Letter from Dora Giffen to her family, May 10, 1921
MLA Citation
Giffen, Dora Eunice, 1897-1982. “Letter from Dora Giffen to her family, May 10, 1921.” Digital Gallery. BGSU University Libraries, 31 Mar. 2023, digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/items/show/41463. Accessed 15 Feb. 2025.
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Title | Letter from Dora Giffen to her family, May 10, 1921 |
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Subject | Giffen, Dora Eunice, 1897-1982 |
Women missionaries--Correspondence | |
Missions--Egypt | |
Protestant churches--Missions--Egypt | |
Presbyterians--Egypt--Correspondence | |
Egypt--Church history | |
Christianity--Egypt | |
Missions to Muslims--Egypt | |
Egypt--Description and travel | |
Description | Letter from Dora Giffen to her family in Ohio about her missionary life in Egypt and the health and activities of her peers. |
Creator | Giffen, Dora Eunice, 1897-1982 |
Source | Dora E. Giffen papers; MS-0309; Center for Archival Collections; University Libraries; Bowling Green State University |
Date | 1921-05-10 |
Rights | |
Format | Correspondence |
application/pdf | |
Language | eng |
Identifier | ms00309_b001_f002_i00007.pdf |
https://digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/items/show/41463 | |
Is Referenced By | https://lib.bgsu.edu/findingaids/repositories/4/resources/1425 |
Spatial Coverage | Cairo (Egypt) |
Type | Text |
1) 45 Faggala, Cairo Tues., May 10, ‘21 Dear Ones: I had just finished my letter home last Thurs., when I went to supper and found Mother’s good letter of April 14th at my plate, so you see keeping it until the 3:02 train did not make it late, for it just took it the usual three weeks to get here. They have been so regular in coming and I look forward to my home letters so much. I have not been nearly so faithful in getting my letters off on times: it was Thurs. last week and now will be almost that late this week before I get my letter off. By the time this reaches you Martin will almost have graduated from H.S. Congratulations, etc.! I would certainly like to be in New Concord for his commencement, which is the 3rd of June, isn’t it? I hope Willard can get there for it, if he does not get to the Festival. The Festival is a good deal in my mind these days. I suppose the first night of it will be a week from tomorrow night, May 18. By the way, I played only the first five pages of Beethoven’s Sonata Appassionata that time at Miss Cullen’s that I mentioned before. I am so sorry about your finger, Mother! I hope you had no more trouble with it and that it is well by this time. I was so glad to hear of what you did in Ramle when you were here. We have the months of July and August for vacation. Association usually consumes two weeks out of July, but since Scott Thompsons are planning to spend most of their vacation at the College Sara will likely not have to come up from Ramle as early in August as she had intended, so that I will likely have a little more than a month’s stay in the mat houses right on the shore at Sidi Bishr. Spouting Rocks is right beside where the mat houses are. The girls from our house, who spent the summer there last year, report a fine time. Only wish you could enjoy some of our sea-baths. I am going to make myself a bathing suit before I go. Yes, Margaret Cleland is Wendell Cleland’s sister, out here as a “three-year” teacher; this is her second year. Frank Henry does not practice dentistry any more. It proved to be too confining for his nerves, so he is now working for the American Vacuum Oil Co., here in Cairo. He has two girls and one boy. The oldest girl, Edna, is Helen McClenahan’s age (almost fourteen) and the boy is John McClenahan’s age(six) – there’s just one day’s difference in their ages. Eileen, the second girl, had an operation for appendicitis this last fall. Shafeels probably knows as much, or perhaps more, than Dr. Rankin, but an Egyptian is not as careful in any way as an American, so I prefer Dr. Rankin. I think that (probably) my indisposition that time was probably a light touch of the “flu,” as my tooth did not seem to be in a bad shape at all. Mother, it seems a wonder to me that Mrs. Ewing would tell you “what the older missionaries had to endure,” for they say that it is only within the very immediate past that she would in any way let anybody know how old she was. She is very fond now of boasting of her ninety odd years. Most of her time, at least a good deal of it, is spent at Shepheards’, and she is still fond of telling people to tend to their own business. We are having some warm weather now. Last week we had two quite hot days. Ramedan began yesterday, with its midnight noises, etc. I forgot to mention in the order that I sent last week that I would like to have four tubes of Luthol’s Toothpaste. They are quite good-sized tubes, costing about seventy-five cents apiece if the price has not gone up. Then, too, I would like to have about half a dozen pair of white stockings, fairly thin, and ones that are of rather good quality so that they will wear. I don’t think that I need 2) any black stocking, unless it be two or three pairs of the better grade. Thank you so much for the spread that you are going to send. It will save “your” good one and will be better for my little three-quarters bed since it is narrow. Frances in her last letter mentioned the fact that she was very pleased with the tussar silk wrapper and said that it was making a nice dress. In last week’s mail I received such a nice letter from Laura (Corpy) Thompson. She said that she had seen Spick Giffen recently and that she was beginning to show her age. Corpy says it is like planting a flower in the desert to put Spick in Chicago, which she does not like very well. Gibby and Helen are to be married right after the M.C. Commencement, so I hear. When I was out at the College last week Ruth Mitchell showed me Helen’s wedding present from herself. Mrs. Inay is very much better now. For two or three days (now) she has not been having much fever. It must have been typhus that she had, although the blood tests for both typhus and typhoid were negative, I understand. Betty Speer is still away on the Delta Car with Miss Finney; Florence White went to the Fayoum for a few days visit on last Sat.; Clarice will not be home until next week; and Mrs. Coventry does not know when Dr. Grant will let her come back. Esther came home from Tanta Hospital yesterday, and is quite over her “flu.” Evelyn McF is having the servants and the accounts to tend to in Mrs. Coventry’s absence. Avis and Edna Sherriff are both getting better, although it does not seem to be very fast. Avis’s trouble seems to be the after-affects of the flu, - rather bad after-affects. The streetcars are not running yet. In their place auto-busses have been running. Some of the busses are nothing less than army trucks, arranged with seats for the travellers, and having movable ladders to climb into them with. Miss Barnes and I were in a little old Ford coming in to Church from the Orphanage on last Sabbath and say, if we did not rattle along. It did not make any difference in the speed of the old thing if people did get in the way, but once a sheep walked into the middle of the street and stood there and you should have watched that man, our driver, put on the brakes. This morning a “passenger-truck,” ran into a little cart load of flour right in front of my window. It only upset one or two sacks of flour, but of course caused some howling and yelling from the cart-owner. Last night Dr. Pollock was at our house for supper and stayed until ten o’clock. He has not forgotten how to talk. His two months’ vacation is just beginning. Today he expected to go down to Benha for a short visit with his nephew, Jim Pollock, and from there to the Moores at Tanta. They say Isabel Moore has been having the sore eyes. This afternoon I went to call on Saleem Bey Hanna’s, who live just over the big Ezbakiyeh Post-Office, the central post-office of Cairo. On Sabbath evening last, Flora had asked me to come, so I went at about five thirty and stayed for an hour. I had a good time, although I hardly 3) know how to take Flora. She is quite vivacious and probably thinks more of having a good time than anything else. The other daughter of the family, Alex they called her, graduates from Cairo Girls’ College this spring. Their commencement comes in about two weeks, but the College does not close till sometime in June. They are graduating a class of three girls this year. Now I must go to bed and will finish this tomorrow. Sweet dreams and kisses, big. From Dora. Wed. morning. It is half an hour until dinner-time and I must finish this letter before dinner. Shortly after dinner I expect to walk or go on one of the girls’ wheels out to the College. At Sara’s request I am coaching a girl out there, who is going to give an English declamation at their Commencement in two weeks. Sara had asked me to chose some possible selections for the girl before I went out to the College to spend the night with Sara last Thurs. I looked over some that I had but could not find any single one that was long enough which would still be what Miss Acheson wanted. So on Friday morning Miss Acheson, Sara, and I talked it over and Miss A. finally decided on two of my selections, neither of them very long, “The Wild White Rose,” and “The Bravest Battle.” It so happened that both of these selections I have committed since coming out here, having copied them before I left America. I was at the College on Mon. afternoon of this week, hearing the girl say over her poems. Her name is Elizabeth Comunos (something like that), Greek, and is a very responsive girl, having a very expressive face. I did so enjoy the audience at Chapel last Friday morning. Miss Acheson had asked me to give two selections in Chapel so at Sara’s request I gave “How Ruby Played” and “Daisy’s Faith,” and it was such an appreciative audience. Because I had already, by the time Chapel was over, missed several classes in Arabic, I just decided to spend the day out there. In the afternoon while Sara was having to do some discipline works I started a “Round Robin” letter on her Corona typewriter. I had never tried to use one before and was determined to finish the letter on a typewriter of some kind, so when I sent out to Uncle Johns I finished it on his machine the next day. It is not a very well written epistle. Edna saw me at the College on Friday morning and made me promise to go to their house that evening and stay over Sabbath, which I did. Dr. Pollock went out to the College Fri. P.M. to teach Sara how to run the College’s Ford sedan which in Miss Helen Martin’s absence has been lying idle; and so he drove me in to Faggala, for I needed to get some more things if I stayed at Uncle Johns over Sabbath and they needed to get some more gasoline. They stopped for me on the way back and took me up to the gate of the Orphanage. Before we started out that afternoon he played some new victrola records, which he had just gotten, on the College victrola. The Hospital in Assiut has a good Victrola and Dr. Pollock has gotten splendid records of the world’s masterpieces for it. He is quite proud of his selection of records. Uncle Johns are all keeping well. I am sending you some pictures, which were taken on my camera on that Friday when there were so many of us taking exams at the study center. These show the group of sufferers and the inflictors. Miss Strong is an American from California, studying to go as a missionary to Arabia. She lives at Mrs. Harveys now. I had to lead Christian Endeavor meeting on last Sab. Again. At preaching service afterwards, Prof. Frame from Columbia preached a very good, orthodox sermon. He is having a year’s leave of absence and has been in Egypt for several months. Lots of love to you all from Dora. Remember me to all enquiring friends. |