Suzanne Ozsalar says: I had met my husband in Turkey on Dec. 28, 1998, when I was on holiday from my Peace Corps service in Bulgaria



Suzanne Ozsalar says: I had met my husband in Turkey on Dec. 28, 1998, when I was on holiday from my Peace Corps service in Bulgaria

More unusual courtships: Take 2

[Excerpt]

My husband and I courted for two and a half years before we married. However, during those years, we corresponded only by phone, letters, and e-mails. I had met my husband in Turkey on Dec. 28, 1998, when I was on holiday from my Peace Corps service in Bulgaria. I had six months left before I returned home, so I was just looking for some relaxing time on the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts of Turkey. I was traveling with friends who lived in Turkey. We were to visit Alanya for a couple of days to meet the friend of one of my traveling companions. I met my husband, Osman, through that friend as they worked together in the hotel at which we stayed. We started talking and found it was difficult to separate. However two days later, my traveling companions and I left to finish our holiday, and I soon returned to Bulgaria. Within weeks, Osman called. That would be the beginning of weekly calls for two months. He also began writing me. Eventually, he had me convinced to visit him again in Turkey during my April break. In the meantime, he wanted to visit me in Bulgaria. Unfortunately, that would not be as on March 1, 1999, Osman had to report to basic training for the beginning of an 18-month mandatory military service.
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He still managed to call for a few minutes every week, and we still wrote each other until the end of May. He had moved to his regular site in eastern Turkey to fight Kurdish terrorists. He could not call, and I never got his last letter with his new address. On July 2, 1999, I flew home after serving two years in the Peace Corps. For four and a half months, I knew nothing about Osman: where he was, what he was doing, if he was alive. Finally, around Thanksgiving, I received a letter from him. He had been so desperate to find me that he finally convinced himself to use the address I had given him in May. He didn’t trust his English, but finding me was more important by then. Naturally, I wrote him back; and again that started a series of letters and phone calls. When he finally finished his service in July 2000, we added e-mailing to our repertoire. We didn’t know if we wanted to marry. Obviously, we hadn’t spent a lot of time together to know if we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. I had just started a new job, so going to Turkey wasn’t possible for me at that time. I sent Osman an invitation to visit me here; however, he was denied a tourist visa at the end of January. The U.S. Embassy didn’t feel there was enough for Osman in Turkey for him to return. Two days after he found out, we spent 90 minutes on the phone trying to figure out what we wanted to do. One of the first things he said to me was that he wanted his all with me. Within minutes, we had decided that I would fly to Turkey in August and we would marry. In August, I flew to Turkey; and within three weeks, we were married (that would be another story in itself). On September 10, 2001, I flew home by myself not knowing when my husband of three weeks would join me. The terrorist attacks the next day had me convinced I would never see Osman again. For us, though, Sept. 11 had a silver lining. Due to the tragedy on U.S. soil, Osman’s visa application went through faster than it would have because he had family here. He received his visa within two months, not the four to six months we were told to expect. Osman arrived in the United States on Nov. 7, 2001; and we haven’t been apart for longer than a week since.
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Suzanne Ozsalar
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Muscatine, Iowa

When this story was posted in February 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state.

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WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service.

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Read the stories and leave your comments.

By osman ozsalar (mpw-0-074.machlink.com - 66.207.0.74) on Thursday, April 20, 2006 - 7:42 pm: Edit Post

And it was 1 of the biggest mistakes i have ever done in my life.