...Linda Kirchner. I teach third grade at a Catholic school in Annapolis Maryland. This experience has been thoroughly enjoyable for me from start to finish. It started out with an email from of my students’ parents inviting me to consider this trip, and after pursuing it I finally ended up at a dinner and met Ali for the first time after corresponding emails. I just knew after I met him: his warmth that this was going to be a wonderful experience, and it certainly has, so thank you.

My name is Jessica Scott. I am English as a Second Language teacher at a small university in Fairfax, Virginia. I also am a phonetic editor for a computer company, and I also teach English through two voluntary organizations in Virginia, umm, so teaching English is my passion. My husband and I, our goal is to go to overseas one day; and he studies conflict resolution; I teach English, so we hope to help the people in the future. When I came on this trip, I came with an open mind. I didn’t know what to expect. I have a lot of Turkish students who gave me lots of recommendations and things to see, names of foods to try, umm, they told me all the baklava here definitely would be better than what is in America. Now I can go home and tell them that I agree.

Hello, my name is Angie Gates. I am from New Orleans, Louisiana, but I currently live in Washington, DC. I think one of the things I’ve truly learned, through not only this trip, this overall journey, is that life is so unpredictable. I had no idea seven or eight months ago when I first became familiar with the Turkish culture, the Whirling Dervishes that ultimately that one meeting would have me end up in Turkey. I am the manager of the Warren Theater in Washington DC which is an entertainment venue, and we hosted the Whirling Dervishes and that was my first time even experiencing anything specifically related to Turkey. Shortly after that was Ramadan, and although I am Catholic, I have been practicing Ramadan for four years. So during that time I was able to have several iftar dinners with Turkish families and we talked about Turkey, and over the course of conversations they would say hey if you ever get an opportunity to go to Turkey, would you go?

… George Fidas and I have big shoes to fill, following my wife. I will repeat it again. I am currently a professor of International European Affairs at George Washington University. I have followed Turkey for many decades now, professionally within the government, at some sensitive positions. Now I teach a course on Mediterranean Issues among other areas. We cover Turkey specifically for a couple of segments. Couple weeks ago I took my students to Turkish Embassy, and I received a briefing there. So I like to come this part of the world as frequently as possible to increase my knowledge and broaden it. I see this trip as part of that. I gained many new insights in addition to the old warm generosity and hospitality. Beyond that fine tuning my knowledge about Turkey and its people and its political system, umm, I think Turkey has really found the secret of avoiding the clash of civilizations between the Christian and the Islamic World.

I am Lia Fidas and I am just overwhelmed with this trip. I have had just a wonderful time. I have read a lot about your history; and now to see some of these wonderful sites in person has been enormously impressive. I must tell you that I am a little bit like Turkey: We have some similarities here. I transformed myself over my career four five times. I began my career as an economist, then an agricultural economist, and then international relations officer, and on and on. Now I retired from the government and I am working in a private US corporation. But like Turkey, I followed Turkey in the 1970s when Turkey was; there was a problem with too many poppies. The United States Department of Agriculture was assisting; my colleagues were assisting the Government of Turkey in transforming itself.

… what I would like to say is: my thoughts when coming to Turkey was to see what this land was all about, and what I have learnt after one short week is a land of love, and umm, it is just amazing to me. If we could just for some reason the world could find that out, it will just be an amazing feed. It is just, I don’t know, you know, we can just; we talked about that web, that linear web, that we could just put that trickle into the pond and just let it spread out. If we could spread that out across the world, it would be a wonderful thing. That land of love, and if the world could see it what a wonderful place it would be, what a nice world we could have. That’s what I have got from the week. That’s what I’ve learnt.

… I just really feel deep debt of gratitude. I am willing to say something new and different than what everyone else has said but there isn’t much a different way that I can say it. But you know I feel real debt of gratitude for the time people take it, the hospitality, the warmth, umm, and I have been very very impressed with the sacrifice that all of you have made to make this trip special. I mean I just really feel a debt of gratitude, and it’s been a lot of deep impressions; I’ve been very touched by the interactions with each of you. That’s been really wonderful. I am just thankful that I met this team, and I know that it will continue to impact my world and ... thank you!

… certainly this is going well beyond the normal trip. I had expectations and they have been exceeded. I was especially impressed with the school and the hospital, and those two places blew my mind. It is just so positive work: People looking to uplift and improve conditions, especially for those that have less. So I again corroborate the (Gulen) movement and hope it continues to move forward.