From the Steeple to the Minaret: Living Under the Shadow of Two Cultures

In 1961 Hughette Bouffard, a native of small town Canada, became the `gelin`; or bride of her long-time pen pal and friend Mehmet Eyuboglu, son of two of Turkey`s most illustrious artists, Bedri Rahmi and Eren Eyuboglu. It is in the midst of the Eyuboglu family`s circle of artist, writer, and poet friends that Hughette first comes to know Turkey. She shares with us those first glimpses into the foreign culture that she would later call her own and spares us neither the pains nor the pleasures of her acculturation process as she comes to create a niche for herself in her new environment, learning the fineties of intercultural negotiation step by step. Her views on the tumultuous decades of violent clashes between the left and the right as well as the military juntas that took place in Turkey are woven in with her experiences as a medical professional in Turkey, as an ex-patriate struggling for the rights of foreign spouses in Turkey, and as a mother and grandmother. Full of scenes painful, joyful, downright comical, absurd and enlightening, this is the story of Hughette Bouffard Eyuboglu`s cultural transformation.