Wilco sabırsız

Ununderstandable really, that I never watched ‘Wilco’s bus’ before. Wilco’s bus (in Turkish: Wilco’nun karavanı) is a programme on Iz TV made by Wilco van Herpen, a Dutchman who has been living in Turkey since 1999. With his bus he travels around Turkey and shows Turks their own country through his Dutch eyes.

Wonderful TV, especially when you compare it with the average Turkish travel programme that might show (once again!) an Atatürk house in some city or other, or a mosque. Wilco bikes around in flat cities, does a course in traditional painting, visits local clubs, ordinary people, religious places, name it and Wilco does it. And where Turkish presenters have a tendency to give a history lesson in a school-room tone, Wilco is natural, happy, and genuinely interested and eager to learn people’s stories. Or, as the programme’s narrator says all the time when Wilco is on his way to another place or another person: Wilco sabırsız!, meaning: Wilco just can’t wait!

Besides all this, I have to thank Wilco for his fluent though calm and uncomplicated Turkish. I understand practically everything he says, which also makes it easier for me to follow the Turks speaking in his programme. So it’s fun to watch and good for my Turkish too. Tomorrow niht Wilco is on again. Fréderike sabırsız!