Turkish Random People and Their Random Acts of Kindness
One word that comes to mind if you asked me to describe Turkish people would probably be….Homie. I am not sure if that makes sense but that’s honestly the best way I can describe them. Because when you put aside the questionable Turkish landlords and trust me, they deserve their own trilogy, what’s left is something that I can’t ignore and that is Turkish people are kind. Like, very, very, very kind.
I don’t know if it’s cultural, traditional, or just the rhythm of life here, but their kindness always feels genuine. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been surprised by someone’s random act of goodness on the street, in buses, on ferries literally anywhere.
Here are just a few stories. And believe me, I’ll need a Part 2, 3, maybe even Part 10, because this country never runs out of kindness.
1.“Welcome to Turkish generosity.”
When my mom visited, we planned to take the ferry with my sister. Of course, on that very day, I realized I hadn’t loaded my transportation card. I told them to walk ahead while I fixed it. Some kind lady saw me looking lost and politely showed me where to top up my card. Easy enough.
But when I finally caught up with my mom and sister, they were holding a huge plastic bag full of bottled water.
I was confused.
My mom was confused.
Everyone was confused.
“Where did you get this?” I asked. My mom just pointed at the lady and whispered, “She bought them… for us.” When I looked at the woman, she just smiled and said,
“Welcome to Turkish generosity.”
This was my mom’s first time in Türkiye, and she was shook. Honestly? Same.
2. My second home — the neighbours with zero English and me zero Turkish
Now, let me introduce the neighbourhood where my “landlord from the underworld” came from. He was questionable, but the neighbours? Elite human beings. These people became my second family. They invited me for lunch, dinner, sometimes even breakfast. I would sit with them for hours, watching TV together like we understood every single joke. Here’s the funny part:
I knew zero Turkish, and they knew zero English.
To this day, I genuinely have no idea how we communicated. But somehow, we did.
One memory that still makes me smile is remembering the one time it was fasting season. I was home, minding my business, and my neighbor called me urgently:
“Come! Come! Come!” I rushed over thinking something serious was happening. Nope.
She had cooked dinner for iftar and needed me, the only non-fasting person, to taste the food because she didn’t know if the salt was enough. I was the designated salt inspector. Another time I was chilling with them until 1 a.m., and when I said I needed to go home, they refused.
“No! Sleep here! Sleep!”
They meant it. These people were ready to adopt me on the spot. I will never forget that family. Ever. I hope life blesses them with everything good.
3. The day I got lost in the suburbs (and the angel who found me)
Now this one… cinematic.
I took the wrong bus. I asked someone in my best Turkish, but apparently my Turkish was giving “Google Translate error.” So I hopped on, hoping for the best.
Bad idea.
My phone was dead, I had no charger, and the bus just kept going… and going… and going. Eventually, I realized I was the only one left on the bus. We were deep in the suburbs. It was dark and nothing looked familiar.
When I got off, I swear I didn’t even know what direction to panic in. The bus workers were rude as hell, so they were no help. I just stood there, trying not to lose my mind. Then this lady appeared literally from nowhere and asked:
“Are you lost?” and Yes. Yes, I was extremely lost
She told me there was a minibus that could take me back, but it would take 30 minutes to arrive. Seeing how scared I was, she said:
“I’ll wait with you.” And she did. The whole time. Luckily, a minibus came after about 10 minutes. She explained to the driver where I needed to go, made sure I got on safely, and only then left.
That kind of kindness? You don’t forget it.