Visiting Kayseri Provincial Directorate of Youth Services and Sports

Today we were at the Youth Services and Sports center, in Kayseri. The director received us with great enthusiasm, and invited us for a short conversation about our cultural differences and personal beliefs about religion. I think this is the most common discussion topic, especially with foreigners, and especially during Ramadan.

We expressed out interest for the activities they are holding there and the youth center director, Mr. Murat Eskici, was very kind and invited us to take part in some activities, in return for conversing and interviewing (in English) the athletes from the center.

After leaving Mr. Murat Eskici’s office, the youth leader of the Youth Center, Syed Burhanuddin, gave us a tour of the center. Because it’s summertime, most of the young people that usually go there to take science courses or ebru painting lessons, are on holiday. So the center was full of children around ten years old, who were there to learn to read the Koran – The Quran literally meaning “the recitation” (also romanized Qurʾan or Koran) is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God (Arabic: الله‎, Allah).

Some pictures from the classes:

Here is one of the teachers, reading the Quran:

There were some children playing in the center’s yard: