Letter from Dora Giffen to her family, November 5, 1921
MLA Citation
Giffen, Dora Eunice, 1897-1982. “Letter from Dora Giffen to her family, November 5, 1921.” Digital Gallery. BGSU University Libraries, 31 Mar. 2023, digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/items/show/41467. Accessed 9 Feb. 2025.
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Title | Letter from Dora Giffen to her family, November 5, 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 New Concord, Ohio about her missionary life in Egypt and the health and activities of her peers. Included is a note listing the program of "shadow pictures" the group performed for a birthday party. |
Creator | Giffen, Dora Eunice, 1897-1982 |
Source | Dora E. Giffen papers; MS-0309; Center for Archival Collections; University Libraries; Bowling Green State University |
Date | 1921-11-05 |
Rights | |
Format | Correspondence |
application/pdf | |
Language | eng |
Identifier | ms00309_b001_f002_i00011.pdf |
https://digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/items/show/41467 | |
Is Referenced By | https://lib.bgsu.edu/findingaids/repositories/4/resources/1425 |
Spatial Coverage | Shubrā (Cairo, Egypt) |
Type | Text |
History and Prophecy 1. The Witch’s Cauldron – Mrs. Coventry. 2. The Journey Begun – Florence. 3. The First Arabic Lesson – Constance and Miss Hosack. 4. Put to Work – Lucy. Visitors – Lucy. 5. Time to Get up and Breakfast – Mac. 6. Painting – Lucia. 7. Accidents will Happen – Dora and Helen. 8. “The Clinic” – Betty and Marianna. 9. A look into the Future – Clarice and Fa 10. The Witch’s Cauldron – Mrs. Coventry. This is the program of the Shadow Pictures we acted out on Esther’s birthday. 1) 34 Geziret Badran, Shubra, Cairo Sat., Nov. 5, 1921 Dear Family: A letter from both Mother and Martin came this Thurs. It was sent October 13th. The first two B. and M.s came two weeks ago but the next two that should have been here before this have not gotten here yet. I was wondering if they were being sent to a wrong address. Mother, I don’t want you to write long letters to me. Just enough to let me see our hand-writing once a week, and to know how you all are and what you are doing, will more than satisfy me. So please don’t feel badly if you have not time to write very much. I am sure you would enjoy lots of my letters better if they were shorter and did not tell you so many things that are practically of no interest to you. However just to get them out of my system and on a paper that goes to you makes me feel better. Martin, I was glad to get your letter. It was an interesting and well-written letter. I was wondering if the “new typewriter” was yours or some-one-else’s? Since you are able to write so well on the typewriter it would be splendid if you did have one. I would like to see your Freshman sweater. Have some-one take your picture in it some time, - if you still have it. I am sorry that those snapshots of Mother, Willard, and you never reached me, but it is very good of you to say that you will print some more. I am looking forward to seeing them. I simply can’t realize you are so tall. There is a pencil mark on my wall five feet and eleven inches from the ground but still I can’t picture you as being away up there. So, to repeat, it, I will be glad to get those pictures. Mr. Hart was here for dinner today and he is staying over until after tea. He is in Cairo attending a meeting of the Finance and Property Board which was in session while Rev. Taylor and Mr. McMillan were here. These two delegates left Cairo this A.M. and expect to leave Egypt on the City of Lucknow which is due in Port Said on Nov. 9th or 10th. They came to Cairo on Wed. evening of this week; spent Thurs. morning in visiting the Girls’ College, University, and S.D.S.; then after that I think they gave most of their time to committee meetings. They are worn out but must hurry on in order to be in America for some conference the first of the year. Our Thurs. night prayer meeting was in their hands. Then last night at eight o’clock in Mrs. Harvey’s drawing-room there was a meeting of all the Cairo missionaries to say goodbye to the delegates. Mr. Taylor gave us a very interesting talk about their visit to Abyssinia. Cook’s here in Cairo will get a wireless two days before the City of Lucknow reaches Port Said as to when it expects to dock so Monday morning will see me in Cook’s Offices. Mr. Caldwell was in Cairo this week and I was grateful for some information he gave me, Mr. Reilly, Mr. Caldwell’s assistant in Alexandria and an Englishman, and Mrs. Boyd are expecting to meet this same boat in Port Said. 2) Mr. Hart says that Mrs. Hart is slowly improving and may be back on the “Witness” in two weeks. If she is he wants me to go up after the exam and visit them. I can’t make any definite plans yet. I am sorry Grandma is not well. I must get a letter written to her soon. It has not been long since I received one from her. Please give her my love. Was surprised to hear that Ruth Fretts was teaching in M.C. this year. I thought rom what Helen said in a letter this summer that she (Helen) was expecting to teach again this year in the same place she taught last year. Yesterday afternoon, before choir-practice, Clarice and I went calling on Tafeeda Adeeb. We called on her once last year. She played some selections on the piano for us and played them with more expression than most Egyptian girls do. She showed us some of her paintings, too, which were really well done. She is a graduate of the Girls’ College. Her father is quite a wealthy land owner of near Minia. The family attend our Faggala church during the months of the year that they live in Cairo. Tafeeda is really a very nice, genuine girl. Now I must stop writing and get ready for a trip to the citadel that most of our household are taking this afternoon. Most of us have never been there and those who are leaving next month want to see it before they go. So we are taking this afternoon to it, leaving the house at 3:30. Mrs. Coventry went with Miss Cullen yesterday for a little week-ends rest at Helouan. Monday P.M. – We had a nice trip to the citadel Sat. afternoon. Had a guide to show us around, and I polluted the mosque. They put leather sandals over our feet before we went in and as I was walking around, enjoying the beauty of the inside, mine came off. I took several steps before I noticed it was off. The view of the sunset from there was beautiful and, according to the guide, we took an explosion (i.e. exposure) of it, or I guess the explosion was of the mosque. I went to Cooks this morning and as yet they had had no more definite word than that “The City of Lucknow” would arrive in Port Said about the tenth. By the way, our exam has been put off until after Thanksgiving because Canon Gairdner is expecting to be away before that time. The B. and M. of Oct. 11th, telling about the Class Scrap came this morning; also a letter from the Anti-Can’t Bible Class of girls from the Valencia U.P., with four snap-shots of the class, I was glad to get. The furniture, belonging to the new girls, is being brought into the house now. They (the new girls) are not going to unpack until after the old girls move out. I am glad they did not have to wait as long for theirs as we did for ours. It will be nice for Laura Wright, when she arrives this week, to find her furniture has arrived before she did. Mrs. Coventry, Miss Atchison, and some of us girls have been collecting things of one kind and another for an Egyptian exhibit to be put on at a Conference in Pittsburgh next January, which is to be something like the last Missionary Convocation. Mr. Taylor asked for the things. Helen McClenahan has spoken to me several times about giving her lessons in public speaking but I will not be able to do it until after Xmas. Everything seems quiet politically as far as demonstrations in Cairo are concerned, but the people are very much torn and divided among themselves between loyalty to Zaghloul Pasha and Adli Pasha. The thinking people are with Adli. Goodbye. Many kisses and much love. From Dora. |