The town of Midyat is dead. All businesses are closed after 7:30 in the evening except shops selling baklavas and cakes, and certain dreary looking grocery shops with miserable looking vegetables. Few people walk on the streets. One lone kebap stand at a street corner has two customers. The man rolls up bits of grilled meat in a piece of bread and the boy takes off down an alley. We follow him and come upon an internet cafe.
That’s what we need—Email. Facebook. Google–life’s necessities.
Inside the smoke-filled room, men and boys sit in small cubicles barking at each other, drinking tea, playing video games. A large sign on the wall with red letters and a big cross over a cigarette. No smoking…something something 1000 lira fine, something something…5000 lira fine. Oh the joy of breaking the law that nobody believes in!
This is the hub in a conservative Turkish town. This is nightlife for the youths, to connect with the rest of the world.
I sit down in a cubicle and start typing.
