The Value of Clean

In my three years of living in Turkey I've worked intentionally to not stereotype Turkish people and culture.  No one likes being put into a box though there are some truths, some tendencies to every people and culture.  We all know that stereotypes  that are true of a group are not true of every individual.  I don't like stereotyping but at the same time part of learning about a different culture is the process of engaging and observing and making conclusions as to what is valued and important to them as compared to you.  I should say that this process is always interesting because not only have I learned about Turkish culture, I've learned even more about my own culture and the many ways growing up in America has affected my ways of thinking in so many little and big ways.  Anthropology is so interesting.  

With all this said I wanted to share a bit about one of my observations on Turkish culture.  It is a positive stereotype and I don't have a problem sharing positive stereotypes.  Turkish women keep a very clean home.  House cleaning is taken very seriously.  I see it portrayed in a hundred different ways:  taking your shoes off before entering a home, the constant rug shaking out the windows, the routine airing out of pillows and comforters, the large variety of cleaning products in the stores and the buying of them in bulk when on sale,  the vigorous window cleaning through every season, the way it is brought up in conversation among women, the sheets that are in some homes draped over the upholstery to keep off the dust, and many more.  Now this doesn't mean that homes are always spotless and tidy.  Living means messes and a messy home would not in any way deter a Turkish woman from warmly welcoming someone into their home.  But nonetheless, the homemaker here works to clean, clean, clean. 

In the three years I've lived here I've danced around how I fit into this.  At first I panicked to keep up with my neighbors (one who told me she cleaned her bathroom every day), then I think I gave up and didn't wash my windows all fall and winter.  Now, I observe, I've taken on the war on dust with as much vigor as the best of the best, but other things I've just taken at my own pace and ability.  I've leveled out.  

I have observed lately that Sonora, whether on her own or as a result of the cleanliness value here, has taken to love cleaning.  She does it rather interestingly though.  She can often be caught with pieces of wet toilet paper, diligently trying to work a shine into anything from furniture to books.  Or, after her daddy gave her his old toothbrush for cleaning, she can be found with a pair of shoes in the sink, scrubbing the color back into them.  I'm forever finding random wet washcloths laying forgotten in a spot that she aspired to clean but abandoned to something else in a moment of new inspiration.  We'll see if it sticks but right now making things shine is a frequent entertainment of hers.