June ‘09 sees Maureen travelling to Turkey to evaluate their health care system. I can’t go because health won’t permit, but she will have stories.

6-17 : First day: We went to the largest university in Ankara (also the capital) . The educational system while similar (after high school they take a test that ranges from 1-5) only the top students get in, so over a million people applied, but only 50,000 get to start college and there is no such thing as a community school for a 2 year degree. They need to build  more universities.

They are struggling with how to establish a national identity and having all the minority groups such as Kurds, Turks etc. develop a unified identity . We had a nice lunch. I am learning more aout the society and politics than I want, but willl be able to tie it into nursing soon. There hasn’t been a lot of waking yet since we have a tour bus.

  Ankara vista

Here are more pictures.