Hard Life In Turkey

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31563, 28 December 1967, Page 2

Hard Life In Turkey

Like most other foreigners living in Turkey, she was not happy there, Mrs Katinka Sevier said in Christchurch yesterday. She regards her two years in Ankara as “an experience best forgotten.”

She left Christchurch almost 10 years ago as the 16-year-old bride of LieutenantCommander M. T. Sevier, of the United States Navy, and has returned with her two children to spend six months with her parents, Mr and Mrs G. Ferris. Life in many places has convinced her of the truth of the old maxim, that “there is no place like home,” and that “there is no place like Turkey.” Mrs Sevier found the Turks a sullen race, sharply divided into rich and poor. The rich had neither compassion nor kinship for their poorer countrymen and treated them like animals. One of the first things she noticed about them was that they hardly ever smiled. Women counted as nothing

and she had to stand back for men on buses. Women of the poorer classes still wore veils over their faces, but they walked the streets side by side with the mini-skirted, white-booted girls of rich families.

Three modes of transport were available, none of them satisfactory. Taxis, the least dangerous, were exorbitantly expensive. There were no meters and passengers had to haggle over the price of the fare before the journey began. The dolmus, which translates literally as “stuffed car," was a car or station waggon which was usually packed with about 10 people. These were slightly more expensive than buses and followed bus routes. Because they stopped immediately they were hailed or asked to do so, regardless of traffic in front or behind, they were very dangerous. But buses which travelled by night in the middle of the road were the worst of all. In spite of the easy-going behaviour on the road it was very difficult to get a driver’s licence in Turkey. “There are a great many rules but noone can explain them,” said Mrs Sevier.

Life in a countryside which was dry and barren, with no flowers and scarcely any trees, and worst of all no privacy, was not easy. Day-to-day cooking was also a problem. Any food touched by human hands had to be soaked or boiled and tap water had to be boiled for six minutes. Twice a week the Turkish water seller brought them about seven gallons of water, which they kept in a large tank in the kitchen. This was drinkable. Tap water was suitable for washing the dishes. Turkish tea was quite good but Turkish coffee was un-

palatable. When in a restaurant, one ordered a small bottle of water, which was quite safe to drink. The two children, Deric, aged eight, and Lynda, aged seven, adjusted well to life in Turkey, although they were very restricted in their activities. Turkish children were inclined to be jealous of foreign children, who had superior clothes and toys, and their meetings were not amiable.

When she became dispirted, Mrs Sevier reminded herself of the advantages of life in Turkey—the bread, which had a heavy sourdough and a nice, chewy erust and was relatively safe to eat; and the climate in the summertime: hot but not humid, and very like that of Christchurch.