Village Cherry Festival

On Sunday a new friend of Ted's (Murat) invited us to his village festival. His village is about 2 hours from our home, right in the middle of the mountains. At 7am our family and Murat's - his wife, daughter, and mother - piled into our car and headed to the festival. Stop for a minute and see what comes to mind when you think of a festival. Okay, it wasn't like that. Sadly, there was no one there selling sweet corn or cotton candy. The festival started with a presentation by men I assume were village politicians. For the most part the men and women sat separately. After the presentation the women and children were ushered into an open field where we ate rice and meat. After the men ate we picked cherries and did a little sightseeing in the mountains. We enjoyed our time with these new friends and were grateful to be able to spend the day with them.