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Lynda Carver interviewed by Lois Boyd, May 4, 1977.
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- speakerShe's four and we're recording.
- speakerThe stop here with the microphone and then we just tell
- speakeryou
- speakerabout
- speakerThis is Lois Boyd in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. It's March the
- speakerfourth one nine hundred seventy seven and I'm talking
- speakerto. You you don't have to hold it. Just give your name and where
- speakeryou live.
- speakerI'm Linda
- speakerCarver. I live in the Presbyterian retirment home
- speakerPrentice House in Philadelphia in downtown Philadelphia.
- speakerMs Carver Can you just give me some biographical information? Did you, did you,
- speakerfor instance did you come out of the Presbyterian family?
- speakerNo actually I came
- speakerout of the Southern Methodist family. [Boyd] Where is your
- speakerhometown? [Carver] Baltimore Maryland. But I grew up in Alexandria
- speakerVirginia where I was confirmed in the
- speakerchurch.
- speakerThen, in the late
- speakertwenties, I accepted a teaching
- speakerposition at a girls' private school in Lancaster
- speakerPennsylvania. And, I became very interested in the First Presbyterian
- speakerChurch there taught in the elementary department and decided that I would like to
- speakerjoin the
- speakerchurch and become a member. So that way I became a Presbyterian. I always
- speakersay I reformedand became a Presbyterian.
- speakerWere you teaching? Is this a high school?
- speakerThis was a high school I was teaching
- speakerI was teaching social studies
- speaker[Boyd] Social Studies. Well, once you joined the church and you got active
- speakerin it, did you get involved in professional church work at any time? Not at that
- speakertime. A few years after that, I returned
- speakerhome and had to accept a position in Silver
- speakerSpring, Maryland and lived at home because my mother had suffered a severe
- speakerautomobile
- speakeraccident and we didn't know whether she was going to be able to walk again so I thought I'd better come home.
- speakerI have only one sister, who was
- speakermarried but I was the single one. So I came home and took this
- speakerteaching position in Silver Spring Maryland and then attended the, what was
- speakerthen the first the
- speakerCovenant First Presbyterian Church of Washington. Although my family were going
- speakerto the Methodist church. And, I tried it out but I didn't find an age group
- speakerthat particularly suited me so I went to the Covenant First
- speakerPresbyterian Church which
- speakerwas served then by Dr Albert McCartney [McCartney, Albert J.]
- speakerand. Do you want me to go on? [Boyd]
- speakerYes, please. [Carver] so I became quite
- speakeractive. They had a very fine young people's group with all ages that met
- speakeron Sunday evening. And, I became active in
- speakerthem in that room. You were in your twenty's
- speakeryou know I guess I was in the thirty's or that time.
- speakerYes and I wasn't old enough to be in senior
- speakercitizens groups and I wasn't a young person anymore. But this particular group a
- speakercousin and church had people of all ages most of them government
- speakerworkers and we met for devotional service on Sunday
- speakernight it was preceded by a light supper. Because many of the folks lived
- speakerin boarding houses and they didn't have any Sunday night supper. So the church gave a
- speakerlight supper and we had a devotional service you want me to go
- speakerin. So it
- speakerwas it was while I was
- speakeractive, I eventually I became president of the group
- speakerand served in various capacities.
- speaker[Boyd] We we were talking about the church you
- speakerattended.
- speakersome of that year where well we're here in Philadelphia for the board meeting of the Presbyterian Historical Society.
- speakerHold on
- speakerWell, at this
- speakertime, I was in my early forty's
- speakerand we had gone. In the meantime I
- speakerhad become principal of the junior high
- speakerschool where I had served for six years. and we've gone through
- speakerthe period of the wa,r which
- speakerwas a very difficult time with Junior High School youngsters.
- speakerSo many of their fathers
- speakeraway. Homes were broken. That sort
- speakerof thing. It seemed to me I had gone through a difficult time
- speakerpersonally. I had a good job. I had a car.
- speakerand was living at home and
- speakerhad friends and so on, but it seemed just that there was something. I don't
- speakerknow whether I was searching for
- speakersomething or just what, but I just wasn't particularly satisfied by my life. [Boyd] Was your mother
- speakerstill living? [Carver] Yes. My mother was living. She had made a good recovery from
- speakerthe accident. And, my parents were
- speakerboth living and we had a nice appartment there
- speakerand from all appearances, I should have been very
- speakercontent, but somehow I didn't seem to be.
- speakerBut, it so happened that at that time that Mary Donaldson [Donaldson, Mary Lois] had been in
- speakerChina, had to come home from China. And, she came to our
- speakerchurch as a parish visitor. And, Mary and I became
- speakerfriends and in course I suppose
- speakerof our relationship,
- speakerI told her that I wasn't exactly satisfied with what I was doing.
- speakeralthough missionary
- speakerservice had never been mentioned. And, in fact, I don't think I had ever thought of missionary service
- speakerin all my life. I never thought I was good enough to be a
- speakermissionary. I hadn't had any
- speakercontact much with mission people as a younger person, speakers and this
- speakertype of thing. Mission work didn't enter my thinking at all.
- speakerWell it happened at that time that the, that the Foreign
- speakerBoard [Board of Foreign Missions] of
- speakerthe Presbyterian Church was opening what they call a leader
- speakerservice which was a library
- speakerservice for people overseas
- speakerwhere they could write in and get magazines and books and so on because this is one of the things you miss on the foreign field.
- speakerSo this was just opening up called Reader Service.
- speakerSo Mary said I think I will
- speakerwrite in to New York, see if there might be something that would be available for you.
- speakerthere..
- speakerI was very interested in religious
- speakerbooks. I had a friend, Elizabeth Cower who had a little book nook at the
- speakerYWCA. and I used to help her some in the summers when she would go on vacation.
- speakerSo Mary wrote
- speakerin. And, a few weeks after
- speakerthat. It was just prior to
- speakerChristmas. My mother and I were getting Sunday
- speakerdinner. And, in the meantime, my father had to be
- speakerhospitalized. He had gotten senile
- speakerThe doctor said he couldn't conform to a home situation any more.
- speakerAnd so, we had to hospitalize him. But my mother and I were still together in the apartment, so
- speakerwe were getting Sunday dinner. And, the phone rang, and it was Mary
- speakerDonaldson. And, she said then I've just gotten
- speakera special delivery letter from New York. And she said, the Board [Board of Foreign Missions] wants you to
- speakergo out
- speakerto their girls' school in Baghdad. It was
- speakerjust out of the blue. and of course I
- speakerwas just
- speakershocked. And so. Of course, there was more to the
- speakerconversation and so on, but that was the substance of that.
- speakerSo, I went out in the kitchen and said, "Mama, they want me to go to Baghdad."
- speakerAnd my mother was a woman of great faith. She said, " Well of course you are going."
- speakerWell we had to get the geography out. Look up see where Baghdad
- speakerwas. Well, it just seemed
- speakerthat this sort of thing was impossible. and of course Mary let me
- speakersee the correspondence, which was
- speakerfrom Dr Herrick Young, [Young, Herrick B., Missionary Personnel Secretary, Board of Foreign Missions] who was the Personnel Secretary there then
- speakerof the Foreign Board and. He said that Mary's letter had been
- speakeran answer to prayer because they had been looking for somebody to go out and become principal of
- speakerthe girls'
- speakerschool in Baghdad for a long time. And, I seem to have the qualifications
- speakerto fit the job. [Boyd] Were they looking for a woman to go?
- speaker[Carver] Yes Yes because it was a girls school, you see. And, in an Arab country, that
- speakerwas important.
- speakerwell as I say. It just
- speakerseemed impossible that I could leave a good job
- speakerwith an upcoming salary
- speakerraise and home responsibilities with my mother then
- speakeralone. My sister was living in York State, married. She wasn't at home. Leave
- speakermy mother alone? and
- speakermake arrangements to go and do work overseas. But my mother said well we just leave it
- speakerin God's
- speakerhands. And, if it is intended that this is what you are to, it will all
- speakerbe worked out. Well, this was just before Christmas in forty-five.
- speakernineteen forty-five. Well as it did turn
- speakerout in August of forty-six, I was on my way to Baghdad.
- speaker[Boyd] By boat? [Carver] Yes went out on the
- speakerold
- speakerVolcania, which had been stripped of everything by the
- speakerGermans in the war. And, in the
- speakerplans and the preparation for going,
- speakerit was simply marvelous the way things opened up. There wasn't
- speakerany obstacle that when we inquired into it,
- speakerThe Board made provision to help with
- speakermy Mother's care. I had to rearrange
- speakermy insurance, this sort of thing, but many times
- speakerthe plan was better than we had anticipated. So, of
- speakercourse in the
- speakermeantime I had
- speakerto fill out all the required papers, interview with people from New York
- speakerAnd they sent me iformation
- speakerabout the school and all this sort of thing. and as result
- speakerthen in the spring I resigned my position as principal in the junior high
- speakermade plans in the summer
- speakerto leave that August. [Boyd] How did your friends react to this?
- speakerI think most of them
- speakerwere very surprised and
- speakerinterested and thought it was fine. and I think some of the
- speakerpeople in
- speakermy family thought I was very
- speakerfoolish to take such a
- speakergreat reduction in
- speakersalary and sort of pull up stakes at my age at that time
- speakerthen I was
- speakerforty three, so you see I wasn't a young woman. but they wanted
- speakera person with more
- speakerexperience in order
- speakerto head the school.
- speakerbut my father didn't. We simply told my
- speakerfather that I was going away to teach for a while
- speakerwhile and he didn't raise any objection. But my sister thought it was a fine
- speakeropportunity and so did my mother. She was delighted.
- speakerShe said the only thing that could have made it better was that I'd gone out on the
- speakerMethodist Board.
- speakerBut she was wonderful and in fact she was so brave
- speakerthat after I left, she
- speakerwent and took a little job for a while.
- speakerAnd, she rented the room in the apartment where
- speakerwe lived in order
- speakerto help her income. and Oh! She was a
- speakermarvelous for it. The one thing that I regretted through all
- speakermy years overseas was that her health never permitted her to come overseas.
- speakerI had always wished maybe winter she would come out and
- speakerspend with me, but I think probably
- speakeras a result of this severe accident she had had, she developed a sort of
- speakerparalysis. And, the last seven yearsm she was in a
- speakerwheelchair but she never waivered
- speakerin her faith that this was thing I was supposed to do.
- speakerand I remember once
- speakerwhen I came home on furlough, she said,
- speaker"Oh, Lynda, you have grown so!"she was she was really great.
- speakerI still miss her.
- speakerThey say. So you're on a ship headed for Baghdad.
- speakerI don't know how much you want in the way in any
- speakerdetail so or maybe I'm well to too much [Boyd] maybe just go on to
- speakerBaghdad and the situation patient there. but let me ask you before we've gone there.Did they
- speakergive you any preparation for the mission field? Did you have to go to any
- speakertraining? Did you have to go to a school or?
- speaker[Carver] Yes. Let's see
- speakerwhat did we do.
- speakerWhat was it? The Hartford School of Missions?
- speakerDoes that ring a bell with you? [Boyd] No, it doesn't. [Carver] in Hartford, Connecticut.
- speakerI can look it up. As far as the Board was concerned, they didn't give me
- speakerany particular preparation. They may have sent me material to
- speakerread. That isn't clear right now, but a
- speakernumber of denominations at that time, were sending their new
- speakerpeople to this Hartford School of
- speakerMissions. and. We went up there for a
- speakerweek and we were given all kinds of lectures. This was not
- speakerstrictly Presbyterian.
- speakerI know other denominational people were
- speakerthere. But we were given, oh, information
- speakerabout studying a foreign
- speakerlanguage and about health conditions we
- speakermight meet and to meet the customs of another
- speakercountry and trying to understand
- speakerthe culture there
- speakerand this type of thing. But that really
- speakerwas just about the only preparation that you had.
- speaker[Boyd] Now, you were to be conducting this school in English language?
- speakerNo. The actual leaning was Arabic.
- speakerAlthough, you see, English was taught as a foreign
- speakerlanguage in the school.and then as far as we could,
- speakerwe had all the Bible places in English.
- speakerAs many of the girls as could understand a Bible at
- speakerthe lower
- speakerplaces studied English just as aforeign language, but they take their Bible work in Arabic.
- speakerbecause they really couldn't, because they really didn't have enough English.
- speakerto actually to do in the way of
- speakerpreparation at that time in the Presbyterian Church. at least in our
- speakermission you spent two years in
- speakerlanguage study, before you ever got into a
- speakerjob and you
- speakerdevoted full time to language studies. That is all you did.
- speaker[Boyd] Two years! [Carver] Two years. Two years in the country?
- speakermean man was it
- speakerThe plan was at first that I was to go to Jerusalem to the Newman language school which
- speakerwas an interdenominational school where a lot of foreign folks
- speakerwent then, to study arabic, but the situation became
- speakerso tense in the Middle East because the
- speakerArab and the Jewish
- speakersituation becoming more intensified, you see. They finally switched
- speakermy
- speakerplan and told me to go direct to
- speakerBaghdad. There I was to be given because I was
- speakerthe only person in the mission studying language. So I was given a
- speakerprivate tutor and devoted
- speakermy whole time to language studies. [Boyd] For two years. [Carver] for eighteen months.
- speakerThen the situation in the school required that somebody had to come in.
- speakerSo, they cut my language
- speakershort. And, I had to go into the school and take over and help with some of the teaching.
- speaker[Boyd] Were the teachers English
- speakerspeaking only? [Carver] Only as a second language. [Boyd] Only as a second language. [Carver] Yeah.
- speakerThat is, of course, any other
- speakerAmericans. We usually had what we call the short termers
- speakerin the school, a younger American girl.
- speakerout on a three-year term.
- speakerAnd, she would be English-speaking.
- speakerThe native teachers were all Arabic-
- speakerspeaking, and only spoke English as a second language.
- speakerso I lived then in Baghdad.
- speakerAt first, I lived in a house
- speakerwith the acting principal.
- speakerThe
- speakercouple to whom this house really belonged came home, cambe back from furlough.
- speakerand the acting principal went back to Japan. She had been out of Japan because
- speakerof the WAr. And so, I moved
- speakerthen tp the YWCA.
- speakerand took a room there, and stayed
- speakerthere for a while until we had a couple of
- speakershort term teachers come out.
- speakerAnd, the three of us took a house together
- speakerin one of the suburban areas of the city. But, I still continued with the language
- speakerstudy. They went on to study in school
- speakerThe mission at one time wanted me to go tO
- speakerBasrah, which is
- speakerthe large, fairly large city in the south of the
- speakercountry because there's less English spoken there.
- speakerAnd I did find that this was a real problem in Baghdad because so many of the people that
- speakerI associated with wanted to speak English that I didn't have a chance to
- speakerspeak Arabic as much as I should have had, you
- speakersee. But I had gotten settled with my
- speakerteacher and although I wasn't actively engaged in the school.
- speakerI did attend functions at the school. I got to meet many of the girls and
- speakertheir families. And, I felt that that was a better introduction for my
- speakereventually going into the school. If I had gone to another
- speakercommunity and come back entirely
- speakernew and I really think that had an advantage. And, I was always
- speakerglad afterwards because I think that the
- speakertransition moving into the school was much easier
- speakerbecause people knew me. And, I was glad that I hadn't made
- speakerthat decision to go down
- speakerthere although I don't think I will I always say, I only learned kitchen Arabic.
- speakerBecause I really never did master the language. Of course, it is a difficult language, but
- speakerI never felt that I did as well in the language as I
- speakerprobably would have if I'd gone to Basrah, but it had
- speakerits advantages too. [Boyd] Were you, in meeting the
- speakerfamily of these students, were you respected as a
- speakerwoman and a teacher? [Carver] Oh yes! Very much so. [Boyd] Is?
- speakerHow do they view women in that country?
- speaker[Carver] Well of course specially because it's a Muslim country, women's lives are very
- speakerrestricted. But the
- speakerfamilies felt really very grateful to the mission and
- speakerto the school for coming and providing the school for girls
- speakerbecause our school was one of the few private schools in the
- speakercity. And it
- speakerhad a higher standard particularly
- speakerin the teaching of English than the government school. Now the government
- speakerschools do not begin the teaching of English I think until about fifth grade
- speakerelementary school, but we started right off with first
- speakergrade and although the Moslem families.
- speakerI've never heard anybody admit, the Moslems families, a Moslem family admit that that their
- speakerdaughters were sent to our school because it was a
- speakerChristian school,but they respected the Christian values
- speakerthat we taught. They appreciated the character traits that we
- speakerstressed. They felt that their their girls were safe with
- speakerus. And then that they also recognized that we did have a better foundation in English.
- speaker[Boyd] Now was this a Presbyterian school? This was
- speakera in the old days it was all
- speakerthe United Mission of
- speakerIraq and. No. I beg your pardon. It's
- speakercalled the United Nation of
- speakerMesopotamia then because Mesopotamia was so much of a difficult term
- speakerthat people weren't acquainted with after the war when
- speakerthese little countries were all organized, and I think it became known
- speakeras the United
- speakerMission of Iraq. In nineteen twenty-
- speakerfour the Presbyterian
- speakerChurch, this was the northern Presbyterian Church, Presbyterian
- speakerChurch USA, not united at that time. The Presbyterian Church USA
- speakerparticularly because it had. It already had mission work in
- speakerLebanon and
- speakerSyria. Had been there a good many years. They were asked by the
- speakerChurch Missionary Society of Great Britain to take over their work in
- speakerIraq
- speakerand the Presbyterian Church did
- speakerit with the combined help of the
- speakerold Evangelical and Reformed
- speakerChurch, old E and R Church. So some of our
- speakerpeople in the field, on the field, were E and R people and some were
- speakerPresbyterian. Now, later, it came to be known as the United
- speakerMission of
- speakerIraq. By that time
- speakerthe Southern church had come in with some financial
- speakerhelp. and of course the old
- speakerE and R Church had gone into the Uniting Church of Christ.
- speakerSo we always felt a little bit like a step child
- speakeras far as denominations were concerned because we really didn't get too much
- speakerpublicity from any one church because we were supported
- speakerby these different denominations.
- speakerBut on the field, nor difference was made. Everybody got the same salary. everybody was
- speakertreated exactly the
- speakersame, but it's it just happened that one denomination had
- speakera desirable recruit who was needed. The person was
- speakerbrought from that denomination. There was never any attempt as far as I know
- speakerto keep any balance particularly. It was just whoever was available to come.
- speakerbut this is had a certain advantage I
- speakerthink the
- speakerecumenical aspect of it because it did mean we got people from different
- speakerbackgrounds not just Presbyterians. [Boyd] Now these were all
- speakerwomen? [Carver] No. As far as the mission was concerned, there were men and women,
- speakerbut [Boyd] Not teaching?] [Carver] No, not in the school. No, in the school,
- speakerit was all women. [Boyd] What did the men do?
- speaker[Carver] In Iraq. Because we never in the mission we never had any
- speakermedical work. The men in the
- speakermission engaged mostly in so-called evangelistic
- speakerwork in that
- speakerday. When I went out to the field in
- speakerforty-six then, usually the work consisted of three different
- speakerparts on the field. You were either in medical work, educational work, or evangelistic
- speakerwork. But this has changed very much.
- speakerof course, through the years.
- speaker[Boyd] Well. Let me ask you this. In the evangelistic work, were there women in it?
- speakerin evangelistic work, or was this primarily handled by the
- speakermen?
- speaker[Carver] As I think of it now, primarily by the men.
- speakerMainly because I suppose they were ordained and they could if
- speakernecessary perform baptisms and give communion and form
- speakerthe sacraments of the church. Although particularly up in
- speakerMosul which is one of the larger cities in Iraq
- speakerin the north we did have what we called a Bible
- speakerwoman who did so-called evangelistic
- speakerwork, tried to organize a Sunday school and this type of thing
- speakerbut we didn't have any
- speakerany folks
- speakerfrom overseas who actually did evangelistic
- speakerwork. As far as Iraq was concerned, they came
- speakerin as educators and worked in the
- speakerschools. [Boyd] but in the medical then you would have doctors and nurses. [Carver] That's right.
- speaker[Boyd] They were both mail and female. [Carver] Yeah. [Boyd] In that area and in the educational then it was to be
- speakerdetermined by the nature of the school?
- speaker[Carver] That's right. That's right. right. [Boyd] Now, in the school then
- speakeryou were Principal or Head Mistress or what was your title? [Carver] that is
- speakerright. Yes. That would be. I mean we called it principal.
- speakerAnd when
- speakerI went into the school we were at we were housed in what had been the
- speakerold Egyptian embassy in Baghdad, a very old private
- speakerresidence large, but
- speakerthe rooms were sometimes very crowded.
- speakerAnd, it was an old
- speakerbuilding, but we managed.
- speakerand the second floor on the second floor which I
- speakersuppose had been the drawing room of the of the embassy. We turned. We used that as
- speakeran assembly room.
- speakerAnd, we. Of course we
- speakerhad to follow the government program laid out by the Department
- speakerof Education in the country although we did make some changes.
- speakerand sometimes. And there was never any question particularly about
- speakerit. Being a Christian school we had
- speakerschool five days a week. And, we closed Saturday and Sunday just same as
- speakerthe American plan.
- speakerAnd then sometimes, if the government would
- speakerrequire so many classes per week in a
- speakersubject, for instancehistory, four days a week if we could do it in three or
- speakersomething of this sort, we made those changes. And, we always gained more places in
- speakerEnglish because we thought that was one of our strong points.
- speakerSo
- speakerI just tried to think maybe of some of the changes that we made when we got into that, when
- speakerI got into the school. I remember one thing in particular that we did. We
- speakerformed a student
- speakercouncil and we felt that this gave the
- speakergirls some experience in voting
- speakerand choosing candidates in this type of
- speakerthing. And, then we began to stress athletics,
- speakervolleyball was the great game for them because we didn't have much playground space.
- speakerSo we had good volleyball teams and the girls enjoyed that very
- speakermuch. And, we had chapel every
- speakermorning. And, we always made a great deal of Christmas and
- speakerEaster in the school. At Christmas,
- speakerwe usually had about three celebrations of Christmas. We used to have a fun
- speakertime when one of the girls would dress up as Father Christmas. They call it Father
- speakerChristmas and we always gave candy, sweets, and
- speakerso on to the little ones. Not everybody. So we had this fun
- speakerprogram. And, then we always had a special carol
- speakerprogram where each class was to present a carol. And, it was a musical
- speakerprogram based on the Christmas carols. And, then we had our religious program
- speakerWe didn't make any differentiation there
- speakerin choosing the characters except we always
- speakerchose a Christian for
- speakerMary. That seemed to be a tradition in the school that
- speakerMary had to, was supposed to be a Christian girl. But, the Moslem
- speakergirls entered into the spirit of the thing beautifully. Of course, it usually
- speakerwas a presentation of the Christmas
- speakerstory. And, then at Easter we always had a
- speakerspecial Easter program and this centered or some past some way
- speakeraround the resurrection.
- speakerI remember one
- speakeryear we had very fine
- speakerpla. I can't remember now whether that was written by one of the
- speakergirls or one of the teachers. Perhaps one of the one of the teachers, but it centered
- speakeraround Pilate's
- speakerwife and her suspicions and
- speakerfear. I'm still in
- speakertouch. i remember I am still in touch with the girl who took the part of
- speakerPilate's wife at that time. And one of the things that we
- speakerdid at Easter. We had a small wooden cross about five feet.
- speakerAnd about a week before Christmas we
- speakerused to drape that either in black or dark purple
- speakercolor. And then, at the Easter
- speakerprogram, we covered that
- speakerwith fresh
- speakerflowers. And, one year, one of
- speakerthe girls' fathers happened to be in the north. And, he sent
- speakerdown fresh freesias and
- speakerthis whole cross was covered with these white
- speakerfreesias. It was beautiful. And when we finally get to our new
- speakerschool I used to get up at five o'clock on
- speakerthat morning and cover that
- speakercross with light blue stock
- speakerand it was beautiful. You would
- speakerget ohs and ahs when the girls would come
- speakernear
- speaker[Rustling sound]
- speakercontinent
- speaker[Boyd] Well. One interesting thing about this whole description
- speakeris well. For instance, starting with the student
- speakercouncil,
- speakerthe letting of the women be
- speakercreative. Was this a new experience for these girls? [Carver] Oh, very much.
- speaker[Boyd] And what was
- speakeryour motivation in preparing these women for a.
- speakerLet me rephrase it. When they got into Moslem society, their role would be
- speakermore restricted. But you were causing them to
- speakerthink very
- speakerun at that time, were you
- speakernot? [Carver] that's right.
- speakerWell, there were several factors there.
- speakerWomen werre. Women were being recognized more
- speakeras
- speakerperson and were going in more and more for
- speakerhigher education.
- speakerMost of our girls, not all of them, but most of our girls went
- speakeron to colleges or universities because they were very interested in education.
- speakerThe other thing that was happening in the culture there was that as the young men,
- speakerthe boys, got more education, they didn't want a dumb bunny for a
- speakerwife. They wanted somebody who knew something about
- speakerrunning a home,
- speakerrearing the
- speakerfamily and somebody
- speakerwho was more
- speakercompanionable with them. And as so
- speakerI think in a way we were preparing our girls for this type
- speakerof relationship in their married lives. That we wanted them
- speakerto to have more
- speakerindependence and to be more qualified as
- speakerhomemakers this type of thing. [Boyd] Now when they went on in
- speakerhigher education, did they usually leave the
- speakercountry? [Carver] Not always. Sometimes they were, they stayed in the country.
- speakerA few of them would go abroad to the States. Some went to
- speakerEngland. And a number went to Beirut College for
- speakerWomen, which was the outstanding women's college
- speakerin Beirut, Lebanon at that time.
- speaker[Boyd] Did any of them enter into
- speakerChristian work? Into church work, let me say that. [Carver] No.
- speakerNo. None of them went into church work.
- speakerSome of them. Well, one of
- speakerthe girls particularly went into medicine.
- speakerShe was our first woman doctor. We were always very
- speakerproud of her and she specialized in pediatrics.
- speakerAnd she set up
- speakera clinic, a service there in Baghdad. We
- speakerwere very proud of her. Eventually several of the girls went into
- speakerlaw but they didn't have much opportunity at that time to do anything on their own
- speakerin law.
- speakerA good many of course went into teaching. That was still the
- speakerprimary vocation
- speakerprofession for a girl. Very few
- speakergirls went into office
- speakerwork because of that that was
- speakerconsidered almost prohibitive for women because of their close association with
- speakermen. They they didn't have the contacts that men that women do
- speakerhere in
- speakerWest. So teaching was really considered the
- speakersafest and that was looked upon as safe as that is the most
- speakerperfect respected profession at that
- speakerthat time. [Boyd] Could I
- speakerjust ask you a personal question. As you dealt with these young
- speakerwomen did you try, did you try to to encourage
- speakerthem to think of
- speakerthemselves as persons? This is. It is sounds like
- speakera loaded question but what it is is from all you've said to me you're very
- speakerindependent person, who had
- speakerbeen independently and professionally
- speakeroccupied. You've made this very independent move. You must've been a
- speakermodel of a very capable and independent woman. Was this emphasized in the school at all?
- speaker[Carver]
- speakerI. i am not conscious of it. It wasn't emphasized per se, no.
- speaker[Boyd] Were most of the teachers
- speakerfairly independent persons? [Carver] You mean, with the idea that we would encourage a
- speakergirl, for instance, to break with tradition or anything of that kind. [Boyd] Not break
- speakerwith tradition, but to think of herself
- speakeras it having something to contribute, I think to. [Carver] Oh, I think. yes,
- speakerdefinitely.
- speakerVery definitely as having something to contribute.
- speakerYes. and I think as I say
- speakerback now through the years I think this has been one of the great strengths of the
- speakerschool is the training that the girls got and the contribution that even
- speakerthey are making now to this day to society and to their
- speakerfamilies
- speaker[Boyd] But you worked within the context of the culture.
- speaker[Carver] Right right. You. You really have to do
- speakerthat. You have to do that
- speakerbecause we always considered that we were
- speakerguests in the country. And, of course, we never entered
- speakerinto anything
- speakerpolitical. We were always very circumspect about any
- speakercriticism of any kind. We we always through the years, we
- speakerhad the finest cooperation from the
- speakergovernment. And, they never questioned anything that we did.
- speakerAthough in the latter years after the
- speakerso-called revolution in nineteen fifty-eight in
- speakerIraq, the spirit
- speakerchanged remarkably. [Boyd] Were you still there? [Carver] I had been away during
- speakerthe revolution and I came
- speakerback. And, there was a tremendous
- speakercontrast in the feeling
- speakerin the country and even in
- speakerschool. in the mean
- speakertime before I had left the
- speakercountry we entered into a building program
- speakeramong our supporting denominations that was quite a drive put
- speakeron here in the States to raise money to build a new
- speakerbuilding. As I said, we had been in this small rented building and every time
- speakerthe lease was reviewed, the rent went up. We really didn't have adequate quarters.
- speakerSo the denominations agreed, particularly through the women's groups of the church.
- speakerI remember in the Reformed Church, they had bags for Baghdad. And in their
- speakerSunday schools they had little bags where the youngsters were encouraged to put their
- speakernickels. So we raised enough money and went across the
- speakerriver and bought a sizeable piece of ground and built a beautiful new
- speakerschool
- speakerand then but by the time
- speakerwe moved into the new school and got that underway.
- speakerI almost suffered a nervous breakdown at that time because it was a tremendous job
- speakerthat we had
- speakermoving into a new building. The building wasn't finished
- speakeryet. still the playground was so muddy and you know what little youngsters
- speakerare with mud around, and so on and so forth. We had to begin
- speakerschool buses because we were in the suburban
- speakerarea and it meant hiring the bus drivers and all this kind of thing.
- speakerIt presented in a great many
- speakerproblems. so I had come
- speakerhome for a furlough
- speakeryear and then, because of my mother's health. I asked for a year's leave of
- speakerabsence and then when it was possible after my
- speakermother finally
- speakerdied to go back to the field.
- speakerI just didn't think I would assume the principalship again right then,o I had.
- speakerI had an opportunity to go to
- speakerTeheran to the Iran Bethel School just as a teacher.
- speakerSo I went there for three years as a short-
- speakerterm teacher but I never felt at home in Iran.
- speakerI suppose that when you. I think this is true of most people who go overseas. The
- speakerfirst country you go to visit when you always feel the closest to. so I had
- speakercome back to
- speakerBaghdad for spring vacation on a
- speakervisit and by that time they had built a new auditorium
- speakercompleted and the school was pleased to hear that playground was
- speakerall
- speakerasphalted and it just seemed to me that that's where my heart
- speakerwas. So It so happened that the acting principal
- speakerhad to go on furlough and they were looking for somebody to take over the
- speakerschool. So they said Lynda, you'd come back on your own terms. [Boyd] How
- speakerwonderful! [Carver]
- speakerso I asked permission to
- speakerreturn and I went back and
- speakerserved as principal two
- speakeryears. And this, is when I found such a
- speakervast difference in the school.
- speakerThen I came for a short furlough.
- speakerAnd one of the things that I found when I came back to Baghdad was that
- speakerthe older girls were not coming to the new building.
- speakerNow the older girls were not coming to the new
- speakerbuilding because they said so many of the teachers were
- speakernew. And, it didn't seem like school to them, their
- speakerold
- speakerschool. So I asked them to
- speakerresign as
- speakerprincipal and to do part time teaching and to work with the alumnae
- speakersociety of the school. Try to build that
- speakerup. And I did that for two years, and it was very gratifying.
- speakerI got classes together that hadn't been together since they had been at the
- speakerschool and we had several special
- speakeroccasions at the school, teas and so on for the alumnae.
- speakerIt was really very
- speakergratifying. At that time we started a letter
- speakertrying to contact the girls who had gone overseas, the graduates
- speakerwho were overseas.
- speakerWell that didn't work out too wel. We did keep in touch with quite a few girls
- speakerin the States or England or so on
- speakerand but interestingly enough, now that
- speakerI am
- speakerretired, I kept up that
- speakerletter
- speakerand let
- speakerme.