Folder 5

1957 Aug 05, 5 p. plus 4 p. of commentary letters w/env. Letter to Folks Is in Izmir and trying to find a church to attend; worked all day with Helen McCane, the American who runs the Institution in Turkey; Reviewing candidates for next year’s institution opening in October; having a hard time teaching organization because the people can’t grasp working with groups; “It took an act of God to get paper and pencils for the examination” and she finally stole some from her institution just to have the examinations done; complains about the people in power in Washington D.C.
1957 Aug 08, 7 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Has moved to a different location; not sure when she can get her car and household goods to the new place; the maid is driving her crazy as she does everything wrong and never asks if she doesn’t know how to do something; a young English speaking girl asked if she could have a maid job but is asking for more pay than can be afforded; feeling bad for counterpart who doesn’t get her month vacation; describes demonstrations a bit
1957 Aug 14, 8 p. w/env. Enclosed letter from Effie Her church has burned down and told Mary that she got her a plate with a picture of the old church on it; Firemen to have an ox roast; Mrs. Zeltman is in a place in Turkey and thought Mary might run into her
Letter to Folks Is in Izmir for the home economics fair and had a choice between a room with no windows but a shower, or the public hotel; “I’d rather suffocate than go in the stinkin’ public john. This room is filthy enough. I’m not going to take a spit bath if I can get a shower.”; At the fair, the American men in charge are a high powered lot, no American home economist planned the foods end, and the textile end is terrific; handling money is difficult in Turkey and describes how you need three purses to do it; story about a man with nothing in Turkey but his wife insists on going on to see her grandchild in India; The pres of the union called and thought he could borrow millions of I.C.A. Trust money to build a bigger Union and wanted her group to quickly plan the building for the Home Ec. Staff; the building seems lucrative; back in Ankara got a note saying her personal effects were finally in; Now looking for a new maid; currently her new apartment is being painted and she met some of the neighbors; the Minister of Agriculture occupies the house below her new apartment which will be walking distance to places such as the market
1957 Aug 21, 4 p. w/env. Enclosed newspaper clippings “Grandpa’s Diary” and “25 years ago” The Inter-Country Gazette, “First Lutheran Church Choses Site for New Church” Letter to Folks Describes how frustrating the I.C.A. travel department in Washington can be; is trying to find a maid but its difficult, maids cannot be seen on the streets and the extension women cannot “ride bicycles or horses and they must have a car with a driver” [page missing?]; was going to go to the Holy Land for a vacation but was called to another meeting in a letter from Washington
1957 Aug 22, 3 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Had to pay for her counterpart to get to the short course in Izmir; Will be moving away from Olive in the evening and Olive seems a bit saddened by it, Mary however, says “I like her but I’m just not going to wait on anyone hand and foot. I just can’t take care of myself let alone a sick and lazy woman…She is a pretty girl and very nice but dumb.”; Is getting irritated that the girls at the institution just shake dishes under cold water instead of washing them
1957 Aug 25, 7 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Has been moving furniture and trying to keep the movers from breaking and scratching items, some even have picked up cartons upside down and dumped contents; one maid wanted a raise, a pair of shoes, bus fare, and food but she couldn’t do anything and left dirty rags in the middle of the floor; jokes about turning the Turkish bathroom into a cupboard space; had bedbugs that were brought in by the movers; never had the opportunity to use her transformer so she might sell it after all the trouble it took to receive it
1957 Aug 27, 6 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Is having breakfast with the King of Afghanistan Sept. 6 and dean of Agean University asked Mary’s Institution to serve a breakfast for 30; Mary is running a short course and the faculty is serving the food; finally got things fixed up so she can have a hot bath; had coffee with an artist who had been painting work to sell in Ankara; is still unpacking her things into her new apartment and is trying to sell her useless transformer
1957 Aug 28, 1 p. newspaper clipping w/env.
1957 Aug 27, “Once-Despised Beast of Burden Is in Demand throughout West” The Denver Post, (Denver, CO; s.n.).
1957 Sep 15, 7 p. w/env Letter to Folks The short course went really well in Izmir even though the hotel she booked said they were full; she’s getting irritated at her counterpart for wasting working time; complains that the people she works with are lazy and incompetent; Worked with a Turkish poultryman who studied in the US on a poultry dressing and cooking demonstration, but “he absolutely knows less than nothing”; she wants to write about the poultry man to a publication when she gets out of foreign service; there was flash flooding in Ankara while she was away and has a big mess to fix; barnacles form on her best kettles if she leaves it full of water; the Asian Flu has been going around and hit her interpreter; Her counterpart won’t interpret because her status is too high; Did not serve breakfast to the King of Afghanistan but was a special guest for lunch and was able to meet the king through an interpreter as well as the President of Turkey; she talks about how Turkish people know to use hot suds when washing dishes but never practice it; “If I ever see a Turk washing a dish in hot suds I’ll know we have one of the world’s problems licked--namely that they not only know something- they will do it.”