One of my girlfriends, Branka, had a Turkish boyfriend. At the time I did not know anything about Turkey. In Brazil they call the Turks “gringos” and all I knew about Muslims was that they are violent. Such stereotypes… I didn’t really know anyone from Turkey at the time…

Branka invited me to a party at her apartment. She said she will cook a Portuguese meal. She was a good cook, so I came for the meal. I did not expect to find love…

Ayhan was also invited to this party. Another friend of mine, Catherina, talked with him, they were laughing and it looked like they were having a good time. I was surprised that towards the end of the evening Ayhan came to me and asked for my telephone number. At the time I already had two boyfriends… I wasn’t ready to go into another relationship. It was too complicated to explain, and I was tired, so I gave him a wrong number, and expected I would never hear from him again…

A couple of days after the party, my phone rang. When I answered the call Ayhan was on the line, asking me if I want to meet with him. I was utterly surprised, but didn’t want to admit that I gave him the wrong number. During our first conversation I found out that when he couldn’t reach me, he called Branka to double check if he got the right number. It didn’t occur to him that I did it on purpose… he thought it was an honest mistake, and the rest, as they say, is history…

Ayhan was really serious about our relationship. He kept calling, and kept inviting me to go out with him. Originally, I wasn’t ready for another relationship, but he persisted, and finally I agreed to meet him and we went out. We spoke English, and got to know each other better… the relationship developed and got more serious. I fell in love with him.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon