9/22/2006 - From Ohio to Turkey with AFS: Developing Life-long Friendships
In late 1950s Ohio, Brecksville, located some 14 miles south from the center of Cleveland was a growing community. Fueled by a postwar migration to the suburbs, its population would reach 5,435 people by 1960, enabling it to incorporate as a city. On the other side of the world, in Istanbul, Turkey a city of almost two million people at the time, was also growing but at a much accelerated pace. In the 1950s, more than 7,300 buildings were torn down to make way for new construction and a reorganized road system.
These two very different places were separated not only by oceans and continents but by culture, language and customs. Sally Bonacker, a young woman from Brecksville, Ohio would soon serve as a bridge between the two cultures when she joined a handful of AFS students who would be spending their summer in Turkey.
Sally had first heard of AFS in 1958. At the time she was attending a boarding school in Milwaukee and had become friends with an AFS exchange student there. She left the school in Milwaukee and went back to Brecksville to find that her hometown would be hosting their first AFS student, Dietrich Kraus from Germany. All the buzz about AFS made her very curious about going on an exchange program and she decided to apply. Her parents were very supportive of this idea and had even applied themselves to host an AFS student.
Sally thought that AFS would send her to Europe. “At the time most kids were going to Europe” Sally recalled, “I thought that this would be a great way to spend the summer.” But AFS had other plans for her. Stephen Galatti, one of the founders of AFS had planned a placement for a Turkish student in Sally’s hometown. Galatti thought that it would be a good idea to send Sally to Turkey so that she could learn about their culture and help her Turkish counterpart learn about American culture when she arrived in Brecksville. “What was really unexpected,” said Sally “was that Tanju, who would become my AFS sister, would be placed with our family in Ohio.” Tanju Verda Akan, who today is a one of AFS most dedicated volunteers with more than 45 years of outstanding service to the organization and winner of the Galatti Award, the highest honor that AFS confers upon its volunteers, was then a teenager who was thrilled with the opportunity to travel to the U.S on her AFS exchange program. But the meeting of the two young AFS students would have to wait until Sally returned to Ohio from Izmir, Turkey, where she had been placed with an AFS host family.
That summer in Izmir, a coastal town on the Aegean Sea, Sally experienced Turkey in a way that few tourists would. “I had a wonderful host family” said Sally, “they took great pains to ensure that I would feel comfortable and that my introduction to Turkish culture would be successful.” There were a couple of instances, however, in which no matter how much care was taken, the cultural differences would still have an impact, “Seafood was a big part of my host family’s diet and I could never get used to eating the fish eyes, which apparently were a great delicacy for them.”
Sally returned home after having said goodbye to her host family at the end of a wonderful summer in Turkey. In Ohio, she found that her parents had already welcomed Tanju and thought that it would be a good idea for both girls to share a room. “For me this was like a continuation of my AFS exchange experience” said Sally, “my intercultural experience was definitely reinforced and enriched by Tanju’s presence in our home. It is one thing to be immersed in a culture, but when I arrived home and saw Turkish and U.S cultures from my host sister’s point of view it really helped me internalize the AFS experience. Tanju was a lovely person. She was invited to everything by everyone in our town. I learned a lot from her and Tanju said that she learned a lot from me. Tanju told me once that she realized while staying in the United States that women could do anything they set their minds to and that she decided to apply to college just as I was doing that at the time.”
Sally and Tanju would go to many functions together and they started to visit area schools to spread the word about AFS. “I would bring Tanju to speak at these gatherings and they were quickly sold on the idea that AFS programs were a life changing experience,” said Sally, “She was truly an excellent ambassador from her country. Meeting Tanju was a remarkable experience. She was warm and welcoming and people could not help but like her. She tried so hard to express herself well in English that everyone appreciated her efforts and were open to receive her message.”
When asked about how AFS changed her life, Sally told us that she taught her daughters that there are two different kinds of people, “You are either firmly attached to your views and you can live your whole life without looking outside your immediate environment or you can take a leap and find out about the world outside of your community. I encouraged my daughters to travel a lot since I know how enriching that experience can be. I taught them that it is best to have an open mind and to try to understand and get to know other cultures around the world. AFS certainly opened up my horizon, it changed how I think about my life, my world…it changed everything for me!”
Sally attended Northwestern University where she majored in political science and history. After graduation she attended Katharine Gibbs School in Boston for a year graduating as an executive secretary. She also worked with General Electric in their data processing area and became one of their early computer programmers. Sally moved back to the Cleveland area where she was employed by Central National Bank as a payroll specialist and then closed her career as the first female salesperson for the state of Ohio selling computerized payroll systems.
Sally retired from the bank after her marriage to Phillip L. Warburton, Esq. They have two grown children, both girls. After her retirement Sally has become an active volunteer at many organizations, chief among them are the Women’s’ Association of the Cleveland Health Museum, P.E.O., a women’s philanthropic group, Western Reserve Academy Pioneer Women’s Association, and various family business foundation efforts. “I have never had a day that isn’t filled with interesting problems,” said Sally “and find being my own boss to be the best of all possible worlds. Sally and Tanju, her AFS host sister, remain best friends to this day.
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