“~

Report on Turkey continued — traditions strong’

hold on to the old ways in a country that
is becoming rapidly westernized.

Because of the strength of the family unit
it seems it will be a while before young
women are allowed to act as they wish.
Turkish men are given quite a bit of
freedom, and though most live at home until
they get married, this seems to be because
of economic concerns and not tradition.
Women, on the other hand, are under tight
control until they are married—even if
that means that they are 25 or 30 years
old.

My family, like many other families in
their income bracket, owned a summer house
about 80 kilometres outside of Istanbul.
This home sat on three acres of land near
a tiny rural village and provided me with
an excellent relaxing retreat from
Istanbul. It also gave me an opportunity
to observe and experience the rural
lifestyle that is enjoyed bya large number
of Turks. I found it to be worlds away
from life in Istanbul and without even a
hint of western influence aside from the
odd old truck.

The people in the countryside were
devoutly religious and still lived a
lifestyle very similar to their ancestors.
The women do most of the heavy labour and
without exception are totally covered in
black dresses and veils at all times. The
hospitality of these people was
extraordinary, and even though they are
only an hour from Istanbul, I was quite a

1 found the countryside to be

worlds away from life in Istanbul and
without even a hint of Western
influence...

celebrity with the children, as they had
never seen anything like me. I thoroughly
enjoyed the time I spent on this farm,
taking long hikes in the mountains and
working in my family's grape fields.

While in Istanbul I worked for the Gunes
Gazette, a Turkish language daily

newspaper. This modern colour paper is
Turkey's third largest and employs over
300 people. I was absolutely dreading my
first day on the job, as all I knew about
it was that my job description read photo-
journalist and that the Gunes was a very
modern and ambitious paper. I had very
little experience in camera work and had
no idea what newspaper work entailed short
of what I had learned from Mel Gibson in
the Year of Living Dangerously.

Upon my arrival (a day and a half late, of
course) I found that they really did not
know what to do with me. When, with the
help of my host brother, Unit, we finally
figured out what department I was being
assigned to, I was at long last introduced
to my boss. He was a man by the name of
Arden and was the head of the foreign news
department. He was to prove to be a kind
and helpful man with a great sense of
humour.

Arden introduced me around the department
which was responsible for the translation
of foreign news, and assigned me my own
desk. He spoke nearly perfect English and,
to my surprise, almost all of the 25 to 30
people on my floor could speak some
English. I was also pleasantly surprised
at the number of women who worked in the
office, totalling about half the people on
my floor. Being a very busy floor I was
basically left on my own at my desk
feeling very out of place.

Well, I waited all day and though I was
approached by many friendly employees who
introduced themselves and were interested

in my presence, by the end of the day I

still had no idea what my job entailed.
Since they seemed to be leaving me alone,

assuming I knew what I was doing, I decided
on the second day to play the game and
pretend I knew something about newspaper
work in the hope that I would learn quickly
on my own. I soon found out this was
futile, as the language barrier made it
difficult to figure out what was going on
without direct questioning and that would
have exposed my ignorance. So, late on the
second day, I went to my boss and confessed
my total lack of training and experience.
To my surprise this confession was greeted

CONTINUED ...