Folder 15

1959 Oct 01, 4 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Is freezing in her home; Turks say you can drive 60 mph on the roads, “Well in the first place I.C.A. cars are not to exceed 50 and in the second place the roads are so rough I doubt you could make more and live but they know all the answers for everything;” has decided if the temperature reaches below the required, she’s going to report it; “little dumb counterpart” wants to go on the road but has nothing prepared for it; worked with C.A.R.E. and was actually impressed with the two men she worked with; talks about discovering another alcoholic among the wives, “I keep wondering if foreign service promotes alcoholism or whether alcoholics seek foreign service or whether I am in a position to know about the alcoholic in a normally infested society.”
1959 Oct 07, 5 p. w/env. Letter to Brother While in Istanbul, went to the Hilton to visit with Dr. Mr. McMahan who was a professor at Columbia in Government and his wife who is a Vassar in Economics; contacted American educators whilst in Istanbul; also contacted: Child Development PhD, her “smart counterpart in education”, and a glass factory that would help her work on baby bottles; is trying to get clearance on a Nutrition Project that she is working on with an American Pediatrician; the Turks have dug a hole for a light pole in the middle of the drive way and the neighbors are trying to gather to let the workers know they don’t want it there”
1959 Oct 12, 4 p. w/env. Letter to Folks started Friday Talks a bit about her latest expenses, has bought items to keep her warm when the coal is low in the apartment; has decided to quite entertaining Turkish folks for awhile and is moving on to entertaining Americans; describes the plants around her house;
1959 Oct 12, 3 p. w/env. Letter to Folks started Monday Went to get a travel advance for going on the road; went to the Military Auditorium to meet the new director, Mr. VanDyke, “I was not impressed;” is getting supplies for her trip, “I dread the trip because of the cold hog pens we will sleep in;” got a letter from a recreation friend who is sending her twenty records as a thank you; at the office, a co-worker’s 17 year old son had died from a heart attack playing basketball, everyone is upset. Newspaper clipping Provincial Department of Agriculture news letter
1959 Oct 13, 6 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Electricity keeps going on and off and making things difficult for her to pack before she left; had a difficult time traveling due to the rainy season; complains about the cleaning habits “They sit by the mosque and scrub their feet before praying but it would never occur to them to scrub their faces;” claims that even the wealthy folk were filthy; describes a conversation she had with her “smart counterpart” and considers the gal one of Turkey’s great women; discusses a bit about the Information man who had lost his 17 year old son to a heart attack; “One of the technicians, I meet last night at a State School, and I both think alike on Foreign Aid and the situation here. He is going back to Washington and tell a similar story to mine.”
1959 Oct 24, 5 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Had to take one of the other technicians to the hospital, his wife’s lungs had collapsed and she needed to be flown out to a hospital in Germany; folk keep stealing oil from her car so she finally had her oils changed and got caps with locks for her tank; thinks her aunt Orpha might be irritated at Mary because she did not visit for home leave; “They now have a layer of tar on the road but the fragile old gas pip stile lays across my front door and porch and the water pipe of the Presidents line across the edge of my yard and a deep steep ditch between the house and road;” found out she’s eligible to go on another morale trip.”
1959 Oct 31, 5 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Has been entertaining the I.F.Y.E.S. members; has been invited to stay over at Rachel Markinell who Mary used to live with and is currently living Athens, Greece; is getting stuff done around the house during a Turkish holiday; her peanut butter deal is developing; is debating to buy some furs in Athens; is reading “The New Turks” by Eleanor Bisbee.