To Make a Difference: A Peace Corps Memoir -- Turkey 1964-66

By Julie Woods Smith Olson

In 2011 amid the excitement of the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps, Julie Woods Smith Olson became inspired to organize her memorabilia from her time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey from 1964 to 1966. This book, "To Make a Difference -- A Peace Corps Memoir" is the result of a year of transcribing and editing her handwritten journals from that time. Julie and her husband, Gary, celebrated their first wedding anniversary camping out in a farmer's field in northern Vermont during training for the Peace Corps. After training, they were assigned as a two-person rural-community development team in an isolated village in Southwest Turkey. Their village had no electricity or running water, and conditions were such that at first they had to be more concerned with basic survival than with development. The villagers were also living at a subsistence level and found it difficult to understand what development might mean. The problem was compounded by the fact that three months of classes in Turkish had not prepared either Julie or Gary to inspire the villagers to set common goals and improve their quality of life. Problems aside, though, Julie did set up a kindergarten serving milk provided by a Peace Corps / CARE program, and she taught women's sewing classes. Meanwhile, Gary worked with a local 4-K association to start a chicken farm (4-K is the Turkish equivalent to 4-H). The two lived with a Turkish family of six who accepted them as their own.About her experience in Turkey, Julie says, "When we returned home, we were asked what impact we'd had on our villagers and what what we'd learned from our Peace Corps adventure. I said, 'I am a better American. I appreciate my own country. And I believe that in ways we did not quite understand while we were there, we made a difference in one small village in Turkey.'" In Julie's book, you will find her stories of friendship, hospitality and human nature.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1508666202
• ISBN13: 9781508666202
• Release Date: February 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 148 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.3" x 7.5"