Folder 9

1957 Dec 01, 4 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Switching churches since she cannot take communion from a Lutheran; I.C.A. mechanics wrecked her oven; maid stole her butter while she was out; put up some Christmas decorations; Kazim the poultry man said he had planned a series of poultry meetings at which she was to cook the poultry; says there’s nothing much at the market and that’s why there is so much stealing, and that the political situation is “very very bad”
1957 Dec 02, 2 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Hurt her back cleaning the kitchen and bathroom; A New York reporter had written an article on the Kansas State Student Life and it was less than appealing to the C.C. so he tried to take away all the copies, but missed some, and students have been having a “hey-day” reading it; is going to an evening school church class called “The Prophets” Letter to brother, 5 p. The people upstairs keep letting in the maid while Mary is gone and the maid is the best she’s had, except that the maid has stolen butter from her; is happy in her language class; is going to see a Mozart musical at the Opera house; it snowed but she has no shovel to shovel the walkway or the steps, “The janitor of course would have no shovel nor would any Turk and if they did they wouldn’t know which end to use.”
1957 Dec 03, 1 p. w/env. Letter from Mrs. Orpha Clifford Thank you letter for birthday check and describes birthday
1957 Dec 09, 3 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Is in Ismir and lists activities; gets discouraged because her workers have no fire, vision or enthusiasm for the job; talks about how Izmir is warmer than Ankara but the hotels can be bad, she thinks the management might even be involved; Ismir P.X. better than Ankara; has a hard time getting teachers to get involved
1957 Dec 13, 4 p. w/env. Letter to brother Must change paper because according to her boss, anything written on I.C.A. paper by an I.C.A. employee is official; discusses retirement; hopes to entertain more Turks socially; went home to have lunch with counterpart but discovered her back tire had sunk in the mud because it has been so rainy; some Americans and Turks wanted some of the wine that is made at the Turkish University so they got Mary to plan it all out and go get it, however, during the process, she forgot not to drink some of the sample wine before driving back and had quite a time driving back in the rainy dark
1957 Dec 16, 4 p. w/env. Letter to brother Mentions a meeting discussing a child feeding program and claims she was the only one who had an idea for the solution, “but what good will ideas be if they are never carried out”; is fighting for a National Radio Program; stayed up until 1am playing cards with some “old ladies”; at the I.C.A. Christmas party, told a man leaving for Washington D.C. to report that “this was probably the smelliest post in the world”; has the entire week scheduled out socially and thinks she’s “entertained more people since I’ve been here than I have in two years in the U.S.”; has already received Christmas cards and two nice Christmas gifts; is about to make her first speech to the directors; talks about how much she loves Turkish beer
1957 Dec 20, 2 p. w/env. Letter to Rose Had lunch with an “attractive” woman in her 50’s and found out she was from Tulsa; has a new part time counterpart that is a real “go-getter” and might be influencing her other counterpart; describes Christmas gifts
1957 Dec 21, 3 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Is using adhesive tape as make-shift weather stripping to keep the bitter cold out; “The Weigle’s came and left me upset…I’ve never known people to ask so many stupid questions.”; explains the financial situation a bit
1957 Dec 23, 4 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Is working on wrapping gifts; describes what she’s received so far and says some of the things she has got from the Turks “I want as much as I want a wart on the end of the nose”; discusses Christmas plan; had to get a statement from her preacher back in Kansas that states that Mary Border is a Christian just so she can be allowed in certain countries
1957 Dec 28, 6 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Talks about her social life; describes the child feeding project; wishes she could have a radio program so the Turks who cannot read could at least hear the program; talks about people involved in the oil business tend to buy P.X. supplies from people who are leaving the country, some even resort to the black market for good American supplies but Mary Border claims she is the police on that matter; discusses Turk use of American products
1957 Dec 30, 3 p. w/env. Letter to Folks Cannot find her counterpart and a program which needed to be sent to the ministry in Turkish might have to be sent in English, “Nothing but dynamite will lift them from their lethargy”; her Jewish neighbors are moving; complains that the Turks never use the delegates they need to for the program to work; discusses future plans
1957 Dec, card from the Barhydts