Goer blogs

Battling Through

By DougandEllen on December 9, 2013 Track: Sports Region: Middle East

There is so much to learn from weak moments such as these: breaking your tooth in celebration, seeing your wife almost get hit by a car, feeling out of control, feeling offended by teammates, having to apologize for being offensive, etc.  Feeling out of control through being away from “home” commonly brings feelings of helplessness.  But everywhere I go while I'm alive is foreign territory – Heaven is my home.  In Turkey “yabancı” means “foreigner”.  And it’s very clear that I’m a yabancı.  As I’m a foreigner here, I’m being exposed to new things.  Some things bring on feelings of adventure... Read more

At Home

By DougandEllen on November 27, 2013 Track: Sports Region: Middle East

I can understand why people wished me away with "have a good trip", but it didn't quite do justice for what I was about to do. I am not on a trip and the reality has set in, I miss the value of speed and quality service that I was familiar with in the US. The other day I was feeling really upset with Turkish culture. I broke my tooth after I got a little too excited from a big play, hugged a football player, and ran into his shoulder pad. I was filled with a feeling of frustration in the lack of reliability that everyone mentions here.  Around here when plans aren't completed, a... Read more

Sink or Swim

By DougandEllen on October 24, 2013 Track: Sports Region: Middle East

I'll start with saying that I've been here with my wife for almost two months and am just now doing my first blog.  I wrote this blog entry in MS Word a couple weeks after arriving here, and after facing many hurdles in receiving internet I am finally posting it.  I will talk about the internet debacle I've been facing later.  For now we'll focus on Football, American Football, and how great it was making me feel about a month ago.  Today (a month ago) I’m feeling a satisfying sense of excitement after having finished my first football practice as a running back coach.  I started going to... Read more