Folder 3

1960 Mar 01, 3 p. w/env. Letter to Brother Got a request from the Ministry to do a series of lectures; discusses a Rotary tape; “I had quite a conversation with an outstanding Turk I picked up on the street. He is in the Government Meat Processing business;” had a meeting with C.A.R.E. but doesn’t look forward to it, “I don’t believe in their philosophy.”
1960 Mar 07, 4 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Gas went off and her flash heater was left dispensing gas, luckily it was caught in time, “Think I’m going to have to keep that thing turned off if I want to live;” “We had a knock down drag out meeting today,” little counterpart had accused Mary of helping the 4H people get some equipment and apparently it caused a bit of a stir, “She gave me to understand they didn’t want an educational program, they just wanted EQUIPMENT;” can’t get approval for a hard working Home Ec. worker who speaks English to go to the U.S. because she’s convinced the Ministry would rather a gal who is “too stupid to come in out of the rain” because she won’t embarrass the ministry by coming back and over-working; is reading the book “Dynamite in the Middle East”; it’s a fasting month for Turkey and Mary describes her problems with it; is going to try to release the story of results from the I.C.A. annual reports to the newspapers but is afraid of going to jail since the news is so sensitive about government issues.
1960 Mar 16, 3 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Is frustrated at work since she seems to feel she does loads of work for everyone else but nothing is done for her; is packing up to take a trip to Izmir; heard that a Child Development Specialist is to be in Ankara next school year; is trying to get the village people to start eating on tables instead of eating from the floor; “dumb little counterpart” is asking Mary for a scholarship to get her masters back in the US, “I really don’t think she could get a bachelor’s. I really don’t think she is basically stupid, but she has never learned to think or work.”
1960 Mar 22, 3 p. w/env. Letter to Folks V.I.P. from Washington D.C. and a director from the Philippines came in; spent a day interviewing teachers at the school; had kind of a mess as far as scheduling goes; has been taking the V.I.P to silver and copper shops; the Mission Director raised to Minister rank; is trying to show her photos to some women of power in I.C.A.
1960 Mar 25, 3 p. w/env. Letter to Brother Gave a talk to the Director of the Mission and all the Department Heads with a teacher at Izmir; had shown her slides to about fifty people; will speak again and show slides at the local hospital; cannot show the picture to the Ministry officials because they are not interested, “This am someone said, ‘I hear all you Ag. people are being liquidated because the Ministry is not interested.’ The Minister of Agriculture refused to see any Americans.”
1960 Mar 30, 5 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Will be donating Christmas cards to the schools for village girls, “Their dorms look like prisons, gray floors, gray walls, gray beds and gray blankets;” is surprised her folks have decided to come to Europe; was shocked because the I.C.A. head of Education left early because he said “he had to be back as he had an office. He looked shocked when I said well I did too. He said he didn’t know. How in heavens name did he ever think I worked. I was furious. I’ll bet I’ve done more for education in Turkey than he will ever do;”
1960 Mar 31, 1 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Has three buyers on her car but cannot decide if she wants to sell it; “There are more problems in this country than a dog has fleas;” has two new I.C.A. neighbors.
1960 Mar, 22 p. w/env. Copy of the first annual Home Economics Extension report First ever compiled in Turkey; written by Mary Border