So this time around I managed to beat the snow storms. Overall the trip was more relaxed without the near-crash landing and black ice laden curves on the 12,000 foot Tendurek pass. My only stress was more vigilant army than usual, owing to recent violence all over Kurdistan.

How about those chickens? I knew you would ask….

Inside the egg farm and out. Aren’t those eggs appetizing? And the chickens look happy enough….

Photographs by Brookelyn Fitts - http://brookelynphotography.com )

BBC NEWS | Europe | Two die in Turkey Kurdish clashes BBC NEWS | Europe | Two die in Turkey Kurdish clashes

I’m writing from Van, “The Pearl of the East,” some 90 miles from the Iranian frontier. This is the return leg of a journey to open the egg farm at Mt Ararat, which will provide support for this poor region’s school girls.

Winter arrived with us – our plane was the last to make a successful landing in an abruptly deteriorating snowstorm. The next flight begged off just 15 minutes later. In 1994, under similar circumstances this same flight from Istanbul crashed into the side of a mountain here. Everyone on our flight must have been thinking of it. Hearing the announcement that the next pilot decided not to make the attempt caused us to collect our baggage in silence.

It was a tense landing, but the drive up to Mt Ararat the next day provided no relief. The snowstorm had worsened overnight and our drive over the 12,000 foot Tendurek Pass was made with white knuckles and held breath. The narrow road was dotted with fresh wrecks, including a truck that dangled over the deep chasm beyond the shoulder. Nonetheless, we gratefully made it through to Dogubayazit for the next day’s grand opening.

By then the weather had cleared, giving us sunny skies and icy temperatures. The local girl’s came out and danced, giving their blessing to the egg factory. Most of the local Kurdish leaders were on hand too, along with the Mayor and a cadre of journalists.

The factory is well-equipped, with a modern caging and egg gathering system. All but the packing is automatic. We are starting off with 15,000 chickens, all of which looked clean and healthy. They will provide an income that has the potential to change the lives of every girl in this community of 120,000 people. Funded by profits from the egg farm, the outreach program will provide school fees and costs, provide career counseling, and tuition and tutoring for university entrance tests. Our goal is for 40% of the school-age population to benefit from the farm’s profits annually.

Our return journey across the pass was no more comfortable than the drive up. Our first driver refused to take us, and our second regretted doing so. We survived, again witness to numerous casualties, this time from the densest fog I’ve ever encountered, and the dreaded invisible “black ice” on the road. Even so, to see the hope and joy in the eyes of these Mt Ararat girls made the trip every bit worth the effort and danger.

The factory… 

Buying smuggled - and cheap - Iranian gas for the car…. (Shhhhh!)

It’s their egg farm… 

Kutbi speaking for LMD…

Dedication with thanks to Bill and Jane Johnson family of the Noreen Charitable Trust, which funded the construction.
Zana tells us about herself…

Zana and the girls dedicate the egg farm…

TAVEK owner explains the cage system…

BBC NEWS | Europe | Kurdish rally dispersed in Turkey

A group of people were also kidnapped here last week by the PKK.

I recently traveled  to Eastern Bayazit or ’Dogubayazit,’ a town so far east in Turkey that it is closer to Tehran than Istanbul. This little corner of the world was the site of a bad case of bird-flu last year. 

Then I was here to buy cattle to replace the birds, but now eggs bring me to what has become a chicken-free zone. Free-range birds are banned to prevent the spread of bird-flu.

You guessed it, we are building a poultry egg farm, which will provide the area’s eggs, employment for the neediest women and school support for the girls who live here and in the 86 villages on this side of Mt Ararat. The ladies are excited!

But not everyone is thrilled: On my second night we answered the phone to hear an anonymous voice say simply, “You have gone too far. You will die.” 

(photographs by Brookelyn Fitts - http://brookelynphotography.com )

Me and colleague Mehmet at the building site. Nice view of Ararat.

Big building, big plans.

Profit sharer…

On a lighter note: Our time in Istanbul featured a visit to my old home, the lovely island of Buyukada. From the mother of all coincidences department - the Fort Worth-based Van Cliburn Foundation’s Sevan Melikyan and Maria Guralnick were on the island too! This is also Sevan’s home and they happened to be visiting the same week. I met the originally in Fort Worth, TX, where I was a competitor in an amateur piano competition. Have a look at YouTube to see what LMD’s International Director does in his spare time.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hGuwJ6jAKk

This from Gulf War 1. I got there right before the US Army. People were mad at us — seems they were promised a lot of help if they rebelled against Saddam.

They didn’t get what they asked for, but our local group started an aid program.

Below is from a few years earlier. I was called to go see “what was going on” in Halapce.

What we found was thousands of people running for their lives from Saddam’s “gassing of his own people.” Afterwards, there was no interest in Washington.

Saddam was our guy back then - Iran’s enemy.

He wasn’t gassing anybody, they said.