Peace Corps in Turkey 1967-1969

by Joni Johnson

This is a series of articles about the Peace Corps as they were experienced by RVM residents.  They will be offered over the next few months.

My actual memories of my time in Peace Corps are limited because they happened so long ago and because I didn’t really keep a diary or make notes.  But what remains clear is how that experience was absolutely instrumental in my growth as a person.  Each story in this Peace Corps series will be different.  One happened around the same time as mine but in a different context.  And the other two stories took place in the lives of the volunteers when they were in their forties and fifties and sixties.  And of course, that in itself would affect a person in totally different ways than it affected me.  But in all cases, as you will see, being a Peace Corps volunteer was a life changing event.

I went into the Peace Corps in 1967 with my first husband.  I was a teacher of ESL at a Boys Boarding School in Izmir, Turkey, and he was there to help the new Tourism industry.  I can honestly say that it was one of the most important experiences of my life because of my exposure to another culture in spite of the beginning of the huge cultural upheaval going on in the United States thanks to the Vietnam War and the beginning of the Hippie movement.  I missed a lot of the major events of that era in the US- The assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, the Kent State Protests and those in Chicago as well as the trial of the Chicago 7.

View from My Apartment

On the other hand, I was immersed in the wonderful Turkish culture.  Many people talk of their Peace Corps life of fabulous emotional experiences but somewhat physical deprivation.  I definitely had the fabulous emotional experiences, but my physical existence was fabulous as well.  We were paid what others were paid for the same position in the same town where they lived.  That meant that we got the equivalent of $100 per month, which allowed us to live in an apartment in a very middle-class part of town with views overlooking the Aegean sea.

Joni and a Turkish friend and another Peace Corps volunteer hanging out together

It was true that we didn’t have a refrigerator, so that meant that we bought our meat, fruit and vegetables each day at the market on the way home.  It was true that we didn’t have a clothes washer, so we did have to boil our clothes in a large pot on the stove. But if I remember correctly, we made enough to hire someone to clean our house and boil our clothes, so life wasn’t so bad. I remember the daily baked bread being delivered to the apartment, and so I started my day with freshly baked bread and freshly ground peanut butter. I gained 10 pounds the first month on the job and had to seriously rethink my diet.

I worked at the Bornova Maarif Koleji which was in a suburb of Izmir.  It was a boarding school for boys and went from late elementary to high school.  I taught all levels of English.  I had taught science in my real life, but my minor in college was English. However, the Peace Corps gave us the tools with which to teach our students. Unlike many of the schools in Turkey, where teachers had to teach classes of 60 or more students, our classes were more like twenty-five.  We got to know our students very well.  Many of them went to summer camp with us which was lots of fun.

A Turkish friend wearing an antique Turkish wedding dress

My Turkish never gained the competence of those living in more rural areas. Living in a big city, most of my Turkish friends spoke English better than I spoke Turkish.  But the relationships we built there were unforgettable.  I can honestly say that the Peace Corps experience continues to change and affect my life.  I appreciate other cultures and peoples in ways I doubt I would have.  I know it has helped me with jobs.  And I still keep in touch with some of my old friends.

We were the first Peace Corps training group that did not have to pass a “boot camp” requirement. Thank goodness. I don’t know if I could have joined.  The biggest challenge in Turkey was not physical.  It was political.  At the time, Turkey and Greece were not friendly with each other.  And there was some tension around how our government was dealing with the two countries, especially as it related to Cyprus.  In fact, the Peace Corps only stayed in Turkey until 1971 largely because of the political issues and their concern for their volunteers.  One time, several volunteers jokingly said that Ataturk had been Greek.  They were sent home.

Tom and I went back to Turkey in 2013, and by accident, I reconnected with one of my old students. All of a sudden, word was out and I was getting emails from students who still lived in Izmir and wanted to see me when we arrived there as part of our trip.  It turned out that one of them was now the president of a major university, and his friend (also an old student of mine) actually remembered where I had lived almost sixty years before and took us there, gained entrée with the current resident and we got a tour of my former apartment.  I can’t even begin to describe my feelings about that wonderful day.

Joni and Tom with her old students in Izmir in 2013