Saturday, November 8, 2014

#ibmcsc #turkey final recommendations coming together

A birthday to remember

Birthday lunch near Galata Tower
What an action-packed Friday! We reviewed our recommendations with Ebru, Yasemin, Deniz, and İpek on Friday so now we’re cleaning up our final deliverables. But it wasn’t all work – we celebrated team member, Frank’s birthday a day early with cake after a great lunch with the TÜSİAD team near the Galata Tower. It was so very thoughtful of them.

Later in the early evening we met Yasemin for a boat ride on the Bosphorus to Ortaköy. Seeing the skyline at night with the mosques and the Bosphorus Bridge all lit up is quite magical. Many thanks to Yasemin for suggesting it and accompanying us. The Ortaköy Mosque was built in the 18th century and the current mosque erected in its place, was ordered by the Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid and built between 1854 and 1856. Its architects were Armenian father and son Garabet Amira Balyan and Nigoğayos Balyan (who also designed the nearby Dolmabahçe Palace and the Dolmabahçe Mosque that we saw last week), designed it in the Neo-Baroque style. We met Yasemin’s very hospitable husband who is now a naval officer teaching at the naval academy. During his 13 years of service at sea he travelled to 39 countries – but never to Canada or the U.S. I see a possible vacation to New York and Toronto in the near future for someone!
Ortaköy Mosque
On the Bosphorus with Yasemin
After the boat ride, we met the team from the Centre for Social Innovation along with some of their colleagues to share our CSC experience and to hear a little about their work at the Centre. It seems to be a lot like our own Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. In fact, Suat Ozcagdas, the executive director, said that he had read about it before they initiated the Centre in Istanbul. They were curious about our impressions of Turkey.
After that we had a birthday celebration for both Frank and Matt who's birthday is November 9! Thanks to Prajyot, Merve, Seda and Ceyhun for all the preparations!

Ortaköy Mosque & Bosphorus Bridge
The clock is ticking too fast
Just one week left and so much to do. We’re preparing our final deliverables to present to the TÜSİAD team and board members on Thursday. Time has passed so quickly. While I miss my family, I’ll also miss working on such an important project – one of national significance. We’re leaving our roadmap and recommendations in the capable hands of the TÜSİAD team and we’re confident they will carry it forward.

Working on our deliverables the rest of the weekend so no exciting excursions or meetings for me til Monday!

More anon…
Quince dessert
Istiklal Tram at night
Galata Tower at night
Ortaköy Mosque

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