The next three months went by in a flash. Janet found that Eti had not been joking. She was able to put $150,000 of her own into the venture, by using her house as surety for a loan, but was overwhelmed when Christian organisations came onboard. Even donations of $5 and $20, were given by individuals. Major news and television stations commented on the project, albeit with a cynical bias. Offers of help also poured in from individuals and companies with skills from computing and campfire lighting to helicopter pilots.
Predictably, the evolutionists got onto the bandwagon and countered the whole project with an advertising campaign of their own. It quickly became clear that the evolutionist's sources of finance heavily outweighed Eti and Janet's. Even buses carried advertising stating that only cabbages would have grown in any Garden of Eden. Scientists weighed in on both sides, but the news media favoured the evolutionists. With so much pressure against them, a number of organisations withdrew their support. Some of those were Christian ones, which particularly hurt Eti.
In the end, Eti and Janet were left with some contacts in Turkey, a website, a monthly column in an independent Christian monthly newspaper, a couple of satellite telephones, a couple of cameras and quite a bit of cash.
They had attempted to get detailed maps of the area they were going to in Turkey but they were hard to come by. Even the Turkish Embassy in Wellington suggested they should contact the New Zealand Embassy in Ankara for assistance. Turning to modern technology, they went to Google Earth to check out the areas as best they could. The two rivers they thought the most likely were, of course, the Euphrates and the Tigris. The sources for both rivers were in the Eastern Turkey area known as Eastern Anatolia. The Bible suggested that Eden, and the Garden of Eden, could have been in different locations. The Bible said that the rivers came out of Eden to water the garden and then became four different rivers. Janet and Eti decided to work from the supposition that Eden would be the headwaters of the rivers, and that where that river became four rivers would be the site of the Garden of Eden. They discovered that the Euphrates River actually formed from two other rivers: the Karasu and the Marat. The Marat headwaters were in the vicinity of Mt Ararat, north of Lake Van, and the Karasu headwaters from the plains around Erzurum. They joined to form the Euphrates River near Keban, although, they discovered, a lake behind the giant dam at Keban drowned the actual physical junction. Many tributaries joined the Karasu on its way to the junction with the Marat.
After some discussion, Janet and Eti decided that they would first check the sources of both the Marat and Karasu with the Karasu being first. They wanted to travel as light as possible so arranged for the bulk of their equipment to go ahead to Ankara, for storage by a Christian contact. It was their intention to fly to Elazig in Turkey, via Istanbul, and then to go to nearby Keban, the site of the dam, and work their way from there.
Since Janet and Eti had joined forces, she had found that he had a tremendous Church support group. Although based in Wellington, the Church that Eti attended swung their support in behind him, and Janet as well. That support and enthusiasm had proved invaluable.
At the airport to see them off were large numbers of those support groups with flags and placards. As had become the norm, there was an opposing group. Among them, Janet saw Joe Palmer. She walked up to him.
"Hullo Joe," she greeted him with a smile. "Nice of you to come to see me off, after all I am going to try and make you eat your words."
"Try is the right word Janet. I see you have got your Neanderthal supporters."
"Don't be so silly Joe. Those sorts of comments are uncalled for and should be beneath you."
Joe had the decency to blush. "I am sorry Janet, yes they are. I wish you luck."