this, saying that we were gonna speak and we will get the DVD and we will listen to it again, you know I said yeah sure, whatever, sounds nice; but no! Ali, you are absolutely right: I will take this and I will listen to every single one of these statements again probably more than once because the kernels of truth I mean the golden nuggets that have been put forward to this table already this evening have been tremendous. So is now my contribution, as best as I can:

I had never visited Turkey prior to my trip with the Rumi Forum. To prepare myself before the trip, I read a history, "Istanbul: The Imperial City," and a history of the Ottoman Empire. From these books I learned a great deal about the glories of Turkey's history, but I came away with a sense of sadness about the repeated conspiracies and intrigues in the ruling families and the court in both the Byzantine and the Ottoman periods, with brothers murdering brothers, and repeated violence. I also read several works of Orhan Pamuk: My Name is Red, Snow, and his memoir of Istanbul, including childhood memories. Pamuk presents Istanbul as a city of huzun, of melancholy, and describes a citizenry who do not feel worthy of the splendid monuments of their past. His powerful novel, Snow, presents a contemporary Turkey in conflict with itself, torn between Islamic militants and secular governing authorities. My Name Is Red is a wonderful evocation of painters at the Ottoman court in its heyday. I was also aware of some of the difficulties of Turkey from news reports.

I greatly appreciated participating in the Rumi Forum Turkey trip in May 2007. A number of years ago, I visited Turkey to present a paper at the World Congress of Philosophy in Istanbul and participated in a seminar in Turkey on “Religion and Politics in Contemporary Turkey.” Although I greatly appreciated these opportunities to visit a fascinating society, neither of these previous trips had given me the opportunity to interact directly with so many segments of Turkish society as the Rumi Forum trip. This trip opened up the world of Turkish culture and society much more extensively since it allowed for interactions with people from very different segments of the society, such as teachers, physicians, journalists, Sufi scholars, and family members. I greatly appreciated the opportunity to visit beautiful cultural sites in places such as Istanbul, Izmir, Ephesus and Cappodocia, but it was the extended interactions with people that made the trip most memorable.

Each life is like a tapestry made through the handiwork of the Divine. No matter the color, creed, faith or station in life, the Master Creator has woven each life with colors, hues and patterns unique to that individual. Into my own tapestry, I could have never expected a new color, a new pattern, a richness, to the piece that changed not only the appearance but the texture as well. My life will never be the same. The change was so subtle and yet so profound. It was my visit to Turkey, the meeting of new friends and the connection with the human family that brought new colors, new threads and new hues to the tapestry of my life.

I was invited to attend a wonderful opportunity from the Rumi Forum. I was part of a small group of US ambassadors and communicators that were traveling together to experience Turkey unlike most people are able to experience from just visiting on their own.

Before actually agreeing to go, I was a little hesitant because I really didn't know what the purpose of going was. Did they need me to give a briefing? Did they want me to speak regarding my experiences? What exactly was the agenda? I wasn't turned off at all at the prospect, but I was curious to know why the Rumi Forum and a group of wonderful Turkish businessmen would fund and organize such a great experience like I am about to describe.

In May of 2006, I packed my bags for a journey of a lifetime... a trip to the exotic and ancient land of Turkey as a guest of the Rumi Forum. I had my reservations about taking this trip. For years I've heard that Americans are not liked in many parts of the Muslim world, so I wondered about how I would be treated there. I knew that Turkey, a predominately Muslim country, is different from other middle east countries. Even though the language, religious beliefs, and cultural values are different, Turkey has been an American ally for decades. That fact along with the warm friendly smiles and generous invitation of the Rumi Forum made my choice to visit Turkey a simple one.

We have spent a wonderful week in Turkey! I’d like to share some of our experiences with you.

We arrived to Istanbul in a beautiful day in May, 2009 with excitement and great expectations. I do not know what are you doing when arriving to new place, I use to smell and try to feel it. The smell and the feeling were good. Istanbul is a city with a busy life and you can feel the rhythm immediately. We had a very nice hotel room. After packing we enjoyed our first meal – it was sensational! We have tried so many different foods. We can not recall all of them. Some of them were different from our usual food some of them nearly the same. It could be because of our common history – Hungary was occupied by the Ottoman Empire for 150 years.

From the moment Lubna and I stepped into our taxi on arrival in Istanbul, we knew that our trip would be the beginning of a memorable adventure. A couple of minutes into our drive to the hotel, Lubna whispered to me that I should ask the driver politely to change the radio station to Turkish music – something all three of us could appreciate. The driver seemed genuinely pleased to oblige and we rocked gently all the way to The Holiday Inn, Istanbul City, while taking in the sights along the way, including the Great Wall, families relaxing by the quay, in parks and community cats and dogs strolling among them. In a blink of any eye we had been transported from Fairfax County, Virginia to another world.